... is there a way I can get another week on that machine's trial period ...

Contact Cineform technical support.

Best,
Christopher

Mark, it'll be Monday....

Just upgraded to HDLink 4.3 and the first time I've used it I'm consistently getting the following errors from HDLink.

See http://www.alandmills.co.uk/HDLINK_Errors.jpg for details of the errors I'm consistently seeing

Capturing from my Sony7 FX1E (PAL), what I've found is the following...

I can capture to m2t files ok - or at least I get no errors. Even this is a bit hit and miss though.
Capture and convert (my normal) gives the two errors 2/3rds way down the log consistently everytime I hit the 'start' recoding button.
Any attempt to convert one of the captured m2t files produces the final error.

What do these errors mean?

Is it a coincedence that a few weeks ago because I had some analogue tapes to transfer to DVD I re-installed my Matrox RT.X100 card to make that task easier?

Would the two compete for any resources or anything?

Any help appreciated.

Alan

OK, Apologies to all, problem solved.

Did a check of everything and seems I had a badly seated firewire capture card. Removed that, leaving just the Matrox card and things are ok now though. Captures seem ok.

Regards.

Alan

Glad your problem was easily resolved.

Sounds like you're using AspectHD 4.3.0, build 75? There was an audio playback bug in that build of AspectHD, and it has been replaced by version 4.3.1, build 76 which is available for download at Cineform's web site.

Glad your problem was easily resolved.

Sounds like you're using AspectHD 4.3.0, build 75? There was an audio playback bug in that build of AspectHD, and it has been replaced by version 4.3.1, build 76 which is available for download at Cineform's web site.
I hadn't noticed a new update and was indeed suffering from the audio issues as well.

Curious that WMP, After Effects and Audition could all 'see' the audio though. I was assuming I still had something 'not clean' but no worries.

Thanks for ther heads-up Pete. Will update asap.

Hi,

I haven't updated my installation for a while so I figured I would download the latest. Now it crashes every now and even trying to go back to the prior edition causes capture to crash.

I have a AMD Dual Core 4200+, 2 gb RAM et c and have a Sony HDR-HC1 that I capture from.

Regards, Fredrik.

File a trouble ticket at www.cineform.com/support

My laptop crashed this morning and I have to transfer 2 m2t files from a co-worker's laptop to an XDCAM deck with a TS card.

He doesn't have Premiere. If I install AspectHD, it will complain but leave HDLink. When I try to run HDLink, all looks well but the Deck is not getting a legitimate TS stream from the 1394 cable.

Is there something (probably) that didn't get installed becuase there was no Premiere on the system? If so, is there ANY way around this for this one-time transfer?

Thanks!

Stacy

Install NEO HDV, the 15-day trial will get over this hurdle. NEO HDV is Aspect HD without the Premiere plug-ins.

Hi.
I shot some video to my FS-4, HDV, 30P, from my V1. I concatenated the files in the usual way (copy /b 1+2...) from the FS-4. I loaded the resulting file into HDLink in the "Convert" tab to attempt a conversion. HDlink gets to about 188M and says that the conversion is finished.

I have AspectHD Build 5.0.0.81. The input .m2t file is 10G, and the file is fine--it plays in a couple different players without problem. The documentation about HDLink is rather sparse--I followed the HDLink instructions from the user manual, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the way of troubleshooting tips. The manual says to click the "Convert" button, but there isn't a "Convert" button--just Select Files, Select Folder, and Start. Maybe I'm in the wrong place?

What's going on here? Howcome I can't get the whole file converted? Kinda defeats the purpose of DTD recording...

By the way, I have scene detection turned OFF, if it matters.

Thanks,
Matt

There was a bug, now fixed. Download the latest version.

I will do so, probably tomorrow morning, and report back.

Is that bug listed in a Cineform public bug tracker that I should have been able to search through but didn't?

Thanks,
Matt

David.

