Recently noticed longer than expected Cineform encodes in Premiere CS6. Five minute timelines requiring 40 minutes to encode, with little going on (simple titles, overlays, dissolves). This is on both default Cineform AVI and MOV preset outputs. No image size or frame rate conversions going on. This seems excessive on an i7-3930. CPU utilization during encode hovers around 2%.

If regular QuickTime output is selected and the GoPro-Cineform HD/4K/3D codec chosen the renders are shorter, under 7mins. CPU usage hovers around 10%.

If regular AVI output is selected and the GoPro-Cineform codec chosen (x64 v8.4.4) the renders are shorter, under 7mins. CPU usage hovers around 10%.

Is there some optimization I'm missing on the default Cineform presets?

Anyone able to corroborate these findings?

Perhaps Cineform isn't the issue. I have had render problems in the past when the drives were nearly full or badly fragmented. IIRC, anything less than 10% free capacity on the drive(s) will cause major slowdowns.

No Cineform is an issue. I get encodes with other comparable codecs (DNxHD) at three times the speed of CineForm Encodes. It is a relatively recent development (Gopro era)

I'm getting quicker exports/renders from After Effects than Premiere (still on 5.5.2) from the same footage (no effects, just trim and convert to cineform in both cases). So much for cuda acceleration.

So much for cuda acceleration.That's correct, because you're not really making use of it. CUDA is used for GPU accelerated effects, color space conversions, de-interlacing, and blends. It doesn't do basic decompression / compression. Throw on some effects and blends, and you'll see it do its thing if you have hardware acceleration enabled in your project.

Here's more about that:
http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2011/02/cuda-mercury-playback-engine-and-adobe-premiere-pro.html

I haven't used Cineform for several years so can't comment on the efficiency of transcoding to that particular codec.

Thanks Pete for the cuda clarification.

Any idea why After Effects exports 4x faster than Premiere to cineform??

I just ran a test render on CS6
CFHD.avi 1080 60i timeline (4 min, simple transitions, etc.), render out to CF 1080 60i file.
Render time was about 1.25 X realtime (5 minutes)
All 8 i7 cores were running around 70%
I believe that this is similar to my experience with CS5.

When I remember that right, it makes a difference if you select "Cineform" or first select AVI and than Cineform in the sub menu of the render settings.