CineForm Discontinuing Aspect HD after 5 years....
 

It's a somewhat nostalgic moment for CineForm as we announce we are discontinuing Aspect HD on December 19 after 5 years of production. Aspect HD was the industry's first HDV editing product, and the *only* HDV editing product for quite some time.

Why are we making the change? Well, the landscape is changing. Aspect HD supports 1440x1080 spatial resolution, and AVCHD cameras, which outsell HDV cameras now by a wide margin are 1920x1080. Unsaid (for now) is that in the next week or so we'll be announcing another product with the feature set and price point targeted at the rapidly-emerging AVCHD market with camera prices <$1000.

So what about our existing Aspect HD customers? Well, coincident with the Aspect HD announcement we are also announcing that the new price for Prospect HD is $749, and $1499 for Prospect 4K. We are offering Aspect HD customers the ability to upgrade to Prospect HD for $199, effective immediately.

IF Aspect HD were to support CS4 there would be an upgrade charge, so the timing on this announcement is intended to minimize the impact. All upgrades from Aspect HD to Prospect HD v3 will come with a free upgrade to Prospect HD v4 (for CS4) when that upgrade is available in January. So for those Aspect HD customers considering an upgrade to Prospect HD anyway, now is an excellent time!

For those who were considering a purchase of Prospect HD, you can actually get Prospect HD for $698 through December 19 by purchasing Aspect HD ($499) in the next week and immediately purchasing the upgrade for $199.

More information is on our website here: NewPricing

Thank you David, I got a fright there but as usual you're looking after the customer - I'll jump at that upgrade and get ready for CS4

Yes, I guess the headline can cause some initial fright....

Actually we have a many customers who started with Aspect HD a number of versions ago and never actually purchased an inter-product (Aspect HD) upgrade. Instead they upgraded from Aspect HD to Prospect HD at one upgrade cycle, then from Prospect HD to Prospect 4K at another cycle.

Hopefully this is a reasonably affordable way for everybody to move from Aspect HD to Prospect HD....

David, could you briefly explain Prospect HD and how it differs from Aspect HD?

More details on the website, but following are a few items that Prospect HD offers:

- 10-bit (versus 8 bit) I/O for improved fidelity through post
- 32-bit FP modes for rendering (more fidelity for extreme post manipulations)
- Full-raster 1920x1080 (versus 1440 for AHD)
- HD-SDI I/O including batch capture. Plus Blackmagic Intensity support coming 1Q09
- HD-SDI monitoring from PPro timeline
- HD-SDI monitoring in AE
- Active Metadata architecture for renderless color workflows. (Previously Prospect 4K only but is being added to PHD for v4). For some that may not have followed this, AM is a new concept. But think of AM as similar to using an Adjustment Layer in Photoshop. In a similar way to an Adjustment Layer, we can attach WB, saturation, gain/offset/gamma plus 64x64x64 3D LUTs to a file in a reversible (non-destructive) manner. You can also generate 3D LUTs from within PPro and export them for later use. You can apply these color "looks" across clips or projects, always without rendering, and move them to different machines - even cross-platform to Mac. This is all managed *outside* the PPro project, meaning that if you double-click on a file with a 3D LUT attached, it'll play in WMP too.

I didn't intend this as a tutorial on Active Metadata, but it is a very powerful concept, and we have lots of plans for future workflow enhancement using AM.

I don't think I'am going to be upgrading to CS4 anytime soon. I just don't have the need to upgrade, CS3 is fine. If a customer is going to be staying with Aspect HD for a while will there still be support for licensing, like deactivation, reinstalls. I know there won't be any more upgrades (bug fixes) for it. But will it be still supported? I just want to make sure.
thanks

There will still be support for Aspect HD, you can move your licenses and all that. Of course support is often the place to get bug fixes and request new features for cameras and formats, and that will get tricker without new updates. The deal on upgrade Aspect HD to Prospect HD is not only about CS4, that is just a bonus, it mainly about getting our into our Premium product line at a discount. That said the last release of Aspect HD is our most solid to date, I sure it will continue to work well. You should only upgrade if you like the features of Prospect, or you want to more to CS4, or both.

Off Topic:
David, does this mean that we can use the Intensity card for previewing the Timeline to an external monitor?

If yes, i am very happy! :)

I also do not use CS, but I've upgraded from Aspect to prospect HD some time ago, and could not be happier.

Better image quality due to full-raster HD and 10-bit processing.

Square pixels. That alone is a lifesaver :)

Compatibility
 

Will Aspect HD based projects created with CS2, have any issues with Prospect/CS3 or CS4?

