My guess is that you've got multiple and conflicting versions of Cineform installed. First, search for all versions of the file CFHD.DLL on your entire system with Windows Explorer. There are three versions of the file:

1) The old version 2.8 that comes with Vegas and should be in one your Vegas folders or subfolders. Rename that to CFHD.DLL.old or something else.

2) The NEO Player version. This version will decode only and will cause the error message that you are getting. Uninstall NEO Player.

3) The NEO HDV version should be okay, but if not, uninstall it and reinstall it. Don't deactivate it, unless you want to spend time on the phone with Cineform support!!

Reboot. Everything should be okay. Now of course, Bob could be right and you are trying to encode at 1920 x 1080, which is only supported for the more expensive NEO HD, at least for the moment.

Great suggestions! I'll give them a try.

But just to add to the dilemma, I can play my 1440x1080 avi clips (CFDIs) on the timeline and it shows they are using Cineform HD Codec V4.3.4 so its somehow playing those but won't render to that same codec. Yet the error box says:
'No compatible video codec was found"

Also, I got my WinMediaPlayer 11 to play the same intermediates only they show as 4:3 instead of 16:9 and I haven't been able to change that no matter what settings I try.

Prior to reinstalling, I did go into the registry and clean out anything Vegas8 and anything Cineform left behind. Didn't seem to help.

I'll dump the player first as I guess its a part of NEO HDV?

thanks much,
eileen

EDIT: Thank you all!

I uninstalled V8c and NEO HDV and the NEO player and rebooted and now I'm finally able to render to the intermediates1440x1080avi.

One thing that didn't change is the 4:3 PAR in WMP which I still can't seem to get to play 16;9 even trying all the "fit video to player" stuff, nothing changes it. Ideas?

Windows Media Player 11 is awful for playing Cineform files. Just about any other freeware media player. (shudder) Even QuickTime does a better job playing Cineform files.

The best all-round/cross-platform player I've come across (and used it for years) is VLC Media Player (VideoLan). It does an awful lot more than is immediately apparent from the clean, simple interface.

For example, on Ubuntu I use it as my DVCR. It plays just about every format you can throw at it and also converts/repairs a few too.

PS. It also streams various formats

What's weird about the WMP 11 is that it shows the right 16:9 on both my XP machines and only 4:3 on my Vista laptop. I spent hours yesterday trying to find out how to change this but got nowhere.

We call this progress????

And yes, WMP sometimes just chokes on the intermediates but other times it looks pretty good.

When things like that happen, I just call it "F$@#%@#$g VISTA!"

Right on!
I just can't seem to "appreciate" Vista.....
Your 'comment' translates well into any language!
Eileen