What to convert ProRes to ?

4mat

Well-known member
I've recently converted from FCP apple to PC premier and i'm wondering what to do with all my ProRess files ?
I'd like to convert them to something a similar bit rate etc, any suggestions ?
 
Unless you need Real time editing, I would keep the prores files. They work just fine in Adobe Premier Pro CS5 on windows.

AVC-I is a good format to transcode to in case you need more speed. Make sure your CPU can play those files back in real time, as some lower dual core PCs can't keep up with the CPU requirements.
 
Keep them as Prores. 2 advantages of Prores over AVC-I:

1) No ridiculous directory structure/file naming BS. 1 clip = 1 clip
2) No splitting of files.

I used to transcode my AVCHD footage to AVC-I but now I transcode to Prores LT instead and Premiere Pro CS5 reads it just fine.
 
I didn't realise I could keep them as prores as they wouldn't play until I find the apple prores decoder.
Thought I would be stuck converting files for ever but its been awesome to find out I can keep my prores :O)
 
another quick question I have is whats generally the best wrapper system to use on pc these days, Quicktime, WMV etc et ?
 
another quick question I have is whats generally the best wrapper system to use on pc these days, Quicktime, WMV etc et ?

Windows has built in support for VC-1 in Wmv containers and h.264 in .mp4 and .mov containers.

.wmv will have guarenteed compatibility back to Windows 98 SE.

.mp4 will have guaranteed compatibility from Windows 7 and Forward.

Pick .WMV If you aren't 100% sure what OS your clients are running.
 
I wonder for XDCAM EX footage is the only option this Calibrated{Q} XD Decode software or is their another way ?
 
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I wonder for XDCAM EX footage is the only option this Calibrated{Q} XD Decode software or is their another way ?

I'm currently using the software in windows to decode XDcam footage in a quicktime container and it's buggy and has memory leaks. Not sure if this is a problem with Calibrated{Q} or Quicktime.

You can manually demux the stream with a program like YAMB, but your audio channels don't read in the NLE, but your video amazingly plays in real time becuase Premiere pro does support raw mpeg-2 streams. I didn't really look into this method that much since I needed to get the video out right away.

If you can it will be easier for you to request whoever shot the material to send you the original files in .mp4 or .mxf containers. Those are supported natively in Premiere Pro, and play back in real time with little processor usage.

We chose the Calibrated{Q} software because we had several hundred files to parse through and the original shooter was long gone. I'm still not happy with the performance or stability of the plugin which is pretty pricey IMHO.
 
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The standard on Windows in the AVI file format.

While AVI's are supported by Windows based software, most use legacy VFW support which ...is legacy.

WMV is supported by DirectShow and is the current way to deliver video in Windows. I would argue that WMV is THE standard for windows. AVI just happens to be supported but the VFW framework is really hanging by a thread now, and could be removed in a future version of Windows.
 
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I think I might just convert all my remaining mac XDCAM EX to ProRes and be done with it. I just hope you can't tell the difference between native XDCAM and .Mov XDCAM !
Thanks for all the input fellas :)
 
Woohoo i've found the perfect way to get my apple xdcam files back to pc friendly form !

In final cut pro you can select your quicktime wrapped files and choose to export them back to the original .mxf format :)
I was contemplating converting to DVCPRO HD or ProRes but the files sizes were going up more than double.
 
Keep them as Prores. 2 advantages of Prores over AVC-I:

1) No ridiculous directory structure/file naming BS. 1 clip = 1 clip
2) No splitting of files.

I used to transcode my AVCHD footage to AVC-I but now I transcode to Prores LT instead and Premiere Pro CS5 reads it just fine.

What are the advantages of using Prores over AVCHD in CS5?
 
WMV...is the current way to deliver video in Windows.
WMV is a video compression format. AVI is a container format capable of holding many codecs such as:

All DV files will be captured using the AVI container format. Cineform converted files will be AVI. Lagarith, HuffYUV and UT codecs will create AVI files. BlackMagic, AJA and Matrox use the AVI container for their captures. Uncompressed video on Windows will be in the AVI format.

AVI is for a long time to come the video standard on Windows in the post-production community.

As for deliverables, even MP4 would be a more common format then WMV.
 
Agreed. I do post work extensively in a PC environment and I use two file formats right now (aside from what originally comes out of the camera): AVI and MOV. First, AVI, as has been stated before, is simply a container format, not a codec in and unto itself. I used AVI files first when capturing from DV sources and now whenever I transcode H.264/AVCHD formats to Cineform (for grading purposes). I actually export as QuickTimes because a lot of what goes out is ultimately viewed on a Mac by the client and for some reason QuickTime HATES the .MP4 format. Playback is terrible, however with the same settings a Premiere generated QuickTime H.264 file has no issues.
 
AVI is for a long time to come the video standard on Windows in the post-production community.

Sure for post production community, but not for deliverables to clients without any NLE software. As I said, WMV is THE delivery format for Windows. Premiere wont drop support for AVI, but they don't use VFW to ingest and read codecs inside AVI containers as they have written their own software to parse the files.

I just don't want people thinking that they can deliver AVI files to clients and expect their shiny new Windows 8 tablets to support Mpeg-4 video in an AVI container. I'd be willing to put money on microsoft killing AVI for newer consumer based devices, as AVI support isn't even in Windows Phone 7.
 
I actually export as QuickTimes because a lot of what goes out is ultimately viewed on a Mac by the client and for some reason QuickTime HATES the .MP4 format. Playback is terrible, however with the same settings a Premiere generated QuickTime H.264 file has no issues.

What kind of issues are you running into with Quicktime and .mp4 deliverables? I've noticed if you use high profile, there is no guarentee that Quicktime 7 Player will play it back at full framerate, as their h.264 decoder isn't that great. Maybe that's the issue you're having.
 
It might be, but I was never able to find a satisfactory answer. However, using Premiere to export QuickTimes has worked like a charm with no issues.
 
It might be, but I was never able to find a satisfactory answer. However, using Premiere to export QuickTimes has worked like a charm with no issues.

Just keep in mind that Quicktime's h.264 encoder is much lower efficiency than Mainconcept's h.264 encoder (built into premiere). You'll have to spend about 30% more bits to get a similar quality file.

There is also the issue of Quicktime Gamma shift that you'll need to deal with as well. You'll have less problems exporting h.264 out of the built in main concept encoder as long as you keep the profile at main or lower to maintain legacy Quicktime player compatibility.
 
What are the advantages of using Prores over AVCHD in CS5?

Also interested in knowing this. We're starting a music video edit shot w/ our newly acquired GH13 and must sort the workflow. Will use a 2.8 Intel Core i7 iMac w/ CS5 and 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro. Initial tests using AVCHD in Premiere seemed promising, while transcoding and rendering tests in FCP6 have been a headache.
 
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