Where am I going wrong with prores?

J

johnnyspack

Active member
Hi fellow filmmakers,

OK I'm happy with my camera settings, but when trying to convert files in either compressor or streamclip I notice they come out at roughly double the file size as the original h.264. What am I doing wrong?

Heard somewhere on the forums about prores lt, but cant find the option in either compressor or streamclip. What about this canon plug-in for fcp? Does it do the same thing, does it do it better?....my brain hurts!

J. Spack
 
yes it is supposed to be much much larger.

h264 has a small file size because it uses temporal compression.
ie it compresses across time. There are really only two real frames per second in 24p, the other 22 frames are merely descriptions of how groups of pictures are moved around.

For example - In order to calculate what frame 3 looks like the computer must get frame 1 (the real frame) then calculate frame 2 and then from that calculate frame 3.

So you see h264 = small files size, amazing compression, crap editing codec.

Prores = I-Frame codec where every frame is a real frame. File sizes are larger but it is a much better editing codec.

edit:
if you are using final cut 6 you will have prores 422 and prores 422 HQ
if you are using final cut 7 you will also get prores proxy, prores LT and prores 4444
 
I think FCP 6.05 is still more stable at this point and I don't see a huge value upgrading if you don't need the additional features of 7. If you are buying new, then 7 is a great option. You may be able to get away with final cut express if you don't need the full package.
 
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