View Full Version : Can you do HDV without Cineform?


Arve Hansen
November 26th, 2006, 05:47 PM
Cineform is high price. I can do capture with HDVsplit to m2t file. Edit in Premiere Pro 2.0. Can i get from .m2t to a .avi 720x576 I can use in Adobe Encore DVD 2.0?

Leo Pepingco
November 26th, 2006, 06:38 PM
If you have 2 gigs of ram on your PC, you can import the HDV content into your computer, edit that, then export it as a SD .avi or burn it to a Blu Ray or HD-DVD disc.

It can be done without cineform, its just a pain in the RAM chips. You need at LEAST 2 gigs. And I was able to do a 30 minute film with only a little headache. (With an aftershock of a headache when I had to render it for about 6 hours or so. Bloody hell.)

Chris Barcellos
November 26th, 2006, 06:48 PM
Cineform is high price. I can do capture with HDVsplit to m2t file. Edit in Premiere Pro 2.0. Can i get from .m2t to a .avi 720x576 I can use in Adobe Encore DVD 2.0?

Absolutely. You can edit in HDV, assuming you have the horsepower on your system, both RAM and CPU speed.... Remember, it actually works quite well in Premeiere Pro 2.0. But remember, continuous rerendering of HDV, or heavy color correction will create reduction in quality and resosolution. But simple edits will be great, and even complicted single render edits will do fine. You can say a final in mpg2 high definition, or render out to your desired DV format direction.

Peter Robert
November 26th, 2006, 11:58 PM
The less expensive and convenient way is to use Gearshift. I use it with Vegas and find it very useful in my HDV editing.

Arve Hansen
November 27th, 2006, 03:42 AM
Gearshift. Not heard abaut this. Is this near as good as Cineform?

Are there other ways to go?

Is it possible: If i capture to m2t. Then use something/convert so you can edit in DV 720*576. When finnish. Then you can synch this DV file with m2t and get the HDV back to tape.

You can do like this in Casablanca.
Can I do this in Ppro 2.0 or a different edit program?

Ben Winter
November 27th, 2006, 09:24 AM
Do you mean edit in DV using it as a proxy, and then replacing it with HDV? I believe this was discussed elsewhere and decided that this is impossible in most NLE's. However Gearshift lets you do this, I heard.

Michael Liebergot
November 27th, 2006, 11:22 AM
Gearshift will let you do just that, capture m2t files, convert to DV Proxy, edit, and switch out the DV Proxy files for the HD m2t files.
However, I believe that it was designed for and only works with Sony Vegas.

Leo Pepingco
November 27th, 2006, 05:56 PM
There is always a simple solution. I mean to sound patronising, so pls dont take it this way, but just get a computer upgrade. From the look of the codecs avaliable, and those that are free are somewhat limited (but they work) I think that if you invest in a computer that can handle a kick in the balls without a cup, then not only have you saved yourself the problems of HDV requirements, but also have put the money you would have spent on a codec and put it into something more practical.

A mate of mine said, I'd rather spend 2 grand upgrading my computer than 2 grand jumping the HDV rope.

2 birds with one stone...

Steven Gotz
November 27th, 2006, 08:59 PM
I did spend a small fortune on a new PC, and I still like editing with Cineform Aspect HD better than editing native M2T.

http://www.stevengotz.com/pc.htm

Mark Goldberg
November 29th, 2006, 07:49 PM
Vegas 7 is one of several applications that will directly edit m2t HDV files. In fact, Vegas 7 will split the incoming video into clips.

Now, how smoothly the edit will go and how fast your results will render depends on your computer. Also, there is a little glich in the process such that the end of each clip contains a few frames of the next clip, so you have to be aware of this when putting successive clips on the timeline. Attemps to correct this may give you little jump cuts.

That glich aside, I have to say that Vegas is one of those applications that will run on just about any PC. The one I am using is 3.5 years old and has only a half gig of RAM.

I did try the Connect HD intermediate codec approach when I only had Vegas 6, and that approach worked smoothly but required lots of drive space for the intermediates. In doing a very critical edit, let's say, something for broadcast, the intermediate codec approach would be better. But for event videos, HDV direct editing works for me.

Peter Ferling
November 29th, 2006, 09:55 PM
Too bad you can't downgrade to PPro 1.5.1, as it has a free version of cineform bundled with it. If your doing basic stuff in 8bit, PPro 1.5.1 will do.

Of course I'm upgrading to 10 bit and prospect, so I need PPro 2.0 upgrade for the 10bit process, which will cost $ -so I understand your issue. Not cheap.

At the very least, you can edit mt2 if your pc supports it, and after you do a few projects, you'll be convinced do to whatever it takes to purchase the cineform product.

Graham Hickling
November 30th, 2006, 01:42 AM
Proxying to DV works fine, at least in Premiere with the Mainconcept HDV plug. So I dunno what that earlier comment was about.

Proxying was how I did it for 6 months or so before I saved up for Cineform. Havent looked back since then however....

Luis de la Cerda
December 6th, 2006, 12:39 AM
NewTek's SpeedEdit!

Bill Ravens
December 6th, 2006, 07:55 AM
as discussed on a different thread, the problem with editting native m2t files, especially in Vegas 7, is that vegas/mainconcept doesn't smart render cuts. what this means is that if you make a cut on the timeline, the whole entire timeline is re-rendered.....excrutiatingly slowly. Cineform is so much better at this than editting native m2t files, no matter how fast your computer is. If you REALLY want to edit native m2t files, I would suggest using the womble.com software, which does smart rendering. IOW, it only rerenders a small number of frames on either side of the cut and it always quantizes the cut to the nearst I-frame.

Brian Luce
December 15th, 2006, 09:17 AM
look for vegas 6. should be less than 100 bucks. it comes with the cineform codec.

hands down, vegas offers more bang per buck than any other nle.

Mikko Lopponen
December 23rd, 2006, 04:38 PM
You really don't need cineform. I've been editing hdv A LOT natively in pro 2 and it works pretty well. When I export to AE I have to export in uncompressed 4:2:2 as AE doesn't really do native hdv. There are no quality issues whatsoever compared to non-native editing. It will look actually better as there are no compressions to another format.

I've been doing color corrections, slow motions, special effects and everything works well. Here's a clip to a small test action scene we shot.

http://hmcindie.pp.fi/suomenlinna/Enter%20the%20dragon%20hd%20quality.wmv