Pro-Res vs XDCAM HD

Just started ingesting media via SDI and having troubles capturing using the pro-res codec. Having all kinds of issues. I have a hunch that my internal eSata drives are just not capable of using Pro-Res. Anyway, if I use the FAM mode on my XDCAM-HD deck and ingest using the Sony transfer, all works well. When it comes to quality, am I losing any by using the latter method as opposed to Pro-Res? My media is 35 Mbps XDCAM-HD. Any insight will be appreciated. Thank you.
Best,
Tom

Capturing via SDI will only benefit you if you're capturing live. In that case you can avoid the mpeg 2 compression and gain 4:2:2 color. Once the footage has been compressed in camera SDI will give you nothing and some people have reported that it actually makes things worse. If you're just doing simple edits and color correction the native codec is fine, and considerably smaller to boot. If your going to take the footage into AE and work it definitely transcode to ProRes first.

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FCP 7 L & T, pro res or XDcam?

Hi
When I use log and transfer in FCP 7 latest, do I need to bring the video in as Pro Res into the bins since I'll be making my sequences Pro Res? Or do I just bring the material in via L & T as is, which is XDcam 1920 30p, and edit easily on Pro Res timeline?
In fact is there even a way to bring it in as another codec than what it was recorded in? Not used L & T before.
Thanks
K

Hi K
The current crop of file based ingest options for XDCAM HD are all native ie without transcode. You have Sony's free XDCAM Transfer tool or (via a free Sony authored plugin) you can use FCP's own built-in Log and Transfer interface, but in both cases it is the native source footage being brought in to FCP albeit with a new "wrapper" added to the which makes them accessible to Quicktime, not a transcode to an altogether different intermediate codec. Alternatively you can adopt a commercial solution such as MXF4Mac's or Calibrated Software's MXF Import, either of which will allow you to work directly with the raw MXF files in Quicktime without the otherwise necessary rewrap, again no transcode.
As to your questions, my personal answer would be "No" you don't need to transcode to ProRes. You can easily work directly with the XDCAM HD files in a ProRes timeline, or you can edit with them directly in a native XDCAM HD timeline (but if you do that I would recommend you set the render codec to ProRes).
If you do want to capture to another codec then you can use an I/O device like those provided by Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic Design, Motu etc Or you can bring the footage in as per the above and then recompress to your target codec using FCP's Media Manager tool.
Hope it helps
Andy

FCP 7.0.3 XDCAM media in Pro Res sequence-implications?

We have 1.5TB of XDCAM [email protected] Post facility suggested offlining at DV NTSC but it was decided to cut native (before my time). I've inherited XDCAM 422 sequences. Using a 4 TB G Raid enclosure with both FW800 & eSATA/HD Link card & 12 core 2.66 Ghz MacPro w/6GB RAM. Intermittent crashes, 9 today, but then it will play back fine for a few hours before resuming the crashes. It will crash both on sections with FX or more than 1 stream as well as single stream sections. I thought it was the FW800 choking but the eSATA is worse. Digital Rebellion Crash Analyser attributes crashes to Mpeg media, which apparently I'm stuck with as the transcode time implication is 'too high'
What if I switch the sequence codec to Pro Res HQ & re render, will this be helpful in any way? It seems to playback ok with very little rendering on Safe RT.
BTW have installed Pro Applications Update 2010-02.

thank you for your responses-I tried transcoding everything to xdcam in a fresh project-no difference, crashing at the same rate, despite changing storage to fibre channel raid. so MM'd to Prores LT (no obvious difference to prores HQ on the cinema display) and all good.
David, the project was inherited with a whole load of identically named clips in different subfolders (!!!) although I doubt this caused the crashes. AFAIK they were editing w/o cards in the field.

