Windows Premiere Pro CS4 Importer Beta
 

For those who can't wait any longer:

http://miscdata.com/cineform/CFHD_CS4_importer.zip

It is the vanilla importer with no installer.
It contains:
CFHDDecoder.dll
CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm

The DLL must be installed in you execution path, if you don't know which directories are in this path, use c:\windows\system32. DO REMEMBER where you put it as it will need to be deleted before installing any official CS4 supporting installers, just in case. You have been warned.

The PRM file goes in
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins\CS4\MediaCore
or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins\CS4\MediaCore

Remove any our *CFHD*.prm file you might find.

Then start up PPro CS4.

This importer supports all the 32-bit float formats and a few other deep pixel formats, so it is a lot better than using the VfW codec many are currently using.

Great news! Do you have any time frame on when the final will be released?

Thanks. Sorry to ask such a stupid question but where do we stand with after effects? Obviously this is intended for Premiere but I'd love to get a few of these clips into AE also.

Is that already supported? I wouldn't think so but thought I'd ask.

Thanks again.

needs to go in the c:\Windows\SysWOW64
 

Doesn't the dll need to go in the c:\Windows\SysWOW64 if you're using XP 64bit? Only way it'd work for us. Plus, obviously there are no presets...

Stephen,

Cool, SysWOW64, use that. I didn't need to I my XP64, as system32 was in my path.

Presets have nothing to do with importers, that is for playback modules which is a while off.

When people test it, we will know when it might be ready for release.

After Effects and Encore use the same component from the MediaCore path, so it should work fine. We have done zero testing in AE, so please give that a go.

the importer seems to work fine for me, as now i can play the timeline fine without any stuttering in premiere cs4 with my 5d mkII files, i take it this importer when working in the background is totally transparent, since now i just drop my .avi files directly into premiere and onto the timeline

Yes, the importer operation is basically invisible when it is working correctly. It will be significantly faster than using the VfW codec, as Premiere's draft and automatic playback modes ask for half resolution decodes, giving you smoother playback.

Hello David

Could you please tell me what’s the different between a full Prospect HD as I have now on my CS3 installation and this ” importer” installation. I’m a Swedish guy so stand by me in this it’s to hard to grasp this.

Thanks
Mikael

Importer = open CineForm files
Prospect HD = Real-ime pipeline, effects, transition, HDSDI capture and playback.

The importer is all we add to NEO to make it Premeire compatible, Prospect is all the extra stuff.

That's great news! Do we have to desinstall Neo Scene before installing manually the files you mention in your post?

Guillaume

Guillaume, Do nothing more than the instructions provided.

Thanks David, so if I capture through Prospect HD in Premiere CS3 3.2 and open up these files in Premiere CS 4 it will work, right?

Will it have Decklink support on the playout now, the HDMI or SDI out of those cards, I've been waiting long time now for this?

PS Just love to buy your CS4 4K Prospect HD now:-)

Best Regards
Mikael
Sweden

For us Vista 64 users,should the file go in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS4\Plug-ins\Common

Cause there is no path that you specified.

This is only correct if you don't have the Create Suite and only have Premiere. The MediaCore is preferred otherwise.

I removed all previous media Cache files. I created a brand new Project, using the "Desktop Mode". I am trying to import one Cineform file, 1440x1080i 1.33 file.
I am on Vista x64 SP1

Premiere displays this Error Message:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ImporterProcessServer.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 491896d7
Fault Module Name: CFHDDecoder.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 49b5c083
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0001d033
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.6
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: fd00
Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
Additional Information 3: fd00
Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Do you want me to send this to support or post here?

Thanks.

Appcrash
 

I'm able to successfully create a new Premier Pro CS4 project. I created a timeline based off the Desktop preset. When playing back a 5 minutes clip, Premier Crashed. The clip I was playing was captured from Canon XH-A1, using HDVSplit, converted to Prospect HD using HDLink.

