CS4, the digital car wreck that I can't seem to tear myself away from... always seems to come up with something to keep us poor video hackers guessing.

This time, those lovable little gremlins at Adobe seemed to have cast a nifty little spell on the project manager, specifically, the project trimming function.

For some reason, the resultant trimmed projects do NOT collect or include any CFHD files.

This is a consistent result with several projects. Just curious if anyone else has run into the same issue.

At least nowadays, CS4 and I have seemed to come to a good working arrangement. It does its thing, I smile and say "you got me again you rascally NLE".... then search for the nearest beer.

Marty,

did it happen with CS3 as well?
(I have three CFHD projects waiting to be trimmed,
and you just scared the crap out of me).

Best

Vasco

Hi Vasco.... sorry to be source of fear, but I never encountered this issue with CS3.

I even created a new project, set up Cineform parameters, imported ONE CFHD video file.... dropped it into the timeline.... trimmed a few seconds off the head and tail.... saved the project, then proceeded to the project manager.

I attempted to save a trimmed project, established a target directory.... clicked okay, went to the folder... and the only file in the directory is the Premiere project file.

Not good news.

Other AVI files are collected and trimmed... but not CFHD.

I would absolutely love to learn that I am doing something boneheaded.... but in that category, CS4 actually has a worse track record than I do.

Thanks Marty,

you're saying that CS3's trimming never nuked
your CF projects: that sounds quite reassuring, as
I have no intention whatsoever to "upgrade" to CS4
(it took me 3 or 4 months to figure out how to
tweak my system so as to lower CS3's instability
to an acceptable level - and now I want to enjoy it for a while)

Anyway: good luck! - and keep us posted
(BTW: what's so interesting and cutting-edge in CS4
that makes people upgrade? I used Prem 6.5 until last year -
out of fear, I guess...)

Vasco

We must all be masochists Vasco. We're all so eager to trade reasonable stability for the latest version number.

I have a trouble ticket filed with Cineform on this issue, but it's hard to imagine that it is their problem.

If I knew for sure I was going to live another 60 years, I would go through Adobe "support".

If I sound frustrated and bitter, I suppose I am... and you are wise to withhold your "upgrade". Anyone who questions that statement hasn't attempted the most simple of NLE tasks in the CS4 world.... the basic framegrab. It is a microcosm of the "improvements" CS4 has to offer.

The solution.... a Cineform NLE. But that notion has already been swatted out of the ballpark.

I'll certainly post any new developments here. I'm sure Jake and the gang at Cineform will have some pointers if not solutions to this issue.

In the meantime, it would be very informative if other CS4 users could post their results of using the trimmed project function of project manager. That could quickly educate us whether this is an isolated problem for me, or a universal problem for all CS4/Prospect HD users.

Done trimming my CS3 projects;
all CF files seem to be where they should be;
can slowly untangle my fingers...

CS3 never had this problem.... it seems to be yet another surprise bonus feature of CS4.

Holy cow! I just timmed a project in CS4 and NO CF AVI files. Only the Mp4 files come across.

Andy.... I think you have confirmed that a real problem exists, and it's probably not just me. Thanks for touching base. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have a trouble ticket with Cineform filed.

I will update on this thread when I learn more.

David... in the meantime, this should be a very easy scenario for you to replicate to verify?

Can anyone with CS4 in any configuration confirm that Project Manager will collect and trim CFHD files for archive?

My issue is with ProspectHD, but any other Cineform configurations under any OS would be enlightening to know.

I have a ticket pending with Cineform as well, but nothing to report as of yet.

Marty, I just bit the bullet and upgraded to CS4 on a Windows7 64-bit machine, with ProspectHD on board.

I can confirm that it won't trim CFHD avis - dagnabbit!!

Did the Cineform folks give you any reason to hope we might eventually see a fix for this???

Hi Graham....

Unfortunately, the Cineform position is that they do not officially support Win 7 yet. My support ticket was closed by them under the assumption that this issue will be resolved with the realtime engine fixes.

This has become extremely frustrating. I can understand and empathize with the 9 month wait for CS4 implementation. What is maddening is that at this point, we don't even know what we are waiting for anymore? See my thread here:http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/cineform-software-showcase/352348-what-can-we-expect-cs4-win7.html

I wouldn't be shocked to hear that the CS4 divide cannot be bridged. What then? And if it is, what gets fixed?

How many of us could possibly be excited about doing this all over again with CS5??!

Staying with CS3 is always an option, and CS4 is an abomination for many reasons.... but having to use legacy versions of software is a choice I would rather make for reasons other than incompatibility.

I've stated many times on this board.... at first only half-way seriously, but now it is with all sincerity.... we need a Cineform NLE.

