Encoding to ProRes and DNxHD on Windows now possible

P

Pgale

Well-known member
I just bought the Miraizon ProRes and DNxHD CODEC package for Windows ($50):

http://miraizon.com/products/codecssysreq.html

Just been testing encoding O7Q 4K RAW from After Effects to ProRes 422 HQ - worked well but did take some time. 1 minute took 20 mins to encode although I think this is probably reasonable given the amount of data? Still testing...

I'm going to try encoding HD etc next from Adobe Media Encoder - looking good so far :)
 
Pgale said:
I just bought the Miraizon ProRes and DNxHD CODEC package for Windows ($50):

http://miraizon.com/products/codecssysreq.html

Just been testing encoding O7Q 4K RAW from After Effects to ProRes 422 HQ - worked well but did take some time. 1 minute took 20 mins to encode although I think this is probably reasonable given the amount of data? Still testing...

I'm going to try encoding HD etc next from Adobe Media Encoder - looking good so far :)
Click to expand...

Paul,
Interesting. Can you tell me whether the Maraizon codec works IN ADDITION TO the existing DNxHD and Prores codecs, or does it replace them?
 
Well as far as I know, premiere could decode both on the timeline before? So I don't know if the Maraizon codecs affect playback in AE / PPro at all? I do know from my Matrox Digisuite days many years ago that you had to manually remove dll's to force Premiere to use one CODEC over a similar. But I presume that's changed a lot since then.

ProRes and DNxHD files seem to play back happily on the Premiere timeline in real time with no issues. Not sure if there's a way to see what decoder is actively being used?

Of course, there was no way to encode to ProRes before and that's the key functionality that this now gives - DNxHD and all the flavours of ProRes in a MOV container. Not sure about performance compared to a similar spec Mac during the encodes, I have no experience of Mac encoding really. I do know that the CODECs are multi thread capable though and was seeing all 12 cores in use although only 50% of total CPU was showing as utilised. Whether that's something to do with hyper threading or just the individual threads not making 100% use of the CPU I don't know. Maybe I'll email their support team and see what they have to say.
 
thanks, that would be sweet.

You can download the lite free version of Resolve. Import a clip, then go to the delivery panel and look at the list of codecs in the drop down list and see what it says. On MAC you have DNxHD and every flavour of ProRes one could imagine..
 
Yes I have 10.1 Lite installed already.

I had an initial look and it doesn't appear to support these CODEC's - maybe Resolve only uses it's own internal CODEC's and not others installed on the system?
 
I just ran into a problem after a PC reboot - MOV ProRes files recorded on the O7Q weren't playing back at all - I uninstalled the CODECs and it's working again.

So yes - looks like they take over playback too and theres an issue - I'll be contacting support to see if they have a fix.
 
Thanx for the info. yeah, that's what I would worry about. I use Avid Media Composer so I have the official DNxHD codec. I'd hate to FUBAR it with some 3rd party add-ons.
 
Cool, keep us posted on this please. I would love to be able to export to Prores on Windows without having issues
 
Still not resolved - installation of the Miraizon CODEC's messes up playback of O7Q files in Premiere Pro. Not sure if it's just O7Q files or all ProRes files. I don't have any non-O7Q ProRes files to test.

I have emailed support at Miraizon again to see if this can be fixed. If not, it's a non-starter for O7Q users on Windows :(
 
Any particular reason you guys don't export dnxhd files with an MXF wrapper? Pro res is crippled on windows boxes(governed by a 32 bit process, doesn't multi thread and notoriously shifts gamma). Even for clients with national broadcast needs I get requests for mxf. Just curious why you guys seem to want Pro res so bad

On a side note, I was very happy to here CD would support dnxhd in the future with the 7Q, only to be crushed upon hearing it will be in a .mov container. So close yet so far!

How likely would it be for CD to get a license from cineform(NOT in a .mov container)
 
Leo,
Prores is very popular, at least in this forum. It does offer a 444 version that is available with DNxHD only if one owns the Avid software. From a technical standpoint, Prores and DNxHD are both high quality codec, Prores is a variable bitrate while DNx is fixed. During development of the O7Q, the Prores users were more influential with C-D than the DNx users.

In the bottom line, I think there are more FCPX users than Media Composer users. ProRes is, of course, the native codec for FCP. I've recently jumped from being a PC user to using a Macbook Pro for field editing. I must say the Mac works really well with both Resolve and Media Composer. My short term foray into FCPX leaves me wondering why it's so popular. At any rate, it's sort of a 'religious" issue, IMHO. At NAB, Avid announced their "Avid everywhere" marketing scheme in which they're pushing for a cloud version of data management. It remains to be seen if Avid will make many inroads with editors that aren't managing and using reels and reels of footage on a single project.

But, I keep hoping C-D implements DNxHD sooner rather than later. It's doubtful C-D will implement Cineform. If I had to make a guess, or a wish, it's in favor of Sony's XAVC codec.
 
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