AVCHD and Cineform help at DVinfo.net

Langston Sessoms · April 30th, 2009, 04:20 PM

Okay maybe I'm doing something wrong. Here's my situation:

I have a Canon HF10 which takes great footage but is a pain in the ass to edit AVCHD footage on my Macbook Pro. HDV no problem, but AVCHD...grrrr. I saw someone mention that Cineform can be used to make working with the footage less stressful but I'm not seeing a major difference.

I log and transfered a bunch of clips the other in AVCHD, turned them into prores via FCP. I ran one clip through Neoscene to make it a CF file. First thing I noticed was any time i touched the 3 Way Color Corretion I had to render but thats not a big deal because the render time on that is pretty quick. Here's my issue though, when I was finally ready to export this 4 minute file its telling me it will take 3 hours. 3 HOURS?!?! I'm pretty sure I could've exported the original file in less time than that.

Are the advantage of Cineform only in the editing process?

Craig Davidson · May 1st, 2009, 11:06 AM

First, I would avoid the log and transfer to ProRes through FCP if at all possible. NeoScene will read MTS, M2TS and m2t files natively. Any time you add a transcode, you loose some quality and it just increases the work you are doing.

FCP does a horrible job of threading and optimizing the rendering process. When you do your final render, FCP requests the highest quality pixel format from the codec and then will use that for whatever filters, masks and effects you have applied. FCP does not thread well, so don't expect the render time to improve by using the latest Nahelem Mac Pro.

A render of a CineForm 1920x1080 clip, 4:33 long, took less than a minute. It was on an old quad core Mac Pro, but only 25% of a single core was used.

What is your destination codec? What filters etc. are you using? These can have major impacts on your render performance.

April 30th, 2009, 04:20 PM	#1
Langston Sessoms Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: NY Posts: 83	AVCHD and Cineform help Okay maybe I'm doing something wrong. Here's my situation: I have a Canon HF10 which takes great footage but is a pain in the ass to edit AVCHD footage on my Macbook Pro. HDV no problem, but AVCHD...grrrr. I saw someone mention that Cineform can be used to make working with the footage less stressful but I'm not seeing a major difference. I log and transfered a bunch of clips the other in AVCHD, turned them into prores via FCP. I ran one clip through Neoscene to make it a CF file. First thing I noticed was any time i touched the 3 Way Color Corretion I had to render but thats not a big deal because the render time on that is pretty quick. Here's my issue though, when I was finally ready to export this 4 minute file its telling me it will take 3 hours. 3 HOURS?!?! I'm pretty sure I could've exported the original file in less time than that. Are the advantage of Cineform only in the editing process?

May 1st, 2009, 11:06 AM	#2
Craig Davidson Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Solana Beach, CA Posts: 142	First, I would avoid the log and transfer to ProRes through FCP if at all possible. NeoScene will read MTS, M2TS and m2t files natively. Any time you add a transcode, you loose some quality and it just increases the work you are doing. FCP does a horrible job of threading and optimizing the rendering process. When you do your final render, FCP requests the highest quality pixel format from the codec and then will use that for whatever filters, masks and effects you have applied. FCP does not thread well, so don't expect the render time to improve by using the latest Nahelem Mac Pro. A render of a CineForm 1920x1080 clip, 4:33 long, took less than a minute. It was on an old quad core Mac Pro, but only 25% of a single core was used. What is your destination codec? What filters etc. are you using? These can have major impacts on your render performance.