Beta builds for PC tools

[David Newman]

The is early beta, not likely to be official for a couple of weeks. Mainly minor bug fixes, improve calibration and improved range of camera support (fixing some corner cases.) The readme has not yet been updated, but here are some of the changes.

* Enhanced: Codec bumped to v5.9 adding optional 4:4:4 to 4:2:2 transcodes upon encode.
* Enhanced: Codec calibrated for all pixel formats up to 5K (likely more supported.)
* Fixed: 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 upsampling for AVCHD sources.
* Fixed: Histograms, which were not accurate and different between RGB and YUV display modes.
* Fixed: vertical offset in the Framing Active Metadata was backward in RGB(A) 8bit mode to all other pixel formats, now fixed.
* Fixed: 444 encodes decoding to 16-bit YUV had a level shift.
* Fixed: First Light overriding camera ColorMatrices -- rare.
* Fixed: uninstall will now disables the systray tool.

I know there are more changes, just don't remember what:

Prospect3D http://tr.im/OYHW
Neo3D http://tr.im/OYJ4
Prospect4K http://tr.im/OYJC
Neo4K http://tr.im/OYJR
ProspectHD http://tr.im/OYKd
NeoHD http://tr.im/OYK0
NeoScene http://tr.im/OYOq

As always, yet us know what you find.

[David Newman]

Any feedback yet?

[Stephen Armour]

Originally Posted by David Newman

Any feedback yet?

This is maybe stupid feedback, but just for fun, I loaded this beta right over the top of the last release (without uninstalling the other) and it seemed to load just fine.

Is that a new change and valid install proceedure now? (Win7, ProspectHD, and CS3)

[David Newman]

It has been valid operation for years. :) The only time it is an issue if you are switching product lines, i.e. installed Neo HD, then install Prospect HD, then uninstall Neo HD -- what a mess that makes. Also if they are large changes within a product line, some obsolete components might remain (rarely to any harm.) So recommending uninstall by default is the cleanest, and I un-install every time as it is so fast to do.

[Stephen Armour]

Originally Posted by David Newman

It has been valid operation for years. :) The only time it is an issue if you are switching product lines, i.e. installed Neo HD, then install Prospect HD, then uninstall Neo HD -- what a mess that makes. Also if they are large changes within a product line, some obsolete components might remain (rarely to any harm.) So recommending uninstall by default is the cleanest, and I un-install every time as it is so fast to do.

Makes sense. When you have the update finalized, I'll go back to the regular way, as it is very fast...and clean. I faintly remember having some probs a few years ago with that.

So far no green gremlins, but in CS3 with Win7 and CFed material, the CF 32bit dissolve transitions with nothing under them are still coming in with red. No biggie to workaround, especially since we mostly use keyframes instead (for no-render language changes to titles).

Is that just a prob that won't go away with CS3? Don't see it with CS4.

[David Newman]

It is a Win 7 /CS3 odd play-engine bug, it is fine on Vista and XP, and fine in CS4. I use opacity key frames only, I don't think this one will be fixed, as our CS5 work in not impacted by this old bug.

[Graham Hickling]

Working fine here.

(Except AME insists on converting my 59.94 footage to 60.00 if I select Cineform as the output - weird!)

[James Park]

Just noticed a minor problem with First Light in the Prospect HD build (not sure about the others) not clearing the clip library when New Project is selected.

If I have a project opened in First Light with clips in the clip library, and I go to FILE ---> New Project (cntrl N) the clip library visibily clears out however the heading still shows in parenthesis the previous # of items. The previous files however, does not flush and its still there. If I were to save or add additional clips, those previous files show up in the library.

[David H. Wilson]

There may be a bug with StereoMux in FirstLight P3D. On opening FirstLight, the selection tools for right and left eye (2D/Left E and & Right Eye) are available. However, when I load the right and left eye files that I want to mux into FirstLight, the selection tools immediately go away.

When I manually load the files into 3D Muxer and render the files in the Queue it returns the error message: Sync frames must have an even offset for I-P type files.

This situation exists both in Windows 7 and Windows XP.

[David Newman]

David,

Not seeing that much problem here, although that was happening in the previous build. StereoMux.exe should be 126,976 bytes with a build date of 02/19/10

[David H. Wilson]

Seems it is the correct version of StereoMux (2/19/2010, 124KB).

On further investigation, some files sets function well but others exhibit this problem.

All of these files are stereo pairs made from express files - in other words two files (each 512X512) generated as an CF export from PP.

One possible difference is that the pairs that seem to be having difficulty were slightly (104%) enlarged and repositioned in PP before exporting - they are still 512X512 however. That is the only difference I can think of but it doesn't seem that should make a difference. EDIT: not the enlargement issue. I took the same shot back to 100% and the problem endures.

I'll test more.

[Sorin Pricop]

Interesting ...

Installed the ProspectHD the version downloaded from the link above (over the one installed) ... and the tray utility - shows the old version 4.2.0.237 and the HDLink 4.2.1.238.
Is this what is supposed to do?

No errors until this moment ... hopefully none will occur :)

[David Newman]

it should report new components when running the beta. If not close all video tools and reinstall.

[Stephen Armour]

Mine did the same until I rebooted. I just assumed it was because I installed over the top of the other....

[Alex Raskin]

Prospect4K 4.2.1 here:

- Premiere Pro 2.0 started losing video files from projects. Sometimes when I open the existing project, all or some of the video files show as "media missing" placeholders. Closing and re-opening the project usually restores media. This is super odd, never ever happened before.

- NLE Sync button does not seem to always work

- Dual-monitor system: moving FirstLight to the second monitor loses its video window

- Is it possible to introduce launching FirstLight from the Premiere's timeline (or at least in Premiere's project file list window) by right-clicking on a clip?

- Can we have sound in FirstLight, including scrubbing? (I have posted that elsewhere, adding here for consistency.)

- Version checker does not get uninstalled when you uninstall the P4K...

- Version checker: instead of referring to the web page's form, why not just refer to the download link directly? I mean, if the checker knows what the new version is, then it knows where the update file is located, right?

I'm digging FirstLight a lot now as first-step Color Correction / Look tool. Great job, Cineform - thank you!