Video cards for Cineform/HDV?
 

From a discussion in another thread...

"...the quick answer is no CPU impact, GPU does all the work to scale 1440 to 1920 (whether you are on the Mac or PC.) So this is no system performance hit or requirements change. " - David Newman

David: what video cards do you recommend now for component 1080i output from editing products using Cineform? Seems like the ones we've discussed in the past were rather pricey; anything a little more affordable yet?

Price will come down but the NVidia and Matrox cards with component out are still the best choice.

David: I just checked Pricewatch and found video cards based on the geForce 6600 starting at around $120 (e.g. see below)-- will this work for previewing to an HDTV at full resolution, and if so do you need an adapter or special cable to get component connections?

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merch...ct_Code=190185

I heard that the video previews on the PNY 540 Quadro setup a NAB were not so good (looked like vhs quality). How should the PNY board be setup to view cineform for color correction level work?

PNY did have a prerelease of Aspect HD that could playback full HD quality out to their card, but unfortunately the PNY NAB setup most run Aspect HD in the preview mode as more channels of video effects was preferred for NAB purposes over full HD output during playback (HD/2 mode is much better than VHS, but it is still a preview.) However, if you turn the "deinterlace scrubbing" option off you get full res out of HD cards even in the current Aspect HD release -- prefect for color correction purposes.

Turning off the preview mode in playback is an upcoming feature for Aspect HD (probably the version after next week's Aspect HD 3.1.) We decided to roll out all the new features in a couple of steps as we are still awaiting for some driver upgrades from third parties for full HD-SDI output as well as analog component.

Hi Kevin, I have one of the geForce 6600 cards:

"LEADTEK WinFast PX6600 GT TDH 128MB 6600GT Graphics Card *PCIE X 16 Graphics *DVI *TV Out *HDTV Out *nView
Multi-DisplayTechnology *8 Pixel Pipeline *128bit Memory Interface *SLI Support *CineFX 3.0"

Despite all the nice sounding specs I have not yet managed to get it to preview either TV or HDTV from Premiere. What it will do is play a DVD straight out the back (using the VIVO connector) but so far I have not managed anything more sophisticated and I am not sure that it can do it.

David, I've asked you this in about three threads now and no answer (not a complaint, I really appreciate the great support you and Cineform provide) - should Premiere be able to provide HDTV previews (ie from the Premiere monitor window) from cards such as these?

Andrew

Yes and no as my last post indicates. Aspect HD is getting another upgrade or two in the next weeks which will have an impact on this (which it hard to speak about features that are not yet released.) Scrubbing is full-res out to these cards today.

Just to be clear - my issue is not (yet) one of 'quality' of preview. Using the nine-pin VIVO TV / HDTV socket on the back of my card I get no TV image at all from Premiere ever (either scrubbing or overlay / video). If I use the DVI connector to a LCD monitor (or CRT with an adaptor) that works fine from Premiere - it functions as a second display screen which Premiere sends the monitor window output to. But while the TV connector on these cards can be used to display DVD output if setup right it does not AFAIK work from within Premiere.

Andrew

In Premiere 1.5.1 you need to turn overlay support on (within the playback setting window.) In that mode it works just like the DVD software using the TV out. In Aspect HD the playback setting window has similar control for scrubbing yet normal playback always goes to the overlay, so it is just a matter of setting up the video card. Basically if you can get MediaPlayer to output through the TV out, Aspect HD will do the same.

Just saw the pny 540 card in action again at an adobe hdv seminar in SF and it looked very good, good enough for color correction as far as I can tell.

It was using the cineform aspect software and FX1 hdv footage.

Check out the Matrox APVe
 

Don't mean to keep hammering on this card but I read all the specs and tried a few of the other cards, then bought an ATI, then bought the APVe and its the only one that works with two monitors and 1 hd out. Looks great, the other two LCDs have to be analog connected with HD out. If you just want SD the you can use the DVI on the other two or one DVI and HD out. It's a little more but it definately pays off.

Does the APVe have open-GL support?

Yep
 

Yeah its got OpenGL and DirectX full support. It seems to runs everything as fast as the ATI I had before but I haven't done any test as far as actual number to compare.

Cool. I never considered the matrox card due to poor performance in Lightwave and AE. Maybe things have changed and matrox is back in the game... I have some more reading to do. Thanks.

Pete

Don't know how fast you are looking for?
 

I am not sure if it will keep up with some of the serious workstation cards out there but for doing HDV on PPro I have no complaints as of yet.