NeoHD/4K/3D v5.0 public betas now available
 

This is build 255, several updates and fixes beyond the previous Neo3D beta release. These are the builds of everyone else, adding NeoHD and Neo4K releases. CS3 and CS4 functionality is back (old PHD features), as well as a tweak or two for CS5 (and many new presets.) NeoScene v5.0 will be available Monday or Tuesday v5.0, as we still need to add presets for it.

NeoHD: http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Ne...255-100507.zip
Neo4K: http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Ne...255-100507.zip
Neo3D: http://www.cineform.com/downloads/Ne...255-100507.zip

Here are some of the reasons you want v5.0.

* FirstLight is even cooler than before. Now with control point image re-framing, control point color correction and white balance, and 3D/Stereoscopic content manipulation for all NeoXX level products. All in real-time on common desktop PCs, no custom graphics card or special hardware required.
* Codec 6.2.x supporting all the new Active Metadata features and faster at the same time.
* Many tools enhanced and quality tweaks for particular camera sources.
* Premiere Pro CS5 support
* and the many features we can't help to add to the 5.x series -- we never stop at x.0.

The public beta will be short as we already working on 5.1, but all feedback is welcome.

Let me be the 1st to say I'm downloadind this!

Any problems if you have CS4 and CS5 installed on the same PC?

Are you meant to get a red bar when you drop a CFHD onto a blank timeline?

The video plays fine but CS5 wants to render it?

I picked the 1080i preset

CineForm HDV
1440x1080 interlaced
25.00 fps

Thanks for the update Dave. This is great, installed Neo4K beta. I can now access all my old CS3 projects again with all real time effects and transitions intact (formerly on Prospect HD). So now I got all three CS suites co-existing and running just fine. HDLink capture via Blackmagic Intensity is working great also. At some point will capture be integrated back into Premiere capture? Not that this is really important since HDLink is fine. All I can ask for is if it would be possible to scale the video preview window when using the capture card since I use mainly captured sources and monitor everything on screen.

I also recall reading an earlier thread here about HDLink going away all together and being replaced with something new thats similar to whats being used on a MAC already.

Anyhow look forward to next set of tweaks and the final release build when it becomes available.

Looks good, but Neo4K has issues with "CineForm HDV,1440x1080 progressive, 25.00 fps" Sequences.

The first Clip dropped on the Timeline works, no red or yellow bars, no rendering.
The next 2-n Clips all get a red bar, and premiere wants to render them - even if you use the same clip again that worked before.

The "External monitor Standard 2D Fullscreen" option does not use the correct pixel aspect ratio, looks like it is displaying the footage as 4:3.

Importer for Mac?
 

When looking at the specification it seems as the importer for PP on Mac is "pending release". When is the importer for Mac expected to be added (I don't want to make the same mistake I did on the previous version, i.e. pay for a function that was never added)?

//Hans

The output fullscreen on 2nd monitor option is terrific. It only sends the timeline for me, not the source monitor. Is this me, or is it part of the work in progress?

Also, is it going to be possible to use the Blackmagic player from a CF project in CS5? I can select it, but have the same play problems as always with a CF file and BM, that is, about 2 seconds and then a dropped frame/stop.

Win7 64; Prem pro CS5; NVidia 9800GT (No, Mercury doesn't work)

Getting the following error constantly:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Adobe Premiere Pro.exe
Application Version: 5.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4bb568b7
Fault Module Name: CFHDDecoder64.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.2.1.449
Fault Module Timestamp: 4be479d1
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0000000000092516
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 7b92
Additional Information 2: 7b926bd68eb3581f07974510a190f3eb
Additional Information 3: 0fed
Additional Information 4: 0fedd5969fa9beef346d295bd9f1a75e

Performance in CS5 is awesome. However, the Tools are not showing for me when checked (in FirstLight or anywhere else).

Brant,

We while need you to send a sample clip to support, as that failure suggests the new CS5 importer can't load your clips.

We are currently not controlling the red line markers, they are following the PPro defaults, this will change in later builds. However, if you are seeing red with no effects applied, there is likely a mismatch between the clip type and the sequence that is being added. This could be frame rate, resolution (e.g. 1440x1080 in 1920x1080) or field ordering mismatches. If you have confirmed everything is correct, please submit a trouble ticket and we will be it fixed.

James,

HDLink will not go away, it will like remain to support HDV captures, the function it was originally designed. The new tool (part of 5.x out later in the year) will focus on file conversion and had a lot more functionality.

It seems that red markers are inherent with 1440x1080 anamorphic clips. We will need to look into that.

