What is the purpose of ProRes?

M

Movie_Dude_3

Well-known member
This is going to sound real dumb, but here goes -

I edit with Adobe Premiere CS5. When I bring in footage to edit, I load the .MTS files directly into the NLE. However, a videographer I work with runs everything he gets - and I mean everything - through ProRes before he even thinks of bringing footage, pictures, etc. into his FCP7 timeline. He transcodes to a ProRes4222 codec. He likes to have everything as one format - .MOV.

What is the purpose of this? What is the advantage?

Thanks for the help.
 
Movie_Dude_3 said:
This is going to sound real dumb, but here goes -

I edit with Adobe Premiere CS5. When I bring in footage to edit, I load the .MTS files directly into the NLE. However, a videographer I work with runs everything he gets - and I mean everything - through ProRes before he even thinks of bringing footage, pictures, etc. into his FCP7 timeline. He transcodes to a ProRes4222 codec. He likes to have everything as one format - .MOV.

What is the purpose of this? What is the advantage?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

FCP7 doesn't work well with native files from Canon dslrs. Hence to why they are transcoded to a flavor of Pro Res. Further more many people feel that the files that canon's create are not an editable format as it is records long gop. Read some info here http://vimeo.com/forums/topic:26416
 
Much less processing power required to playback and it holds up to multiple generations of rendering.

Noah
 
Prores is also an I frame codec. So transcoding say 5DMKII footage to prores conforms your video file from LONG GOP to I Frame. I frame codecs are less processor intensive as theres no predictive measures employed by the NLE. Now many can say with confidence these days that I use Premiere CS5 or 5.5 and it edits fine. Great! But try running that footage or components thereof through after effects which doesnt take advantage of the mercury engine. At the end of the day you will eventually need to render that LONG GOP. Better get a coffee or 5 while you wait.

Another point on transcoding to prores is the logging phase. This lets you add data and other organisational functions. These functions are rather important in long form projects to ensure your media is kept organised. Prores isnt the only avenue to this, AVID has dnxhd which handles particularly well.
 
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