Mac and Cineform capture question

[Shaun Roemich]

I am considering Cineform as my codec/solution of choice for work in HD sourced from my JVC GY-HD200UB HDV camcorder (in 720P60). Today, I am working on an iMac but will own a Mac Pro by the end of post on the project I'm working on currently.

After perusing the Cineform site, I am still unsure on a couple of points:
-Can I capture DIRECTLY to Cineform? Or do I need to transcode from HDV native or ProRes?
-Can I capture via FireWire at this point or do I need a dedicated capture card (like the AJA IO HD or a Decklink solution)?
-Does Cineform behave like a QuickTime codec implementation (ie. Everything render related happens within the FCP and not an external solution)?
-Can I use my white iMac 2.16GHz Intel CoreDuo (see FireWire capture question above) to capture to external Hard Drive and begin editing or shall I wait until I have the desktop Mac?
-Do I end up with clips with camera accurate timecode?

Thanks in advance!

[David Taylor]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

-Can I capture DIRECTLY to Cineform? Or do I need to transcode from HDV native or ProRes?

Today you need Windows (or Mac running Bootcamp) to do the conversion of HDV to CineForm files because we haven't finished porting our HD Link conversion software to Mac. It will happen later this year. But you can convert on Windows to CineForm MOV files and then directly import those files into FCP.

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

-Can I capture via FireWire at this point or do I need a dedicated capture card (like the AJA IO HD or a Decklink solution)?

On Windows you can capture through Firewire.

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

-Does Cineform behave like a QuickTime codec implementation (ie. Everything render related happens within the FCP and not an external solution)?

CineForm does behave as a QuickTime codec. All rendering happens properly in FCP including at deep precision because we use the FCP floating-point mode for renders.

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

-Can I use my white iMac 2.16GHz Intel CoreDuo (see FireWire capture question above) to capture to external Hard Drive and begin editing or shall I wait until I have the desktop Mac?

You can use your iMac, although you'll get better performance on a desktop machine. On a related topic we'll have a new Mac codec release in the coming few weeks with much improved performance based on a new threading architecture for Mac.

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

-Do I end up with clips with camera accurate timecode?

No timecode is retained when using HD Link to convert HDV clips.

[Shaun Roemich]

THANK YOU David. I've been cruising through the Cineform site and couldn't seem to figure out how the workflow was supposed to, um... work.

I'll wait out the full Mac solution but this sure looks IMPRESSIVE!