Best version of Pro Res for HMC

S

studio1972

Well-known member
Just wondering what peoples thoughts are with the new version of FCP.

I just got it today, upgrading from FCE 4.

No more AIC for me, so I guess it is best to transcode into some version of ProRes. The LT version appeals as it seems to be efficient in terms of disk space, will this cause major problems in terms of quality?

One thing I don't fully understand is the proxy version. This (I presume) gives you a low quality file for editing. But how do you go from this to a final high quality output file. I've not worked with proxies before.

Many thanks,

Stu
 
The way i think you would work with "proxies" is by doing the ruff cut/edit with the small proxy file, and once you're ready to output the project you would replace the small proxy file with another flavor of ProRes... this is good if you want to edit on a laptop or a system with limited space and limited speed (for example a computer at home for the faster edit and the one at work for the final product)

Studio1972, can you do some testing transcoding a clip (maybe a 10 minute clip) and doing the new ProRes options and timing them (also post your system CPU, Ram, type of harddrive)
I want to get an idea of the benefits of the new ProRes options... more interested in LT and Proxy
Thanks in advance!!!
 
Well, I can't say I've had time to do all that you mentioned, but I have been doing some tests.

My machine is a Mac Pro 2.8 8 core with 6GB ram and standard graphics card etc.

I use Sata 300 drives.

I have made some sample clips using 1080i, 720 50 and 720 25.

1080i seems to import at slightly under 3x real time speed into PRes and PRes LT (14MBPS and 9.6MBPS respectively)

720 50 imported at roughly the same speed as 1080i, but 720 25p was twice as fast!

The bitrate for 50p is 9.7MBPS, but for 25p is only 4.8!

I also compared the visual quality between PRes (vanilla flavour) and LT. There was a noticable difference when I looked carefully. I couldn't see the difference during playback, but on a frozen frame at full resolution it seemed like there was more obvious dithering where there was colour gradients, maybe as if there was slightly more noise in the clip.

I must clarify that this effect was quite slight, there is obviously some trade off between bitrate and image quality.

I am beginning to think that for me the best way forward will be to use 720 25p, although this will cause a slight problem as my SD100 (second cam) can only do 1080i or p. I guess I can opt for 1080p and put it into a 720p timeline.

If I'm creating a DVD from the resulting sequence I guess that DVD Studio Pro is capable of producing a PAL 25p DVD that should play fine on any player/TV?
 
No more AIC - great!

No more AIC - great!

studio1972 said:
Just wondering what peoples thoughts are with the new version of FCP.

I just got it today, upgrading from FCE 4.

No more AIC for me, so I guess it is best to transcode into some version of ProRes. The LT version appeals as it seems to be efficient in terms of disk space, will this cause major problems in terms of quality?

One thing I don't fully understand is the proxy version. This (I presume) gives you a low quality file for editing. But how do you go from this to a final high quality output file. I've not worked with proxies before.

Many thanks,

Stu
Click to expand...

I have been using FCE 4.0.1 and being forced to transcode to AIC when doing log and transfer of AVCHD content from my HMC 150. I was glad to hear that there are more options for this in FCP 7. I will definitely be upgrading from FCE, especially at the new price. I'm assuming that the ProRes LT being discussed in this thread provides a better image than AIC.

Good News,
Randy
 
The bitrate for LT is slightly less than for AIC, but assuming that the underlying technology has improved I guess the quality might be a little better.
 
But AVCCAM is only 4:2:0 in the first place so I'm not sure that having 4:2:2 in the editing codec would make any difference?
 
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