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Reader SurveyCineForm supports Blackmagic Intensity for Realtime Recording into CineForm Intermediate Codec
Mar 12, 2007 12:00 PM
CineForm announced that all of its software products now support direct-to-disk recording into professional-quality CineForm Intermediate files from HDMI video sources using the Intensity card from Blackmagic Design. Recorded files are immediately available for playback and/or editing on Windows (and soon Mac OS) computers using existing CineForm postproduction software. Supported HDMI input sources are 1080i/p and 720p.
Consumer and professional video equipment, including new HDV and AVCHD cameras, are quickly adopting HDMI as an output format. During recording, such cameras output uncompressed HD digital video through an HDMI connector prior to in-camera compression. To achieve high postproduction quality, it is desirable to acquire the uncompressed HDMI stream through the Blackmagic Intensity card and apply CineForm Intermediate compression to the images in realtime. CineForm’s HDMI acquisition software also includes realtime telecine removal to extract 24p sequences that are embedded in 1080i sources. Recorded files are visually equivalent to uncompressed sequences but much smaller. This workflow enables a single SATA drive to record CineForm Intermediate HD files from HDMI sources, eliminating expensive and complex RAID storage, thus dramatically reducing the cost of direct-to-disk recording solutions. A complete professional-quality DVR is delivered affordably by combining CineForm software with a $249 Blackmagic Intensity card and a sub-$2,000 PC.
“The high visual fidelity of CineForm Intermediate files has been recognized in the postproduction community for many years,” says David Taylor, CEO of CineForm, “but realtime acquisition from uncompressed sources has previously required expensive HD-SDI equipment. The emergence and rapid adoption of the HDMI interface, combined with aggressive pricing by Blackmagic for its Intensity card is changing that. Enabled by the CineForm and Blackmagic product partnership, a new generation of customers—including independent filmmakers, videographers, and even consumers—will benefit from the newly affordable price point and outstanding visual fidelity of HDMI acquisition into CineForm Intermediate files.”
All CineForm products—Prospect HD, Aspect HD, and Connect HD—now support the Blackmagic Intensity card for HDMI acquisition. Most existing CineForm customers may update their software to include Intensity support at no charge. Retail prices of CineForm products range from $199 to $1,499 depending on desired features. Interested parties can learn more about CineForm’s support for Intensity, and may download trial versions of CineForm software from its website: www.cineform.com.
