Vegas editing on a slightly older laptop with Cineform? at DVinfo.net

Jeff Turkali · November 6th, 2021, 06:21 PM

I have a good but not great laptop, and HP with an i7, 16Gs ram, SSD for bot, 1TB HDD for storage, etc. It only has integrated graphics is the small bummer here.

But I keep reading that editing with the Cineform codec makes one able to cut through the HD footage (2k or 4k) like a hot knife through butter, so much easier to edit, process, and render out about anything faster, and with none of the other severe drop in quality issues we see when anything more than simple cuts and trims are done.

So if this is true, I should be able to transcode all of my high-def footage into Cineform at home (on a very powerful computer with 32Gs of ram, and a GPU with 6Gs of ran), load it to a HDD, and take it and my laptop and edit (remotely) to my heart's desire with little to no lags or stutter at all right?

It's the ProRes of the PC world. I wonder why more video and filming folks don't mention this wonderful way of working in Vegas on a PC laptop that is powerful, nice, but not at all the latest or the greatest.

As long as my drives can swiftly move that footage to that nice internal 1TB on the laptop, I should be more than good to go. Why did I not think of this before? Why are folks stressing out over laptops not cutting it? When they actually can cut it.

I wish to do a mix of iPhone 13 Pro Max footage and HDV footage with minimal quality drop - so Cineform is a no-brainer on any computer. But I had previously thought that my HP was simply not fast enough. Now I know why I maxed out at 16Gs and got the TB size dive. I actually plan on mixing three different camera's footage to complete short films.

Christopher Young · November 7th, 2021, 11:29 PM

+ 1 on Cineform

On Windoz PCs in both Resolve and Vegas Cineform is my preferred codec to handle hard to edit footage.

I first used it in Vegas 8 which came with the Cineform CFHD encoder/decoder specifically to handle HDV footage. It's a brilliant codec. At low bit rates under stress, it may get a little softer but I much prefer that to video playback that starts to display macro blocking at lower encoding rates. That's the strength of Wavelet compression over DCT. It supports 10-12 bit encoding in YUV and RGB up to 4:4:4 and 12-bit CFA Bayer filter RAW compression in either .AVI or .MOV. What's not to like about it. Used on 4K DJI drone footage it transforms the editing experience.

It's just a shame that David Newman and co sold it out to GoPro. I can understand why GoPro wanted Cineform as its original GoPro footage was a nightmare to edit with. I often had to deal with up to ten onboard race car GoPro cameras in a multi-cam switch situation in an NLE and it was impossible to use the GoPro codec. Cineform solved all those problems once the footage was transcoded.

I try to spread the word but so many still think ProRes is the ultimate codec to work with. ProRes may have the global acceptance it has but that doesn't mean it's a better codec. Little do they know!

Chris Young

Jeff Turkali · November 8th, 2021, 05:45 AM

Thank you Christopher,

Not only Vegas on a PC but it seems Adobe sw like AE also accepts Cineform like they were born for each other.

So my main point is that you don't really need a "beast" of a laptop if you are working in Cineform do you? Just a nice respectable modern one, a nicer i5 or i7, 16 - 32 Gs of ram, and preferred SSD, the nicer GPU obviously the better but don't get stressed out about it, seems that Cineform has taken the stress out already.

The reason I want to work in Cineform exclusively is not only a better smoother experience on the NLE, but also to not have a quality hit when doing a lot of post-work on a file. I've seen my stuff get dull and ratty fast just doing a bit of straightening out of the horizontal plane of the frames.

I didn't mind GoPro scooping up the codec and having it in their own Studio sw, as long as I was able to get that program (and free too). But maybe that did slow down the acceptance of Cineform just slightly.`All PC / Windows-based editing sw accepts Cineform except AVID. Which is a slight bummer because that is what I'd really like to be good on.

Anyway, looks like my i7 Vegas laptop is just fine then for some cool editing projects as long as my clips are in Cineform (and I have some serious HDD space available).

Thanks again.