Did this bug also exist in Prospect's HD Link?

Yes, all products rev'd to x.0.1 versions last week.

The update log is here : http://www.cineform.com/products/Aspect-Prospect.htm#AHD_UpdateLog

Weirdly this particular fix is not listed -- there is often more in each release then we find time to document.

Check out the "What's New" section on the CineForm home page to learn about updated. One day we should make this an RSS feed.

David,
The update appears to work. There seem to be a couple cosmetic issues. Mainly, the size processed doesn't update and is blank sometimes (down in the bottom dialog box). Also, I'm curious about where the actual converted file is stored during the conversion. The output file shows a size of 0Kb until the conversion is finished, and I can't see any temp files relevant to the conversion. It'd be handy to keep track of the size of the converted file, or to have the progress bar update, maybe with time remaining or something. I can extrapolate time spent/time remaining, approximately, if I could see how fast the file size was growing. I have a pretty good idea how big the CF files get for a given time, but an accurate progress bar would be much better. Just so's I know how much coffee I can drink during the conversion...

I'd really like to see the update process smoothed out--it should not be necessary to uninstall a product to install an update. Cineform is a bit unusual in that respect, in my experience.

Anyhow, those are just cosmetic issues, but would really enhance the product. Functionally, for the product's core tasks, I'm really happy with the purchase.

Thanks,
Matt

Thank you Matt, we see why the progress bar stopped working.

Is this supposed to work? Running XP. OS sees the unit when I plug in the FF. But, HDlink does not see. HDVsplit does not.
And capture in PPro2 does not see.

Dave

I have the M15 unit and it works OK with HDSplit and HDLink. Did you remember to switch the deck to HDV? Otherwise it will identify itself as standard DV-deck and HDV capture apps cannot see it.

Hope this helps.

What is interesting is I hooked up my VX2000, and it is not seen either.
So, something funky is going on with my system, I think. Will have to mess with a few things and see what may be going on. I know when I plug any of my devices in, the OS sees them just fine. Now, if I change to generic HDV device control, I can control the M25. But, if I change to CF HDV control, the
buttons all go gray.

Dave

Okay, not sure what is going on. If I hook my hc1 to my system,
and run hdlink, sees the unit fine and I can control it. But, when I hook my 25u deck, all I get is no capure devices available. I am using Vista, and when I turn on the 25u, the system sees it just fine.

Any ideas?

Dave

Same thing happens in PPro2 also. HC1 works, m25u no seen.

Dave

Okay, found the issue. I have the unit set to convert hdv-dv.
Once I turned this off, works fine.

Dave

http://www.cineform.com/products/TechNotes/HDLinkCapSettings.htm

I assume this was for HDV and not for HD-SDI or Hdmi to Hdsdi for a couple of the cams?

Yes, for HDV tape capture. The only difference is Canon 24F over HDSDI does require pulldown removal checked.

Figured so, but it may be a good idea to break it down from just HDV to other capture options..

You Know at first, I spent some time with the Box Varicam to figure out the HD-SDI from it,,,

Does anyone know why NEO HDV HDLink downgrades the Video Sample Size from 32 bit to 16 bit, when converting HDV to AVI? It also changes something else (from 25 to 19 - see results below), but I'm not sure what it is. Is there any way I can fix these problems?

I also used Sony Vegas Render As to do the same thing and I compared the results. The above mentioned problems to not occur in Vegas.

Here's what I did
Step 1: Downloaded source file (millard.m2t) from http://www.vasst2.com/HDV/FX-1_images.htm
Step 2: Used HDLink to convert millard.m2t file to .avi (Quality = High)
Step 3: Used Sony Vegas to render millard.mt2 file to .avi (Quality = Best)
Step 4: Compared these files in the Sony Vegas Project Media window.

