The industry’s most flexible and highest quality HD editing workflow
With versions for both Windows and Mac, CineForm's Neo HD offers the industry's highest quality and most feature-rich online HD workflow, enhancing all Windows and Mac editing and effects applications.

Whether your project is designed for film, television, Blu-ray Disc, DVD, or Internet distribution, Neo HD delivers unmatched workflow efficiency, the industry’s highest visual fidelity compression, and cross-platform compatibility unmatched by others.

With Neo HD you get:

• The Industry’s Best Compression: CineForm’s respected CineForm Intermediate compression format is designed for extremely high visual quality through post production. CineForm files are always 10 bits in precision and are visually equivalent to uncompressed sources — but they weigh in at about 15% of the file size.
• Cross-Platform compatibility: CineForm files are compatible on both Windows and Mac with your preferred software applications from Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Sony, and virtually any other DirectShow (AVI) or QuickTime (MOV) application. Create on one platform, share on the other, even with distributed editing workflows. CineForm provides a free decoder on both Win and Mac to easily share content.
• First Light™: cross-platform, non-destructive color processing application works in complement with your editing and effects software. First Light maintains color adjustments as Active Metadata™ with your media — you never need to render, and consequently you never clip highlights. First Light color adjustments are immediately visible in any application that calls a CineForm file.
• HD Link/ReMaster: file conversion and image processing software converts most camera or file-based source formats into 10-bit CineForm Intermediate HD files while also performing valuable tasks such as telecine removal, deinterlacing, spatial resampling, and much more. Enables true 24p editing workflows from most HD sources. Neo HD on Mac also supports ProRes as a destination format.

What is First Light?
First Light is an end-user application that accompanies many CineForm products. First Light allows you to "develop" your images with non-destructive metadata parameters that become attached to your CineForm media. We call this image development technology Active Metadata.

New in First Light 1.2

• New Contrast Control and Exposure control
• Histogram display
• Streamlined interface including new management of curves makes the lift/gamma/gain (shadow/midtone/highlight) for improved intuitive editing
• Improved stability
• NLE Sync function
• AJA or Blackmagic output support

NEW! CineForm has made available a package of 34 Looks for use with First Light.  After installation, all 34 Looks are available within the Looks selector in First Light.

Color Processing With Active Metadata™ … Without Rendering
CineForm‘s Active Metadata processor is a breakthrough for cross-platform color workflows. Using Active Metadata, color information is stored as "active" metadata alongside your CineForm files and is never "flattened" into your media which can cause loss of headroom and even clipping. When you modify Active Metadata using First Light, changes are immediately visible in the playback window of your editing or compositing software — but remember, those changes are non-destructive, and they are not baked into your media.

An Active Metadata workflow is extremely flexible — all CineForm files with Active Metadata are completely cross-platform and cross-applications compatible. Compatibility is assured because Active Metadata processing is performed after the base image is decoded (beneath the DirectShow or QuickTime layer), but before handing off the image(s) to the calling application.

Active Metadata is More than Color Adjustments
Active Metadata was originally developed to help manage color workflows — to preserve highlights without rendering. But Active Metadata is now performing other features, including convergence control (horizontal, vertical, or rotation adjustments between eyes) for 3D editorial workflows. CineForm has numerous plans for using Active Metadata to further improve post workflow efficiency, but we’ll keep some of those ideas to ourselves for now…

Neo HD includes the following software components:

CineForm codec with Active Metadata processor

• Win: DirectShow and Video for Windows (VfW)
• Mac: QuickTime

First Light.
End-user application to adjust non-destructive Active Metadata color parameters and selects playback parameters including demosaic algorithm

HD Link (Windows) or ReMaster (Mac).
End-user application to manage file capture and conversion to CineForm files. Allows selection of image pre-processing algorithms during conversion (spatial resampling, telecine removal, etc).

First Light Features

Active Metadata Features

Attach color parameters as Active Metadata to CineForm media

• White Balance — auto-select or manually adjust
• Gain / Offset
• RGB Color Matrix
• Saturation
• Gamma
• 64x64x64 3D LUTs (Look-Up Tables) for color mapping

Define DeBayer algorithm used when decoding CineForm RAW media

First Light 3D Stereo Controls:

• Convergence (horizontal, vertical, or rotational) offset between eyes
• Stereo or individual eye color adjustments

Select decoder curve

Passive Metadata Features

• Ability to review and modify passive metadata fields within a file (future) including logging

Playback Controls

• Global Metadata Playback controls: Select ON or OFF for each Active Metadata field
• Loop control
• Timecode
• Select full or partial resolution decoding

Project Features

• Define "projects": each project can be multiple clips — for instance, a scene or other collection of clips
• Copy Active Metadata from one clip and Paste to one or more clips in a project
• Save/Load "Snapshot": a Snapshot is a set of Active Metadata parameters
• Define multiple color databases. Select active database from list.
• Export color database and associated Active Metadata for moving to a different machine

Neo HD Workflow Features — Online HD Editorial Workflow on Windows and Mac

OS Compatibility: Separately purchased for Windows or Mac

Chroma Formats: Real-time support for 10-bit CineForm Intermediate (4:2:2)

Spatial resolution: Up to 1920x1080

File Compatibility: QuickTime (MOV) or DirectShow (AVI) applications on Windows or Mac including Apple (Final Cut Pro / Motion), Adobe (Premiere Pro, After Effects), Autodesk (Combustion), Iridas (Speedgrade) Microsoft, Sony (Vegas), and many others.

Deep-precision arithmetic: leverages available floating-point and deep-precision integer processing from calling application.

Active Metadata processor: apply color parameters (white balance, RGB matrix, and 3D LUTs) after decode per user adjustments in First Light.

HD camera support: HDV, AVCHD, P2, XDCam HD/EX, Grass Valley Infinity, and more.

HD-SDI capture: on Mac using AJA Kona 3.

HD-SDI timeline monitoring: through Final Cut Pro using AJA Kona 3

HDMI Capture (Windows): Real-time capture using Blackmagic Intensity card with HD Link

Image processing during conversion:

• telecine removal (24p extraction from 60i)
• deinterlacing (30p/25p from 60i/50i)
• spatial resampling
• speed change (24p ? 25p, also slow motion)
• image flip (for 35mm DOF adapters)

Importer: for Adobe Premiere Pro/After Effects on Windows and Mac

Sharing Media: Free decoder available for both Windows and Mac

System Requirements

Operating System

• PC: Windows XP / 64 SP3, Vista 32 / 64 SP1
• Mac: Mac OS 10.5 or greater

CPU

• Min: Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz
• Preferred: Core i7 or Dual Nehalem
• Mac Note: Intel Mac Only

QuickTime

• PC: N/A
• Mac: V7.6 or greater

RAM

• PC: 3GB or greater
• Mac: 4GB or greater

System Drive

• 7200 rpm SATA (Capacity: User Preference)

Media Drive

• Min: Single SATA separate from OS
• Preferred: Two (or more) drives as RAID 0