Cineform and CS5 Encode Issues

[Brett Munoz]

Originally Posted by Gregor Schober

Looks like i have a similar problem here ;-(

Encoding just hangs up at certain points, Premiere CPU & Disk IO goes to zero.
Deleting "CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm" did not help.

Just happens with Cineform Preset Timelines and Cineform Export.
CS5 presets with m2t clips and export to other codecs is working without any problems at all.

Looks like this happens more often with GPU-acceleration enabled, software-only works now and then.
I can reproduce the hangup every time with 3 layers of video with
- no effect at layer1
- gradient wipe at layer2
- additive dissolve at layer 3
- CPU acceleration enabled

I filled in a trouble ticket ...

Has your issue been resolved? If so, what did you do?

[Stephen Armour]

Originally Posted by Brett Munoz

Via process of elimination, I have come to the conlusion that crossfades are causing my exports to fail but I can't figure out why?

Brett, have you tried using keyframes with opacity settings instead of the Cineform dissolve?

In the past with earlier CS versions, it's been a workaround for us (with similar problems). So much so, I still rarely use anything else for cross dissolves. Certainly not faster, but more stable. If it does crash when rendering with just keyframes on opacity, something certainly is very wrong.

Also in some earlier versions with 32bit OS's, memory conflicts between PP and Cineform sometimes was the culprit in renders. How's your's? (computer's...I mean). Plenty of RAM free?

[Brett Munoz]

Originally Posted by Gregor Schober

Looks like i have a similar problem here ;-(

Encoding just hangs up at certain points, Premiere CPU & Disk IO goes to zero.
Deleting "CFHD_AVI_Importer.prm" did not help.

Just happens with Cineform Preset Timelines and Cineform Export.
CS5 presets with m2t clips and export to other codecs is working without any problems at all.

Looks like this happens more often with GPU-acceleration enabled, software-only works now and then.
I can reproduce the hangup every time with 3 layers of video with
- no effect at layer1
- gradient wipe at layer2
- additive dissolve at layer 3
- CPU acceleration enabled

I filled in a trouble ticket ...

Originally Posted by Stephen Armour

Brett, have you tried using keyframes with opacity settings instead of the Cineform dissolve?

In the past with earlier CS versions, it's been a workaround for us (with similar problems). So much so, I still rarely use anything else for cross dissolves. Certainly not faster, but more stable. If it does crash when rendering with just keyframes on opacity, something certainly is very wrong.

Also in some earlier versions with 32bit OS's, memory conflicts between PP and Cineform sometimes was the culprit in renders. How's your's? (computer's...I mean). Plenty of RAM free?

i7 960, 12 gb ram, 285gtx 2gb, win 7 64bit. Certainly not going to do fades via keyframes on fifty clips. I really want a feasible solution. I am going to tray capturing m2t files from the xh-a1 and use native 5d files. I have a feeling that will work.

[Stephen Armour]

Originally Posted by Brett Munoz

i7 960, 12 gb ram, 285gtx 2gb, win 7 64bit. Certainly not going to do fades via keyframes on fifty clips. I really want a feasible solution. I am going to tray capturing m2t files from the xh-a1 and use native 5d files. I have a feeling that will work.

Like I said, "workaround".

If you're time critical with those 50 clips, and you don't find your "solution", it could be worth a try.

Workarounds are just that: skin-savers

[Sorin Pricop]

I had similar problems - But with CS4 - export usually crashed around xx% everytime.
What i've came up with was 3 solutions:
1. exporting to tape - usually worked (reimport and then compress to final)
2. Cutting out few seconds around that export failure point - most of the time worked.
3. ReCapturing the entire Tape in cause. This worked every time.

I know is way of a workaround - but it works and saves time really!

[Brett Munoz]

I had similar issues with CS4. I am so tired of this. Feeling very frustrated.

[Paul Curtis]

Brett,

I feel your pain. As a workaround you could reencode all your source in one go via media encoder and relink it to your existing project. That might take some time to reencode but you could do that over night and not waste your time?

The fact that the cross dissolves works without cineform files means there's something up somewhere.

When i had exporting problems with cineform in CS3 it was due to some corrupt files and a memory issue within cineform. So not really a cineform problem.

cheers
paul

[Brett Munoz]

Originally Posted by Paul Curtis

Brett,

I feel your pain. As a workaround you could reencode all your source in one go via media encoder and relink it to your existing project. That might take some time to reencode but you could do that over night and not waste your time?

The fact that the cross dissolves works without cineform files means there's something up somewhere.

When i had exporting problems with cineform in CS3 it was due to some corrupt files and a memory issue within cineform. So not really a cineform problem.

cheers
paul

Well I was able to export as a Cineform MOV and AVI but no other export setting works for me. It crashes regardless if Magic Bullet is on the timeline. Once I am home I will see if I can re-encode (which I hate) as blu-ray h.264 or mpeg.

[Patrick Zaw]

CineForm released a new update today ... so far it looks like its fixed my problem. Crossfades are working but i've yet to crossfades + MBL.

Cineform Tech Blog Blog Archive Neo Scene Windows Update Log

[Paul Curtis]

Yes, 5.0.4 seems a lot better. I was MBLing a lot yesterday with it and so far no crashes although i also updated my nvidia drivers to the new ones which may have helped too.

I can still get my test case to crash though with a dissolve, not crash as such but freeze playback and then become very unresponsive on the timeline forcing a restart.

Certainly it's a big step in the right direction...

cheers
paul