HDV sourced material won't look worse, I grant you. But material from higher-end less compressed sources definitely will. CineForm is far more than an HDV intermediate codec these days.

Fair enough - "HDV" caught my eye in the original post but on re-reading it I see he may be using better sources.

I do motion graphic work for Tradeshows all the time. Most of my content is digitally created, meaning it is hi res HD non compressed or CF compressed all the way to the export stage. I then export an HD mpg (usually 720P) and play it from the LinkTheatre from buffalo off of a thumbdrive. I would be very hard pressed to tell the difference in the final viewing from the mpg or the cineform file.

Mpg can look quite good at hi bit rates. I don't recommend editing in it, but as a delivery medium it can be very robust. No macroblocks or noise or anything. It really looks drop dead, Discovery HD WOW clean. IMHO.

Is cineform superior? No doubt. But delivering an mpg is far more compatible with a number of systems, especially when I am not "at" the show to make sure it is all setup the way they "said" it would be.

Peace!

I echo the same sentiments. You have no idea how many calls I get about laptop issues and playback on external monitors. The avel linkplayer is not foreign to most folks as it looks, hooksup, and behaves much like a DVD deck.

Cineform ensures that my edits are clean up to the final render, even if it's back to mpeg transport for playback. The advantage of smaller sized files to fit on the optical disk, and just as clean as the captured material.