Info from crash dialog box:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Adobe Premiere Pro.exe
Application Version: 4.0.1.0
Application Timestamp: 49189711
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a783
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00032f87
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 67df
Additional Information 2: cd0131dafc277228777e1c97f2568cb4
Additional Information 3: cf6e
Additional Information 4: 1efdbb6bf5759cfefefea34f035f5d9d


> ntdll.dll!771a2f87()
[Frames below may be incorrect and/or missing, no symbols loaded for ntdll.dll]
ntdll.dll!771a2f34()
ntdll.dll!7719f945()
ntdll.dll!7719f285()
ntdll.dll!7719fa88()
ntdll.dll!7719fa88()
ntdll.dll!7719039d()
ntdll.dll!7719039d()
kernel32.dll!762d1270()
kernel32.dll!762d11d8()
ntdll.dll!7719063d()
kernel32.dll!762d1192()
nvoglv32.dll!17e4596b()
nvoglv32.dll!17e4b4ed()
nvoglv32.dll!17e4b59e()
CrashReporter.dll!10001b89()
CrashReporter.dll!10002712()
ntdll.dll!77190682()
kernel32.dll!7635c1d9()
ntdll.dll!77190682()
kernel32.dll!762d61ed()
kernel32.dll!762d12a0()
ntdll.dll!7719042d()
kernel32.dll!762ddf88()
dvacore.dll!002e0f0a()
dvacore.dll!002e48f1()
dvacore.dll!002e4992()
dvacore.dll!003192f1()
dvacore.dll!0033b6ee()
dvacore.dll!00342c19()
processcoordinationclient.dll!02823167()
dvacore.dll!003437b9()
dvacore.dll!002e4992()
dvacore.dll!002e48f1()
dvacore.dll!002e4992()
dvacore.dll!002e48f1()
dvacore.dll!002e4992()
dvacore.dll!002e48f1()
dvacore.dll!002e4992()
dvacore.dll!0031a552()
dvacore.dll!0032c119()
dvacore.dll!00333841()
dvacore.dll!00326ed4()
dvacore.dll!00327013()
dvacore.dll!0032703b()
ImporterHost.dll!06a63458()
ImporterHost.dll!06a644a6()
ImporterHost.dll!06a78d4d()
ImporterHost.dll!06a64fe4()
dvacore.dll!00326ed4()
ImporterHost.dll!06a635a9()
ImporterHost.dll!06a2ff11()
ImporterHost.dll!06a379e3()
ASLFoundation.dll!00d81c01()
ImporterHost.dll!06a9a68f()
AudioRenderer.dll!03ed1170()
AudioRenderer.dll!03ed11f3()
dvacore.dll!002e89d9()
AudioRenderer.dll!03eecc7d()
dvacore.dll!002e4789()
ntdll.dll!77190415()
kernel32.dll!762de02e()
dvacore.dll!002e3f69()
dvacore.dll!002e9055()
msvcr80.dll!73d04d83()
dvacore.dll!002e8074()
dvacore.dll!002e4789()
dvacore.dll!002e1f79()
dvacore.dll!002e9353()
dvacore.dll!002e9510()
dvacore.dll!002e1f79()
dvacore.dll!002e138f()
dvacore.dll!002e2087()
dvacore.dll!002e20e1()
msvcr80.dll!73d02e24()
msvcr80.dll!73d02e2f()
msvcr80.dll!73d029bb()
msvcr80.dll!73d02a47()
kernel32.dll!7634e3f3()
ntdll.dll!771ecfed()
ntdll.dll!771ed1ff()


Don't know if this will help, but I jumped in the debugger and grabbed the stack trace:

Please don't place crash dumps on the forum -- the last one doesn't look like CineForm's (it is all Adobe, our modules aren't mentioned.)

Only the Application, ImporterProcessServer.exe is impacted by the importer.
and the module will be either CFHDDecoder.dll or CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm

Send crash reports to support@cineform.com, the dump info is not that important, the clip and the operation that caused it is. As are already getting positive feedback, so we just need to know what is happening in the corner cases.

