What is Cineform?
In short form, CineForm designs compressed Digital Intermediate workflows. In this case DI means that you convert camera footage - which does not have the characteristics to withstand a multi-generation post workflow - into a format that is designed for post. Our CineForm Intermediate, CineForm 444, and CineForm RAW formats are compressed (yes, through our codec) files that are designed to be indistinguishable from source files, yet hold up through a multi-gen post workflow. Not everybody needs CineForm, but if you're doing a lot of color correction, effects work, etc, in post, then you need a format that will hold up to the demands you're placing on your images.
- Heavy color correction or effects work in post (these push images a lot, exposing compression limitations of camera formats)
- Need for pre-processing of camera footage, including inverse telecine, deinterlacing, spatial resampling, image flip, speed change (such as 25p-to-24p), etc.
- Mixing of different camera formats. We solve this by converting virtually all formats to CineForm files.
- Need RGB or RGBA processing. CineForm offers the only practical RGB or RGBA compressed formats.
- Need cross-platform compatibility. Cineform files work both on Windows and MacOS.
- Need 10-bit processing. 10-bit (versus 8 bit) provides extra fidelity in post, especially when you're "pushing" your images a lot
- Higher-than-HD footage. We offer real-time, multi-stream workflows not only at HD, but at 2K and 4K also
- If you want extra performance out of your PC. The nature of our Wavelet compression allows many real-time streams on modern PCs.
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