m2t to cineform intermediate quality?

ddm wrote on 11/23/2007, 12:43 PM
I have an m2t file that I generated from an Avid system that I brought into Vegas 8a. It's an hour and 20 minutes long so Vegas took it's sweet time loading the thing but it finally did and I tthen proceeded to render the file to an intermediate using the built in cineform codec. The project is HDV 60i.

The rendered avi looks somewhat softer than the avid originated m2t. Is that supposed to happen? I've done some intermediate rendering with m2t's from my Sony A1U and I've never noticed any quality loss. It could be an Avid thing as it seemed like Vegas did have to work extra hard to load the Avid generated m2t, but once it finally loaded in Vegas, it looked very good.

Anyone got any clues as to why this might be happening? These are all talking head interviews so it's pretty easy to see the quality differences.

Comments

teaktart wrote on 11/23/2007, 1:23 PM
Any chance you could capture just a few minutes from the A1 using V8a capture which would give you the m2t format to compare with the Avid capture?

If its simple cuts/fades interview maybe no real need to use the CF intermediates if you are using V8a....just keep it all in m2t format and render from timeline?
farss wrote on 11/23/2007, 1:46 PM
Make certain you have the latest Cinform codec installed.
It seems V8 ships with an old version that's a bit dodgy, check the Cineform site.

Bob.
Serena wrote on 11/23/2007, 1:56 PM
There is no loss in quality in going to the Cineform codec and actually some gains. Read the technical sections on the Cineform site.
John_Cline wrote on 11/23/2007, 1:59 PM
Vegas ships with v2.5 of the Cineform codec because anything later requires a processor with the SSE2 instruction set. Sony wanted to maintain backward compatibility with older processors which, for now, makes some sense. You can upgrade to the latest Cineform codec by downloading and installing NeoPlayer from the Cineform web site.

John
Serena wrote on 11/23/2007, 3:47 PM
The SSE2 issue is more relevant to AMD processors because Intel introduced that and AMD held off; see http://www.cineform.com/products/NeoHD.htm#NEO_Sys_RequirementsCPU requirements[/link]
ddm wrote on 11/23/2007, 11:14 PM
I have a reason that I would like to convert the avid m2t, it's a long and complicated explanation that I'll spare you the details of. But, it's also a speed thing, Vegas just hangs on this m2t forever before it starts to open it. I figured a conversion to cineform would speed things up a bit.
ddm wrote on 11/23/2007, 11:15 PM
Thanks, I'll go get the new codec.
ddm wrote on 11/23/2007, 11:16 PM
That's been my experience, no quality loss, so I was a bit surprised to see the noticable degradation once I rendered to cineform.