Bad frames decoding CineForm in Resolve 15.0.1.003

I was very excited to see that Resolve directly supports decoding CineForm files, but that was quickly soured when I opened a few of my files encoded with NeoHDV from years ago:

It looks like that no matter how I play it or transcode it in Resolve. It's like there's a mis-handled frame buffer; when switching between source files, I will see a few frames from the last file I played.

I've uploaded one of the files that exhibits this behavior here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FEutu9 ... sp=sharing

Any suggestions?

Issue can be very old Cineform file. There were some changes to Cineform over years and at leats at some point (if I remember well) there was some note about backwards compatibility.

Same problem with your file on Mac, but Switch player plays it fine.

Yikes. Well, these files are from 2007-8. It would be rough if the contents were unreadable.

I've got my hands on the Cineform SDK. I'll see if I can get that to read it.

I think it's just Resolve. Switch player is fine. VirtualDub2 based on current free SDK is also fine.

Tried re-muxing (re-wrapping) that sample clip to MOV and AVI using VDub2, but both files exhibited the same behaviour in Resolve. And likewise the remuxed AVI file played in MPC-HC. I think your only option will be to re-encode - but not using Resolve's transcode function, as you've already discovered. I'd use VDub2, and encode again to Cineform as MOV or AVI file. Don't know what Cineform quality setting you used when that sample was encoded but the bitrate is just 24.1Mbps - 'Low' I suspect. Re-encoding at 'High' quality level should be fine for 1440 x 1080, but expect larger file sizes. I wouldn't advise 'Low' again anyway.

Edit: Actually the GoPro Cineform VFW codec configuration panel had an option for encoding with an HD anamorphic (PAR 1.33) flag but the native Cineform SDK implementation in Vdub2 doesn't. If it's important for you to preserve that, maybe use the GoPro VFW codec instead.

Thanks for the tips. I completely forgot about VDubs.

I'll try a few transcodes with VirtualDub to see how they go.

I think it might be because your files were encoded not as I-frames only. CineForm had a encoding scheme where you could encode as IPIPIP... where the P frames where dependent on the I frames. There was no motion estimation involved though - so it did not suffer from motion artifacts, it was more bitrate efficient and needed more resources to encode and decode. I also have some old files encoded that way and i have the same issue. All the other files from the same time period that were encoded I frames only are decoded normally though.


However, i was able to play back the files in After Effects and could reencode them to make them future proof.

IP structure is most likely the reason why Resolve is not decoding these files properly.
Brian- send a bug report to BM with sample.

Thanks for the tips. I completely forgot about VDubs.

I'll try a few transcodes with VirtualDub to see how they go.

VirtualDub2 though, not the 'old' VirtualDub:

http://virtualdub2.com/

Hey, David Newman ("Mr Cineform" himself) uses it 'almost daily', so it must be good. As Andrew mentions there on the VDub2 homepage "It's old, good Vdub on steroids". I use it for all Cineform transcodes (AVI and MOV). What more endorsement do you need

Thanks, everyone. I sent a bug report pointing back to this post, and I did have success re-encoding the files using VirtualDub2. I will go ahead and re-encode them all so I (hopefully) don't run into issues in the future.

Sounds good