NEO4K Support on MAC CS5 for Nano MXF/Sony XDCAM

[Robert Moore]

I have been following the threads since summer 2010 waiting to see support for CF and CS5 on MAC. After a couple of months away I have been unable to find an update in a recent search to this topic. Forgive my question if this has been dealt with in detail.

Does Cineform4K have support in PP CS5 on OS X?

Can I convert MXF 100MB files from the Convergent Design Nano / SDI - EX1R to CF 4:4:2 12bit or 4:4:4 12 bit with a resulting more robust file for grading? Is this possible with HD Link or must I output from Adobe to CF to do this?

I have avoided the trial version as I doubt that I will be able to work through issues in 15 days and thus have awaited upgrades which may have arrived in October?

I shoot landscapes and portraits in still MF 39MP back and desire the closest file to RAW that is still doable on a non-commercial platform hence the desire for 4:4:2/4 12 bit files.

Thanks,

Bob Moore

[Brian Parker]

I've been waiting since the summer of 2008, when I was still on CS3 :)

"Does Cineform4K have support in PP CS5 on OS X?"
The importer is done, so you can edit in PPro, but not export at greater than 8 bit. There is no exporter for After Effects either yet.

"Can I convert MXF 100MB files from the Convergent Design Nano / SDI - EX1R to CF 4:4:2 12bit or 4:4:4 12 bit with a resulting more robust file for grading? Is this possible with HD Link or must I output from Adobe to CF to do this?"
I thought that CF 4:4:2/4 resulted in 10bit files but I may be wrong. On the mac, the app is called Remaster (not hdlink) and I believe that it is generally encouraged to use this rather than exporting from Adobe apps when possible, even on windows, since it is better at recognising camera source and has more options in it.

"I shoot landscapes and portraits in still MF 39MP back and desire the closest file to RAW that is still doable on a non-commercial platform hence the desire for 4:4:2/4 12 bit files."
I have been editing using mpeg2 files as proxies for the last 2 years, since most of my projects at home are just personal projects. For something more critical, the best bet at the moment is to edit the files natively (create a XDCAM sequence and tick the "Maximum Bit Depth" option in the sequence settings.) and convert to dpx files when sending sequences between PPro and AE.

If you own CS5 then I would always edit the files natively if I were you, even if Cineform ever do finish off the mac work. CF is really only useful if you want to do color work on the files in their First Light app, as an intermediate format when sending between AE and PPo, and as an archival format.

That is not a criticism of Cineform. As a middle man between AE and PPro cineform would be great because the files are so much smaller than dpx. And the same reason applies to using it as an archival format too. I have left all my projects unarchived on my computer for the last 2 years with the intention to one day be able to archive to cineform.

[Robert Moore]

CF does look like a great archival format...I guess I will continue as you suggest.

Thanks for the input.

Bob Moore