Cineform and Avid... What's in the Works?

[Simon Zimmer]

Hi David,

Any new updates on Avid Media Composer and Cineform working together?

Thanks,

Simon

[Peter Moretti]

I'm wondering the same. Thanks for any info..

[David Taylor]

Guys, I'm sorry we don't have an update for you at present.

[Peter Moretti]

Is there something we can "ask" AVID for on your behalf? Some of have some relationships w/ a few people there and are active on AVID's user forum.

[Peter Moretti]

P.S. In the meantime, transcoding Cineform .MOV's to DNxHD 10-bit does work, right?

[David Taylor]

Peter, transcoding from CineForm MOV to DNxHD through MetaFuze should work, although it is unfortunately slow. due to the architecture of MetaFuze and the relatively slow performance of DNxHD.

If you're on a Mac you have another option which is to download/install the DNxHD QT codecs from the Avid site. Once you've done that you can transcode using Compressor to DNxHD MOV files. You'll still have to ingest using MetaFuze, but in this case MetaFuze will rewrap from DNxHD MOV to MXF which is faster than when it has to also transcode.

I hope this helps, and I hope we'll have a better solution before too long!

[Peter Moretti]

David,

Can TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 to do the CF to DNxHD transcode?

[David Taylor]

I'm sorry, I don't know anything about TMPEnc's and its Avid compatibility.

[Peter Moretti]

David,

Would it be possible to get a small test file from Cineform that's the same resolution used for Cineform + Intensity card HDMI capture from an HDV camera?

I have a feeling there may be some other alternatives for PC DNxHD transcoding that might be easier and faster than using MetaFuze. I'm willing to bang my head against this problem, but I'd need a CF file.

Thanks much.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Peter Moretti

I have a feeling there may be some other alternatives for PC DNxHD transcoding that might be easier and faster than using MetaFuze. I'm willing to bang my head against this problem, but I'd need a CF file.

Thanks much.

Mpeg Streamclip will convert Cinneform to DNxHD perfectly. It will do 8bit or 10bit DNxHD, and it does it for free. It will even do it in batch mode.

[Peter Moretti]

Perrone,

A few ?'s:

1) Have you been able to fast import the Streamclip DNxHD .MOV's into MC? I would think you should be able to as long as 601/709 levels is chosen.

2) Have you tried importing CF .MOV files directly into MC-- essentially have Avid do the transcode? I also think this "should" work as long as the Cineform .MOV codec is installed on the computer. FWIU, as long as Quicktime Player can play the file on the computer, MC can import it.

3) Have you been able to do the file conversion using just the CF player-only version of the codec? This would allow other MC installs to do the transcode w/o having a full-blown Cineform package.

Thanks very much!

[Perrone Ford]

Let's see.

1. I don't remember being able to fast import the mpeg streamclip files, but I think I only tried it once. I was doing this when I had the Avid trial. I no longer have that.

2. Yes, I did import CF files straight into Avid and let it transcode.

3. I do not have anything but the CF reader. I've never bought Cineform.

You can download some Cineform RAW files from the SI2K to play with:

Silicon Imaging

That should allow you to check the conversion into Avid.

[Peter Moretti]

Thanks Perrone! It sounded like Cineform was making the import into Avid sound more difficult than it actually shoule be, and I think that is the case. Of course having the ability to work w/ the files directly w/o a transcode would be best :).

I can try the Cineform RAW files, but if I do a capture to an Intesity card via the HDMI of my HV-20, the resulting Cineform file isn't going to be RAW. So while the RAW test would be helpful, it wouldn't be conclusive, FWICT.

[Perrone Ford]

Originally Posted by Peter Moretti

So while the RAW test would be helpful, it wouldn't be conclusive, FWICT.

It's the same codec.

[Peter Moretti]

Perrone,

You may very well be corrcet, but I don't see how that's possible.

RAW is different from RGB and is also different from YUV. They are different ways of encoding an image.

HDMI (which I would be caputuring from) is YUV 4:2:2 8-bit, and Cineform's codec used to encode the signal is YUV 4:2:2 10-bit. There is no RAW in the equation, except for what initially comes off the camera's Bayer mask sensor. But the codec never gets to touch that b/c the camera internally converts it to YUV before it hits the HDMI port.