Cineform produce a codec for HD editing. HD footage is stored in various ways - some like MPEG based HDV are actually composed of partial frames so that they are quite hard for the computer to deal with. Most programs edit the "native" footage - i.e.: if it starts as MPEG it stays as MPEG all the way through the editing process. How well they perform will depend on how good the computer is and the program concerned. However, any program that edits MPEG footage cannot manage much in terms of realtime performance. Straight cuts will play fine but add a cross dissolve, maybe some titles etc and the computer will start to struggle. In fact the only combination of software and hardware that can achieve anything like decent HD performance would be the Matrox RT.X2 & Axio cards coupled with Premiere.

To get better performance, which in the end means more responsive editing you can change the footage into something else. Canopus Edius does this using Canopus HQ format, and can achieve more in realtime than most other edit systems with HDV. Cineform does exactly the same thing - it converts footage from the original format into Cineform's own wavelet compression. This takes up a bit more space on the PC (2-3 times as mich space as HDV native footage) but maintains the quality and is much nicer to edit.

Cineform produce a range of products that let you capture and edit HD and HDV footage in their codec.

They fall in to 2 basic catagories:

Neo - basically the capture program and codec. With this you can capture into Cineform codec, load and edit it in your favourite editing program, and then export to tape/Bluray/DVD in the normal way. You will get better editing performance than using the programs native editing mode and faster export as the source footage is easier to interpret.

Aspect HD & Prospect HD - the capture program and codec plus a premiere plug-in. These two are the same thing but just available in different sizes. They are effectively NEO with a plug-in for Premiere Pro which puts Premiere into a Cineform mode and gives you full screen playback of HD footage, plus some realtime effects - dissolves, picture in picture and basic colour correction. With Aspect HD you can also capture inside of Premiere as opposed to using the standalone HD link program that comes with Neo.

Cineform with premiere is better than premiere on its own or premiere with just a black magic card.

There are 3 versions of each type:

1440 x 1080 (HDV size, does smaller sizes including 720P). 8 bit colour (Neo HDV or Aspect HD)

1920 x 1080 - full HD. Only need this if you are capturing analogue footage or using other formats than HDV. 10 bit colour (Neo HD or Prospect HD)

2048 x 2048 - 2K as its called. 12bit colour and 4:4:4 sampling so its does the best quality (NEO 2K and Prospect 2K).