Here are the results

Source file (millart.m2t)
Video: 1440x1080x32, 25.000fps, 00:00:14;25, Alpha=None, Field Order=Upper field first, MPEG-2
Audio: 48,000 Hz, Stereo, 00:00:14;25, MPEG Layer 2
Size: 47MB

Cineform HDLink - Converted file (millart-001.avi)
Video: 1440x1080x16, 25.000fps, 00:00:14;19, Alpha=None, Field Order=Upper field first, Cineform HD Codec 3.11
Audio: 48,000 Hz, 16 bit, Stereo, 00:00:14;19, Uncompressed
Size: 130MB

Sony Vegas - Rendered file (millart-002.avi)
Video: 1440x1080x32, 25.000fps, 00:00:14;25, Alpha=None, Field Order=Upper field first, Cineform HD Codec 3.11
Audio: 48,000 Hz, 16 bit, Stereo, 00:00:14;25, Uncompressed
Size: 126MB

16 or 32-bit of almost meaningless information.

It is doesn't make any difference to the file. You even use a hex editor to could 16 to 32, same file will play. 16 is really the correct value for 4:2:2 YUV data, the MPEG could even be considered to have only 12-bits per pixel.

I've been having an issue with HDLink quietly and randomly stopping captures and playback from my FX1. I'm capturing the m2t file only (no AVI conversion) from my FX1. There is no error message, the program just stops the capture anywhere from 20 seconds to 4 minutes or more in.

At this point I can't do any long captures (over 4 minutes or so) because the software is always stopping it at some point. On shorter captures, I have to watch the program like a hawk, because it often stops the capture prematurely without me knowing it.

HDLink will also send random 'stop' signals to the camera while I'm seeking or playing back video on the camera while it is connected via firewire. I'll be watching footage on the LCD and all of a sudden the camera will stop playing. I have to keep re-starting playback.

I have plenty of disk space and no other programs running.

Has anyone else seen this?

Try another Firewire port, as M2T only capture is very easy. That should not be happening.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately my laptop only has one firewire port. I can capture in downconverted SD (AVIs) from the camera into Premiere 1.5.1 without the problem happening. The spontaneous stops only happen in HDLink when capturing HDV.

I had the same problem on my old system. If I used msconfig to stop all startup services, HDLink worked fine. I never tracked down which startup function was causing the problem. Later versions of HDLink reduced, but did not eliminate, the problem.

HDLink with the Smart Rendering option enabled, solves the first problem. The Video Sample Size remains at 32 bits.

Does anyone know the answer to my second question? What does the below number "19" represents and why was it change from 25 to 19 by HDLink?

Cineform HDLink - Converted file (millart-001.avi)
Video: 1440x1080x32, 25.000fps, 00:00:14;19, Alpha=None, Field Order=Upper field first, Cineform HD Codec 3.11
Audio: 48,000 Hz, 16 bit, Stereo, 00:00:14;19, Uncompressed

NOTE: This information was taken directly from the Sony Vegas Project Media Window.

It is not a "problem" we hardwire the number to 32-bit for Vegas for smart rendering, because Vegas likes not becuase it has any significant meaning. You are looking too hard for data that has no meaning. :)

The 25 vs 19 are the number of frames in the duration field. Often the frame at the beginning or more commonly the end of an M2T are not decodable, we don't put those frames in the AVI. If you into numerology, ask Sony why they they have counted to 25 frames on a 25 fps clip, which should only show frame numbers from 0 to 24, (as NTSC shows frames 0 to 29.)

I recently upgraded from AspectHD to ProspectHD. So I don't know if it's related to that...
M2T Clips captured with my DR-HD100 I cannot get to convert properly to AVI through HDlink. Any file which I take (even old M2T-clips which were still on my system were I know for 100% that they work) doesn't want to convert. When it starts on the first file it stops after 250Kbyte and the progressbar goes back to zero. No errors in the Log-window.
All M2T-files play fine in VLC-player.
Does the ProspectHD compared to AspectHD needs more resources from the computer? Currently I'm still running on a P4, 3GHz, 1024MB machine.
I had originally Build 129, upgraded to build 135, but the same result.

