h.264 versus PJPEG

I used to use Cineform with Canon 5D MKII and older Premier CS. According to Adobe TV it is not needed anymore. Premier Pro CS5 - CS6 converts to 422 and even 444. Here's the link. Let us know what ya think now. It appears that Cineform is no needed anymore? Take a look at 5:45 minute mark to see what he says.

http://adobe.ly/AAKVPg

Don, that may be true for people that have the Adobe suite.. but not everyone does. Cineform Neoscene is a fairly inexpensive solution for those that are using other products. Particularly on PCs where it converts Quicktime to native AVI. The reason for the conversion is for increasing HSL to 4:2:2 but even more so to make the files native to WIndows - performance is so much better in native formats to the OS. Quicktime -> Apple, AVI -> Windows... This goes back, way back to the battle of the OS's between Microsoft and Apple. Apple did a great marketing job... but honestly, Quicktime ain't that great. Standards, standards... where are they??? Lagarith for example is a tight wonderful codec that compresses AVI beautifully and even offers an alpha channel out.. Good luck doing that with an AVC, H.264 codec.. not possible. One could write a whole book on this topic of codec's - but I think the first page would read something along the lines of --- "A simple standard for video does not exist simply due to every manufacturer in the world wanting to set such. It is a battle that started in the weee early days of Microsoft and a company called Next, which later turned over their goods to Apple when Steve Jobs re-conquered the company he founded. It was the best of times and the worst of times." :)

Yup it's like the old VHS versus Beta. I do think many still believe Cineform is beneficial in the newer Premier Pro CS5 and CS6. It seems that there is no advantage anymore, or at least Adobe says so. When I used CS3 and CS4 I also used Cineform extensively too. Since GoPro bought Cineform they have announced that they are not making it compatible with Premier Pro CS6. I guess they also realized that Adobe finally caught up with them on the 422 and 444 qualities. There is a work around to install Cineform in CS6, just not sure it's worth the time anymore. Apple has always tried to corner the market on proprietary hardware and software. They finally gave in some and went to Intel processors ;).

I have current adobe, and still use cineform pre-process. I did a lot of tests, and it makes a difference. It brings a lot of color out of darker and lighter areas without color banding or artifacting those areas like it does if you push those regions in adobe. The processing is quick, and non-destructive. Works for me a lot better than just processing through adobe.