Is it not possible to purchase a DVD version of Aspect HD ver 5.0? Or is it solely for download only?

Jim, we have eliminated the CD version of our products.

Giroud, it is for exactly the reason you state. We typically offer updates every few weeks (feature improvements / bug fixes) which renders the CD useless. You can always grab the latest version directly from our website. Our "update" releases are (so far) always full releases, not incremental updates.

Can these two get along on the same machine?
What about distribution with Cineform HD avi files on CD/DVD?
Thanks,
Jon

Aspect HD already has all the NEO components built into it. So there's no point in installing NEO on an Aspect machine. Indeed, there's a strong possibility you might kill off the VFW encoder by doing so as you would be replacing an encoder/decoder with a decoder only.

If you want distribute CineForm files on CD or DVD you can just add the NEO Player code to it too in order for the receiving party to be able to run the AVIs easily.

Awesome answer Richard - thanks. In fact I'll further emphasize that you never want to install multiple CineForm products on the same machine as they may likely conflict.

You can use AHD on your machine, then either put NEO Player on your CD or other deliverable as Richard suggests, or simply point people to our website.

Thanks guys,
Jon

After loading the Neo player on my XP machine I was going to update my Aspect v4 to the latest v4.3.1 (Build 76). However when attempting to first uninstall my current version of Aspect HD (as directed) Windows instead took out Neo and apparently the uninst.exe for Aspect as well. Aspect HD remains functional but without automatic uninstall.
My question: what, if any, files should I leave in the directory before manually uninstalling Aspect?
Thanks

Just install the new Aspect HD directly over the top, you will give everything you need that way.

Thank you, David, for your prompt response. Overwriting the old version worked fine.

I'm a relatively new user of AspectHd - have latest installed on PP2 (latest update). I'm running a quad-core system... 4MB Ram, 0-Raid on capture/scratch/output (600GB Total)... Thus far I have not noted a great difference in HDV-to-SD workflow "Option A" (outputting from timeline to AVI, importing that AVI into a newly created 720:480 project, exporting through Adobe Media Encoder) and "Option B" (direct output from timeline via Adobe Media Encoder to SD 720:480), and thus have been opting for Option B for simplicity [this is for 60i- of course, for 24p only HDLink capture supports 3:2 pulldown...]

QUESTIONS:'
1)What is an expected render time-- right now a nearly 1 hr. project says it's going to take 5 hours;
2) I noted in capture settings, grayed-out area specifying Cineform (etc.)... and "upper field" (also grayed-- odd, b/c that's PAL and my cam is not the PAL version...)- should I then output upper-field first? Should I switch field dominance in tracks for scrubbing/playback? A brief eye-test didn't demonstrate a huge difference.
3) In editing, I'm not getting RT playback with multiple layers and affects without needing to render... at most one layer with a transition-- an example would be cropping, blurring, motion or color correction... would require rendering.

ANY HELP APPRECIATED! THANKS!

Sorry, I'm not sure what is happening. You are using a CineForm preset? All capture data should be captured into a CineForm AVI from a CineForm preset within Premiere, or externally captured/converted with HDLink. Only CineForm filters and transitions are real-time, with addition real-time support for dissolves, motion, opacity and graphics/titles layers. On you PC you should be 5+ streams for real-time HD playback. While the manual is a bit odd (new version going online tomorrow or Monday) it will point some of this out. Both CineForm capture within Premiere and HDLink support 3:2 pulldown extraction -- you are missing something there.


1) Render time are primarily depending on Premiere's render engine and the format you are exporting to. MPEG/WMV9 output will be slow, most HD distrubtion exports are. Aspect HD doesn't accelerate exports too much, that would require hardware. There is a minor advantage in not having to decode MPEG, yet the parent application (Premiere) is slow enough on renders that to difference is not major. Aspect HD is designed for a high quality immediate with wide compatibility and accelerated editing.

2) If you capturing HD, the field dominance is known -- all interlace HD sources are top field first. Only exports should you be concerned with field dominance.

3) Operation like crop and blur are not supported in real-time. On the Aspect HD filter and transition folders are real-time.

I see the mov is an option instead of the cineform avi's. I'm guessing quality is same for capturing with either? using pp2 for my editing (besides the obvious extension difference), any advantages of going mov?

thanks

Only if you want to do 10-bit in Combustion, as it only support 8-bit via AVI. Or if you what to put CineForm clips on the Mac. Stick with AVI, then convert to MOV using HDLink for the clips you need in that format.

