Cineform Neo HDV and Vegas8
 

David....

I am hoping you can shed some insight on Cineform's NEO HDV future, considering that Vegas 8 will be introducing 32 bit floating point processing for it's rendering engine. Given that the current version of Neo HDV is 8-bit, will Cineform be upgrading Neo HDV, or will you be recommending that Vegas users upgrade to a higher bit level of the Cineform codec.

In short, will Neo HDV be adequate for Vegas 8, to provide the highest image quality available? Clearly, with 8 bit A-D coming out of HDV cameras, perhaps it's guilding the lily to move to 10 bit Neo HD. Nevertheless, analog capture via the component out ports provides a 12 bit D-A stream(at least from the HD110). I beleive HDLink will, currently, capture at 10-bit.

NEO HDV is an 8-bit product for all inputs and outputs. I can't say what we are doing to support a new 32-bit float Vegas, but enhanced features would likely be in NEO HD/2K. It isn't "guilding the lily" to use deep workflows for 8-bit uses -- remember the classic HDCAM is 8-bit yet post of that footage is typically deeper than 8. While NEO HD for capture from an 8-bit source doesn't change much, although it does add 10-bit analog HDSDI capture, the big advantage would be on exports from a deeper color space, preserving more information.

Thanx for your reply. Appreciated as always.

Since 10bit int/ 32bit float post workflows will now be opening up to a whole new audience, are you considering an intermediate version of NEO HDV/HD for those capturing 8bit 1440x1080 but wanting to take advantage of >8bit 1440x1080 intermediate files? My perspective is that to those with a 10bit square pixel 1080 ingest capability, the NEO HD package may be economical, but there will now be a large userbase of 8bit 1440h ingesting vegas users with a high bit depth post workflow at their fingertips. I understand that AE has always existed, but most projects never leave the NLE, so it is significant.

Any chance something like Prospect 2K becomes available for Vegas 8?

I'd love for HDMI capturing directly to NEOHD in Vegas, no RAID required if you use NEOHD. It is essential for a green screener without a RAID.

Do you have any idea if reading the proper timecode from a cineform avi (from a HVX200 MXF) into Vegas8 is now working? This has been one of the issues keeping me from getting it.

Yeah, more support for Vegas is always appreciated.

Thanks

Jack...

I had thoughts very much the same as yours. However, for me to have access to a PC(laptop or workstation) to injest component analog from my HD110, would be very impractical.

Having said that, I think about something like a firestore FS4HD that takes input from the 12bit engine, component outs, feeds a portable hard drive and processor that encodes with NeoHD to a 4:2:2, 10 bit intermediate file.

David, is this even possible?