Thanks Jim, what I meant by jitter was the framerate when there is semi quick movement.

Thanks
Mike

AspectHD 3.4?
 

I can't seem to find AspectHD 3.4 on the Cineform site. I understand you are promoting AspectHD 4.0 now but we don't see a benefit to upgrading at this point in time, and think it is unusual that you would no longer provide a link to v3.4 for those who have already paid for it. Can you post a link for all us owners of versions 2+.
Thanks
Ken Hodson
Rain Shadow Productions

Go to the support link on cineform.com then click on "Knowledge Base" then "downloads" to get Aspect HD 3.4.

The link is on the Aspect HD product page in the upgrade notes, but it's easy to miss.... The following link has a few less steps than going through our support site. http://www.cineform.com/products/UpgradeAHDStart.htm

Thanks very much guys. I searched and searched, to no avail. Everything kept turning up v4.02. Glad it is still up. I've been meaning to upgrade for a while. Good to know I still can.

Aspect HD3.4 and PNY540 Graphics card - problem persists!
 

I built a new system about 9 months ago, and bought the Nvidia PNY 540 video card bundled with Aspect HD from Videoguys. I note that Videoguys still sell this bundle. After installing everything I noticed that when using PP1.51 with AspectHD there was a 4 second loss of video overlay every time I played back or stopped playback from a HD timeline. I reported this to Cineform, Videoguys and Nvidia. Everybody promised to look into it. Thereafter everybody tried to avoid taking responsibility for the glitch.

Cineform claimed it was the Nvidia card which was not switching resolutions quickly enough between preview and playback quality. Oddly, if I edit using the built-in Cineform HDV presets in PP1.51 playback is perfect - no jump at all. I thus suspect that it is the Cineform software which is at fault. Videoguys nevertheless continue to bundle the two incompatible products, knowing that this problem exists. To date Cineform has not been able to offer me a solution.

My editors scream at me on a daily basis over this, and I'm now seriously considering dumping the system for a Canopus NX or Final Cut Pro option. All in all I'm VERY disappointed with the way this has been handled by all of the suppliers involved.

Derek,

We know exactly what it is up, as a result we do favor the Matrox Parhelia AVPe card, and other cards coming to the market may also do better. The problem is a combination of factors, no one is particularly to blame, although it might be nice if dealers bundle a preferred card. The FX540 card's overlay is setup in a way that is inefficient for use by the playback accelerator within Aspect HD to use; it is awkward to work-around. If you have no acceleration there isn't a problem (a.k.a. the stock mode in PPro 1.5.1.) Many HD content creaters are moving up to Prospect HD Edit which supports the AJA Xena HS/LH/LHe cards, these are cards designed for one purpose, pro video, as a result there are no overlay issues, scrub to playback is seamless (these card don't have "overlay" which it really a mechanism for general purpose cards to show video.) So addressing the fault of the FX540 has to be balanced with everything else, this is an annoying issue, impacting a small number of users, but ultimately it doesn't not effect the final output quality, so as result this has not being prioritized above camera support and any bug that impacts quality. NVidia has informed us that we can't completely eliminate the flash with FX540 without disabling our acceleration, or without a driver change for the graphics card, which CineForm is simply not big enough to make happen at NVidia. We believe the start time can be reduced, so the bug remains in our database, but I can't promise that will be investigated anytime soon. I'm sorry this isn't a nicer solution, and I know you have otherwise been a strong supporter of Aspect HD. If you do look beyond Aspect HD, do at least consider a Prospect HD Edit with an LH card, see if we can find solution that works for you.

Hi David. Does the Matrox Parhelia also have a jump? If not I'll just dump the PNY540. However, if playback is not seamless with Matrox, I need to know. As you say, I do support Aspect HD, so this bug is annoying as it also makes it difficult to promote AspectHD here in South Africa, where I often run HDV Masterclasses and workshops for filmmakers from all over Africa. Once they see the jump on playback using AspectHD many roll their eyes, as you can imagine. I'm pushing AspectHD here as it's an inexpensive option for a continent where independent filmmakers work on very small budgets. I fear that Prospect HD will be too expensive, as will the AJA Xena cards. I ran a Masterclass for about 50 filmmakers in November and we had FCP systems, Edius NX, Sony Vegas and Premiere Pro with AspectHD. More than half the participants clustered around my system, as its affordable and familiar. In South Africa FCP and Apple are very expensive, with limited support. Vegas and Canopus are not well known. Adobe Premiere is what poor filmmakers tend to use.

I really do think that Videoguys should stop bundling the PNY540 with AspectHD though if this is a known issue.

There are still a few frames of black is the playback launch of the Parahelia, but it is far-far less annoying than the 540. The 540 tries to display the desktop, which you can't normally see, as it throws the monitor out of sync. The Parahelia doesn't do this, so it playback start is much cleaner.

Users of the Parahelia please add you comments.