It crashes (AE has crashed, ... Adobe error dialog box only "0::42") when I load any CFHD file, with AE CS4 under Vista x64. I also have CS3 installed and I didn't remove any files from that installation. I think I'll do a little more experimenting, to see what else I can figure out about this, since you haven't tested it with AE.

EDIT: I searched for older versions of either CFHDDecoder.dll or CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm. The V3.47 of the DLL is installed with NEO HD. CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm is, of course, installed with CS3. Should those both be replaced, or will I screw up NEO HD and/or CS3? I'm guessing that the new CS4 importer is backwards compatible, since it is just a higher version number.

I'm pretty sure AE is not using this component, as it seems to be defaulting to VfW. Adobe, you're such a mess.

Works for me, CS4 runs smoothly in the source and program windows. Thanks for the "pre" beta.

If I do color editing I still need to render (same as just using the MOV files), but the advantage is that the source always runs smoothly for easy and accurate trimming.

So I'm happy (for now), and I can start waiting for Prospect CS4.

It's hard to tell anything yet as I am just finding Premiere CS4 to be an overall underperformer compared to CS3, with or without Cineform.

I notice David is a bit frustrated with CS4 implementation of plugins and such.....

David, This will not reflect on Cineform in any way but I must ask.....is your team noticing significant reduced performance with CS4? I really feel it is bloated beyond belief and aside from the new features we have all seen and heard of, is a huge dissapointment in the performance department.

Is anyone else sensing this too? I am temtped to stick with CS3 it's so bad right now.

Marty... I just read your post over on the Premiere forum and skipped over here to lodge the exact same question.

It just goes to show that all great Marty's think alike.

Memory Leak ?
 

After about 30 seconds the clip started to play choppy. So I ran some tests with Task Manager open and found if I play a Cineform clip after about 2 minutes and 30 seconds my memory usage is at 100%.

I have sent an email with a jpg of the memory usage to support@cineform.

I am on Vista x64 with 4GB of memory, Quad Core.


Anyone else seeing this memory usage?

Premiere caches a lot of frames. The memory will go up to a certain point then stop. If it is increases to a crash, that is a bug, if it just looks like a memory hog, that is Premiere.

In my pre-CineForm life I helped create a dual-stream real-time stand alone video editor, it used 16MB of RAM for everything, the OS, disk cache, and up to 12 loaded sequences of two hours length each. Now HD is bigger that that SD product, but not 100X bigger.

Does the full version of Prospect need to be installed to test this loader? I ask because I have a dual-boot setup, with CS3 and Prospect presently on one boot, and CS4 on the other 'experimental' boot.

It is standalone, doesn't need anything else.

When I import CF files via the importer, I still get a crash of the ImporterProcess :(
Don't know how to solve the problem!
The only difference I notice with people who succeed in using the importer is my OS. I have Windows Vista 64 bits...... That's the only difference I see.
BTW, there is no MediCore folder common to all the suite product installed w/ CS4! On my computer I have the *.prm files disseminated in several folder for each CS4 apps: PP, AE, Encore, Media Encoder etc.

Any help welcomed!

Cheers,

Guillaume

Try opening a Premiere CS3 project that contains Cineform AVIs with Premiere CS4 and see what happens. That's assuming that you have CS3 installed. :-)

Using Vista 64, XP-64 and XP-32, all work. But they all had mediacore directories, something is different in your Adobe setup.

So, I took one week break from testing (I was getting a bit mad) and... the new cs4 importer works perfecly. I can import the new Neoscene 5DII converted files and edit them perfectly. Quality is wonderful. I see finally the light. I will test the last neoscene (I should be able to test it for one week) and probably buy it.

