Neo Player hoses ability to render intermediate

ddm wrote on 1/14/2009, 10:48 AM
I found a fix for this long ago, something about renaming a dll, but does anyone know if this is still possible? I just installed the Neo Player on one machine so I could play back some old cineform renders and now I can't render intermediates in Vegas 8.0c, even with the old 2.8 cineform codec. Why should that kill the limited Sony license?

I know I could search out the old fix, but this is the latest version of Neo Player and Vegas, so I'm not sure if that 3 year old fix is worth pursuing. Thanks.

Comments

John_Cline wrote on 1/14/2009, 11:11 AM
The "old" fix is to get into the folder where Sony Vegas is installed and rename "cfhd.dll" to something like "cfhd.old" I updated one of my machines to the latest NEO Player a while back and it did just what you described. I ended up reinstalling a really old version of NEO Player and it worked again.

There may be more information on this problem at Cineform's "official" forum:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/cineform-software-showcase/

Ultimately, I bought a copy of NEO Scene for $129 and now I'm able to encode/decode using the Cineform codec in all programs, not just Vegas, and at resolutions up to 1920x1080.
ddm wrote on 1/14/2009, 11:24 AM
Do you know, off hand, how many machines you can install Neo Scene on? I've got 3 machines that I do production on, never at the same time, since I'm the only guy here, but I do like to have the option of moving to another working machine in a hurry, if I have to. Thanks.
ddm wrote on 1/14/2009, 11:28 AM
John, I just tried that old fix, wow, completely kills Vegas 8.0c, at least on my Windows 7 beta machine. Vegas stops working within seconds of trying to open, renaming the .old back to .dll and it works again. Freaky.
John_Cline wrote on 1/14/2009, 11:44 AM
David Newman and David Taylor from Cineform are always monitoring the Cineform forum I referenced earlier, so one of them may be able to answer your question in a hurry.

I asked a somewhat similar question about a machine on which I dual-boot between XP and Vista64 and received the following response from David Taylor within minutes:
--------------------
"Yes. The official licensing policy is one machine per serial number. But we're also pragmatic, and we'll allow a second license for laptops, for dual-boot situations like yours, and for other valid scenarios. Neo Scene comes with two activations allowed with the same S/N for exactly this scenario.

Procedurally you'll have to do another full activation on your second machine (or boot) using the same S/N. The "System Code" will not be the same for the second activation. Our activation codes are keyed off the System Code."
--------------------
So, they will let you install on two machines, you might ask them about a scenario where it is installed on three machines but where you activate/deactivate the licenses depending on what machine your on. The worst they can say is "no."
bulldog wrote on 1/14/2009, 1:18 PM

Just a FYI...

rename using "cfhd.old.dll", not just cfhd.old, in the vegaspro8c folder

I made a similar mistake, till someone clued me in...
ddm wrote on 1/14/2009, 1:19 PM
Thanks. I can probably live with two installs. I went to their forum and someone else had asked, quite recently, about the neo player problem, but I did not see a reply. Hmmm. Maybe they replied privately so I guess I'll go back there and ask again.
ddm wrote on 1/14/2009, 1:28 PM
Ok. Tried that, still stops vegas when it's still on the splash screen, although it did get a little further along. This might be Windows 7 related, but I don't want to try it on my main editing system because I can't afford to be without at least a rudimentary ability to create an intermediate, hell, I paid for that, right? I recall doing this once before and even uninstalling Neo Player wouldn't give me back my old cineform 2.8. Thanks.
David Newman wrote on 1/15/2009, 8:45 PM
Unfortunately, Sony has not ungraded their CineForm license beyond the four year old version 2.8 they ship today. Even though there are no recurring royalties to CineForm we allowed users to upgrade their Sony license for free for about 2 years. But then changes to Vegas and changes to the CineForm codec has made that more difficult. I even spent another two hours today looking for a simple solution, and there is none that wouldn't require costly engineering time. I wish users could just update the decoder, like we do with DirectShow, but unfortunately the Video for Windows tech that Vegas uses, the encoder and decoder are tightly linked -- can't upgrade one without the other. The original Sony license was of a 4:2:2 1440x1080 intermediate codec, with no quality controls. We no longer sell a product that has that codec, making it costly to reproduce that SKU. Even NEO Scene at $129, has a 1920x1080 codec, with quality controls, auto pulldown removal upon capture and batch conversion features for HDV and AVCHD sources. If you are needing a current CineForm encoder for Vegas that is an excellent deal. If you want to continue with the free Sony version, that still works fine.

David Newman
CTO, CineForm
teaktart wrote on 2/15/2009, 3:15 PM
I can not render within V8c to 1080 60i AVI
Says I need to purchase Cineform...
What do I need to do to get this function working again?
I'm totally confused at this point...
Thanks,
eileen
Infinite5ths wrote on 2/15/2009, 5:32 PM
I thought 1080 was always limited to the non-bundled Cineform codecs. 720 is the resolution limit for the Vegas-bundled Cineform codec, is it not?
teaktart wrote on 2/15/2009, 6:12 PM
I just tried to render to 720 -30p HDV - avi and same messege. I'm supposed to buy it.
I just reinstalled V8c and NEO Player trying to get my rendering templates to work again. No Luck.
=======================
Edit:
I've reinstalled V8c from website, reinstalled NEO HDV from website, reinstalled NEO player from website and I can not open any of my CFDIs at all in Vegas. Immediately crashes and closes when I put any clip on the timeline . I obviously can't render anymore to CFDI either.

I'm totally stuck on this computer> What can I try next?
These CFDIs (1440x1080) play fine in WMP

Thanks,
Eileen