HDLink -- various questions

[Richard Eary]

I am trying to determine the minimum motherboard and cpu requirement when capturing hd-sdi or component video using the aja lhe to hdlink. I do not plan to use the machine for any editing, but the machine will need to be able to capture and compress video without any dropped frames. The storage device will be a raid of about 4-6 hard drives.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[David Taylor]

Richard,

The minimum specs are located here: http://www.cineform.com/products/Asp...s_Requirements. There are a lot of variables that influence the exact CPU required on any sequence of frames, but in our earlier testing the E6700 seemed to work well as a minimum. I'm not sure you can still buy it anymore, and if not you should get one that is somewhat equivalent and maybe a bit faster.

[Richard Eary]

Thanks, that was the information I was seeking.

[John Rich]

I'm trying to get a precise workflow for progressing from HDV footage captured by a Cannon HV20 to either a wide screen DVD or a BluRay DVD.

At present, I'm using , 1. Automatically convert to Cineform Intermediate 2. Quality -High, with Progressive checked 3. Resize - None. for the HDLink.
Then I use a Cineform 30P Premiere Pro project to edit.
I export out of that using File-export- movie with the Cineform HD export and Fields -None (under keyframe and renedering).
I've been setting the resolution under video to either 720x480 or 1440x1080 depending whether I want the final DVD to be SD or BluRay.
Then I import the AVI into Encore and set that to automatic.

I think this works ok, but I noticed in reading this forum, that some authors were resizing to square pixels on capture. Since I only have ASpectHD and not Prospect, I would have to capture at 1280x720 for square pixels, and I was just wondering, if I should do that instead of not changing the resolution on capture as I am presently doing.

Secondly, I noticed that Procoder was being used to encode the AVI from Premiere, to import into Encore for the DVD, and I was wondering, if I should consider this option, or with my camera being limited to HDV it would make a significant difference.
Finally, any recomendations to my work flow would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
John Rich

[Robert Young]

John
I switched to Prospect and a 1920 sq pix workflow to accommodate the Sony EX1. I noticed that from the sq pix avi I was able to get cleaner imagery when transcoding directly to DVD, BR, Flash, iTunes. Previously, using HDV 1440 1.33par, I always had to downscale the avi to 480 1.2 par to get the best DVD. That gave me the idea that maybe all the "pixel shifting" between 1.33 and 1.2 plus transcoding was making life difficult for those pixels. I tried importing HDV as CFHD 1920 sq pix and compressing directly to DVD and it worked well- just like the EX1 footage, but of course the HDV images are inherently not as good as the EX1 for a variety of reasons. The HDV sourced DVD imagery from 1920 sq pix may be a bit better than the HDV 1440 1.33 on DVD using my old workflow, but not jaw dropping. Mostly, it's just a simpler workflow.
I would be leery of dropping the HDV down to 720 sq pix avi. I never tried it, but I suspect a price will be paid for the downconversion, plus you would be adding one more step to the process.

[Rich Ellis]

Help! I'm seeing weird errors coming from DirectShow when using HDLink. I have a trouble ticket open with Cineform but it's not going anywhere so far. Has anybody seen anything like this? Hoping another user can point me where to look for troubleshooting, at least.

I've installed the Neo HDV trial version, using it to convert AVCHD files from my Canon HF100 into intermediate files so I can edit on Vegas Pro 8. I like the results so far, and I'm thinking about buying the program -- if I can get my head past the fact it's downsizing my 1920 clips to 1440. Cineform says it doesn't matter. I'm taking their word for it so far.

But I'm having a technical issue: I can't convert more than one or two clips at a time. If I select one clip, no matter what it is, it always works. If I select multiple clips it will successfully convert one or two, but when it starts the 3rd (or maybe 4th, or sometimes the 2nd) it crashes. The log contains stuff like this:

...
Bulding conversion graph.
Using Super-Threaded Conversion
Error: m_mediaControl->Run() (0x8007000e - Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.) in (DirectShowGraph.cpp at 218)
Error: m_convertGraph.StartGraph() (0x8007000e - Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.) in (CFCaptureDlg.cpp at 2271)
Error: ConvertClip(next) (0x8007000e - Not enough storage is available to complete this operation.) in (CFCaptureDlg.cpp at 2328)


I have to close the program at that point. I can restart it, select the file that crashed, and convert it with no problems.

I've dealt with Windows XP enough to know that the "not enough storage" error is caused by an out of memory condition more often than an out of disk space condition, and caused by a DLL or registration conflict (or some other configuration problem) more often than both of the first two combined. In any case I know my nearly empty 750 GB hard disk and 2 GB of RAM should not be running out of room.

