Hi!

I just got a Premier Pro CS3. It captures directly from my Canon HX-A1 via Firewire.

Is there an advantage of using Cineform or other capturing software/plug in?

(Prospect or Aspect or other)

What is the purpose of these?

Thank you.

There are lots of advantages to using an Intermediate codec. Aspect and Prospect both allow you to scene detect on capture. Premiere Pro does not. Using the intermediate codec is tough on drive space, but easier on the PC's processor.

Some people edit native HDV. I prefer Cineform.

Aspect and Prospect both allow you to scene detect on capture.

That alone makes it worthwhile...thanks!

I wouldn't personally call it tough on HDD space. Yes it is bigger then standard DV/HDV, but they are very small when we consider the space on a modern HDD. AspectHD is about double HDV. Only about 20GB an hour for me. Thats nothing really.

Well, I get just under 5 times as much drive space on a High setting, but YMMV depending on the settings you use. Capture a tape using the setting that allows you to keep the M2T file. It makes it easy to compare.

Okay, your using the high setting. That takes a lot more space, and is virtually 99.99% the exact same image. I was told by the Cineform guys that it isn't necessary except in extreem situations. We used to capture both ways and never could see a differance under extreem examination. My HDV to Cineform results in exactly twice the file size, which is still extreemly small.

To answer the original question: as far as capturing goes, there is no real advantage - you can use free software (HDV Split - now supports all HDV camcorders) for scene detection.

The real advantage of Cineform is in editing - the highly compressed HDV format (MPEG) is turned into an all I-frame file, so your computer does not have to decode the MPEG before doing anything with it.

Bottom line IMO: stay with native editing if all you do is simple editing. Go for Cineform if you do heavy editing, lots of color correction, effects.