Various CineForm announcements

[David Newman]

It is a possibility in the future.

[David Newman]

I haven't posted in a while, even as a moderator, but I thought some might like to hear this story. Some may know that my day job is the CTO at CineForm, the developers for Aspect, Connect and Prospect HD. Last weekend all the engineers at CineForm, independently (not a work thing) got to make use of the HD10U and Aspect HD under extreme conditions by entering the 48 Hour Film Project competition (48HourFilm.com). With had a crew of software engineers we succeeded in writing, shooting and editing a film in HD in just 2 days. This was huge amount of fun, although exhausting.

For this production we used two HD10Us, one on a Glidecam 2000, the other tripod mounted for each scene. Everything was shot with 1/60th shutter, using ND on the tripod based CAM for some depth of field control. We using a shotgun mic on a boom attached to the tripod mounted camera -- the camera on the stablizer used a cheapir zoom mic (we rarely used this audio.) The project was entirely an indoor shoot and filed 3 hours at 720p30. We used actors that we got from craiglist (a great resource.) We started capture from HDV deck on the set into a 1Beyond laptop using three drives while shooting. Editing was completed on the laptop, with some scenes and effects shots completed on my (slower) desktop. We submitted our completed project on anamorphic DVD, 5 minutes before the deadline. The film is 7 mintues long and really benefits from shooting HD (we did a lot of scene cropping and recomposition.) The screening is at a local theatre this Thursday (interested San Diego readers should go to the Ken theatre at 9.30pm.) I highly recommend this competition.

[Rob Lohman]

Sounds like you guys had fun David! Sounds great. Any chance
this movie will hit the web some day?

[David Newman]

Yes, I hope so. We see how well our film is received tonight.

[Rob Lohman]

Good luck with that and I hope it does well!

[Heath McKnight]

Awesome, David!

hwm

[David Newman]

Now that HDV is hitting it stride, and we all expect a much wider adoption of HD/HDV post-production. To reflect this market change CineForm's pricing for Aspect HD and Connect HD has dropped significantly.

* Aspect HD 2.5 alone goes from $999 to $499.

* Aspect HD 2.5 with Premiere 1.5, Encode and Audition goes from $1199 to $799.

Connect HD alone went from $499 to $199.

Read the officaal press release here: http://www.cineform.com/press/rel-AspectHDv2.5.htm

* Note: Aspect HD is still in beta so these prices take effect early December when the Aspect HD 2.5 is fully released.

[Dave Campbell]

I have to admit this hurts. I purchased Aspect HD for 999 getting ready for the Sony when I bought it. I have yet to be able to use it and now the price has dropped 50%.

Ouch. :o(

Dave

[David Newman]

As HDV becomes more widespread prices had to fall, but we understand that prices changes can effect the early adopter (our first customers.) We will price protect anyone who purchased within 30 days for the price change. Simply email salesinfo@cineform.com with your purchase date, and we will refund the price difference.

[Dave Campbell]

Its been more than 30 days. I understand I could have waited, just wanted to have my ducks ready. Oh well, just wish I had been able to use. :o(

Dave

[Mark Paschke]

Yeah Dave I feel your pain, Ive been busy the last couple months with helping a neighbor thats 90 and his wife with their health problems and havent used Connect HD since about 2 weeks after I purchased it for $500 only to return to Cineforms website and find out 60 days later I paid an extra $300.

Sort of like everything else , the early customers support the company and all those that wait get a better product 60 % off, I feel ripped off as well

Look at it this way, atleast you got noise filters and such, I got a $500 dollar codec

[David Newman]

We just posted a new update for Aspect HD for free download. If you are already using Aspect HD 2.3 or 2.5, this is a worth while update for you. Along with some small bug fixes, this is the first version to support hyper-threading and multiple CPUs for capture (we already support this for playback.) This will significantly reduce conversion time for hyperthreaded P4s and make capture/convert real-time for modern dual-processor systems. Faster capture will make the real-time HD editing even more enjoyable.

For those who haven't yet to tried Aspect HD, there is a 15-day fully functional trail version available for download at www.cineform.com. Trial verison has also been upgraded to 2.5b.

[Greg Jacobson]

Does your company have any plans to make the plugin for Vegas as fast as you have for Premeire Pro?

[David Newman]

We are working directing with the Sony Vegas people to enhance HDV editing. However, there is still things we can do under Premiere Pro that Vegas doesn't (yet) support. This is the primary reason for the speed difference between Aspect HD and Connect HD.

[David Newman]

Hi Everyone,

I normally do my best to answer questions of CineForm users on this forum but I will be very busy at NAB until Thursday. Sorry for the inconvience. I hope other users can continue to step in and answer questions where they can.

CineForm does not have a booth at NAB (there are very expensive) but out technology and software will be showing in many locations.
AMD Keynote (Mon 10:45 am): Prospect HD: Dust To Glory workflow on a big screen
SL332 (Microsoft) Prospect 2K: Demo of CineForm's new 2K workflow
SL2543 (AMD) Prospect HD: Hands-on Dust to Glory system
SL313 (Adobe) Prospect HD: Hands-on Dust to Glory system + Aspect HD: with Blackmagic HD-SDI card support
SL4916 (Blackmagic) Aspect HD: with Blackmagic HD-SDI card support
SU6406 (Sony) Aspect HD: 24P workflow from CineFrame 25 source
C4526 (JVC) Aspect HD: 24P support for JVC's new GY-HD100U
SL5501 (nVidia) Aspect HD: with nVidia's new FX540 card

So many booths we are spread thin. CineForm staff will be primarily in Adobe, Microsoft and Sony booths. I will part of the AMD keynote and then I will be mostly at the Microsoft booth.

I hope to see some of you there.

David