David, this is great news! I'm really looking forward to getting some value out of the CS4 I bought a couple of months ago. Are you looking for some beta-testers, I'd be glad to help out!

Roger

Aspect HD projects are completely compatible with Prospect HD.

Yes! When we complete support.

Thanks David... I thought as much. This is a great opportunity for me to get up to date on things.

I have premiere cs3 on win xp pro and a canon xh-a1, so prospect also supports 1440x1080?

Another thing, what limitations does the trial of aspect hd have (beside the 15 day trial period?) I have been doing some testing in Premiere pro cs3 and everything works really well, only when I export to cineform avi and import it into encore, encore renders the file but just before its completely rendered it crashes each time. Eventually I had to deinstall the aspect hd again because encore also crashed on other projects were no cineform files were used.
It was a pitty because I was very curious about the quality when burned on a regular dvd.

Prospect HD also has 1440x1080 profiles.

AspectHD does install components for Encore, it only was the Premiere importer if CineForm AVIs are used. That said, I never heard of Encore having any issue isolated with our plugins. I even did a 90 project 1440x1080 24p project in Prospect directly out to Encore this weekend, worked perfectly.

Give Prospect HD a trial, it is fully featured, just will a 15-day limit.

Thanks David for the answer, I find it very positive that suppliers take the time to answer their (possible new) clients in a forum, it's a kind of service that I"m not used to.

Anyway, I will give your suggestion a try as I really want to see if their is any quality difference on a 25f project after transcoding to dvd. I found the aspect codec to be a big advantage during editing as fast scrolling through the time line was as painless as with DV.
But other disadvantages were the 3 times bigger files and twice as long transcoding times on files without any effects or corrections. Only if the output on dvd is visually better I would consider in investing.

After reading a bit more on the cineform site I'm not so sure if I applied the right workflow, I exported the file form premiere as cineform avi and imported that file back into encore and that's where it crashed on. Should I transcode from premiere directly to a mpeg for best results?

For best results, export an HD quality master from PPro. Import that file into After Effects to downconvert and export to DVD MPEG2. Import that MPEG2 into Encore for DVDs. After Effects does the best job of downconverting of any application in the Adobe Suite, because it allows you to explicitly handle the interlacing and pulldown issues, but it does take longer. This is true for any of the Premiere based workflows including Cineform, Matrox, Blackmagic, etc.
Using Cineform as an intermediate over native HDV should improve your DVD quality, but not by as much as switch to AE for the downconvert to SD resolution.

How long will the $199 upgrade to Prospect for existing Aspect HD stay in place? Looks like upgrading will be the way to go but I have 3 systems with a license for Aspect HD on each so it might be a little while before I can justify the upgrade.

Thanks,

Matthew.

$199 is an incentive price. The upgrade will likely normallize to $250, after the Prospect HD v4 release.

Well I just decided to buy the upgrade to Prospect HD (not sure if I'll really take advantage of all it offers, since my cam is only 8-bit 1440x1080) but I'll take Cineform's word that it'll help.

My concern is that I'm already 1/2 way through a project with my footage sized at 1440x1080. So I assume I would have to keep editing that way unless I wanted to re-capture or convert all my footage to 1920x1080. And even then I'm not sure it would be worth it.

Even though Premiere Pro CS4 is not officially supported for real-time acceleration and other enhancements, can I still create a new Prospect project and import my old Aspect HD project and edit my footage? I'm planning on reformatting my computer and putting on Vista 64-bit, but I really don't want to install Premiere Pro CS3 unless I absolutely have to. What are the limitations using Prospect HD on Premiere Pro CS4 before it's officially supported in January?

You Aspect HD CS3 projects will not work well in CS4, as PHD doesn't run there yet, it is not just acceleration as our importers and exporters (which get you float point support) are not yet CS4 compatible.

As for 1440x1080 up scaled to 1920x1080, this step is not necessary. Leave 1440x1080 source at there source resolution, and place them in 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 project your choice. The only reason to upscale on capture/conversion is if you are using an HDSDI output that requires 1920x1080 for real-time playback.

Thanks David, I really appreciate your reply!

We did run a promotion on the HV20 Forum for a while for new purchases of Aspect HD and Neo HDV. The promo was not intended for this upgrade so I've discontinued the discount code. We think $199 is a great price for the upgrade without a further discount!

I upgraded last night.

It is probably overkill for what I do with my HV20, but I will upgrade to CS4 for Bluray subtitle support and Prospect should be ideal for editing Canon 5D mk2 footage when I get one.

Prospect & Transparency
 

Does Prospect support alpha channels?

