Cineform - dropped frames in Premiere CS4 (29,97 vs. 30 fps)

Hi guys, I need a little help.

I transcode original 5D MOVs to Cineform Prospect4k AVIs (Film Scan 1 quality) and edit them in Premiere CS4. The problem is that rendered footage drops frames every 10-20 seconds. I've checked original MOVs and transcoded AVIs - they're playing smoothly. But rendered footage that came out of Premiere (and After Effects) is strobing for couple of seconds after some time intervals. Actually it is strobing in the same places during editing as well.

My PC is Core2Duo 1.8@2.7Ghz, 2Gb ram, WD Raptor 150 GB 10000RPM, WinXP SP3. No antiviruses, torrent clients, etc.

Does anyone have an idea what's wrong with my final renders? Any help is highly appreciated. Thanks!

Well, after experimenting with timeline and export settings I figured out what was the source of the problem. Cineform files appear to be 29,97 fps and I used this frame rate in timeline and export settings. And this is the reason I had dropped frames during editing and in final renders. After I created 30fps timeline and exported at 30fps, final render became smooth as the original footage.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

I don't use Cineform, but you can probably get a good explanation from the posts on the cineform forum here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-software-showcase/

Download the latest version, they have fixes.

Well, after experimenting with timeline and export settings I figured out what was the source of the problem. Cineform files appear to be 29,97 fps and I used this frame rate in timeline and export settings. And this is the reason I had dropped frames during editing and in final renders. After I created 30fps timeline and exported at 30fps, final render became smooth as the original footage.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

How are you converting the footage to Cineform? Via ReMaster? The current Neo Scene tool (stripped down ReMaster?) forces 29.97fps for the 5D footage (and resamples the audio): no option to preserve 30fps (I have a request in to allow 30fps and no audio resampling).

Does ReMaster allow selection for frame rate? My current workaround with Neo Scene is to use Adobe Media Encoder (AME) to output 30fps. The latest Neo Scene plugin(s) through AME only output(s) audio on the left channel at 48kHz, ignoring the stereo 44.1kHz UI setting). Another reason I convert to Cineform from AME is to avoid the +gamma push performed by the Neo Scene tool.

Download the latest version, they have fixes.

Yes, I'm using the latest version - 1.34 build 119

How are you converting the footage to Cineform? Via ReMaster? The current Neo Scene tool (stripped down ReMaster?) forces 29.97fps for the 5D footage (and resamples the audio): no option to preserve 30fps (I have a request in to allow 30fps and no audio resampling).

Neoscene has only one executable - HDLink.exe. I just load MOVs into it and batch convert them. You are right that Neoscene forces the 29,97 for 5D footage. It plays smoothly after transcoding in all media players. I get dropped frames only when I export it from 29,97 timeline in CS4 no matter what codec I choose for the final output.

Neoscene has only one executable - HDLink.exe. I just load MOVs into it and batch convert them. You are right that Neoscene forces the 29,97 for 5D footage. It plays smoothly after transcoding in all media players. I get dropped frames only when I export it from 29,97 timeline in CS4 no matter what codec I choose for the final output.

Ah, right HDLink.exe is pointed to by Neo Scene (also see a bunch of MainConcept DLLs in the same dir...). ReMaster is for Mac... Are you saying the Prospect 4K's HDLink also forces 5D footage to 29.97?

>Yes, I'm using the latest version - 1.34 build 119

According to this they fixed problems you see: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-sof ... tools.html

Ah, right HDLink.exe is pointed to by Neo Scene (also see a bunch of MainConcept DLLs in the same dir...). Doesn't Prospect 4K include ReMaster? Are you saying the Prospect 4K's HDLink also forces 5D footage to 29.97?

Nope, no ReMaster in Prospect4k folder.

Prospect4k HDLink has "Rate Change" dropdown which is set to "no change" by default. I don't see "30 to 29,97" option there so I assume that it somehow determines that this footage came from 5D and forces 29,97. According to David Newman, their upper level products have the same features as lower level ones.

According to this they fixed problems you see: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-sof ... tools.html

>> Fixed: CS4 frame duplication/skip
>> Fixed: CS4 decoder green flashes.

Thanks, I've already seen that list, but unfortunatelly I still experience these two problems even after the update.

I'm about to reinstall Windows, the best solution to many problems