November 6th, 2021, 06:21 PM	#1
Jeff Turkali Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 57	Vegas editing on a slightly older laptop with Cineform? I have a good but not great laptop, and HP with an i7, 16Gs ram, SSD for bot, 1TB HDD for storage, etc. It only has integrated graphics is the small bummer here. But I keep reading that editing with the Cineform codec makes one able to cut through the HD footage (2k or 4k) like a hot knife through butter, so much easier to edit, process, and render out about anything faster, and with none of the other severe drop in quality issues we see when anything more than simple cuts and trims are done. So if this is true, I should be able to transcode all of my high-def footage into Cineform at home (on a very powerful computer with 32Gs of ram, and a GPU with 6Gs of ran), load it to a HDD, and take it and my laptop and edit (remotely) to my heart's desire with little to no lags or stutter at all right? It's the ProRes of the PC world. I wonder why more video and filming folks don't mention this wonderful way of working in Vegas on a PC laptop that is powerful, nice, but not at all the latest or the greatest. As long as my drives can swiftly move that footage to that nice internal 1TB on the laptop, I should be more than good to go. Why did I not think of this before? Why are folks stressing out over laptops not cutting it? When they actually can cut it. I wish to do a mix of iPhone 13 Pro Max footage and HDV footage with minimal quality drop - so Cineform is a no-brainer on any computer. But I had previously thought that my HP was simply not fast enough. Now I know why I maxed out at 16Gs and got the TB size dive. I actually plan on mixing three different camera's footage to complete short films.

November 7th, 2021, 11:29 PM	#2
Christopher Young Trustee Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 1,567	Re: Vegas editing on a slightly older laptop with Cineform? + 1 on Cineform On Windoz PCs in both Resolve and Vegas Cineform is my preferred codec to handle hard to edit footage. I first used it in Vegas 8 which came with the Cineform CFHD encoder/decoder specifically to handle HDV footage. It's a brilliant codec. At low bit rates under stress, it may get a little softer but I much prefer that to video playback that starts to display macro blocking at lower encoding rates. That's the strength of Wavelet compression over DCT. It supports 10-12 bit encoding in YUV and RGB up to 4:4:4 and 12-bit CFA Bayer filter RAW compression in either .AVI or .MOV. What's not to like about it. Used on 4K DJI drone footage it transforms the editing experience. It's just a shame that David Newman and co sold it out to GoPro. I can understand why GoPro wanted Cineform as its original GoPro footage was a nightmare to edit with. I often had to deal with up to ten onboard race car GoPro cameras in a multi-cam switch situation in an NLE and it was impossible to use the GoPro codec. Cineform solved all those problems once the footage was transcoded. I try to spread the word but so many still think ProRes is the ultimate codec to work with. ProRes may have the global acceptance it has but that doesn't mean it's a better codec. Little do they know! Chris Young

November 8th, 2021, 05:45 AM	#3
Jeff Turkali Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Los Angeles, California Posts: 57	Re: Vegas editing on a slightly older laptop with Cineform? Thank you Christopher, Not only Vegas on a PC but it seems Adobe sw like AE also accepts Cineform like they were born for each other. So my main point is that you don't really need a "beast" of a laptop if you are working in Cineform do you? Just a nice respectable modern one, a nicer i5 or i7, 16 - 32 Gs of ram, and preferred SSD, the nicer GPU obviously the better but don't get stressed out about it, seems that Cineform has taken the stress out already. The reason I want to work in Cineform exclusively is not only a better smoother experience on the NLE, but also to not have a quality hit when doing a lot of post-work on a file. I've seen my stuff get dull and ratty fast just doing a bit of straightening out of the horizontal plane of the frames. I didn't mind GoPro scooping up the codec and having it in their own Studio sw, as long as I was able to get that program (and free too). But maybe that did slow down the acceptance of Cineform just slightly.`All PC / Windows-based editing sw accepts Cineform except AVID. Which is a slight bummer because that is what I'd really like to be good on. Anyway, looks like my i7 Vegas laptop is just fine then for some cool editing projects as long as my clips are in Cineform (and I have some serious HDD space available). Thanks again.