Take the person-hours spent over the past 12 months in attempting to wedge the Cineform square peg into the Adobe (fill in the blank here)-hole, and you'd be well on your way to a nifty, solid, supremely supported, NLE system. The hours saved in support time alone is worthy of factoring into this.

Maybe we need a "Cineform NLE" petition on this board?

Unfortunately, CS3 isn't presently an option for me on my Win 7 machine - I have the red upsidedown playback glitch with CFHD files. (Frustrating, because I had that combination working OK on a previous machine with different hardware).

So on balance, having no project trimming is less of a show-stopper than having no timeline playback. Hence my upgrade to CS4 yesterday. Sigh.

Win7 should work fine for CS4 (as it is) with a registry tweak for First Light. The next software release should help with Win 7. The issue is Win 7 and CS3 -- we are focusing on CS4 at the moment -- once Win 7 is official we will look into CS3 RT support for Win 7 (i.e. fixing purple playback.) As for CS4 progress, here is an update on the tech blog http://techblog.cineform.com/?p=2534

That's a helpful update David, and appreciated.

Is there a link or instructions for the registry steps on Win 7 for First Light?

Unfortunately, CS3 isn't presently an option for me on my Win 7 machine - I have the red upsidedown playback glitch with CFHD files. (Frustrating, because I had that combination working OK on a previous machine with different hardware).

So on balance, having no project trimming is less of a show-stopper than having no timeline playback. Hence my upgrade to CS4 yesterday. Sigh.

Unfortunately, the trimming issue IS becoming a real problem for me. I've got large projects that I would like to archive. And because of the circus-like compatibility minefield of CS3, Win 7, CS4, ProspectHD.... I have painted myself into a bit of a corner.

On the upside... I have been really pleased with Win 7. It's my first 64-bit experience, and it's truly a step up.

"Painted into a corner" is how I feel too, this week, ... although David's post is encouraging.

For the past few months I actually had a fully stable CS3-based system running on XP 64-bit, with everything working as it should! So there is always that option. But I really, really like Win7 .... so I'm hoping that with a little more time the necessary fixes for it will arrive.

For the past few months I actually had a fully stable CS3-based system running on XP 64-bit, with everything working as it should! So there is always that option. But I really, really like Win7 .... so I'm hoping that with a little more time the necessary fixes for it will arrive.

Graham.. have you tried the Virtual XP feature of Win7? Sounds like a good option for you on your upgraded machine.

Sheeesh - my brain may expode trying to keep track of installing stuff across two co-running OSes!!

Nevertheless, that's an interesting idea. Downloading XPM now.

Sheeesh - my brain may expode trying to keep track of installing stuff across two co-running OSes!!

Nevertheless, that's an interesting idea. Downloading XPM now.

If I look to the East and see a plume of blue smoke over Knoxville, I'll assume things didn't go so well.

God speed.... Graham. Keep us posted!

So I gave XPM (i.e. virtual XP mode) a very brief whirl. Very easy to install, and apart from downloading the two necessary files no internet connection is needed.

I found helpful instructions here: Installing Windows XP Mode for Virtual PC (http://www.petri.co.il/installing-windows-xpm-on-windows-7.htm)

The actual install took about 5 minutes, after which you have Windows XP up and running! Click 'exit' and XP hibernates and you are back to Win 7. Slick!

XPM supports USB but unfortunately not firewire, so that's a big stumbling block for folks with DV/HDV cameras, or (like me) with firewire external audio. Apart from that it looked promising - all my SATA drives are in RAID and it identified those fine. I have my desktop in Win7 extended across dual 1920 and 1650 LCD monitors and it dealt with that OK also.

I didnt proceeed to install CS3 because of the firewire issue, but for folks for whom USB is enough, it certainly seems worth trying.

Incidentally, 45min after I started I am back to my original Win7-only configuration, thanks to Win7's very convenient onboard disk imaging system - which gives me the confidence to try out whacky stuff and then revert back to exactly where I was before. No blue smoke!

Also having problems trimming 1920x1080p 29.97fps Cineform files using CS4 project manager. It goes through the motions with no errors, but does not trim any files. This is bad because I took 4 hours of raw tape, spliced it all up to get rid of the garbage then was going to use the Project export to chop it into little clips for cataloging.

Any hope on getting this fixed? How do others chop their raw footage into usuable smaller clips?

Hey Scott,

Greetings from just a few miles down the road in Monroe.

There really is no option for trimming. I've got several terabytes of projects sitting on temp external drives awaiting their "trimming" session.

I know that Cineform has added an engineer to address this problem and the real time engine issues with CS4. If you look on this board, you'll find a thread about the revised ETA of the RTE.