How does the update process work from Aspect HD 4 to 5? I am not talking about the pricing....I am inquiring about the activation. Do I need to de-activate Aspect 4 on my system before installing 5? Also, if I have a copy of 4 on my office PC will it be compatible with projects that I take on my laptop with aspect 5? Or do both need to be updated? Also, does 5 still have the luxury of 2 activations like 4 did?


I edit in my office 1/2 the time and then I travel and edit on my laptop the other 1/2 but working on the same project files. The budget does not allow for us to purchase 2 copies of Aspect so AHD4 is doing the trick for now.

Thanks.

Uninstalling Aspect HD v4 is recommended, but you don't not need to de-activate. Aspect HD v5 allows two installs, just like Aspect HD v4. Aspect HD v5 data is currently backward compatible with v4, but this may not always be the case -- do not confuse , v5 will always load v4 files, but not necessarily the other away around.

How is this possible?
My install is locked to a number on my pc.

David has said in the past that it will allow you to activate it 2 times before it requires you to deactivate and install again. I have had Aspect 4 on my workstation and laptop for about a year now. I never use them at the same time. I travel and take my projects with me on a portable hard drive to work on while I am away. This "feature" has saved my butt and I am personally glad that it is there as the budget where I work would not accomodate two copies at this time. I know it's not that much money but when I convince them to spend $649 for an upgrade to Adobe software that includes 6-7 full blown programs, they look at me cross-eyed when they hear Aspect is $499.

They have it in their mind that it is "just" a plug-in and how can it cost 3/4 of what the entire software suite costs?

So again. I am thankful for this little known feature.

Peace.

How is this possible?


My install is locked to a number on my pc.

Thanks for the info, very glad to hear it!

David, can you confirm please?

Confirmed, our licensing server allows for two activations -- however you official only own one, we just add this flexibility to handle range of situations.

Thanks Dave. Hope I wasn't spilling the beans on anything that shouldn't be known. It is good to know that there is some fexibility with these products and they are worth the cost.

When using Cineform AVIs in an After Effects 7 Comp the rendered footage will randomly turn black.

The Comp is 720 24P.
I have six layers from 5 differnet Cineform AVI clips with effects applied to them. They all have a Magic Bullet Look Effects applied to them.

It doesn't matter if I render WMVs or Cineform AVIs.

We have many AE users, so something else must be happening. Your question might be easily answered if you listed your product version, and whether you are using the Video for Windows importer or the CineForm AEIO importer. Please file a friendly ticket at cineform.com/support

I 'm sort of certain I'm not losing it... but anything's possible.

When launch an Aspect HD .AVI for playback in Windows Media Player (version 11), the picture is in a 4:3 aspect.

It seems like in the past, when previewing my Aspect captures, WMP would display in the correct aspect without any changes in its settings?

MediaPlayer 11 is a little broken. For some reason it is using the older VFW codec rather than DirectShow on some systems, causing this issue. Try using Media Player Classic (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm), it is much nicer than WMP11.

Do these black drops happen on discrete clips, or randomly mid-clip? If the former, what other filters are you applying?

If you transcode your CFHD clip to another 720p format and replace it in the comp, do the drops still happen?

Have you tweaked or otherwise attempted to optimize AE's memory management? I've observed that Look Suite can be pretty twitchy in that regard.

Have you checked the render logs? I've seen this happen (particularly when invoking from the command-line) when a particular filter depends on an outboard DLL that, for whatever reason, it can't find at render-time.

All of these can help diagnose what is or isn't happening.

"Magic Bullet Look Effects applied to them"
hmmmmmmm have you asked them about your Lic file?

Thanks David.

Have you tried the same thing with all the filters turned off to make sure it's not a 3rd party filter issue?

I can't play an AVI captured with Aspect HD on VLC Player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) It can only play the audio. I also installed NEO player installed.

you shouldnt install neo player and aspect

Yes, NEO Player will down-grade Aspect HD slighty (Video for Windows codec will no longer encode.) Uninstall NEO Player, then reinstall Aspect HD.

VLC doesn't support DirectShow or Vfw, or any third party codec, only open source decoders are implemented (it still a nice player for those codecs.) Get the Media Player Classic for a good all-round player.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm

Thanks! How do I uninstall NeoPlayer properly? It didn't come with an uninstall program though. Any help?

