HDV, ProRes, Fundementals

Hello everyone. Trying to wrap my head around the whole HDV/ProRes workflow.
So the other day I shot some HDV on a borrowed Sony HDR-FX1000.
I know I could have/should have brought in as Pro Res, but just did my capture in HDV - to see what it looked like. (file sizes etc)
I did a rough edit, and for many of the projects I do, I have out output .wmv's for clients to approve using EXPORT in FCP.
I was a little surprised that the .wmv files (even at the highest quality settings) didn't look all that great. At least, not as good as I expected.
So I thought (maybe a Pro Res transcode is the solution!) So I went ahead and used Compressor to transcode the HDV files to Pro Res. The first thing that had me wondering... is that I thought Pro Res was supposed to REDUCE file size. I found that the Pro Res files were actually 4 times as large.
I really can't see any difference in quality - and I know that is not necessarily the reason for using Pro Res, but just wondering what I am missing in the equation.
Sorry if the question is to vague. But any insights would be helpful.
Thanks!

... I thought Pro Res was supposed to REDUCE file size. I found that the Pro Res files were actually 4 times as large.
You are correct. ProRes is intended to create much smaller sizes than you would get if you used *+uncompressed 8 or 10 bit codecs+* .
Standard compressed codecs like HDV, AVCHD, H.264 all use clever intra frame compression schemes (Groups of pictures - aka GOP) to push data rates very low. These codecs are intended as transportable formats (delivery) -not to edit.
To edit one of them, you need to transform them from a group of picture format where there is only one complete frame every 15 or so frames and the others contain only the differences between this frame and previous (or next) ones to an all independent "I" frame format.
It is this creation of new full frames that makes the files so much larger.
Good luck,
x

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    Message was edited by: SSteele

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