New to Cineform

[Reinier van Brummelen]

Hi,

Just bought Cineform Neo4K Win.
After using NeoScene for converting 5D video (and enjoying the quality/speed very much) and then getting to be part of Axel's MagnaMana Fusion plugin Beta I decided to upgrade my NeoScene to Neo4K.
Lot's of reasons to do it and to (become) very happy.
One was the (new) possibilty to convert CR2 files into CF-avi's.

Some questions do arise (hope they are not all due to sloppy reading of the manual and internet info):

For now I want to start with using Cineform on the PC platform, but I gather I might have to get a MAC-FCP license too.
My main work is visual design/compositing/colorcorrection (Fusion).

Some first questions:

- CR2 conversion, works but I get an errormessage which asks for a dtd file which I got manualy (machine is not on the internet) but stays.the conversions seem good though.
Very exciting this (I have a 35000 ~CR2 timelapse project at hand), one first wish is that it'd be possible to have the original CR2 name(s) in the avi metadata?
One ignorant question: what would be the syntax for compiling an avi taking every x'th frame from the source folder (lot's of what I do is HDR, and I'd like to separate the exposures, my DOS/regex is not so good…)

- I love the "pregrade" possibility in first light, now the importer Axel made reads the active-metadata but sometimes I'd like to version: play with two or more "looks" in Fusion.
I tried exporting a .look file and importing it in Fusion (File-LUT tool). But it tell me the .look file is not supported.
Do you know of issues between Fusion LUT import and Cineform?

- I own two AJA Kona/Xena 2K cards (not the 3G ones) One in the MAC and one in the PC.
The PC now is Cineform Licensed, but I'm not sure how to get the Xena working in it. I read in the manual and saw files in the Cineform directory but am curious if I have to switch from AJA drivers to Cineform drivers.
My OS is Win7 64 Pro.
Will the AJA be able to play HD 1920 AVI's and MOV's. And more interesting to me….DPX-C sequences (this would be quite something)

- Last: Is it be possible to encode ProRes Quicktime from Cineform avi's for edit in FCP with my now PC based license (I'm not sure I wil be able to persuade all editors to go Cineform all the way). or am I obliged to get an extra MAC License for that?

Sorry for this long first post, and I guess I'll have some more coming (I'll try to be moderate) and
Thanks in advance,

Reinier van Brummelen
Stereomatrix
Rotterdam
The Netherlands

[David Newman]

From Neoscene to Neo4K, that is a bit jump, so thank you.

CR2 conversions: happy to hear people are using this new feature.

- The DTD error / warning will be fix in the next build. It needed an internet connection which is silly.
- to skip CR2 files. and -s1 (skip one) or -s2 (skip two) depending on the number of exposures in the HDR.

>dpx2cf myfiles/*.cr2 newclip.avi -s2

This will skip two frames, then encode the next for a 3 exposure HDR sequence.

- The ability to add metadata was introduced in the latest release. To add text information like the file name or path, use the ':' switch

>dpx2cf Night101231/*.cr2 newclip.avi -s2 :"sourceName=E:\timelapse\Night101231\*.CR2"

to add timecode

>dpx2cf myfiles/*.cr2 newclip.avi -s2 +TIMC="11:23:21:00" +TIMB=24


As for Fusion support for .look, the files we export are Iridas looks. Does Fusion support those?

AJA drivers are fine. The CineForm Xena drivers were for CS3.

There is no open ProRES Windows encoder, so we can't write to it. Best to write to CineForm then transcode to ProRES on the Mac if necessary.

[John Reeve]

Originally Posted by Reinier van Brummelen

- Last: Is it be possible to encode ProRes Quicktime from Cineform avi's for edit in FCP with my now PC based license (I'm not sure I wil be able to persuade all editors to go Cineform all the way). or am I obliged to get an extra MAC License for that?

Hi Reinier,

If you are transcoding from cineform to prores on the mac this can be done without buying Neo4K mac.

You can read cineform files on your Mac without having to buy a new license (using the Free Neo Player). You can even share databases between your PC and Mac so that your work on the PC is automatically applied on the Mac (by installing a trial version of Neo4K Mac). However, if you want to create any NEW cineform files on the mac you need to purchase a copy of Neo4K mac.



-John

[Reinier van Brummelen]

Hi David , John

Thanks for the answers, good to know there's help at hand.
Great I can convert to ProRes without having to buy another license perse.
Best to use Comperssor then ?

I have output on the AJA from First Light though the player crashes when trying to play a CR2 compiled Avi, Need to test (no time now) more though to give good feedback on when and how.
Big thing (for me): will I be able to play DPX-C sequences, like I can load DPXes into Aja Machina and play them realtime ? I'll try when I get the new MagnaMana Converter.
If it'd would work in Premiere it would be nice too.

Regarding the CR2 syntax and Metadata: I was able indeed to get the filename in the avi Metadata, though Fusion (through the importer) doesn't see this (will have to contact Axel about that), but the metadata is like the example "E:\timelapse\Night101231\*.CR2" I was hoping the wildcard would be replaced by the actual filename. I do some sorting/selecting already in Lightroom (double 'takes' deleting etc.) and I would like to be able to track back to the original CR2 file.

The -s switch works but it's not clear to me how to do the first exposure set: let's say a 3 bracket exposure: do 1,4,7,10 etc. only way I can image is have 2 dummy frames at the start?
Or have a two part switch:
a- start with nr. 'x' file
b- do every 'y' file
Now I bypassed the problem by sorting to seperate folders on shutterspeed in Lightroom.
Would be great if this kind of exif-data would be taken into Metadata (but a luxery of course!)

Thanks again,

Reinier