[Jason J rodriguez]

. . . to CFHD if things keep going the way they do with Panasonic and Apple would be native D-5 editing. Of course the data-rate is going to be higher for D-5 than CFHD, but they’d be comparable in quality. I’d still give the edge to CFHD just because it’s wavelet-based, so there’s no chance of DCT-blocks cropping up (for a cleaner looking image), but native D-5 editing would be in the same league as DNxHD and CFHD.

Jason Rodriguez
Virginia Beach, VA

[Jason J rodriguez]

I’m not sure right now there is an “easy” way to go from DVCProHD to CFHD, unless you play-out from a DVCProHD deck via HD-SDI.

The problem for P2 is that there’s no direct MXF to CFHD converter on the market, and CFHD outside of ProspectHD/PremierePro/AfterEffects is no longer 10-bit. In other words, if you use another program to render CFHD files (as AVI), you’re limited to the 8-bit “problem” of Video for Windows. But then of course I’ve had no information about Premiere Pro or After Effects being able to work with the MXF files of the P2 card. Sort of a chicken-vs-egg thing.

I wish that Cineform was a more flexible in it’s conversion/import/export options, because again, it is one of THE BEST real-time “online quality” intermediate codecs out there on the market right now that gives you less-than-SD-data-rates but full raster HD frames with no artifacting. The only other one on the market is DNxHD, and I haven’t been able to test that against Cineform.

Unfortunetly Apple’s “online” real-time compressed intermediate codec, DVCProHD, is no-where near the quality of these two codecs from Cineform and AVID, and will not tolerate multi-generation workflows the way these other two codecs can. Frankly DVCProHD is not an intermediate codec (in the true sense like DNxHD and CFHD), it’s an aquisition format, like DV, DV50, etc.

Jason Rodriguez
Virginia Beach, VA

[Jason J rodriguez]

Cineform is going places, many more than you think.

For instance, Adobe has licensed their coded for their HDV intermediate technology, making Adobe’s compression technology for HDV intermediates one of the best in the industry for it’s abilty to sustain multiple generation passes, yet retain all the aspects of the original MPEG-2 source, compression artifacts and all (yet not introduce any new ones, except for YUV->RGB conversion artifacts, as you go through the post process).

Much, much better IMHO that native MPEG-2 GOP editing (which can’t sustain multiple generation passes), or Apple’s MPEG-2 I-frame intermediate codec (which also is lossy).

In other words, Cineform is a very powerful technology as an intermediate codec that allows one to get away from the limitations of the tape-based native codec editing workflows with their lossy generation problems WITHOUT having to resort to the space and bandwith consumption of uncompressed base-band HD-SDI editing.

Frankly, from the testing I’ve done, I would never go through post-production on a film using DVCProHD. I would readily choose CFHD because it gives the picture quality of uncompressed 10-bit, can withstand multi-generation passes like an uncompressed 10-bit codec, yet still give the editing speed of a compressed codec like DVCProHD.

All in all, CFHD and DNxHD are the same concept, although CFHD is more efficient for the same bandwidth as a wavelet-based compression codec rather than DNxHD which is DCT-based.

Jason Rodriguez
Virginia Beach, VA

[Jason J rodriguez]

I had to do the test myself with the Cineform stuff, since Marco only seems to do codecs that are Mac-based.

Yes, Cineform needs some muscle, especially Prospect HD and HD-SDI input/output, but I think it’s well worth it. You get three HD streams in real-time on one of their “certified” turnkey systems, with DVE’s, transitions, graphics, etc. Sort of similar to what you have with DVCProHD in Final Cut, except the visual quality of CFHD, even after multiple recompressions, is on-par with what a traditional uncompressed signal would look like.

The only down-side (for us FCP guys) that I see with Prospect HD is that it’s PC-based, and only works in 10-bit in it’s native AVI codec inside Premiere Pro and After Effects.

BTW, all the real-time effects are made possible by the Prospect HD rendering engine taking over Premiere Pro’s default render and effects processing engine. So you have to have a Prospect HD system to work effectively with 10-bit CFHD footage.

Jason Rodriguez
Virginia Beach, VA

[Jason J rodriguez]

All Wavelets are not created equal in the same way that DCT codecs are not equal. Pixlet uses a different Wavelet transform than CFHD (Cineform).

DNxHD is DCT-based, not wavelet.

I’ve worked with CFHD, and the codec is practically flawless. On the one-river media codec test, it’s almost on the level of Apple’s Uncompressed 10-bit HD, except it’s being compressed at 6:1! But seriously, CFHD perfectly preseves the gradients in Marco’s test image (so there’s a very low white-count), and the only artifacting apparent is the 4:2:2 color sampling on the super-saturated colors.

Pixlet is also 8-bit, not 10-bit like Cineform, so it doesn’t do as good on the gradients.

Also there’s a big difference between Prospect HD (their high-end professional 10-bit codec engine), and Aspect HD (their 8-bit HDV intermediate codec).

If you’re at NAB, I’d really encourage you to check out Cineform’s offerings. For a listing of where they’ll be, go to their website (they’re in 8 different booths ranging from Microsoft and Adobe to AMD, etc.).

Jason Rodriguez
Virginia Beach, VA