ProRes 422

D10S

D10S

Well-known member
Does it make any difference if you convert the AVCCAM footage to Apple ProRes 422 or 422(HQ) other than you get a bigger file size? Is there any visual difference?
 
No visual difference.

If you're looking to grade very heavily then the HQ would have, but for the most part you only need to encode to ProRes LT, which is plenty enough to accommodate the AVCCAM colourspace.
Anything over LT and you're just making a bigger filesize for no reason for standard editing.
 
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I have a new MAC Pro -- 12 cores, 16GB RAM, 8 TB storage -- so I thought 422(HQ) would be no problem.

Worked on two projects using L&T setting to 422(HQ) and the computer kept crashing. Changed it back to 422 and haven't had any problems since. Not sure if it was coincidence or not, maybe it was a third party plugin I was using. Either way it caused me a lot of anxiety with my rapidly approaching deadline.

Anyone else have problems with 422(HQ)?
 
electricpig said:
No visual difference.

If you're looking to grade very heavily then the HQ would have 10-bit advantages, standard ProRes being 8-bit, but for the most part you only need to encode to ProRes LT, which is plenty enough to accommodate the AVCCAM colourspace.
Anything over LT and you're just making a bigger filesize for no reason.
Click to expand...

All ProRes formats are 10-bit.
 
All forms of ProRes including LT are I-Frame codecs. Long GOP artifacts aside I think the rule of thumb is H.264 Long GOP codecs like AVCCAM are 3-4 times more efficent than I-Frame codecs. That mean you could potentally take a bit of a quality hit if the I-Frame codec you are transcoding to is under 3-4 times the bitrate of the original codec. I'm not sure off hand what ProRes LT's bitrate is, but if it's under 100mbps I'd recommend just standard ProRes 422.
 
Brian@202020 said:
Good to know. I'm still using FCP 6 so I can't use LT or 4444 and didn't know the bitrates. You are right LT should be fine then.
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Brian,

So you are using Pro Res HQ? I also have FCP 6 and wasn't sure which flavor to use. You're right, LT isn't an option in 6 but I saw many other Pro Res options available.
 
OKCPicker said:
Brian,

So you are using Pro Res HQ? I also have FCP 6 and wasn't sure which flavor to use. You're right, LT isn't an option in 6 but I saw many other Pro Res options available.
Click to expand...

I use ProRes 422. I believe that is 120mbps. Quality wise it goes ProRes LT, ProRes 422, ProRes 422HQ, and ProRes 4444. FCP 6 only has the middle two.
 
With AF-100 footage, I use ProRes 422, unless I know I'm going to be sending materials to a high-end color suite. In that case, I'll use ProRes HQ.
 
David S. said:
For a $245.00 update, you can get FCS3 if you shop.

You need an Intel Mac, but man it's a nice upgrade.
Click to expand...

Last time I used FCP 7 it had a lot of bugs. I use it sometimes when I'm doing RED stuff, I just use a friends MacBook Pro with it installed. I think I'm going to skip over version 7 myself. I heard a new version is coming out soon.
 
kylekmd said:
I have a new MAC Pro -- 12 cores, 16GB RAM, 8 TB storage -- so I thought 422(HQ) would be no problem.

Worked on two projects using L&T setting to 422(HQ) and the computer kept crashing. Changed it back to 422 and haven't had any problems since. Not sure if it was coincidence or not, maybe it was a third party plugin I was using. Either way it caused me a lot of anxiety with my rapidly approaching deadline.

Anyone else have problems with 422(HQ)?
Click to expand...

Just because you have a very fast Mac and a lot of RAM, does not guarantee that your timelines will play glitch free.

The other part of the equation is a fast RAID preferable L5.

I use ATTO cards and 16 Drive arrays, capable of 600MB/sec or more, even when almost full. The biggest bottle neck with high data rates is always the IO (drives).

AJA has a free tool for testing the speed of your RAIDS.
http://www.aja.com/products/software/
 
I have a canon HF11 and have been shooting AVCHD 1920x1080i 50i at 24mbs for two years now, I always use Pro Res LT to ingest into FCP and it is perfect for quality and disc space useage.
Going Pro Res 422 or HQ will not ad anything and just fill up your disc quicker.
 
It might be prudent to at least identify some of the a lot of bugs you experienced when using FCP 7.

It's not my experience at least.
 
hmmmm. FCP 7 is very stable for me.


Brian@202020 said:
Last time I used FCP 7 it had a lot of bugs. I use it sometimes when I'm doing RED stuff, I just use a friends MacBook Pro with it installed. I think I'm going to skip over version 7 myself. I heard a new version is coming out soon.
Click to expand...
 
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