Cineform Capture: HDLINK vs. PremPro
 

Is there any advantage to capturing via Cineform's HDLINK as opposed to capturing using Cineform via PremPro? It looks from what I'm reading that capturing via HDLINK makes a .m2t file and via PPro a .avi file? Can anyone tell me what this means:

"HDLink includes some features not supported within the Premiere Pro capture interface, such as capturing MPEG2-TS streams without converting them."

mmm HD link captured 3 files:

m2t
avi cineform intermediate. transcodificated direct from m2t small, medium or large.

Premiere pro only capture via firewire a m2t, but is indexadet y capturing in mpeg.

I capture via HDlink because its more reliable in capturing m2ts than those from inside an NLE.

No dropouts as compared to using capture from an NLE.

HDlink can also capture diff files everytime you press the record button. Easier for me to delete unwanted takes to save disc space.

I dont use cineform though. I convert them to HQ and edit in edius or leave them as M2ts.


Ted

Hey Ted

When you say you convert them to HQ and edit in edius or leave them as M2ts - can you tell me what conversion settings you're using?

I can capture Cineform through PremPro, but HDLINK stalls on me. HDLINK can control the camera, but as soon as I press capture it goes to "not responding."

I would imagine that it's best to have the raw .m2t files straight from HDLINK that way you can convert them in whatever way you find works best.

That's an option in the HDlink software to capture the raw M2T files only, or to converted them into AVI aswell. You can always convert them to AVI afterwards. But it is quicker to do it in one process.

For your "not responding." problem. Can you try to press 'Play' on the camera, and then start capturing in the HDlink software?

Jason,

Thats right. I only capture the m2t thru HDlink. I dont do the convertion during capture because apparently for some systems, the process chokes the pipeline producing errors and dropouts.
HDlink captures the m2t AS IS. meaning wether if its 24P or 30P or 60P cineform captures them as they are.

Once in edius i place them all in my bin for scene scanning. Those i like i batch convert in the edius bin to HQ. Edius converts them to HQ without asking you for settings. Its automatic.

If i use procoder to batch convert them, thats when you can specify settings. But i find converting them from inside edius convenient because its straightforward. If its 30P it stays as 30P etc.

For not responding, sometimes i close HDlink and open it again. Or I switch from VTR to CAM mode and back.

Ted

Thanks guys. Yes the Cineform .avis captured through PremPro look good, but yes I want to reCapture using just HDLINK to get those .m2t files. I think it's just a good rule to always have the highest quality files for backup.

Sorry - just to clarify - the .mpegs that PremPro CS3 captures are .m2ts with a .mpeg wrapper? It's interesting the file size difference between the Cineform (medium) .avis and CS3 .mpegs.

From same tape:

10min Cineform/Medium setting (.avi) - 720p24fps = 3.7gig (jeez AE and PPro don't have any problem loading Cineform stuff)

19min PPro CS3 (.mpeg) - 720p24fps = 3.2gig (PPro takes a while to handle these files when first loading a project - which is weird cause the file size is less... must be the compression algorithm)