Best codec for a workflow between PC and Mac?

S

shawn.w

Active member
Hey Everyone,

I'll be working on a project where my effects editor is on a mac and im doing my editing on my PC in PProCS4. I'll be shooting on my HMC150 so ill start out working with AVCHD files. Was wondering what my best options were for a workflow where i can give him some files to work on, then bring them right back onto my PC (PProCS4) with the least headache. Even though i can edit native native AVCHD im guessing this wouldent be a good format for effects work / color correction, so i think our options will have to be after a transcode has taken place. I'll also be doing green screen in this project so if the codec could maintain original shooting resolution and allows for 4.2.2 color space that would be ideal. Let me know what you all think. Thanks!

- Shawn
 
yar, seems DNxHD is the most recommended along with cineform. But i think you need Neo HD from cineform to go cross platform, as neoscene doesnt have the ability to re-wrap the AVI files into .Mov.

Just wanted to make sure there wernt any other options i was missing or see if someone was going to make a pitch as to why cineform would be worth the $400 over free DNxHD.
 
got this advice on another forum:

"Wouldn't bother with Cineform - ProRes is support on both Macs and PCs and it's free with the QuickTime Player."

Anyone know about using ProRes as a cross platform workflow? I didnt think I could transcode to ProRes from my PC, but if i could it does seem like a good option right?
 
Correct, you cannot encode to prores on a PC

Your other options that haven't been mentioned in this thread are uncompressed, png, animation in .mov container. These are all lossless as opposed to cineform, dnxhd and prores, and awkward to edit due to the large file sizes, and they are not optimized for multithreaded decoding. Cineform and Prores edit more easily, even on lower spec computers, and to a lesser extent dnxhd.
 
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