There should be a PDF manual in that download which will show you how to use it.

There should be a PDF manual in that download which will show you how to use it.

Thanks for helping out. The current dowload only has the installation file. Nothing else. Their site seems a bit bare as far as tutorials.

HD Connect is really just a captur utility with an inermediate codec. There isn't that much to it, from what I can tell. You are paying for the use of intermediate codec to ease editing of HDV. It does not add real time editing features or transitions like Aspect does for Premiere Pro, right ?

Here is the manual: http://www.advantipro.com/chd.pdf

Here is the manual: http://www.advantipro.com/chd.pdf

Wow. Perfect. Thank you! :)

Does anyone know where I can purchase this? I tried Video Guys and they said they no longer stock it. B&H is out.

Thanks.

You can purchase directly from www.cineform.com. Video Guys only seem to stock Aspect HD, and yes B&H is out of stock.

I guess I'll have to do that. I've noticed that no one has this in stock. Is there a reason for this? Is it going away? Any ideas on that?

Resellers likely find more money to be made selling Aspect HD -- my guess. No it is not going away.

That's great to hear. Thank you. I normally like the whole package, and see that CHD is a download. Is there an option to be sent the media?

I promise I'll stop asking questions now. :)

I went ahead and ordered it anyway. Beggers can't be choosers, I'm guessing. Thanks for your help.

Heath, we don't have a physical package option for Connect HD any longer. With Aspect, in which we still offer a physical package option, most all customers order the download. Plus we tend to rev our software pretty frequently so your disk becomes outdated pretty quickly anyway. We certainly retain your S/N and activation information in our database if there's ever a future problem. My recommendation is to burn the software onto a CD. Thank you for the business....

Thank you for all your help, David. I did place the order and downloaded the software. Removed my trial verion and installed this version, as per instructions. Watching for the serial.

Thank you again for your help.

I purchased Connect HD 2.1 from the CF website, I already had it installed as a demo but the demo has expired. I read the pdf of how to activate the program but I don't get the window that has my system code in it. All I get is a window that says "Key Expired. Thank you for evaluating this software. Your evaluation period is over. Please visit http://www.cineform.com to purchase the software." and then three buttons that say Enter Key, OK, and Buy Now!. If I click on the Buy Now! I get booted to the CF activation website but since I don't have my system code I can't get the activation key. Help please.

Mark

Fixed it. I did a registry clean up and it works fine now.

I previously downloaded the trial version and it has expired. I just purchased the software, registered it and got the activation number.

When I tried to activate it, it gives me an error saying it appears that the name/activation number is incorrect.

So now what?

The help pages were of no help! I could say a whole lot more because I am extremely angry, upset and unhappy with the process of this software.

Another question, even though I have it installed on my editing system, can it also be used on my note book computer to convert .m2t files to cineform .avi while capturing direct to an external hard drive and not have to pay another $199.00?

Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com

Make sure you copy the activation username "dannyfye" and the activation code exactly, one extra space or typ-o will prevent an activation. It is best to cut-n-paste from the activation email. We have confirmed on this end that your system code, username and activation code all match (so your software should unlock.) If you if can't still get it to wrok, you need to submit a trouble ticket at http://cineform.com/support

Cut and paste is exactly what I did and then just for the heck of it I even typed it in. No go!

The original download had expired so I uninstalled it or at least tried to and then installed the new downloaded file and I get an error box titled 'activation code has expired' or something like that and it would reject the code I was trying to put in.

I cannot run the new downloaded file either. It says that it is expired. I read the FAQS and it says that I am suppposed to be able to run the new file that I downloaded after uninstalling the old one. I can't!

Note: When I tried to uninstall the program it asked me for my activation code even then. I can only guess that it actually uninstalled correctly.

I went to your site and tried to use the trouble ticket thing and it rejected my password. So I can't even do that!

So I had no choice but to try here.

So I'm stuck...

Problem may be that the old file might not be completely uninstalling but then since it is asking me to put in a 'activation code' or 'buy now' or 'ok' when I try to uninstall it then I am not sure if it fully and properly uninstalled or not. I hit 'ok' several times before it stops asking me.

Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com

Email support@cineform.com if you can't remember your password.

Email support@cineform.com if you can't remember your password.

I didn't forget my password. It simply won't take it. I even tried the download password for kicks and no go. any password I could have used I tried and no go!!!!

