Cineform Playback in Windows Media Player
 

When playing Cineform video in Windows Media Player (or most other players for that matter), the video seems to play out of order. The video I'm watching is captured from a Sony HVR-A1P camera, which as per the Sony HDV standard, shoots interlaced, upper-field first. In Windows Media Player, the playback is jittery and so I can only guess that the lower field is being displayed first, hence it's playing like so: Frame 2, Frame 1, Frame 4, Frame 3, Frame 6, Frame 5, etc. That's my guess anyway.

The only fix I've found for for this is setting the video renderer from Window 7's default EVR render, to the old Overlay rendering method. I can't find a way to set this in WMP, hence I have to use Media Player Classic - Home Cinema. I'm just wondering if this is a known and accepted issue, and if anyone had a more elegant solution which didn't require the use of the old Overlay video renderer.

By the way, this is a fresh Windows 7 x64 install I'm on, and I've experienced this same issue on multiple computers over many years. I've only now decided to inquire about it. Also note that computer power is not a problem. During playback, only 40% of my Q9450 is being utilized, and playback is completely smooth when using the overlay renderer.

We don't like the EVR, we present a frame (not fields) flagged correctly though, and it screws things up (certainly the same flags work fine for the older video renderers.) EVR playback is not a big concern, as it only impact interlaced footage (slowly dieing out) and we aren't a presentation/distribution format. This has no impact on finishing quality.

Ok good, at least you're aware of the issue and have a reason for not worrying too much about it.