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

David alluded to work in progress with every NLE, including Avid.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-...-neo-4k-2.html

Can this be elaborated on at all?

Thanks very much.

Nothing to announce yet.

Just to bump this, is there any update on CineForm/Avid compatibility? What is the best way to transcode at the moment?

We hope to support Avid more tightly in the future, but we are not totally in control of the schedule. In the mean time MetaFuze (from Avid) can convert CineForm files for use in Media Composer.

Apparently LUT's cannot be applied within Metafuze, as of this time?

And a couple of other questions, if I may:
1- Transcoding of the Cineform DI seems to take much longer in Metafuze than within Avid Media Composer. Is this normal?
2- The Cineform DI is 10-bit. Yet Metafuze does not allow a 10-bit option in the compression format choice. Will this be changed?

Bill, we're actually going to be looking more at MetaFuze in the coming few weeks. Consistent with your experience, ours also shows that it is slow. We know why, but it's a MetaFuze issue. We'll be experimenting to see if we can work around it to improve performance.

If you have Active Metadata applied on CineForm clips it can be flattened in when converting through MetaFuze - to whatever your destination format is - if you have the First Light application and the CineForm color database installed on the machine doing the conversion.

Thanx for answering, David. I was hoping there was a way to define an LUT within Firstlight, then applying that LUT across some files during transcoding with Metafuze. Is that a possibility, at some time in the future?

The LUT should be applied, even in MetaFuze. A few months ago that may not have worked with MOV wrapped files, now all CineForm source will develop as First Light has set the image up.

MetaFuze is nice but is there really no support at all for anything other than 24fps and 24fps drop frame? Seems like a rather savage drawback.

Agreed..........

That's really unfortunate. I'm assuming this is an Avid limitation not a Cineform one.

Peter, it is an Avid limitation, but...we understand the next version of MetaFuze will support 10 bits. We still have to verify, but it's what we've been told. Hopefully we'll know more about this in the coming week or two.

David,

BTW, as I'm sure you know, AMA is Avid's way of opening the program to more codecs w/o requiring a transcode. Perhaps this is a way to get Avid to work directly with Cineform files?

It seems that Avid is less set on protecting DNxHD from competition than it was in the past. And working directly w/ Avid w/o a transcode would really open up doors even futher for Cineform in the professional post world.

Is Avid working directly w/ Cineform is a real future possibility?

Yes it is a real possibility, we are working directly with Avid engineering to make this happen.

That's the best news I've heard since I heard about FirstLight...great stuff, David.