@David

Below are the folders I have in directory of C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe

Adobe After Effects CS4
Adobe Bridge CS4
Adobe Device Central CS4
Adobe Encore CS4
Adobe Extension Manager CS4
Adobe Flash CS4
Adobe Help Viewer
Adobe Illustrator CS4
Adobe Media Encoder CS4
Adobe OnLocation CS4
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
Adobe Soundbooth CS4
Adobe Soundbooth Scores
Adobe Utilities
AdobePatchFiles

No mediacore.... :( I have to confess that I'm lost in translation! Do you think I can create the folder?

Thanks for your help.

Guillaume

Guillaume,

I have Windows Vista Ultimate 64

The path should be C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Common\Plug-ins\CS4\MediaCore

at least thats what it is on my comp.

I seem to be having some problems too. I thought I'd be able to open my projects which were probably created with Aspect HD and work on them, but I can't. Adobe says "A serious error has occured" and shuts down. Same with any ProspectHD projects I may have. So I was thinking I'd just start a new project and test the importer, but of course I can't create a Cineform-based project. I tried importing some of my Cineform files anyway, and they were only recognized as audio clips. I wasn't expecting RT or effects, but I was hoping to be able to resume work on projects I started in Aspect/Prospect before. I don't have Prospect installed, would it help if I did, and then replace the importer files?

Hopefully there's still a Prospect 4 Beta coming out soon, and that having this importer available won't be an excuse for delaying the beta release of Prospect 4.

Thanks all for the help... I created the MediaCore folder put the importer into it and opened PP (I also put the DLL into sysWOW64). The result is a crash of PP when I try to launch it (I don't even have the opportunity to see PP windows)!! If I remove or rename the CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm file from MediaCore then PP CS4 launch perfectly. Any ideas on what going on?

Guillaume

I'd be surprised if the folder wasn't there also. But, you can create it. The problem is that the correct Windows registry entries must also be present. For Premiere CS4 under Vista x64, it would be:

But if you're not familiar with editing the Windows registry, I wouldn't mess around with it, since you can do major damage to the whole OS by editing incorrectly. However, if that registry entry already exists, then you can just create the folder.

Just as an aside, if a media core plugin is designed to work with all Adobe suite programs, then it should go in the "Common" folder (ala the CFHD importer). If it is only designed to work with one or more individual programs in the suite, then it should be installed in the appropriate plugin folder for that program (e.g. Premiere).

lol. I copy back the prm file (in fact I renamed it back to prm) into the MediaCore and I launched Premiere. The good news is that it works!!!!!!! don't ask me why, how etc. I have no idea on what's going on here but it works. In summary I did:

1) created the MediaCore folder
2) copied the DLL into systWOW64
3) copied CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm into the fresh new MediaCore folder
4) started PP =>>>>> CRASH of Premiere
5) renamed CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm into CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm.old
6) launched PP >>> success
7) exit PP
8) go back to MediaCore and renamed the file back to CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm
9) launch PP =>>>>>> Success!
10) imported an CFHD AVI file (I had to reinstall Neo Scene 1.1.2 since my free trial was expired)
11) it works!!!

Thanks all for the support. I don't really understand how I finally end-up with something working but now I can really test CFHD intermediate format with some of my Canon 5D Mk II footages. Great news!!

Guillaume

The other challenge that Adobe makes to 3rd party software plugin vendors is that the Adobe Windows registry contains 22 (!) entries for each importer plugin, depending on what the plugin is capable of doing (can the importer also save, resize, etc.). Every time you delete and then add back the same plugin to the "Common" folder, those registry entries are recreated in the registry also. Maybe you just got lucky. Or maybe you were having a bit of bad luck initially.

i dont know if this is a temporary thing or just 'the way it is', but if i put a cineform file in premier cs4 track1, it plays fine with the importer, with the yellow line to indicate its ok.
but if i put a second cineform on track2, with no effects or transitions or anything, just a default track2, i get the ominous red line, and the second the CTI hits the track2 cineform file over the track1 one, it goes back to sluggishness (and again this is with track opacity at 100% and zero effects/transitions)
is this a problem that will go away with future work on the importer, or will doing a track2 always prohibit the almost realtime-playing (yellow line)
thanks,
gg,