Is your system screwed-up or something?

This is rediculous!

Danny Fye
www.dannyfye.com

It uses the password you gave it when you created the support account. No one else has reported the support site not working.

I'm a Vegas 6C user. I used the trial version and was very impressed by how fast it was to convert the raw m2t to a much friendly file. Made a dvd out of it and was pleased. When I replaced the CFHD file to the origianal m2t, I noticed the transitions have unwanted files (extra frames). In other words I find the frame in accurate from when I did my cuts on the CFHD file. I had to go back in the m2t and cut them out which was very time consuming. Is there a fix to this or am I doing something wrong??

Thanks

There is no need to go back to the M2T source files, you will not get any more quality (in some cases you will get lower quality with the M2T files due to their 4:2:0 handling.)

There is no need to go back to the M2T source files, you will not get any more quality (in some cases you will get lower quality with the M2T files due to their 4:2:0 handling.)


Isn't there a quality loss when printing back to tape with the CFHD file??

The is some quality loss in Vegas 6 going to M2T whether the source is M2T or CFHD, you will not be able to tell the difference.

I recently upgraded to Connect HD 3.0. I tried capturing a clip from my A1 to see if it would work. Following the instructions from the pdf the closest I got was an 1080 30p file. Is there something special I have to do to to get 24p? If anyone has any instructions or help that would be great.

Thank you in advance.

To get a 24p-like output from a 60i source, select de-interlace and remove 3-2 pulldown. Did that not work?

No. That does not work. In the frame rate change (advanced) menu I selected Remove 3:2 pulldown and left the Rate Change box at no change. In the precompression Filters menu I selected De interlace 1080i souces and Resize video to none. Then I captured a clip from my A1, just a plain 1080 60i clip, no cineframe or anything. Vegas shows the clip as 29.970fps interlaced and looks like it to when i play it back in wmp. Do i have to change the frame format from automatic to progressive or something? Thank you for your reply.

It turns out there is a small bug. It does deinterlace and extract pulldown, however it left the frame rate at 29.97 rather than 23.976. It was correct for MXF files, not for M2T files. This is now fixed for M2T and will be released in a update -- likely within the week. In the meantime you install the fixed component to try out you conversions from 60i to 24p from your A1. The file here www.cineform.com/downloads/CFVideoChange.zip needs to be unziped and copied over the old one in C:\Program Files\Common Files\CineForm. Have fun.

P.S. This patch is only valid for Aspect HD 4.1 build 58 and Connect HD 3.0 build 18.

Patch worked great. Thank you for your help.

Is it safe to assume that version 3.0.3 already has this fix?

Yes, plus a few other fixes.

I just want to say that I am really happy with the quality of the ConnectHD 60i to 24p conversion. To my eyes it is noticably better than either a DVFilm conversion or a Vegas 24p render from 60i. Add to that the the conversion goes pretty quickly and that the file sizes are smaller and put less strain on the CPU and drives, and I think that you have a winner here!

Howdy....

For anyone interested, I just completed my first podcast shot with Cineform's new Connect HD 3.0.3 version. Previously, we've used version 2, and now we're doing the deinterlace right in Connect (as opposed to doing it in Vegas). Saves some rendering time, which is nice... You can find it here:

http://www.neo-fight.tv

I think the footage is a little sharper than with 2.0, which considering we have to shrink it down to podcast size, is a nice benefit...

Best,

Benjamin

Is it me, or does Connect HD not capture a tape without user interaction. Meaning, if I have a tape that I ran for 60 minutes and it will capture the whole thing. If I have a tape that I stopped the camera every 10 minutes and then recorded again, Connect HD requires me to hit start again after 10 minutes(or everytime to camera was stopped) which is worthless to me, I don't have time to babysit it!

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jon

It captures and converts whole tapes. If you any other behavor you should file a trouble ticket. We will was that data to make there isn't a particular camera in a particular mode that we have an issue with.

Shot with Sony Z1
Captured with Sony Z1
Using Cineform Connect HD V2.1

When I get some time tomorrow I will contact your technical support to see about the issue.

I am in the process of reinstalling the OS with no extra software to see if something else is causing the issue.

Thanks for the fast response.

Jon

Is the trial version of connect hd different from the one you buy? any extra features?

also, i'm using the trial version with vegas 5.0. I capture from my hd100 using cineform as a stand alone program--so far it's doing pretty good. Is that how cineform is intended to work with vegas 5? as a separate program? I thought it was a plug in or was supposed to integrate with the vegas interface.