Prospect 4K and NEO 4K support alpha channels. Prospect HD is targeted 4:2:2 10-bit, and it doesn't have a 4:2:2:4 YUVA profile, but we do have RGB/RGBA (4:4:4:4) encoding in Prospect 4K. P4K is now $1499.

I need some help then. I purchased my Aspect HD 2 months ago from you guys because you told me I would be getting a free upgrade to CS4 (Which I just purchased). Now your telling me that I wont be getting my upgrade and I have to spend another $199 to get CS4 to work with cineform. I hope there is something you can do for me because right now Im a little worried.

I know its a great deal for only $199 more for prospect but I feel like I was mislead alittle.

Steve

Hi Steve, I (we) understand your concern. We've tried to be careful about assertions for Aspect HD upgrades to CS4 the past few months because the likelihood of discontinuing Aspect HD was known internally.

My preference is to take this offline. You've already sent me an email separately from this thread to which I'll respond.

Ok thank you.

Steve

I have always considered the $500 I spent on this product the worst mistake I ever made. It never really worked well, and contrary to what I was told at the time of purchase, it was going to cost me another $100 to upgrade to one that worked and one that supported vista. Now you have discontinued it, and it’s going to cost another $200.
I for one am not going to throw good money after bad.
Ron

Ron,

I'm sorry you've had trouble. We try to resolve issues if/when they occur but it seems we didn't do a good enough job with your problem. If there are remaining issues we can help with then please contact support by filing a trouble ticket.

We agree Vista was a thorn in the side of most video applications for quite a while, including Adobe. Most Vista issues now seem to be resolved, including with the current Aspect HD. Microsoft's SP1 release helped a lot as it solved many underlying problems.

There is certainly no requirement to upgrade. If we can help make your investment in Aspect HD work better for you without you purchasing an upgrade please let us know, although this specific thread is not the right location. Support for Aspect HD will continue.

My post removed as D.T. replied with the same info.

Hey Ron, do email Cineform support, they are actually very good, and will work with you on resolving your issues. Both Davids and Jake are very helpful, in my experience. Keep trying - I'm religious about Cineform, since it really works for me (I'm on Win XP, both x32 and x64), letting me get very high image quality at small file sizes - and real time editing in Premiere. I use it for years on all my commercial and indie productions with great success, really.

I'm just about to complete grading my 85 minute film (using MB Looks), still in Premiere Pro CS3 Aspect HD projects...

Just wondering whether if I get the Prospect upgrade, should I create new Prospect premiere project (1920x1080) and import the original Aspect premiere project?

Is there any stability or speed improvements to consider?

Or is the only factor affecting quality what I'm exporting the final Cineform HD avi out as (using Prospect rather than Aspect?)

Thanks for your info and continued support on this forum!

Only worht doing the 1440x1080 to 1920x1080 project conversion if you have lost of post elements like graphics and titles that can use that extra resolution. If you don't Prospect HD will allow you to export a 1440x1080 timeline to a new 1920x1080 CineForm AVI for archive of BluRay mastering.

So can someone clarify exactly what I would need (minimal...meaning cheap!) to get Premiere Pro CS3/4 to preview timeline to external HD monitor using Prospect HD? Currently using Nvidia Hardware Overlay with Aspect HD and need to switch to a more robust HDMI or SDI card but I am not sure what Prospect supports exactly.

Keep in mind budget....as in....I don't have one! (rim shot)

Seriously, I can afford the Prospect HD upgrade but would prefer a "budget" hardware card if you catch my drift.

I have been pining after Prospect for years, especially after shooting a timelapse cloud sequence and watching the incredible posterizing effect in the blue clouds when I color corrected. Beautiful I tell you.....not.

Thanks.

Oh, one other thing. How will affect sharing files and projects with colleagues who have Aspect HD on their systems? I do work on independent projects and work projects on 2 different systems in 2 locations. I will only be able to upgrade one of them.....what will happen when I open a Prospect Project on a machine that only has Aspect HD? Poof? :)

All Prospect HD media is compatible with Aspect HD, but a 1920x1080 Prospect HD project would not open without issue in Aspect HD (I'm not sure what it does.) Prospect HD is full compatible with Aspect HD, but the other why around less so. Mixing projects across versions is never recommended, think loading CS4 project in CS3, it simply doesn't work. By eleminating Aspect HD we are working to lessen product jumping issues. Eventually it would be best is all you licenses are upgraded.

For HDSDI monitoring Prospect HD supports: AJA Xena HS, LH, LHe and 2Ke (captures from this also.) For Blackmagic we only have capture support through HDLink, although we plans to have the Decklink series enabled for monitoring under CS4 within Prospect HD around 1Q09.