Cineform Noscene clarification

fjannotta wrote on 5/13/2010, 8:43 AM

Several have recommended using Neoscene to convert AVCHD files to AVI files for HD editing in VMS.
Is this to make editing easier for the software to handle, or easier for the computer to handle, or both?
Is there any downside to doing this, other than taking the time to do the conversion? Is there any loss of video or audio quality?

Lastly, I have seen other software, some free, for file conversion. Is Neoscene the only software that can do this, or is it the best for this job?
Thanks
Frank

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 5/13/2010, 11:39 AM

For AVCHD in particular, I'd suggest you just upgrade your PC. Vegas can handle it without many crashes. However, if you're using h.264 MOV or h.264 MP4, then Vegas is a disaster with it, and it crashes frequently (not to mention the slowness -- slowness it's not so much of a problem when there are so many crashes).

So if your camera is just AVCHD, just either edit as is, or get a faster PC, and only resort to Cineform if you don't have the money for a new PC.

Cineform is faster to edit, and it's just AVI, so it's less crash-prone. There is no visible quality loss, since it's an intermediate codec. There are other intermediate codecs out there, but none is as fast as Cineform (to both encode and decode, or playback).

fjannotta wrote on 5/13/2010, 12:30 PM

Thanks for the quick reply.
I am purchasing a canon AVCHD camcorder, but will also have some files from a flip ultra HD.
Will Neoscene convert .mov and mp4 as well as AVCHD? It is not clear from their website.
Thanks

Eugenia wrote on 5/13/2010, 12:39 PM

Yes, it will. If AVCHD seems to not have audio though, only then install the AC3 filter, as per instructions on their site.

However, as I said, first try and see if the AVCHD footage is already plenty fast on your PC or not. Also, there's a NeoSCENE trial. Install the trial first to try it out.