Now, do I have a serious problem? Yes, and I really really hope someone of you out there got a solution for me.
And I really hope you get the scenario, because it's pretty messed up. Here goes:

I've got a captured HDV tape (.m2t). To help the computer out a bit while editing, I wanted to render the whole tape into an intermediate .avi (CineForm) but disturbingly enough, the tape seems to have messed up frames here and there, thus making my computer to collapse into randomised crashes while rendering.

I was not happy with this of course, but to make a workaround, I created a series of subclips from this tape, and then I rendered intermediate .avi (CineForm) files from each one of these subclips and that went fine. No computer crashes whatsoever. Guess I did not hit any skipped frames.

So far so good then. To get away from the .m2t editing (helping the processor and RAM out), I replaced all the subclips with the intermediate .avi files and started the jolly, and very fast, editing process.

Now, three weeks and lots of editing later, I've encountered a severe problem. I have no problem with using the CineForm .avi's as "new" original files, because I really don't see that much difference in the end rendering result compared to the .m2t quality.

But now I'd like to operate on some on the clips in After Effects, leaving me in the inevitable state of rendering from the intermediate clips one time too many.

My question is this: Is it by any chance possible to replace these .avi files with the .m2t subclips?

I am suprised to hear dropped frames can cause this much hassle.

I woudlnt be concerned about another codec pass, it should not affect quality to any degree.

__________________
I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

Hey Mark and thank you for your quick answer! Okay, I'll do that. I have tried to render in the same codec again (from CineFrame to CineFrame so to speak) and I've not seen that much difference to tell you the truth.

I played with the panasonic dv codec a while back - after 6 passes I still couldnt see any degredation and I am very fussy.

__________________
I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

Ah okay! Do you know where to find the Panasonic codec?

I am not saying that is the best, I think that is normal.

__________________
I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

Okay, then.

I guess I'll continue with the CineForm codec...