Hans,

This not a Mac release, we have that about 2 months out, it is actively being work on -- including help for Adobe.

>> "if you are seeing red with no effects applied, there is likely a mismatch between the clip type and the sequence that is being added" <<

No Mismatch. Always happens for me when more than 1 clip is on the timeline with anamorphic 1400x1080 as you already noted.

Ian,

Unlikely we will directly be adding third party I/O support, as many vendors are adding native CineForm support to their editing modes (which mark more sense.) AJA is moving fast, but I also hope to see similar for BMD and Matrox. Not ruling out to directly interfacing in the future, but the market it growing in way we expect this to be unnecessary.

Yeah I have confirmed its the same rates as the preset.

Video plays without any stutters so it doesnt need rendering just PP thinks it does

AVCHD vs. Cineform avi
 

Hello,

I just installed NeoHD with PPCS5 and it seems to work quite well.

Though I must say the performance of PPCS5 with a AVCHD preset does just fine with the Mercury Engine when I compare it to the same AVCHD video converted to cineform .avi in a cineform preset. The big negative though is with AVCHD, I can't use First Light. :(

The only negative performance issue I have seen with NeoHD and PPCS5 is when I import an AE composition into the PPCS5 timeilne; the playback is MUCH smoother in the AVCHD timeline than the cineform preset (1080p - 30p). Any ideas why? Both are set at Full Resolution. This is very important to me because the fact that I can import AE compositions without having to render them out would save lots of time and hard drive space! :)

Any ideas for the difference in performance? Can anyone else test this out?

Simon
p.s.
I should add that my system has 12 GB of RAM, FX 3800 and x980 (6-core) CPU running on Windows 7.

Tools within V5.0
 

Brain and others,

setting tools is more complex in v5.0 as you have several to choose from and many options for how they are displayed.

Basic tools setup.

1) Open FirstLight
2) Import and select a clip.
3) Click on the "Passive Metadata" tab.
4) Under "Metadata" open the "Tool" list.
5) Select the tool you want from the list and click "Add" in the top right, next to "Burnin:"

Advanced tool control

1) Select the tool you current have displayed with in the "Metadata" "Tool" list.
2) You can now set the size (via font size control), placement (9 button widget), opacity, display duration, fade in/out times and 3D Parallax. Many of these controls are under the "More" expander.
3) Add more tools, by repeating the basic tools setup.
4) Reorder tools using the "reorder < >" buttons.

Now you entire customizable tools layout is enabled and disabled via the global "Tools" checkbox.

Simon,

There may always be some functions that work better in other presets, and CineForm is compatible other presets for that good reason, although we will continue to improve the performance on our native playback module.

I have NeoHD v4 so do I need to uninstall that before I install V5? Thanks!

Marc,

It is highly recommended to uninstall first (but don't deactivate.) The v5.0 beta will run in trial mode for 15-days -- tin that time will will have released, so you can upgrade or simply reinstall 4.x.

Hi David,

No problem. Otherwise it works fine. Just something I noticed.

Great job!

Simon

I installed the NEO 4K V5 beta and it worked great. I love the key frames and all the CC tools in FL, including the gridding. It all works perfectly with VDub, AE & PPro CS5, although I haven't gotten around to using it with Vegas Pro yet. Good job guys!

A couple of points. It's not intuitive that the Tools are added in the same fashion as you burn in the other passive metadata, but it only took me a second to figure that out. Also, the Boolean logic of the three grid tools needs a little tweaking, since you have options for H, V and both. If you start with H and then add V (which shouldn't be possible, since there is a "both" option), you get neither, at least for me. It also might help to gray out the justification (positional) matrix, if you choose the grid tools. I found myself wanting to click on the center ("."), although the matrix does nothing to the grid positioning. These are minor points, though.

I did run across one possible bug in the White Balance logic, but it doesn't seem reproducible over a range of files and metadata settings. I set the White Balance settings, added some WB keyframes and then unchecked the key frame checkbox. The Red slider than went full to the right. On WB reset, everything was reset properly, including the slider. I'll see if I can figure out what range of circumstances trigger that behavior.

Just quickly, I have been running Neo 4K V5 and have been duly impressed so far. This is going to be a very productive tool.

My only problem, I had a couple of crashes of CS5 that I haven't explained yet. This is after a large amount of scrubbing over multi-layer video plus a little lite editing. But I have not been able to reproduce this. I have a new project to start later in the day and am anxious to see how it goes.

Q6600, 8G, Win 7

Neo HD beta
 

David,
So far seems to working OK. Just a few minor annoyances

I set up Playback Settings for an external 1920 x 1080 monitor. Works OK until you switch between sequences or close the project and reopen, then you have to go into playback settings again, and click ok. Doesn’t have this problem with Premiere presets.

