I had this same problem (as well as constant crashing when using Vegas with Cineform). Uninstalling and reinstalling both Vegas and Cineform did not help. What did work was to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows and all my software from scratch. I absolutely could not make it work any other way. Since the reformat, everything works beautifully, but what a PITA!

Hope I don't have to do that! Vegas 7e just crashed (again) and red problem returned. Currently running System Mechanic.

i'm just about to embark on a hd project - it's only small and my first. i was toying with cineform, but i have to say that there does seem to be an endless stream of problems with it?

a. would i need to use cineform - my work is going to be basically c to c, a few dissolves, titles, fades to blk, etc?

b. if i do use cineform, am i better to convert m2t's from timeline, or use hdlink to encode on the download?

hope you both get it sorted out....

leslie

I haven't had problems with Connect HD previously (except a few minor temporary ones) and I've been happy using it. I'm suspecting Vegas for this particular problem for I got quite a number of crashes while tagging clips in MM. The red thumbnails go away if I reboot after a Vegas crash, which is a very tedious procedure. I always use HDlink.

It's possible that NEO HDV (the seemingly unheralded replacement for Connect HD) will fix these current problems, but having bought it I can't get any response from Cineform with serial numbers etc. Guess they're recovering from NAB.

Certainly you can edit m2t directly in Vegas7, with good results for simple post work.

My biggest issue with working directly with m2t clips is that stupid random "two black frames bug" that I get. It seems that no matter how hard I look, there's always one or two of these glitches in my final masters. I sure wish Sony would make some kind of an aknowledgement that this problem exists and a statement that they are working on it.

Back to working with Cineform though:

I went through everything I could think of before I reformatted my hard drive and started over. I used System Mechaninc, I uninstalled Vegas and Connect HD, I reinstalled everything, etc. I just couldn't make it work without a total reformat and start from scratch. There was probably one stupid conflict that I just couldn't figure out, but whatever it was, it had me stumped.

Anyway, since the reformat, my Cineform performance is just excellent. If I preview at half sized draft resolution and I deselect both the scaling function that stretches the preview out to 16:9 and the scaling function that scales the preview size to the window, I can preview with no dropped frames at 30% to 40% CPU usage, and the preview looks just great. Since Cineform clips smart-render, my Cineform master renders are incredibly quick as well and they look as good as the raw footage. That is in contrast that to the constant red frames, crashing, dropped frames and near 100% CPU usage I had before the reformat.

My biggest issue with working with Neo HDV (or Connect HD) is that the "selectively prerender video" function does not work properly. This is one of those "bang your head against the wall in frustration" issues since it would make working with Neo on a slower machine such as mine absolutely painless.

Serena,
Are you saying you purchased NEO and can't use it because they haven't sent you the serial #s?
I hope I misunderstood.....
And if you are able to use it has it been any improvement over the ConnnectHD?

As I mentioned in another posting.....I've been waiting over 2 weeks now for a response for a support ticket with Cineform...about the same kinds of problems. I'm very unhappy with the neglected support and lack of a fix. I've reinstalled Vegas and HD LInk several times and have had some improved stability but not consistant.

If you do get a clip past the "red thumbnail" phase does it work correctly on the timeline?
It seems for me that if I could get the audio track to render and show up on the timeline then it would behave normally from then on but its getting the clip onto the timeline for the very first time that I get the dreaded 'red clips' and freeze up of Vegas.

I avoided Laurences' OS reinstall so far. In desperation took my computer to the repair shop and they did find a bad video card and I replaced both of mine. My hope was that this hardware failure was my cause but its come back again.

I don't recall any of this behavior happening with earlier versions of Vegas and ConnectHD being so bad. I'm also having problems capturing with HDLink to anything other than an internal drive and even that screws up at times. I get a zillion clips that have no data....I think its screwing up while converting and not only have I gotten literally hundreds of bad clips but also huge pixelation/striping on the ones that had some data.... Not all the time but especially if I have very long 30-45min+ clips.

All along I suspect something with memory usage is getting bottlenecked when capturing/converting/ and getting onto the timeline. But once I do finally manage to get a clip captured and with some effort onto the timeline and then save the .veg file it seems to open fine after that.

The real stinker is that none of these quirks are consistant........
Don't know if this is similar to the problems you are experiencing, but I sure do recognize the 'red clip/thumbnail" and freezing all too well and I'd like a fix before I give up on CineForm altogether!

Eileen

Regarding reinstalling Windows: if it comes to that, do the technique we discussed a few months ago where you reinstall Windows over a current system, such that you don't lose any programs or settings.

I don't use Cineform at all, but I do get hit with the "Two Black Frames" (TBF) issue all the time. In the project I am just finishing this week, in 2 1/2 hours of finished product I had about 6 TBF issues. In every case I was able to go back to the raw m2t clip stored on a different hard drive and copy it over to the drive used for the editing, and that did the trick. In a worst case I could just recapture that clip from the camera tape. Very mystifying, since the picons show up on the timeline for those two black frames.

