Cinematize Pro HD FAQ

This FAQ page answers technical questions regarding Cinematize Pro HD.

General Questions


Installation and Update Questions


Usage Questions

General Questions

Q: What is the difference between Cinematize Pro HD and Cinematize 3 Pro?

A: Although Cinematize Pro HD and Cinematize 3 Pro have a similar user interface, the internals of the programs are actually very different.

Here are a few of the many differences:

  • Cinematize Pro HD is for working with Blu-ray media or AVCHD media from camcorders, Cinematize 3 Pro is for working with DVD media
  • Cinematize Pro HD can handle high definition video or standard definition video, Cinematize 3 Pro can only work with standard definition video
  • Cinematize Pro HD can handle both H.264 and MPEG-1 and -2 video, Cinematize 3 Pro can only handle MPEG-1 and -2 video
  • Cinematize Pro HD includes the Miraizon DNxHD VC-3 compression component

Please visit the product information pages for Cinematize Pro HD or Cinematize 3 Pro for more detailed information.

Q: What are the system requirements for Cinematize Pro HD?

A: For a complete list of system requirements, please see the Cinematize Pro HD System Requirements page.

Q: What is required for hardware accelerated decoding in Cinematize Pro HD?

A: For the Macintosh version of Cinematize Pro HD, hardware acceleration requires Mac OS X 10.6.3 or later and a video chip and driver that support the Video Decode Acceleration framework. For the Windows version of Cinematize Pro HD, Windows Vista or later is required along with a video chip and drivers that support DirectX Video Decoding Acceleration.

Q: Does Cinematize Pro HD come with a user guide or online help?

A: Yes, Cinematize Pro HD comes with a comprehensive user guide as well as full online help.

A PDF version of the user guide is included in all versions of the full installer. For the Mac version (a .dmg file), the user guide can be found in a folder named “User Guide” once the disk image is mounted. For the Windows version (a .exe file), the user guide is installed automatically with the application. You can find it by locating the Cinematize Pro HD folder in the Start menu and choosing Cinematize Pro HD User Guide.

The User Guide includes everything from a getting started guide, how to select a clip, how to choose options for video, audio, subtitle, and output, to recommended settings for different goals as well as an introduction to Blu-ray and AVCHD media.

A subset of this User Guide is available as online help from within the program. To access the online help, choose "Cinematize Pro HD Help" from the Help menu within the program, or click on any of the question mark Help buttons.

Installation and Update Questions

Q: Can Cinematize Pro HD be installed along with other versions of Cinematize?

A: Yes, Cinematize Pro HD can be installed alongside any other version of Cinematize.

Q: How do I uninstall the demo version of Cinematize Pro HD?

A: The demo version installer includes an uninstaller as well. For the Macintosh version, the uninstaller is included on the .dmg file along with the installer. For the Windows version, you can run the uninstaller through the Start menu or through the usual Windows program uninstallation process.

Q: How do I install the Miraizon DNxHD QuickTime component?

A: The Miraizon DNxHD VC-3 component is included as part of the main Cinematize Pro HD program installer. On Macintosh systems, it will install into the "/Library/QuickTime" folder. On 64-bit Windows systems, it will install into the "C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTComponents" directory. On 32-bit Windows systems, it will install into the "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\QTComponents" directory

Q: I keep having to re-enter my serial number whenever I start the program. Why is this?

A: This type of problem can occur on a Macintosh system when the permissions are incorrect. Here are the steps to do a repair permissions operation:

  1. Go to your /Applications/Utilities folder
  2. Run the Disk Utility tool
  3. Highlight your hard drive on the left and click Repair Disk Permissions
  4. Wait for the operation to complete (this can take a few minutes)

After this, try running the program and entering your serial number.

If you find that you still have trouble, it is possible that your permissions were messed up enough that your original program installation also got installed with the wrong permissions. In this case, you will need to uninstall and then re-install the program as follows:

  1. Run the uninstaller supplied with your installer
  2. Run the installer to reinstall the program
  3. Launch the program and enter your serial number

Usage Questions

Q: Are there simple instructions about how to use Cinematize Pro HD?

A: Cinematize Pro HD comes with a complete user guide. The first chapter ("Getting Started") covers all the basic concepts and includes step-by-step instructions to get you going. Highly recommended reading!

Q: The preview video or audio is choppy or stops playing in Cinematize Pro HD. Why is this?

A: This type of behavior usually occurs when your system is not fast enough to support real-time playback of the video and audio. HD video decoding is extremely demanding on computer systems, and depending on the way the video is encoded and your system capabilities, it may not be possible to do real-time video preview of the HD content.

The most common situations where you might have trouble with this include:

  • If the video is in MPEG-2, so the program is using software-only decoding
  • If the video is in H.264, but your system does not support hardware accelerated decoding
  • If the video is in H.264, but it is encoded using interlaced field or adaptive frame-field modes

Note that regardless of whether or not you can preview the video and audio in real-time, you should still be able to extract out any clip you select without a problem.

Q: The clip I extracted using Cinematize Pro HD does not come out with the settings I selected. Why is this?

A: Cinematize Pro HD allows each segement in the Extraction List to have completely different settings associated with it, and those settings are stored as part of the segment. Even if you change settings on the Segment, Video, Audio, Subtitle, or Output tabs, it will not affect any of the settings stored with each segment in the Extraction List. If you want to change the settings you have stored for a segment, you have to highlight the segment and click Replace to change the stored settings to match what you have on the tabs currently. In general in Cinematize Pro HD, it is best to select your segment and your extraction settings on all the tabs before you add the clip to the Extraction List.