There is no difference in the M2T handling for Prospect HD and Aspect HD, so more likely there was an install issue. I just tested my PHD M2T conversion, and its working fine. Uninstall Prospect HD, and re-install again. If the problem continues, work with support tomorrow -- file a trouble ticket today.

Thank you David,
I will do that.

Easy question, when converting .m2t, avi files etc using HDLink does the process convert them from 8 bit to 10/12 bit Cineform avi files or do you have to render them out within AE or PPro to increase the bit depth?

I've searched the forum and can't find a definitive answer.

YUV 4:2:2 is always stored with 10-bit precision (even for 8-bit sources.)
RGB 4:4:4 and RGBA 4:4:4:4 is always stored with 12-bit precision.

Thanks for the answer David.

Just to be absolutely clear, this is for both live captured and manually converted files?

Within HDLink there doesn't seem to be a facility to choose to convert YUV material to 4:4:4. Does it choose the output bit depth based on the colour space of the incoming video file?

I'm using the demo at the moment and I've converted a few files. When I bring them back into AE7 they only show up as "millions of colours" which Iwould presume is only an 8 bit depth. The demo Viper footage all imports with "trillions of colours"




YUV 4:2:2 is always stored with 10-bit precision (even for 8-bit sources.)
RGB 4:4:4 and RGBA 4:4:4:4 is always stored with 12-bit precision.

In AE7 are use the CineForm importer or the default AVI importer? The AE AVI importer is only 8-bit.

For 4:4:4:(4) file creation you will need to use AE or PPro, HDLink link needs some upgrades for DPX file input.

I assume it uses the Cineform importer as the demo Viper footage interprets as "trillions of colours". When footage is rendered out in AE7 as 444 and then reimported it also displays the high bit depth.

Just to be sure it is not the AE importer I will force the Cineform importer with the Shift/Ctrl key and post the results.

Thanks for your help.

In AE7 are use the CineForm importer or the default AVI importer? The AE AVI importer is only 8-bit.

For 4:4:4:(4) file creation you will need to use AE or PPro, HDLink link needs some upgrades for DPX file input.

Forcing the Cineform importer seemed to cure the problem. Files converted by HDlink appear as "trillions of colours".

Highly likely we would convert all files to 444 anyway for compositing. So guess we have to run through AE anyway.

Interestingly these show up correctly even when Cineform importer is not forced.

Thanks for the help.

I just installed Aspect HD build 91 and it doesn't install HDLink. In Start>Programs>Cineform there is only the Tools folder, no Aspect folder.

And while on the topic of Tools, what is the Register Components script for?

It should be there, and no other reports of is missing. un-install and re-install.

"Register Components" -- used under tech support directive if certain errors occur -- can fix installation issues.

Uninstalling manually instead of letting the installer do it did the trick. Thanks.

I recently purchased Neo2k to see it would improve my workflow with the V1u, DR-60 and FCP (on a dual 2.66 MacPro). But I haven't been successful yet in converting an m2t file into the cineform intermediate codec. I'm trying to run HDLink in parallels, but I get an error message in the log and nothing happens.
Log:
pSinkFilter->SetFileName(T2CW(pOutputFilename), NULL) (0x80004005 - Unspecified error) in (ConvertGraph.cpp at 2099)

Anyone seen anything similar?

-Nick

Would I repeat myself and say try support, however it this case I know what it is, and it is funny one. You haven't installed QuickTime on the XP side of you Mac, a tad ironic, and you are trying to create an MOV file under XP which requires QuickTime.

Hi David, thanks for the response. I'm a little windows challenged, that makes total sense. I'll try it out! thanks!

Nick, it is counter-intuitive until it sinks in. In fact when we installed Parallels the first time we scratched our head on the same issue until we had the "Doh!" realization....