Brian,

The Trial version and the Purchased version are identical.

Yes, Connect HD works standalone from Vegas. It works differently with Aspect HD and Premiere Pro because Premiere gives us an interface that allows us to literally replace the Premiere arithmetic engine with our own. Because of that we work "inside" Premiere, and it's how we get such high performance in Premiere.

Vegas doesn't have that same kind of interface so we work externally. However...we worked with Sony on some codec-specific optimizations that gives Vegas extra performance when using CineForm Intermediate that other apps can't take advantage of.

I was curious what people are using for encoding the FX1. I am testing out HD connect, but I wonder how much difference there is between Large file size and MEdium file size as far as quality goes...

I got the impression upon reading the help file that there was very little difference in image quality, and a significant difference in file size. I haven't done any image comparisons between the two, but for the moment am happy to stick with the medium setting.

Thank you very much. I know there are three variations, low, medium and large - but medium sounds good.

Here is a first look at Connect HD 3.2 (we skipped 3.1 as there are many enhancements -- plus now all our products are at 2.2, 3.2 or 4.2, and we couldn't resist the symmetry.) All existing Connect HD users are welcome to download it from here : http://www.cineform.com/downloads/ConnectHDv320b25beta.zip

This is just some of what has been enhanced :

• HDLink now supports conversion of common media types (now most files that play with Media Player can be converted with HDLink.) You good old DV, WMV or any miscellaneous AVI (some MOV) files can now be batch converted into CineForm Intermediate.
• HDLink now supports resizing of all sources to standard HD sizes. Previously you could up-convert SD, or any non-standard image size.
• Enhanced compression quality even further (across all encoding modes.)
• Connect HD now includes the After Effects CineForm I/O module, for higher quality control over CineForm AE exports.
• HDLink fix for long file batch M2T to AVI conversions
• Many many other small fixes and refinements

Of course never run a beta if you are in the middle of a project, otherwise please give the new features a try and tell us if you have any issues.

Thanks,

Silly question: once 3.2 is released (and not as a beta), will this be a free upgrade, or will we need to buy Connect HD 3.2 as a new version?

All point releases are free to existing 3.x customers.

Another silly question..will ConnectHD support 10bit editing and rendering output?

No. Connect HD is only licensed for 8-bit work, but that is fine as Vegas is only 8-bit.

David:
We are noticing in Vegas 7 that raw HDV .m2t files are getting a lot faster playback than CFDIs. We still prefer to use CFDIs for anything more complicated than simple cut edits and the like, because we don't want to suffer from generation loss. But it sure would be a big help to get faster playback from the Vegas timeline for CFDIs. This has a huge impact on editing. It seems strange that a raw HDV file would get such a better result (for playback) than a Cineform intermediate.

Clearly the Vegas team did a lot of work to improve HDV performance. Surely there are ways they could make better use of CFDIs for faster frame rates on playback. And perhaps improvements in the CF codec that Vegas uses could speed up the playback? Or is this a result of Vegas using VFW instead of DirectShow? Or, is it a licensing ($$) issue? I paid for Connect HD 2, paid the upgrade price for version 3 (total $300 invested), and would be willing to pay again if it advanced us leaps and bounds in playback performance.

It might hurt the feelings of some PPro users, but hey, tough cookies!

VfW and RGB only is a limiting for Vegas performance, yes in PPro we using DirectShow and YUV (faster and no color space conversions.) But another difference is the DirectShow components are threaded, and the VfW is not so multi-cores will not help VfW much. That is about to change, the next beta (later today hopefully) will have a threaded VfW decoder, so even with limited VfW interface to Vegas, multi-cores will be used more effectively.

I purchased an earlier version of Connect HD (Version 2 I believe), but never really used it much because my plans didn't progress as expected.

Now, I have upgraded to Vegas 7 and looked on the Cineform website for an upgrade of Connect HD, but the product isn't even listed anymore. Did I miss something? Do I need an upgrade for Vegas 7? Where is it and how much?

Thanks. I know David is very active here and I've always been impressed by his responiveness to questions and problems. I sure wish other companies were like this.

Paul Cascio

Connect HD can be upgraded to NEO HDV for $59. The Connect name was dropped in favor of NEO, which does a lot more (now and future.)