It should have in Start Menu -> Programs -> CineForm -> Neo Player. If not just use Add & Remove Programs from the control panel.

Yes, NEO Player will down-grade Aspect HD slighty (Video for Windows codec will no longer encode.) Uninstall NEO Player, then reinstall Aspect HD.

VLC doesn't support DirectShow or Vfw, or any third party codec, only open source decoders are implemented (it still a nice player for those codecs.) Get the Media Player Classic for a good all-round player.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Media_Player_Classic.htm

I uninstalled VLC Player long ago in favor of Media Player Classic. It plays Cineform AVIs, but I strongly suspect that it uses the wrong field dominance. Same with M2T files. Since I can't prove it, I haven't made an issue of it. Anyone else suspect a field dominance problem?

After updating to Aspect 4.3, After Effects 7 is unable to load the CFHDIO.aex file.

It is present in the plug-ins folder.

I have re-installed the update, but no change.

There is a registry switch to turns the AE importer on for Aspect HD (default is off for AHD and on for PHD.) Please ask support as I can't remember what it is.

Thanks David... I have submitted a ticket and will post the results if it will be of help to others.

Do you have any special plans for celebrating your 3000th post?

If you were a baseball player, you'd be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame.

Hi David, I currently have Aspect 4, Premiere Pro 1.5.1, and Vegas 7. I purchase Aspect because it included the HDlink, so I was covered for both Vegas and Premier. If I upgrade to Aspect 5, will it still work with Premiere 1.5.1? Does it still have the HDlink (or Neo equivelent) to work with Vegas?
I like being able to use Aspect with both of these NLE's, and will be happy to upgrade to version 5 if it will still do this. I use Vegas more then Premiere, so if Aspect won't support both, is there an upgrade path for me from Aspect to Neo?
Thanks - PK

Aspect HD 5 has everything you need for both Vegas and Adobe tools (including 1.5.1 support.)

Thanks David for the quick response. I will be placing my upgrade order today. I am sorry to bother you with these questions, but on the Cineform web site it only states that v5 works with PPro 2 and CS3, no mention of 1.5. Also with the product change from HDLink to Neo, I was not sure if Aspect 5 would work with Vegas, so Thanks for the good news - PK

After updating to 4.32 build 77, After Effects 7 would notify that the CFHDIO.aex could not be loaded.

No such problem with previous versions of Aspect.

I have gone through trouble ticket process and tried a couple of solutions to no avail. The error prompt still occurs.

Today, out of frustration... I simply ok'd from the error message for the loading of the Cineform codec, and proceeded.

Oddly enough, I can load and export Cineform AVIs.

A situation where things are working, but something isn't quite right.

CFHDIO.aex was designed for Prospect HD, but it should work with Aspect HD. If it fails to load it will default to use the VFW on import, but you want get the CineForm AVI output module. Maybe something broke in the laster 4.x, does it work with 5.x?

I haven't attempted an install of Aspect 5.

So the CFHDIO.aex is superfluous for Aspect 4.32?

Again, 4.24 does not have this problem. Is CFHDIO.aex part of that install, or unique to 4.32?

It sounds as though the easy solution is to remove CFHDIO.aex from my After Effects plugin folder?

This will work if you use the VFW exporter -- fine for Aspect HD as it is 8-bit.

David, I love ya... but you gotta learn how to type.

Can I just delete the CFHDIO.aex file that gets installed to avoid the error message upon After Effects launch?

Thanks...

Yes, that is correct.

Is it possible to get a cheaper Aspect HD license, with no support, for personal (non-commercial) use?

Cineform does not advertise any such license.

Maybe they would eventually consider an Academic package, but not yet.

How could a company make sure that it was not being used professionally?

Also we don't check if someone has a license before offering support, that would just slow us down. We also support people using the trials on our software. So it would be hard to have a reduced price for no support, as we would provide support anyway.

Hello guys.
I have just installed Cineform Aspect HD v.5 trial to try it with premiere CS3.
I have a strange problem managing my clips made by jvc gy-hd100 @ 720 24p.
When I convert them into cine intermediate avi they will play double speed either in mediaplayer and premiere...
they will be recognized by premiere as 720p 59,x frame per second..
CAn anyone help me?
I written a post into cineform forum but not any answer yet...
Thanks a lot, Roberto

Never heard of that. Send your question via a troube ticket at www.cineform.com/support.