We've been using Premiere for sveral years, and our main computer has been running CS3 with Cineform Aspect HD ( which allows us to edit and playback hdv). We recently put together an additional fast rig with the following:i7 930 chip, 8 gigs ram, 0 raid with 3 x 1.5 tb drives, Aesus P6T motherboard and a Radeon card.

We then attempted to run Cineform Aspect HD like before, and finally found out that it doesn't work with CS4. We then downloaded a trial of Prospect HD, which works, but has a more time consuming workflow than CS3 and Aspect.

We tried capturing directly into CS4, but the playback was smooth as with Cineform.

Here are my questions-
1- Does CS4 have some kind of transcoder, like "compressor" in FCP, that lets you capture, process, then edit , without having to pay an additional $600 for Cineform Prospect?

2- Is anyone using CS4 alone for capturing hdv tape and editing? Btw, we shoot hdv on Canon H1 and A1. In addition, we use the Canon 7d, and transcode those clips into avi's using Neoscene.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Bruce Yarock

I have a Q6600 pc with premiere cs3 and have been editing hdv natively for some years without a problem, (projects up to 2 hours length max) is there a reason why you need a prospect cineform codec as your current pc is more then up to the task to handle hdv? You mention you have neoscene as well, I take it you use this as standalone program just to convert the 7d footage or does the other hdv footage needs to be converted as well to match the 7d converted cineform avi's?

CS4 does not have a high quality codec such as cineform uses of like canopus HQ codec.

Bruce,

Why would you transcode when you can edit natively?

The only reason you would need to transcode to hdv would maybe be on your output if you had multiple file formats in your timeline and wanted to go to cineform as your intermediate. Otherwise, premiere handles HDV fine, the only time I use cineform with my HDV footage is if I need to do 3:2 pulldown on my PF24 footage from my HV30.

Ben,

Why use intermediates when you can edit natively with multiple formats in the same time line?

I like Cineform.
It edits way faster than hdv native.
Besides it gives you 422, great for color correction.
Large projects load in seconds, mpeg takes ages.

Harm, I was referring to if he was going to be exporting out for a color grade or effects work to someone else and wanted to have a less lossy file format to go to.

If you are only editing in Premiere or using After Effects for effects or CC then it is best to leave footage in its native mode. Unless of course you need to use a proxy file or something of that nature with another file format that is not playing nice.