Prores codec
by jason yardley
on
Sep 14, 2009 at 3:03:50 pm
I'm having a problem with the Prores codec HQ codec in AF when I import a Prores file I drop it into the time line after interpreting correctly, I get green Bars and complete break up of picture, when the picture quality is set to either a quarter, third, half but when I put into full quality the picture is perfect, and I can preview render in full quality, This slows my workflow down considerably, I know that this is a 10 bit codec, the original footage has come from Mpeg 2 and then converted to Pro res HQ, I don't know weather this is the problem, also If I was working in say uncompressed 8 bit and wanted to do some graphic work in after effects could I convert the uncompressed to Prores and work with it in after effects so that it give me a better color space 10bit as apposed 8bit will the color range be slighty better
Re: Prores codec by Dave LaRonde on Sep 14, 2009 at 3:10:11 pm
Apple hasn't worked out all the kinks in Prores HQ yet. You'd be better off using a different codec. If you hang out in the Final Cut Pro forum for a while, you'll see what I mean in the posts there.
So what to use? Photo JPEG at 95% quality. That old warhorse, Animation -- lossless, y'know. Or a newer twist on lossless -- PNG. Now I'm not talking about a PNG sequence, I'm talking about a Quicktime Movie in PNG compression.
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Prores codec by Dave Johnson on Sep 14, 2009 at 8:58:42 pm
Dave L.,
This is the first I've heard of a "Quicktime Movie in PNG compression" ... not that I would ever doubt you, but I was so surprised that I had to look and there it is! Do you know when it was added and do you have any other info about how it compares to other similar codecs? As you suggest to Jason, I use Animation for almost everything, occasionally use the tried and true PJPG and typically avoid bleeding edge technologies until the bugs are fixed, but I like the idea of a newer alternative to PJPG for the times I need particularly small file sizes.
Re: Prores codec by Dave LaRonde on Sep 15, 2009 at 8:33:55 pm
[David Johnson]"I think of PNGs for stills and image sequences, but I'll have to give it a try for video."
Todd Kopriva says that Best-quality PNG Quicktimes will have smaller file sizes that their Animation codec counterparts.... IF it's a complicated scene. For big areas of a single color, Animation is still the king.
That's because Animation uses run-length encoding: "use this color for this many pixels in a row".
I make a good number of animated lower thirds in Animation with an alpha channel, and for the reason cited, they're downright economical when it comes to file size: two-thirds of the screen has nothing in it, right?
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