The issue here is we don't have these problem on any other NLE, is also seems to depends on the version of Vegas. Also we can't reproduce them here, Vegas and NEO work together fine in our lab. We have modified our codec in the past to address Vegas only quirks, but those quirks seem to be changing and most of these Vegas issue have been fixed in Vegas. NEO is designed for a wide range of video tools, and currently does do any custom patches for Vegas, as it should no longer need them. However, if you have an issue, send us as much data as you can, clips, projects, instructions on how to cause the failure, as most have no issues are at, these most be very small cornor cases.

David Newman
CTO, CineForm

I dunno, after posting my problems before, I got several private emails from people with the same problems. I'll bet the Cineform "red frame" problem is more common than you think.

As your no longer experiencing them, and we are not, it seems to be an infleuence outside of CineForm or Vegas. We will at any data we get that points to the issue.

David Newman
CTO, CineForm

Eileen,
I could use NEO without the serial number ("try it" option) but have received responses only this morning.
These red thumbnails are new to me and I thought it was associated with 7e, but that doesn't seem to be so. I too was hit badly with the pixelated clips as well as the multiple clips you had (using HDLink) and that was doing the conversion separately to capture (on an AMD 64 2x 4800+ processor). Thought I had a camera/firewire problem, but was associated with Cineform software. UNinstalled/RE-installed that and things worked again (although still see some pixels on one or two clips).
Present problem is inconsistent and that is a problem in itself -- seems to work, then fails again. Always after 7e crashes.

Cineform support have emailed me details for removing and installing NEO (which involves completely removing previous versions). Got a bunch of responses this morning (Aussie time) so I guess they were taking the weekend off (I don't begrudge them that; I like to do that myself!). So I'll see what that does!

Serena,
I have a similar computer AMD 64x2 4400 and 4 GB RAM ,etc.
I just went and looked back and found I have had the freezing, red screen, capture problems we've been discussing here since Vegas 7c and CF version 3.3.0 so this is not new to V7e for me at least.

I've been struggling to get this cleared up for over 6 months now, thru various versions of both Vegas and ConnectHD.

I've reinstalled them several times each including going into the registry to get rid of any previous remnants of earlier versions.

I've even taken my computer to a repair shop and had it gone over thoroughly for any malicious stuff, hardware issues, components not working properly and everything is in order according to the tech guys....

Now what ????

"Desperate but not a Housewife!"....

Eileen

Eileen,
Sounds like you have been through the full uninstall process, which I'll copy below. I haven't yet had time to say the NEO has fixed the problem, but is looking good.

===================
Uninstall Prospect HD and/or Aspect HD and/or Connect HD

For Prospect HD and Aspect HD users, uninstall ALL versions of Adobe Premiere. For Premiere Pro, select a standard uninstall, which will leave your Premiere Pro activation information intact.

Remove 'CineForm HD VFW Codec' from Add/Remove Programs

Check C:\Program Files to see if there is a 'CineForm' directory present. If there is, delete it.

For Prospect HD and Aspect HD users, check C:\Program Files\Adobe to see if a Premiere directory is present. If you have had multiple versions installed, you may see a 'Premiere 6.5', 'Premiere 7.0', 'Premiere Pro 1.5' and/or 'Premiere Pro 2.0' directories. Be sure you do not have any important project files inside these directories, and then delete them.

Check C:\Program Files\Common Files to see if a 'CineForm' or 'Moonlight' directory is present. If either of them are there, delete them.

Check C:\Windows\System32 to see if two files are present, "CFHD.dll", "CHFD.inf". If either of them are there, delete them.

Click on the 'Start' button

Select 'Run'

Type 'regedit' and click 'Ok'

Open 'Hkey_Local_Machine'

Under 'Heky_Local_Machine' open 'Software'

If a 'CineForm' folder is present, delete it.

Open 'Hkey_Current_User'

Under 'Hkey_Current_User' open 'Software'

If you see a 'CineForm' folder, delete it.

For Aspect HD users, install Adobe Premiere Pro

For Premiere Pro 1.5 users, install the 1.5.1 update which is available from the adobe website.

Download the latest version of your CineForm Product from the CineForm website.

Install your CineForm Product.

Before I spend any more money on this I will wait to hear how you are doing with your NEO....
I sure hope it resolves all this stuff.
Please keep us posted on your results once you get a chance to work with it ....
Thanks Serena!

eileen

David,
I sent screen shots of the zillions of data-less capture clips....
I've sent screen shots of the errors in the capture log
I've sent a short clip that caused the red screen
I've sent a screen shot of the pixelated clips....

What else can I send?

I got no response to my last batch of screen shots and support ticket request on 4/28/07....

Eileen

Eileen,

I sorry to hear that. Likely the clip worked find here, which again points to a system specific failure. Please send me the ticket number so I can investigate. Also please try the full un-install & re-install as listed above, and re-file the ticket if the clip continues to fail.

David Newman
CTO, CineForm