Which modes of Cineform are appropriate under which circumstances:
- Paraphrased from [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=742985&Replies=3, as of 2010-12-23]
- NeoScene and NeoHD uses can select 4:2:2 in any quality.
- High quality is for finished material (e.g. to be output to DVD/BluRay) but if further grading is a possibility then use Filmscan 1
- Filmscan 2 is overkill.
- Neo4K and Neo3D users also get 4:4:4 and 4:4:4:4 support.
- Requesting these modes with (other variants of the software?) will result in a watermark.
- For extensive post, filmscan and 4:4:4 is probably a benefit.
- 4:4:4:4 requires lots of power and raid arrays.
- The uncompressed mode should generally be avoided – it is only intended for camera acquisition to save battery power.
Cineform is a codec for digital intermediates. When used in appropriate ways, it offers visually lossless compression/decompression. Some quality reduction does occur but only to a degree that is not important to (or even noticeable by) most people’s eyes, even after several rounds of compression/recompression. In contrast, delivery formats such as DV, DVD, XDCAM-EX are suitable only for a single round of compression/decompression, and even then are lossy (lose quality) to a degree that many people can notice, especially when playback is paused at a single frame.