The Cineform DV presets are a nice addition I’ve always wanted them but was afraid to ask. They won’t run my CF 720 x 480 avi files. Scrubs OK but scrambles in play.

Unable to load old projects. Says,” no sequence preview preset file or codec could be associated with this sequence type.” Also will not import into a project with same presets ,1280 x 720 29.97p. I get the same message.

Avi file doesn’t properly fit into Firstlight. Image is smaller then player window.



Notice AE has no CF components in the Render Setting or Output Module.

Other then the above stuff new projects seem to to be running smoothly. It will be nice to be using a all new 64bit system.

Hope this will all be of some help.

Thanks,
Barry

Win 7 64bit
Intel E8500
8GB Ram
PP CS5
AE CS
Radeon HD4650

I just installed Neo HD in Win 7 64x Production Premium CS5. I found HDLink AVCHD conversion no longer uses/has access to the DD decoder of Premier Premium CS5 as it in did in CS4. Is this going to be resolved (no, using ac3filter is not a solution)?

Ed Baldwin

Hello,

I am running the Adobe cs5 demo, using the latest Neo 4k build v5 beta.

When in a Cineform preset, I go to use my Shuttle controls, J, K L keys, rewind, stop, fast forward.

Tried inthe preview and programme monitors in Premeire, works fine.

Theproblem is when you try and go backwards, using the J, or the on-screen Shuttle in Premeire preview and programme window.

It just stops updating, un-till you let go of the command, then it update to what ever the Current TIme Indicator is on.

Windows 7 Professional 64bit
HP XW8600 Dual Quad Intel Xeon 5450 3ghz
8gb of Ram
Nvidia Quadro fx3700

Leo

David, how will this impact current users of Prospect HD with current projects already running in CS3 and CS4?

If we unload Prospect, then load the Neo4K beta, what should be expect with those projects?

Just being cautious with existing projects...

I have CS3 and CS4 running alongside CS5 with Neo 4K v5. David mentioned he has included Prospect RT engine in this release so you should be able to open your old projects. I've tested all my archived CS3 projects that were made with ProspectHD and they work fine complete with all RT effects and transitions. V5 is probably the most "complete" version of Cineform so far. So IMO give it a spin.

Within v5 FirstLight, is it possible to fine tune the positioning of overlays (notes)?

Wonderfully powerful tool with this FirstLight release.

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking ... but, if you are trying to position any of the "burn-in" passive metadata information beyond what you can do with the justification matrix (the square control with slashes, backslashes, etc.), your only other options are altering the overlay region size, playing with the font size or adding spaces to the beginning of the string, using the C printf format:

CineForm Insider: Displaying Metadata

printf - C++ Reference

Else, wait for one the Cineform employees to respond. They might have a trick or two to contribute.

Stephen
I've opened a couple of CF CS4 projects in CS5/Neo5.
After clicking on the project file to open:
1) CS5 will alert you that it is converting the project to a CS5 project
2) After conversion it opens with a new incremental name "OLD PROJECT-1". The original CS3/4 project file is left untouched.
3) You may get the message that it is opening the CF project in "desktop mode", in which case you will see yellow render line.
4) BUT, everything looks and play correctly. Previewing is excellent in the small monitor window, or "tilda keyed" up to full screen size, plus HDMI out to full screen HDTV along with it.
I currently have a project that I started in CS4 that I'll now finish in CS5.
I know it's nearly impossible to believe, but it all just... works. It all actually seems to work like it's supposed to. In my entire experience with NLEs, I've never seen this happen... just install it and it works.
Truely astonishing!!!
I haven't tried to open a CS4 project while running Neo5- I've actually uninstalled the entire CS4 suite.
No looking back!!

David, I submitted a ticket with a link to the download files. My ticket # is 611-8307634.

Thank you Jay. That is exactly what I am trying to do - position the burn in information more precisely. I'll try the overlay region size - good thought.

Overlay positioning
 

Regarding positioning of overlays, here is where documentation will be helpful (which we don't have yet). If you choose the center matrix position as the placement for any overlay field, you can then grab the overlay in the preview window with your mouse and move it to any position. The center placement button is the only one of the 9 that gives you this capability.

How thou doth tempte me backe to ye olde bleeding edge...

Perfect. Thank you David. Could prove very useful.

Just gave this a try (positioning an overlay/title with the mouse) and wanted to report that it worked beautifully.

I know we're still waiting on the heavy-set lady (to badly mix metaphors) but we seem to be scabbing over here a bit already.