Aspect HD

[John Eriksson]

Thank you(!) for clearing that up for me.. That was so helpfull and it sounds alright. But I am sure looking forward to use the "one step capture and conversion process" tough !

*I hope that you develop support for 480p60 mode under PREMIERE PRO soon, and I hope that it is "free" to all registrated users as an upgrade or something. I am now really considering to buy this product. The price is pritty high for a software product, but if it does all that you say that is capable of than it is quite cheap!

Do you get the software package by mail or is it only download?

[David Newman]

Yes John,
the software does do what I have said (do verify your system requirements at cineform.com) so we have always thought our price offers excellent value -- I hope you agree. The software is shipped via 2-day upon a web based order. The package includes a printed manual, CD software, and your license key code. It comes with a full 30 day money back guarantee. So you can check it out without risk.

[Peter Moore]

Vegas can DEFINITELY handle the transport streams directly. I downlaoded footage from the site here and it imported it like any other video.

[John Eriksson]

Can I get a smooth 24fps slowmotion by shooting in the SD mode? I mean because of it´s high framrate (60fps)?

[David Newman]

Currently Aspect HD doesn't support the 480p mode, but supporting 60p as a slow motion source is an excellent idea that I hope we can implement in the future.

[John Eriksson]

Thank you! Very nice!

[Brad Hawkins]

According to the Cineform website there will be a premiere pro version of aspect HD shipping in the next few months. My question is, if the capture and conversion to AVI takes place in a stand alone app, then why wouldn't it be possible to import the converted AVIs into premiere pro now?

Basically I was thinking about trying out Aspect HD, but I am running Premiere Pro and I don't want to pay $1200 for something that I cannot test immediately.

Brad

[David Newman]

You are correct, the AVI generated with the Aspect HD capture tool will work in Premiere Pro in the VFW mode. The down side is that you don't get multi-stream real-time functionally without CineForm's video pipeline that Aspect HD adds to Premiere 6.x. This is the module that is being ported to Premiere Pro. If you don't want to buy Premiere 6.5, you can download the trial verison of Premiere 6.0 (30 day trail), and install Aspect HD on that (with a small trick.) This way you can do real-time editing for you complex sequences then export to Pro when needed. Of course once Aspect HD for Premiere Pro is complete the new application is very nice.

[Darren Kelly]

What's the trick to using Premier 6.0

I wouldlove to know this one.

DBK

[David Newman]

Install Premiere 6.0 and rename the directory to Premiere 6.5. Aspect HD will then install correctly. Unfortunatley not all the real-time features of Aspect HD can work in 6.0. The Motion control panel is only supported in 6.5, but everything else works like RT color correction, titles, transparency, page peels, transitions etc. Of course this is only a temporary solution as the Premiere 6.0 expires after 30 days, you would then need to purchase Premiere 6.5 to continue editing (or Pro when that is available.)

[Steve Mullen]

David,

Can you talk more about the need for Matrox graphics for Aspect. It sounds like it is an imortant part of the equation.

Also the disk system. The Applied Magic system arrived in the biggest PC I've ever seen! (OK, it's just big.)

Let's assume one goes with a 2.8GHz HT P4. How many RT streams can one get by stripping (XP) a Primary Slave and a Secondary Slave? For example, a Dell.

Now lets assume one buys a MB with a RAID controller. How much does this increase the number of streams?

(Assuming 7200RPM drives. recommendations?)

[David Newman]

<<<-- Originally posted by Steve Mullen : David,
Can you talk more about the need for Matrox graphics for Aspect. It sounds like it is an imortant part of the equation.-->>>

Not needed but a video card that can be a simultaneous NTSC preview is a very handy thing. The Matrox Parhelia and P750 do this. Excellent for color correction as PC monitors don't match the color response of TV. This a good idea for SD production as it is for HD production.

<<<-- Also the disk system. The Applied Magic system arrived in the biggest PC I've ever seen! (OK, it's just big.) -->>>

Yes the Applied Magic PC case is bigger than it needs to be, although there is room for more drives (with lots of good airflow.)

<<<--Let's assume one goes with a 2.8GHz HT P4. How many RT streams can one get by stripping (XP) a Primary Slave and a Secondary Slave? For example, a Dell.-->>>

Dell vs custom, the main issues are always memory speed, disk speed, and cpu speed. A Dell with 800Mhz memory, RAID (hardware or software striping), and high 2.xGHz cpu will do very well. Software striping will work almost as well has hardware RAID (sometime better -- see below.) A good Dell with software RAID will likely squeaze out 4 RT streams. Although I would recommend 3 drives (1 for the system/software, 2 drives for video RAID.)

