64 bit Cineform 3.x

[Jay Bloomfield]

Sony Creative Software will be releasing Sony Vegas Pro 8.1 later this month as a 64 bit upgrade. At some point after Adobe announces the Creative Site CS4 (also later this month), they will probably provide 64 bit versions of After Effects and Premiere to compliment the 64 bit Photoshop CS4. What is on the horizon for a 64 bit Cineform codec? Is it due out in weeks, months or never?

[David Newman]

Can't yet comment on CS4, but Vegas will continue to use Video for Windows to access codec, and that is 32-bit. We have 64-bit engines in the works, but will not be needed to support Vegas 8.1.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Thanks. That's sorta good news and bad news. The good news is that the 64 bit version Of Vegas will still utilize the 32 bit version of CFHD. But the bad news is that SCS can't seem to shake itself from VFW. From what your saying, Vegas Pro 8.1 will really not be a true 64 bit program, so the only advantage to using it is going to be the ability to access larger amounts of RAM.

[David Newman]

It is better news than that, it is still a 64-bit app. with access to 32-bit components (imagine if it couldn't use them.) Vegas does have a file I/O that we hope to use (bypassing VfW) but we were asked to hold off until they finish some of these changes.

[Jay Bloomfield]

That sounds a bit better, but I was always under the impression that although with a lot of programming "attention to detail" a 64 bit program could call a 32 bit DLL, but this really wasn't the recommended option. Vegas Pro 8b has enough problems with people complaining about crashes and bugs (not me fortunately), so it seems to me that not going full 64 bit (like VirtualDub x64, for example) is just asking for trouble. But we'll have to wait and see.

[Alex Raskin]

I'm using Cineform Prospect HD on Win Pro x64. No issues - works great.

I suppose x64 version of Cineform would be even faster, but hey... I have Core 2 Quad running at 3.8Ghz, 1600 FSB on DDR3 memory, so... things are moving pretty fast on my end ;)

[Jay Bloomfield]

I just installed Vegas 8.1 x64 and it will not play the video in Cineform avi files. I'm guessing that Vegas is looking in the wrong Windows system folder for the CFHD.DLL file (c:\windows\system32 vs. c:\windows\syswow64). Vegas 8.1 does not come with an "old" version of CFHD.DLL (2.8), so that isn't the problem.

[John Estcourt]

same problem here ..8.1 does not recognise my cineform files can anyone offer assistance please. thanks

[David Newman]

Seemed I was misinformed from the Sony guys (or I heard wrong) as apparently no 32-bit plug-ins are working. Would have been nice to have the heads up on that one.

[Jay Bloomfield]

There wasn't even a hint of a private beta program for Vegas 8.1. And if you guys aren't part of beta development, then who is? I knew this was going to be a mess. I've tried copying the 3.x version of CFHD.DLL to both system32 and the also to the Vegas 8.1 folder, but the problem is that I can't register the copied file with the 32 bit version of regsrvr. It must have something to do with your copy-protection scheme.

I'm sticking with the 32 bit Vegas 8.0c for now. Did you realize that the 8.0c upgrade puts the old CFHD.DLL (2.8) back in the Vegas folder? At least I had enough sense to rename it again.

[David Newman]

Jay,

I wish they would fix detecting the other newer instance of CFHD.dll, they claim it is a fault on the end user PC, which seems to be an issue for nearly everyone. As the 8.1 and 64-bit, we are on the beta list for Sony, but got no explicit warnings, I was remembering a NAB discussion that made be believe the compatibility issue would not occur (and have a lot of things on our plate we didn't get 8.1 tested, and we normally hear in advance if there are issues.)

[Jay Bloomfield]

There is some language in the Vegas Pro 8.1 Readme file with regard to Cineform:

"3.0 Known Issues
...
The CineForm codec that is installed with Vegas 8 is unavailable unless your Windows user account is a member of the Administrators group. To open or render CineForm AVI files, please log on using an account with Administrator privileges.
...
If you are encountering stability issues with the CineForm codec that was installed with the CineForm Connect HD product, please install the latest update of Connect HD, available at the CineForm Web site."
...

The first item doesn't help, since I am already logged on as an Administrator and I have the Vegas 8.1 shortcut set to run "as Administrator". The second item doesn't apply, as I am running the most recent version of NEO HDV.

[Garrett Low]

Any idea when either NEO HD or HDV will have a version out compatible with Vegas 64-bit?

[Jay Bloomfield]

Unfortunately this is more of a Sony Creative Software problem than a Cineform problem. SCS used a set of 32 bit surrogate programs that are spawned by the 64 bit bit Vegas Pro 8.1. These surrogates allow Vegas to utilize 32 bit codecs and plug-ins for file I/O and encoding. Unfortunately, some 3rd party 32 bit plug-ins work with this method and some (like Cineform) presently do not.

The solution in the short term for Vegas/Cineform users, is to stick with the 32 bit Vegas Pro 8.0c. Eventually, SCS will figure out what the problem is with opening and encoding files with Cineform, but I don't think anyone knows how long this will take, at the moment.

[Laurence Kingston]

Just checking to see if I was the only person having problems with Cineform and Vista 64. I see that I am not. Any word on what is being done to fix this?