Aspect HD V. 4.03
 

Looks like the latest version of Aspect is available on the Cineform site. My understanding is that this version allows export to m2t in PPro 2.0.

Yes and no. They was a bug that prevent some exports even using the 1.5.1 encoder tools. We are working on the licensing issue to allow M2T encoding to all the rate frames, within PPro 2.0 without having 1.5.1 installed.

David
So, where does that leave us re m2t?
Will v. 4.03 export Sony HDV sourced CFHD 1080i drop frame to m2t on PPro 2.0, or do we still need PPro 1.51??

You can use PPro 2.0 but the 1.5.1 needs to remain installed. We are clearing up the licensing so that we can support M2T without 1.5.1 installed.

Aspect hd and Sony FX1 footage???
 

I'm just starting with hd, and have a couple of questions:

We work in PPro 2.0, and just downloaded the trial version of aspect hd (but haven't used it yet). I've ben shooting with a Canon xl2, but recently bought a Sony FX1.
Can I get a 24p look with footage shot in 60i on the FX1,by converting it with Aspect hd? I read on one of the fx1 threads that this works well. If so, how do I accomplish this?
Does it matter if I use a 24 or 29.97 timeline in PPro? Ideally, I'd like to use xl2 24p footage in the same project timeline with the FX1 footage (shot in hdv) but in an sd timeline.
We've already successfully combined FX1 hdv footage(60) with XL2 footage (60) in an sd project timeline. But we'd like to do it with that 24 look.
Bruce S. Yarock
P.S.-David Newman- I also sent this question to Cineform, but then I realized that you're moderating this forum. Sorry about the double post.

Aspect HD handles all the native 24p/f/cf modes of all the HDV cameras, yet it doesn't convert 60i to 24p; for that opteration you should consider DVFilm for Magic Bullet. Once 60i in converted to 24p, you then use Aspect HD with a 24p timeline. You can use CineForm 24p AVIs in an SD timeline if you wish.

Thanks, david.
Is dv film part of magic bullett?
Bruce Yarock

Separate products from different vendors.

Aspect HD Pan, Zoom Rotate
 

Using PPro 2 with Cineform HDV 1080i proejct. Aspect HD PZR dropped onto a small clip stutters on playback at about a 1Hz rate. The clip will play for a second and stutter, play for another second and stutter. Force Render cleans it up, but is it necessary to use FR to get real-time playback?

Best,
Christopher

On a slower PC yes. PZR uses more CPU than a color corrector or a transition.

I have a dual core dual processor AMD Opteron with 4 GB memory, nVidia 4500 graphics, 10,000 rpm drive for the OS, and four drive SATA RAID 0 for video. This Boxx built system is a screamer. Is it too slow to run PZR in real time without rendering?

Best,
Christopher

Well yes that is very odd then, as my 2.8 GHz single core P4 plays the PZR fine with CPU to spare. This is a good example why posting a support issue to a forum is not as good as using the CineForm trouble ticket system, as I would not have suggested a dual Opteron was slow. Please file a trouble ticket as I don't know why your system isn't playing everything smoothly.

Thanks, will do.

Best,
Christopher

DVFilm Maker is available at http://dvfilm.com/maker

Aspect HD not fully converting MXF to AVI?
 

Shot some test footage with HVX in DVCPRO50 at 1080i/24P. Working with the vendor who sold me my new computer, we've recorded to P2, started Hd Link, Converted clip from mxf to avi. Started Premiere Pro, imported the converted avi files, dragged a clip to timeline.

At that point, we expected the files to not require rendering. However, Premiere Pro shows the "red line" above the clip in the timeline indicating that the clip requires rendering. In Prefs, we checked the box to activate "Remove 3:2 pulldown". Not sure what else we need to do. Or are our expectations wrong? Is there something that would prevent Aspect HD from totally converting the clip? So far, I've been following vendors's lead without consulting User Manual. I'll be doing that while hoping for suggestions here.

thanks.

It could be red for several reason, but the most likely is you didn't select the correct Aspect HD preset. For 720p24 make sure you select the CineForm Aspect HD 1280x720 p24 preset, for footage 1080p24 use 1440x1080. Clips will be real-time if their vertical resolution an aspect raio match the current timeline. Now you mention using DVCPRO50 at 1080i/24P, sorry that doesn't sense, did you mean DVCPRO-HD (not 50?) Are you thinking of upressing SD DVCPRO50 to 1080p?

Note: Any pulldown should be removed by HDLink not Premiere.

Up-ressing was not my intention; I very recently got the computer and am learning Aspect. I have never used it and am eager to learn.

When I recorded the clip, the HVX "Recording Setup" menu had these values:

REC FORMAT = 1080i/24P

480i REC MODE = DVCPRO50 (Defaulted by menu, in blue, & can't be changed unless I change REC FORMAT)

REC FUNCTION = NORMAL

Am returning to owner manual to re-study camera menu. Obviously I need to learn more.