<<<--Now lets assume one buys a MB with a RAID controller. How much does this increase the number of streams?-->>>

Motherboard based RAID is typically a lot better than a PCI RAID card. I have tested PCI based RAID (33MHz style) that was slightly slower than striping in software a good pair of motherboard based ATA133 drives. Serial ATA motherboard RAID is better than motherboard ATA133 RAID. The Applied Magic system uses Serial ATA motherboard RAID -- it should be blazing on the disk speed. On a 3.2 GHz 800MHz DualDDR Alienware box, with Serial ATA RAID we can comfortably do five streams (we squeezed out 6 at SIGGRAPH.)

[Steve Mullen]

<<<-- Originally posted by David Newman : <<<-- A good Dell with software RAID will likely squeaze out 4 RT streams. Although I would recommend 3 drives (1 for the system/software, 2 drives for video RAID.) -->>>

That's why I assumed the Primary Master was the Dell bundled drive. Probably use it for audio too? Secondary Primary would be DVD drive--or maybe Secondary Slave if the old wisdom is true. :)

Since HT is available for 2.8, 3.06, and 3.2 P4's, but the costs are significantly higher for > 3GHz, I'm wondering if:

2.8 > 4 streams
3.06 > 5 streams
3.2GHz > 6 streams

I get the sense that 6 streams was really pushing it. :)

Let's say one wanted a 100% reliable 4 streams and one used software stripping-- is a 2.8GHZ HT good enough. Or, should one go for 3.06GHz?

Of course, I expect one will need to replace the Dell's graphics board.

Actually at $4K for everything, the AM seems a good buy. I'd probably build my own, but I'm getting asked by budget sensitive HDV users. And, Dell is available world-wide.

Maybe you've tested one?

[David Newman]

<<<-- Originally posted by Steve Mullen :
...I'm wondering if:
2.8 > 4 streams
3.06 > 5 streams
3.2GHz > 6 streams
-->>>

No, it doesn't quite work that way. Drive speed is a slightly bigger player than CPU speed. There maybe only half a stream difference between 2.8 and 3.2 GHz, yet poorly configured drives may result in only 2 streams where 5 might have been possible.

<<<-- I get the sense that 6 streams was really pushing it. :) -->>>

You bet. :) Remember a $100k+ AVID is only claiming 2 HD streams, so everything over that is damn cool.

In Aspect HD to can do a lot of things (filters/transitions) per stream, so the theoretical and practical will differ depending on what is happening in the production. For benchmarking, we construct a timeline like this (a test for real-time 4 channel mix and playback):

http://members.cts.com/crash/d/dan/t...e4channels.jpg

Only using a single dissolve with several overlayed videos with transparency gives a good indication of straight-line speed of Aspect HD (and the PC it is running on.) This test works the drives the most. Real world examples would have color correction, titles, audio with filters and maybe some motion filter applied, the number of video clips may reduce as you work the CPU and memory more.

<<<-- Let's say one wanted a 100% reliable 4 streams and one used software stripping-- is a 2.8GHZ HT good enough. Or, should one go for 3.06GHz? -->>>

3.06GHz CPUs are old and have the slower memory bus. You will do better with the new 2.8 (or 3 not 3.06) running the dual DDR memory (effective 800Mhz memory speed.) Yes a 2.8 will do 4 streams if setup correctly, and if you don't do too many RT filters.

<<<--Of course, I expect one will need to replace the Dell's graphics board.-->>>

Other than the preview advantages of a tripple headed card like the Maxtrox P750, all modern video cards will work fine. Old cards with a "shared memory" achiteture greatly reduce system performance -- avoid these.

<<<--Actually at $4K for everything, the AM seems a good buy.-->>>

The AM system is between $5-$6 including Aspect HD, drives etc, still a good deal. A PC savy person could build a killer system for less.

<<<--I'd probably build my own, but I'm getting asked by budget sensitive HDV users. And, Dell is available world-wide.
Maybe you've tested one? -->>>

Not yet of the latest Dells, but I have zero doubt that they will work well if they have the fast memory and fast drives.

[Jonathan Sarno]

<<<-- Originally posted by David Newman :

>Not yet of the latest Dells, but I have zero doubt that they will work well if they >have the fast memory and fast drives. -->>>

Dear David,

I'm seriously interested in Aspect HD but I need a laptop system, since I do a great deal of travelling for my productions and need to edit on location.

What laptop(s) do you recommend?

I'm considering the Toshiba Satellite Notebook P4. It's multi threading

" Toshiba Satellite Notebook with Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.8GHz, Model: A25-S3072" and has a 17 inch display.

Appreciate any of your your opinions on editing HD with a laptop in general, including internal and external drives that are reasonably portable and any experience with particularly laptops.