Prospect Performance - what should I expect

[Andrew J Hall]

I have recently upgraded my system to Intel Quad Core 2 Q6600 2.4GHz, 2x DDR2 800 MHz, video card GIGABYTE 3850 256MB DDR3.

I am trialing Prospect HD with Premiere CS3. My source material is HDV 1440 x 1080 25fps, Cineform ex Sony Z1P camcorder converted in Aspect some time ago.

The project settings are consistent with the source clip except they use 1920 x 1080.

I am finding that if I have just 2 video clips on the timeline, adjust opacity on one and add a Cineform cross dissolve transition, I end up needing to render (red bar above the transition). This is with preview mode enabled.

If I disable preview mode, an opacity effect alone requires rendering for the entire clip.

Does this sound right? How does Prospect use the individual core speed (2.4 GHz) versus the quad set-up, is there a problem with the chip speed despite the Quad core? I was kind of hoping for better but I acknowledge I don't know what to expect really nor how to best use this sysetm yet. It does handle multiple Cineform effects somewhat better.

Andrew Hall

[David Taylor]

Andrew, it sounds like you're not using a CineForm preset. Is that true? Because you should not get the red render bars you mention. If you are using a CineForm preset then I recommend uninstalling then reinstalling Prospect HD (will only take a minute). Sometimes some of the software components are not properly registered.

Secondary point - you can create your own 1440x1080 presets in PHD from the 1920x1080 preset. Historically we haven't shipped the 1440x1080 preset as often PHD outputs are full-raster 1920.

[Andrew J Hall]

Thanks David. I will try a reinstall of Prospect. Yes I am using a Cineform preset. I would like to be able to work in 1920 x 1080, but how can I create a 1440 preset, is it just basic editing of the preset text file?

A related question - does Prospect always and automatically work in 10 bit and if so how, given the source file (which has already been converted to Cineform codec via Aspect during capture) is presumably 8 bit?

Andrew

[Andrew J Hall]

Not done the reinstall yet, but managed to switch to 1440, and again, 2 clips, change opacity in top clip, add Cineform cross dissolve in top clip, red bar over cross dissolve.

Will do reinstall next.

Andrew

[Andrew J Hall]

I have done the reinstall and no change, even with 1440, red bar with opacity adjustment plus Cineform cross dissolve.

Andrew

[David Taylor]

Andrew, this isn't appropriate operation. You shouldn't have red render bars. Please file a trouble tick at the CineForm support site. You can get there from our main site.

[Andrew J Hall]

Hi David

Thanks for the reply again, I will submit a trouble ticket.

Would you be able to comment on:

How does Prospect utilise the individual core speed (2.4 GHz) versus the quad set-up, is there a problem with the chip speed despite the Quad core? (ie does the quad core help with previewing, or is the individual core speed the determinant there).

Does Prospect always and automatically work in 10 bit, and is this even when working from cinefore AVI files created in Aspect?

Incidentally, I can never get over the excellence of Cineform's product support, to say it puts Adobe to shame is almost disrespectful to Cineform.

Andrew

[David Taylor]

Andrew, first of all thank you for the nice comments. We're passionate about what we do, so we enjoy spending time with our customers on the forums.

Our recommended configuration is a dual Core 2 Duo instead of a single Quadcore. The reason is simple - when Intel put four cores on a die (Core 2 Quad), they didn't improve the memory bandwidth over a Core 2 Duo processor. CineForm algorithms like memory bandwith, so we get more memory bandwidth from a dual Core 2 Duo configuration than from a single Core 2 Quad. All of our algorithms are multi-core aware (lots of threading).

Despite all of the above, you shouldn't get a red line in Prospect.

I/O precision with PHD is always 10 bits for CineForm Intermediate (4:2:2) and 12 bits for CineForm 444. No user selection is required for bit depth. I/O precision for Cineform files from Aspect are 8 bits, but if those files are rendered in PHD they are rendered with 10-bit I/O precision. (Notice I use the term I/O precision - we actually use 16-bit arithmetic internally, and sometimes floating point.)

Probably more than you were looking for, but it might be interesting for all....

[Andrew J Hall]

To report back on this issue, I got the following response for my support ticket:

That's normal behaviour. We don't support the opacity handles AND the transition simultaneosly because that requires use of an alpha channel, which we do not support that way.

A work around for you (to get the same effect) would be to not use the dissolve/transition, but instead use opacity handles to fade into the upper track. but just fade them to 50%. That should give you the same result as the other method shown in the project file you sent to me.

I do understand the work around, and in fact ha d already thought of it, but I imagine it would be considerably more difficult to work around more complex transtions.

Andrew Hall