Aspect HD 4.2.1 and Connect HD 3.2 are now available
 

Lots of updates over at www.cineform.com

Any status on Prospect HD update?

Dave

Dave, we're finishing up certification with Adobe on Prospect HD, so we were going to delay a general Prospect HD update for customers until cert is completed (probably next couple weeks). If the new HDLink features are what triggered your question, then get hold of us privately and we can help you out....

David.

Aspect HD output overlay issue
 

Hello,

I am using AspectHD, with a Quadro 3450 and a Dell 2405 and Dell 2407. When scrubbing, the Dell 2407 outputs at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio. Though when I play the footage, it plays back at something like 8:3.

When i click off disable preview overlay, it plays at the correct aspect ratio.

Why is my video playing back at the wrong aspect ratio when not in preview mode?

thanks!

Jon

Good question, one for the support team as I have not seen that. Try updating your NVidia drivers, if that doesn't correct it, file a trouble ticket with cineform.com/support.

ATI cards and overlay in premiere with aspect HD
 

I posted a ticket for this with Cineform but I thought I'd see if any of you have this issue or not.

Using Premiere Pro 1.5.1 and 2.0 along with latest Aspect HD and latest ATI drivers for Radeon X1950. I have the HD component out of the Radeon hooked to a HDTV and it is setup to display overlay onto the HDTV. This works in all apps and in media player. Click a movie...it plays full screen to the HDTV. Beauty.

However in both version of Premiere when I enable overlay support in Cineform playback settings, I cannot get timeline scrubbing to work on HDTV. If I hit spacebar it streams to the HDTV beautifully. However when I stop it the HDTV goes black. No amount of scrubbing or opening effects ever gets output to HDTV. When I press spacebar, presto, it starts working again.

Anyone using an similar setup? I tried this 3 weeks ago and it was working. Now, not working. I rebuilt my PC from scratch and changed no hardware. Just a clean install. The only difference I can think of is I upgraded to the November build of Aspect. 3 weeks ago I was still using the previous build. I don't know if that could cause it.

To give a little more insight, when switching from scrubbing to previewing inside premiere on a normal working build, you can tell the output is switching modes....meaning when scrubbing it is showing a higher res version to the overlay. When you press spacebar, the screen flickers and the overlay switches to a different playback mode. When you go to scrub again, the screen flcikers and goes back to scrubbing mode. This is normal and I have seen this on many machines.

However on mine, scrubbing seems to work when I first open Premiere. But once I hit spacebar and it switches to preview, it seems to never go back to scrubbing mode. I just get a blank screen. And this does not bode well for color correcting or applying subtle effects that require viewing on the actual HDTV for accuracy.

Hope someone has some insight.

Thanks All!

I will inform you if I get this resolved with Cineform. In the meantime let me know if you have any ideas.

Marty

Aspect HD - Export to M2T Issue
 

Anyone using Aspect HD to Export to m2t file have a failure come up after you press save telling you "Unable to Create M2T file"?

I have been attempting to use this method to create and M2T for export to tape via HDLINK and each time I press save I get this response and I'm back to square one.

I tried to google this and checked all the support FAQ's on Cineform.com and can't come up with a good reason.

Anyone?
Miguel


UPDATE: Never mind, found the answer, didn't realize that I needed 1.51 on the system, once I installed the old Premier Pro it worked.

Aspect Convert m2v???
 

I need to edit a video file that is only available as 480 60i .m2v type mpeg. Can Cineform Aspect convert this file to cineform .avi for edit in PPro???
What would happen if i renamed the file to .m2t and tried Cineform conversion? Would it convert to 480i 4:2:2 .avi? The video and color quality are only just acceptable as is, so I am trying to avoid degrading the color any further by color resampling that accompanies multiple conversions between DV and mpeg.
I am also trying to avoid reinventing the wheel.
Would appreciate any help.

Yes the HDLink tool within Aspect HD can do that conversion very easily. No need to rename it to *.M2T (although that will work), in the file select within HDLink just set the "Files of type:" to *.*, select the *.M2V files and conversion will process as it would with other file types.

Thank you David. I tried renaming to m2t, etc., but HD link wouldn't buy it.
I'll follow your procedure. It's good to know that Aspect can do this.

Aspect on 2 Workstations???
 

Can Aspect be activated on more than one system? I tried entering my activation code on my second editing workstation, but it was rejected as "invalid". I would hate to have to purchase a full price version just to have the convience.
Thanks

You can put it on your desktop and your laptop, but I don't think you can put it on two desktops. If you need to put it on your laptop, just put a ticket into CineForm and they will help you out. Check with them for dual desktops, but I doubt it.

Mike

Each activation code is hardware locked, so that is why your activation key doesn't work on the second system, yet we do look in the other direction for a getting a second activation (i.e. it works on two systems), yet the official policy is one license per installation.

You da man David!