Per CineForm's tech notes, I've installed CoreAVC Pro and the Haali splitter that came with it. The version of the splitter seems to be the same that's available for download on the Haali splitter website. I know the CoreAVC codec is working because I can play the original AVCHD clips in Windows Media Player.

I'm not familiar enough with DirectShow and how it works to be able to chase this down. If anybody has experienced this and knows how to fix it, they will be my new best friend!

[Brian Standing]

Yikes! Cineform does not retain camera-original timecode from HDV files? I was on the verge of buying Neo HDV, but this could be a complete non-starter for me.

Until I can afford an LTO-3 tape drive, recapturing from original DV/HDV tapes is the only way I have of archiving long-form documentary projects with hundreds of hours of footage. If that's not possible with Cineform, I may have to rethink my workflow. Please, please address this in the next version of Cineform!

[Rich Ellis]

Still no word from CineForm in the support ticket, but in case anyone is reading this, I at least was able to find out that it's crashing because of a memory leak. Private Bytes doubles after every converted file. It isn't letting go of something when a file is finished. I have to close the program and rerun it. Don't know if this is because of the HDLink program itself or if it's a problem with something along the DirectShow chain.

Anybody know a way to verify exactly which DirectShow components a program is using? Is there a "debug mode" for HDLink that might dump more info to the log?

[Tim Bucklin]

Originally Posted by Rich Ellis

Still no word from CineForm in the support ticket, but in case anyone is reading this, I at least was able to find out that it's crashing because of a memory leak. Private Bytes doubles after every converted file. It isn't letting go of something when a file is finished. I have to close the program and rerun it. Don't know if this is because of the HDLink program itself or if it's a problem with something along the DirectShow chain.

Anybody know a way to verify exactly which DirectShow components a program is using? Is there a "debug mode" for HDLink that might dump more info to the log?

Hi Rich,

We've spent parts of the last couple of days trying to get to the bottom of your problem.
We were able to reproduce the problem on *one* of our machines here, yet not on any of the others, so we're in the process of hunting down the potential culprit.

What seems to be happening is that the Haali splitter and AVCHD decoder are negotiating for a subtype of "avc1", which the decoder's having a hard time decoding properly. When it's linked up to our components, it's telling them that the frame size is 0x0 instead of 1440x1080, so it's not allocating the appropriately-sized buffer(s).

The real kicker is that with the exact same source file, Haali splitter, AVCHD decoder, and CineForm components in the DirectShow graph on two different machines is producing different results. We've tried toying around with the Haali settings, but those both match.

Jake should be getting back to you tomorrow morning with a couple things to try and a version of HD Link with some debug output enabled.

You've definitely come up with an odd one, but luckily one of our machines is equally as unhappy as yours.

[Rich Ellis]

Sorry... well, at least I was able to provide some intellectual challenge.

The real kicker is that with the exact same source file, Haali splitter, AVCHD decoder, and CineForm components in the DirectShow graph on two different machines is producing different results.

This is starting to sound eerily like my day job.

[Craig Maret]

Hi there,
I downloaded the demo of prospect and have tried to convert sony ex1 hq 50i mxf files to cineform.

The files come out half size..540 x960.

If I go to the resize settings then I can pick 1920x1080 but they come out really big(nearly 2gb per minute)

I have read on this forum a similar problem but it isnt followed to a conclusion. Any ideas?

Many thanks
Craig

[David Newman]

It seems you have clashing installation of the Elecard MPEG decoder. In that software you can set the MPEG decoder to half res. Launch that player and turn the half res feature. CineForm also using Elecard for conversion. If you are comfortable using regedit the key is HKCU/Software/Elecard/Elecard MPEG-2 Video Decoder/Resolution which should be set to zero (I think.)

[Craig Maret]

sorted.
well done,
many thanks

Cineform....I think Im gonna get it tatooed on my forehead.
..instead im gonna pay out for prospect 4 sure.

Craig

[Burkhard Scheibe]

Hello,
I have problems using the conversion function of HD Link (newest version 3.4.2. for windows) It seems impossible to convert larger m2t files (> 3 GB, HDV) to CineForm avi. Sometime during the process HDLink stops the conversion and is not responding, no error messages in the log.
Another curiosity is that the program adds a "000" to the filename, and sometimes not.
I had this troubles also in an earlier version of HDLink.
I use Windows XP Pro SP2

Can anybody help?
Thank you
Burkhard

[Johnnie Behiri]

Hi.

I am trying to convert few files at the same time. (Prospect 4K, latest version).
The files are 720/24p, and I am trying to change them to 720/25. (AVI)

HDlink will always convert 9 files and on the tenth it will crash.

Can any body please try the same, I just would like to make sure it is an HDlink bug and not my system.

Thanks!

Johnnie