Someone recently pointed out that we often do releases before a public holiday or weekend. So Happy Hanukkah!

Some the changes (the first item is an extra one:)
Added: support for AJA IO Express (HDMI/HDSDI for you laptop.)
Added: an export .Look option to First Light, that can be added to SI camera or for
downstream color corrections. These are Iridas Look files.
Added: overlay support for all pixel formats, so 10-bit export with burn-in now work.
Enhanced: the "color science" ;) for the look up math.
Enhanced: Many feature to the burnin layout GUI within First Light (this is getting even cooler.)
Fixed: Audio resampling for Canon 7D.
Fixed: frame rate changes from MTS camera source.

Download links for trials and updates.
Prospect 3D http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Prospect3Dv414b230-091211.zip
Prospect 4K http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Prospect4Kv414b230-091211.zip
Prospect HD http://www.cineform.com/downloads/ProspectHDv414b230-091211.zip
Neo 3D http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Neo3Dv414b230-091211.zip
Neo 4K http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Neo4Kv414b230-091211.zip
Neo HD http://www.cineform.com/downloads/NeoHDv414b230-091211.zip

Maybe I just never noticed this before with FL, but with 1080 60i AVI files, I'm getting a little B/W striped vertical band on the right side of the video, when I set the rez to "quarter". "Half" plays the file perfectly and of course, "full" gives you interlaced artifacts. It could just be my setup.

Else, the new features in the FL beta seem to work okay. Prospect HD, Win 7 64 bit.

Now that Cineform supports the Aja IO Express, I've started to consider it again for purchase. Does anyone have any experience with capturing straight into Cineform, using a device like this (or any other Aja products)?

It'd be great to see some clips to compare quality, but I'm also willing to just take someone at their word. So...any big difference? Can anyone from Cineform comment on Aja product performance, when testing them out for support?

Jay,

It is true FL does not scale interlaced correct, the half res. mode solves that nicely. I'm not seeing any issue on the right edge though.

Now that Cineform supports the Aja IO Express, I've started to consider it again for purchase. Does anyone have any experience with capturing straight into Cineform, using a device like this (or any other Aja products)?

It'd be great to see some clips to compare quality, but I'm also willing to just take someone at their word. So...any big difference? Can anyone from Cineform comment on Aja product performance, when testing them out for support?

First major advantage or HDMI / HDSDI live capture, is many of the camera compress to 4:2:0, yet 4:2:2 going out over the live feed. So if you need to chroma key, live compressed to CineForm is a big step up. The next advantage is the noise floor is not compressed away as it is with heavy MPEG2/H.264, so you can dig more information out from the shadows -- extending the dynamic range. These two enhancements are subtle if the camera compression is reasonably good (like Sony XDCAM-EX 35/50Mbit/s modes) but for less expensive cameras (with heavier compression,) not have you motion break up is a another reason to tether.

I was hoping this newest release would have a fix for that FL burnin timecode bug (http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/cineform-software-showcase/468814-new-first-light-changes-doing-something-odd.html), but I see it's still there.

Any hope for a soon-fix on that?

Sure would make things easier for those of us benefiting from that burn-in TC window. Would be a really slick feature also, for doing dailies and various other things (such various translation versions we need to output). Would save a re-render for simple things like outputting to a mpg version (or any other format using the master output with a temporary TC window applied in FL).

It is not a First Light bug, it is happening in HDlink with non-24p sources, First Light is simply displaying the timecode HDLink injected. Yes we have to fix that.

I re-read your earlier post and finally understood. (Sorry, I was dealing with a severely crashed HDD on a ws, and am trying to recover data and my brain's toast...)

Is the data in all those Cineform HDLink-done avi's "correctable"? In other words, is it possible to make a batch "avi fixer" that would interpret and add/overwrite the "correct" metafile framerate data to converted files?

Or is that too much work?

It is a moderate amount of work, although doable, even by an outside developer (if your have connections.) I can't see us developing that tool at the moment.

It is a moderate amount of work, although doable, even by an outside developer (if your have connections.) I can't see us developing that tool at the moment.

It would seem like that incorrect metafile data in the previously Cineformed videos, sort of negates some of the value of that particular feature in FL?

I guess if only Cineform tools read and use that particular data, then maybe it's a moot point (not to me, however, I'd love to have that feature!), since anyone capturing and converting (but using other framerates) would also have incorrect embedded framerate metadata.

Might be a little (potential) timebomb for some of your expanded FL features later on?

I can ask a friend about any outside conversions, but might need more data.

With the support for the AJA IO Express can I view full rez (or at least HD) when I editing SI-2K footage in either FCP or Prem Pro 3 (windows boot camp) on a Mac book Pro?

BTW. I'm really enjoying the First Light evolution - keep it coming!

Stephen,

If it becomes an issue we will fix it then, likely take only a day to build a metadata file editor. At the moment is just an annoyance, plus we have many 24p users where the timecode is correct. We will fix it in HDLink so future media doesn't have the issue.

With the support for the AJA IO Express can I view full rez (or at least HD) when I editing SI-2K footage in either FCP or Prem Pro 3 (windows boot camp) on a Mac book Pro?

BTW. I'm really enjoying the First Light evolution - keep it coming!

For 4:2:2 sources it will be fine, but for 1080p playout with SI footage + demosaic + 3D LUT the Mac Book Pro will likely be under powered.

Jay,

It is true FL does not scale interlaced correct, the half res. mode solves that nicely. I'm not seeing any issue on the right edge though.


Thanks. I should have added that the 1080i files that don't play properly at quarter rez are 1.33 PAR (1440x1080). I hardly ever use quarter rez in FL and I don't get too many HDV files to convert these days either, so it's not a problem.

Good find on 1440x1080 quarter res -- true not a common display mode.

I only noticed the HDV rez problem because I was trying to figure out the interlaced issue at Full. Unfortunately, the AVI standard doesn't allow for interlacing (fields vs. frames) info to be stored with the file metadata. Maybe you might want to stick in a passive metadata field with the encoder that indicates whether a CFHD file is interlaced or not. At least FL could then figure it out, if not all software.