Technically in the Connect HD product that support Vegas 4 & 5. Aspect HD is a super-set of Connect HD as it adds the acceleration components from Premiere Pro.

Heath,

Are you saying Vegas 5 cannot capture directly from our HD cams without the Connect HD software from CineForm?

Roger

Yes and No. Vegas has no HDV capture module, but you don't have to use CineForm's (although it is the best :) ). You can still can use the KDDI capture tool that comes with the camera. I would recommend CineForm's Connect HD solution if you want higher editing speed and greater media flexiblilty (manipulate HD is any PC tool.)

David,

I didn’t see your post til after I sent mine. Is Connect HD software from CineForm necessary for capture in addition to the acceleration it provides?

Roger

David,

I would be interested in your opinion comparing Premiere Pro to Vegas 5.

Roger

Vegas 5 and Premiere Pro are both excellent tools. PPro has excellent integration into a bigger workflow by directly linking into After Effects, Photoshop and Encore DVD -- making it have the edge for professional applications. Premiere Pro is also much more expandable than Vegas, as it provides a third party interface to replace much for the Premiere "engine". This is what the CineForm Aspect HD product does to allow for the greatest degree of HD acceleration. Vegas doesn't allow for that level of third party integration. The CineForm's tools make Vegas at least 2 times faster than not using Connect HD, whereas Aspect HD makes Premiere Pro 5 to 6 times faster. You can read more on the CineForm web site.

Edius has a new software-only solution for JVC HDV footage for which the link is tucked away on their Edius software page: costs $1299 retail or $799 educational price.

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/EDIUS2.5/pt_EDIUSHDV720P.asp

They've also announced a hardware-based HDV product due to ship in November which could be a winning solution for some people, if you happen to have an extra $4000 lying around and a computer with dual Xeon processors and a 64-bit PCI slot:

http://www.canopus.us/US/products/EDIUS_HDV_SP/pm_EDIUS_HDV_SP.asp

One thing to note is that Canopus' approach to HDV is a bit disjointed, with separate products for different purposes and possibly no upgrade options from one to another. For example, no word of any discounts to current Edius customers for buying the HDV products.

I understand that in comparison to the original MPEG-2 HDV, the Cineform format speeds up editing and is better for compositing,

But which will give you better quality in the following situations:

A. Basic cuts, fades, and titles.
B. A straight conversion to another video format. Say SD or MPEG-2 for DVD.

Michael,

First import factor, your will not see any quality lost using a CineForm intermediate compression system like Aspect HD or Connect HD. I understand that logic insists that using the native footage must have a quality benefit, but it simply doesn't in practical editing situations. The long GOP nature of the HDV MPEG-2 means even a simple cut involves a generation loss to re-render the GOP. HDV is not equivelent to DV. In the end (I believe) being able to edit in real-time allows for more create output, and therefore you will get better quality using a product like Aspect HD.

David, I appreciate you may not be able to answer this question at this time. I am interested in how the Adobe update for HDV will differ from the Cineform product.

Ron Evans

Ron,

You will hear all about the benefits of Aspect HD soon. It is important to note that we licensed the components to Adobe in a way to support Aspect HD. We are hoping to gain many new Aspect HD users as a result of this license.

Vegas-6 has now incorporated the CineForm Codec in the version 1.2. It allows direct capturing from the FX1.

In Addition, there are now tools available like Gearshift, that support the full work with proxy files - also in DV-avi format or mjpeg-avi Format if desired.

Currently Vegas 6 does not include the one pass capture/conversion option that is within Connect HD. So there is still several good reasons to use Connect HD with Vegas 6.0. We have just released Connect HD 1.7 as a public beta (http://www.cineform.com/products/ConnectHD.htm) -- this includes to new automatic conversion of the Cineframe (CF24) to 24p and CF25 to 25p, along with many upgraded capture components to improve speed and image quality. Based on the recent beta peroid of Aspect HD 3.1 (now released) I would expect Connect HD 1.7 to be available for purchase very soon.

Yes, the one pass capture/conversion/scene detection is not incorporated in Vegas-6 now.

However, conversion can be done with Gearshift too - and scene detection can be performed with AV-cutty too.

Basic tool for basic edits without Conversion
 

As awkward as it may sound , to edit my rushes on a lightweight machine, i often use a 50$ MPEG2 editor called Womble MPEG Video Wizard.

http://www.womble.com/products/


I supports "native" M2T files and exports pretty fast without re-compression.
May be you want to give a try to this nice little product..