Adobe to offer Cineform for free?

[Kevin Shaw]

If I read this article right (see link), it appears that Adobe is essentially going to offer the Cineform HDV plugin for free to Premiere Pro 1.5 owners. That's a pretty impressive step which should further solidify Premiere's lead as the most promising way to do high-quality, real-time editing of HDV material. Top that off with the Sony rep's remark that 3-chip HDV cameras are likely to put a dent in HDCam sales, and it looks like we're finally on the verge of seeing the HDV format really take off. Looks like I'm going to need some extra money for equipment and software next year...

http://premiere.digitalmedianet.com/...e.jsp?id=28667

[David Newman]

Although you will hear a more official details from CineForm soon, there have been enough leaks out there that I can confirm that some of CineForm's technology has been licensed to Adobe for HDV support. We at CineForm are very happy about this. This will only assist professional products like Aspect HD maintain their position as highest performing HDV editing tools.

[Kevin Shaw]

Thanks David, I was hoping we'd hear from you about this. If you can provide any further comments about how what Adobe is offering is different from the full Aspect HD plugin, that would be great...otherwise we'll wait for the official announcement.

:-)

[Martin Munthe]

Cool! That means we'll get Connect HD for free. Love it.

[George Ellis]

They are probably in response to Pinnacle shipping Liquid Edition 6 with native HDV. There is a competitive upgrade from Premiere for $299 (which is $100 more than the upgrade from LE 5.5). So, there is some market pressure.

[Kevin Shaw]

Not just Pinnacle, but also Avid, Ulead, Sony, Canopus, etc. In any case, it sounds like Adobe felt it was time to incorporate HDV support as a standard feature of Premiere Pro, which certainly makes sense. Describing what they're doing as incorporating Connect HD sounds more accurate than the way I entitled my original post.

By the way, I just found out today that the next version of Canopus' HDV editing software will allow both "native" HDV editing or use of their own custom "HQ" codec. The latter will have a variable bit rate setting from 45-250 megabits per second and will be more processor-efficient than native editing, so it sounds like it's similar to what Cineform is doing. Nice to have both options in one program, but it's expensive with a current retail price of $1299 for just the editing software (with limited DVD production ability).

P.S. Okay David, now I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on what Canopus is doing, contrary to what I said a few weeks ago about not commenting on competitors' products. My bad.

[David Newman]

Kevin,

There are similarities in using a higher performing codec (quality and speed) in place of native MPEG editing. The Canopus HQ codec probably has more in common with AVID DNxHD's 8bit codec, given that they are both DCT based. Canopus at least went with a variable bit-rate (unlike Avid) which is a point in their favor. CineForm went with variable bit-rate wavelet compression, as wavelets typically outperform DCT codecs by a reasonable margin (try putting "Wavelet vs DCT" into google for lots of information.)

[Mike Teutsch]

David,

Any news yet on Adobe offering CineForm for free? Time frame maybe? Still on track?

Best of luck!

Thanks,

Mike

[David Newman]

Sorry, all that information is under NDA.

Stay tuned to cineform.com in the next couple of weeks for several updates.

[Mike Teutsch]

Thanks David!

[Steven Gotz]

Old thread, but I think you have already figured out that Adobe won't make the expected "Late in the year" release date.

Rumor is now: "Before the end of January".

[Kevin Shaw]

That's odd considering the latest full version of the Cineform plugin is already available, and since that's the one I'd really want I'm not all that worried about Adobe's version. Now that I understand there's a difference, I'll just track what Cineform is offering directly.

[Steven Gotz]

If I worked for Cineform, I would make darn sure that there was something I could offer Premiere Pro users that Adobe was not licensing. That is, if that is what Adobe is doing.

[Mike Teutsch]

Any new word on the Adobe-Cineform offer David. Would really appreciate anything you can provide me.

Machineit@bellsouth.net

Thanks---Mike Teutsch

[David Newman]

I can only annouce release dates after Adobe annouces. Getting closer though. Of course you don't have to wait for FX1/Z1 support if you buy Aspect HD. :)