Q: Can Cinematize Pro HD extract out standard definition video?

A: Yes, Cinematize Pro HD can extract out clips that are stored in either standard definition or high definition video. Make sure to save out standard definition clips using standard definition intermediate codecs (the program will remind you of this).

Q: What are the best settings to use in Cinematize Pro HD?

A: There are two important settings to select, the video intermediate codec on the Video tab and the output format on the Output tab. For the video intermediate codec, we recommend generally using the DNxHD VC-3 codec for high definition video and the DVCPRO25 codec for standard definition video. The choice of output format will depend on the purpose of your extracted video (presentations, editing, web, etc.). The categories on the Output tab will give you some guidance, but for further information we recommend reading chapter 12 in the user guide, entitled "Examples".

Q: Why are my extracted files so much bigger than I expected?

A: When video is stored in Blu-ray or AVCHD media, it is stored as highly compressed H.264 or MPEG-2 video which is not editable. In order to re-edit the material, you use Cinematize Pro HD to extract it out and save it in a format which is only slightly compressed. Examples of such formats would be DNxHD (for high definition video) or DVCPRO25 (for standard definition video), enclosed within a QuickTime container file. These formats are editable in programs such as Final Cut, Avid, Premiere, Vegas, or iMovie, but the file size will be much greater than in the original highly-compressed format. If the video is high definition, the files will be much larger than for standard definition video.

Once you have completed your editing, you may then want to compress the video back down to a smaller size again. For example, you might want to create a new Blu-ray disc, or you might want to create a web video or a video for an iPod. Then, the compressed movie will go back down to a smaller size similar to the original (or even smaller if you are creating web or iPod videos).

Q: Is there a way to extract editable files that are smaller size?

A: Yes, you can do this by using the DNxHD VC-3 intermediate codec and adjusting the quality level to reduce the data rate.

Here are the steps to take:

  1. Select the "DNxHD (VC-3)" intermediate codec on the Video tab
  2. Click the "Options" button to open the configuration window
  3. Set the color depth to be "Millions of Colors"
  4. Set the Quality slider to be Medium or Low quality, depending on how much you want to reduce the file size*
  5. Set the Interlacing setting to match your video (match what is listed under the Video Stream popup menu)
  6. Click OK to save the settings

*Note that the Low quality setting is only available if Interlacing is set to Progressive. For more information, refer to the user guide for the DNxHD VC-3 component.

Now when you extract out to an editable QuickTime movie, the final file size will be smaller.

Q: I cannot locate what I want from my Blu-ray disc in Cinematize Pro HD. What's wrong?

A: Cinematize Pro HD is capable of extracting out any portions of Blu-ray or AVCHD media. Unfortunately, no two Blu-ray or AVCHD media are authored in exactly the same way, and some of them can be quite complex. As a result, it can sometimes be difficult to locate what you want.

Cinematize Pro HD organizes the media into PlayLists, all of which are displayed in the PlayList menu. Some PlayLists will correspond to movie content, and some will correspond to menus. You can use the sorting options to explore which PlayLists have the longest duration or refer to the largest stream files. Menu PlayLists often "loop" back on themselves, playing the same short clip over and over. Thus the longest duration PlayList is not always the main movie. Sorting the PlayLists by stream file size is often a good way to locate the main movie.

In simpler Blu-ray media, the main movie will all be in a single PlayList, or at least in a small number of PlayLists. In more complex media, the movie may be sliced up and scattered among several different PlayLists (this is often used as a copy protection measure).

In AVCHD media, each recording session will typically be added as a new chapter to a single PlayList. If the recording settings change, the camcorder will create a new PlayList and begin adding chapters to that PlayList. Since there are typically no menus on AVCHD media, it is less confusing to determine the correct PlayList.

Q: My extracted movie does not have any audio. Why is this?

A: This type of behavior happens typically in two situations. First, if your original Blu-ray or AVCHD media has audio and the preview plays that audio, then most likely you have selected QuickTime Movie as your Output Format with the QuickTime Movie Type set to Reference Movie. The Reference Movie setting breaks out the video and audio tracks as separate files and saves a separate small reference movie file that points to the tracks. Playing the small reference movie file will play both tracks. If you want everything in one file, set the QuickTime Movie Type to be Self-Contained.

The second situation in which this can occur is if you have selected an audio track that is not present in the portion of the media you are extracting. You can test if a particular audio track is present using the preview function. Depending on how the Blu-ray or AVCHD media has been authored, only a certain subset of all the audio tracks may be present at any given time.

Q: When I try to store extracted clips on a portable HDD I get an error. Why is this?

A: Many portable hard drives come pre-formatted in the Windows FAT-32 file system. This file system does not support files larger than 4GB, so if you try to save an extracted file larger than that to the drive it will give you an error. Reformatting the drive in a file system that supports large files will solve the problem.

Macintosh users:

On a Macintosh system, you can check which file system the drive is using by highlighting the drive on the desktop and choosing File > Get Info from the Finder menu. If the drive says "Format: MS-DOS (FAT)" or something similar then it is using the FAT32 file system. We recommend that you copy all the data off of your portable drive and reformat it in the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" file system which supports large files.

Windows users:

On a Windows system, you can check which file system the drive is using by right-clicking on the drive letter in an Explorer window and choosing Properties. We recommend that you copy all the data off of your portable drive and reformat it in the NTFS file system which supports large files.

Q: How can I handle copy protection on my Blu-ray disc?

Please refer to our Technical Primer entitled "DVD and Blu-ray Copy Protection" in our Learning Center for more information about this.