Just been checking the newly converted clips and the problem appears to be worse the second time around. Of course I'd deleted all the previous clips because disk space is a bit cramped (but there's still 50GB free) and have to rely on memory for comparison. I said I looked at the captured m2t with media player -- of course it was Nero. I've looked at the converted clips with both Nero and media player and they agree on the problem. I didn't mention that the defects flash, maybe 3 or 4 Hz. And not spacially repeated. Odd thing: the clips play perfectly in Vegas with no visible defects.

Edit: only look that way with "preview auto": the clips are faulty in Vegas also!

Originally I noticed the problem in doing a batch process with DVMaker, which displays a screen and hence the problem. Tried that again on a new clip and it agrees that there is something wrong. Must be something stupid that I've done, but darned if I can think what.

Peter, tried your suggestion and the first clip that troubled me was fault free. However the next wasn't. The fact that the effect varies from clip to clip (including "no errors") suggests to me that the fault isn't in the camera tape. No positive because each clip involves a stop and start. However effect isn't consistent either.
Maybe I should reinstall Cineform. Another test before I do that.

Obvious test, really. There is still an m2t file on the hdd from a previous job. Same problem (now) with that, so I think a reinstall of Cineform might fix the problem.

OK. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Cineform HD Connect v2.1 but without improving the performance. I've checked carefully that recent work is error free and reconverted those same m2t files, and get same result. Presumably there is a Cineform file that doesn't get removed when uninstalled (the registration is one of them) and this must be the source of corruption. Can anyone cast light on this. Obviously I'm putting this to Cineform but people here probably understand this issue.

Not directly but from what you've tried there's two other things:

1) What you're telling the CF encoder to do but I doubt that as from memory there isn't too many options.

2) Something wrong with the PC itself and again hardly likely if everything else is working OK. Although CF makes use of some unique instructions in the CPU.

Bob.

Serena, I have had two related similar problems more than once after updating Vegas and/or Cineform installations. You should submit a support request to Cineform because they don't seem to think these problems are common.

For one problem, which was a capture failure problem, I had to find the solution myself. I put this fix first just so you and others might see it.

You should not try this unless the Cineform solution below fails to work for you. This is to resolve errors when starting capture. I cannot promise that it will not cause other problems. It worked twice for me, but only try this as a last resort:
1) Find all the Cineform xxx.ax files located in your Program files\common files\cineform folder. You should see about 13 .AX files that begin with the letters CF.
2) Right-click on one of the .ax files like CFDecode2.ax. Select "Open with" and then click the browse button. Navigate to C:\Windows\system32\ and double-click the file called regsvr32.exe.
3) Click OK. You should see a DLLRegisterServer in <filepath> completed successfully.
4) Double-click on the rest of the CF*.ax files to re-register the Cineform components.

The second fix is what Cineform gave me when I first updated Cineform 2.1. It sounds like the same corruption problem you had. Messed up .m2t and AVI files. Here is the Cineform recommended solution:

"These steps can be used to manually clean all CineForm Components from your system. This should only be done if you are having problems which have not been resolved by uninstalling and reinstalling your CineForm products."

Uninstall Aspect HD/Connect HD/Prospect HD

For Aspect HD/Prospect 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 if it is still there.

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

For Aspect HD/Prospect 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' and/or 'Premiere Pro 1.5' 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 in C:\Windows\System32 to see if a cfhd.dll file is present. If it is, delete it.
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/Prospect 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.

Hope this helps!

I noticed on my previous machine (3.2 GHz P4 HT) that doing a "real time" capture/encode to CF sometimes got unpredictable frame errors, distortions, etc. This was fixed by using Connect HD in two steps: 1) capture .m2t, then 2) convert .m2t to CF. I suppose the power of the machine has a lot to do with it.

Not sure if this is related to the problem you're experiencing...

Thanks for inputs.

Bob, the machine seems to be behaving correctly, although it might have overheard that I'm about to receive an AMD 2x 4800 and begun sulking in subtle ways. Certainly one of the CF upgrades (v1.8, possibly) did produce very corrupted intermediates because of a problem with the AMD instruction set.

Yes, I always do the capture and convert as separate operations.

Peter, I've created a ticket with Cineform and I expect their reply will be similar to the details you've kindly posted. Your post confirms that a simple uninstall leaves a lot of CF stuff behind and if nothing else works then installation on the new machine should fix the problem. However I'm keeping the old one in a network where it can do background jobs like deshaker and DVFilmmaker, but I want it to also do capturing (so I have to fix it!).

Make sure you are running build 16 of Connect HD v2.1:

Notes of builds

Ahhhhhhhhh, so I've been reinstalling and fixing the same buggy version of 2.1 Dec 15 version for three months. I kept checking the CF website for a fix... but still said v2.1... Next time please have your guys call it 2.1.1 or something at the top of the page.

Tell them they don't need to hide their bug fixes!