Log and Transfer - XDCam to Pro-Res

Does anyone know a way to transfer XDCam footage directly to Apple Pro-Res using Log and Transfer?
Thanks,
M

Thanks meg. I'm trying not to have to sync all the rushes in a timeline. All rushes are in the one 58 min prores file. I wanted to, I guess, log and capture the rushes as clips that I logg in the log and transfer winnow and that it would then log and sort out the material as proxy files. I'm guessing I'm just being lazy or it can't be done. Thanks for the reply but I was looking for a differentbway round than a straight import of the whole file.
M

*** Weird flickering in Pro-res sequence

I'm working in the latest version of FCP with a Pro-res 422 30p sequence. I'm working with 1080/30p footage from the Sony EX1 and the Canon 5D. I'm also working with high-resolution photographs.
When I look at the sequence in FCP it all looks great but when I export it as a full-quality Quicktime Movie I consistently get this weird flicker or pulsate just before a cut from video footage to a still image. It's as-if the someone snaps their finger and the same pic all of a sudden get either slightly darker or lighter for 2 or 3 frames.
I'm not sure why this is happening but I really need to figure it out. Should I convert the sequence to another preset? Maybe h.264 or XDCAM EX 1080/30p?
Thanks in advance!

What's the delivery to be? DVD? or?
Jerry

HQ vs standard pro res 422 for capture Help!

This is my last question (I think).
Would standard printed out on hdsr essentially look the same in this situation that I shouldn't bother with the HQ?
A gentleman made a comment that I don't need HQ for capture but I am reading a lot of commentary on this.
My feature film has a lot of effects, it is prepared for conversion from a 10bit digibeta sd file that was rendered out from an sd file.
My end delivery is going to be cable broadcast and hdsr master, (though I know just for hdcam standard would be ok).
I read different comments on here and on the web...and some of it comments if your end goal is broadcast you should have an HQ file if it comes from a 10-bit source and as well that more compression will happen down the road and taking that into consideration, as I'll be doing another render, I'd like this verified.
And NOWHERE does it differentiate if that source is the file it's being converted from or the original footage it came from.
And I will be effecting this last capture pro res file before another render to a final QT.
I just want verification that standard will be ok as the individual who commented that it is I hadn't stated for sure what my delivery and end use would be and may have assumed I'd only be concerned with hdcam.
Thanks.

Nobody calls me a gentleman and gets away with it!
There are many resources to heop you decide on a ProRes codec appropriate for your task. However, youmust weigh the processing cost of inadequate hardware against the possibly indiscernible difference in the HUGE difference in file sizes and heavy lifting.
http://16x9cinema.com/blog/2009/7/31/sorting-out-the-apple-prores-family.html
ProRes 422 (HQ)
Visually lossless - highest-quality professional HD video that a (single-link) HD-SDI signal can carry.
Supports full-width, 4:2:2 video sources at 10-bit pixel depths, while retaining its visually lossless characteristic through many generations of decoding and re-encoding.
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) can be used both as an intermediate codec to accelerate workflows for complex, compressed video sources and as an affordable, high-performance alternative to uncompressed 4:2:2 video.
Has some subsampling of chroma, but retains very high quality.
Supports 4:2:2 sources like DCVPRO HD, AVC-Intra,/100, XDCAM HD422/50.
Data rate about 220 Mbps.
ProRes 422
Visually lossless, full-width 10-bit, 4:2:2 at lower data rate than ProRes (HQ)
Offers better multi-stream RT editing performance. For most video applications, 422 is "good enough."
Data rate about 147 Mbps
The comparison in data density between HQ and vanilla 422 is 220/147.
If you have the chops to KNOW you need to maintain this kind of image integrity then you have the hardware to accommodate the chore. If you have the chops but not the rig, forget it, you can't afford the time. If you have the rig but not the knowledge, forget it, you can't realize the benefits. It's a pretty simple decision matrix and, while you will get some recommendations, you're the only one who can pull this trigger. It's going to cost you time or money or both.
Types of Apple ProRes Codecs
The Apple ProRes format comes in five versions: Apple ProRes 4444, Apple ProRes 422 (HQ), Apple ProRes 422, Apple ProRes 422 (LT), and Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy). The following list describes the features of each version. For a complete comparison of the relative data rates of the Apple ProRes codecs, see Apple ProRes Format Specifications.
Apple ProRes 4444
The Apple ProRes 4444 codec offers the utmost possible quality for 4:4:4 sources and for workflows involving alpha channels. It includes the following features:
Full-resolution, mastering-quality 4:4:4:4 RGBA color (an online-quality codec for editing and finishing 4:4:4 material, such as that originating from Sony HDCAM SR or digital cinema cameras such as RED ONE, Thomson Viper FilmStream, and Panavision Genesis cameras). The R, G, and B channels are lightly compressed, with an emphasis on being perceptually indistinguishable from the original material.
Lossless alpha channel with real-time playback
High-quality solution for storing and exchanging motion graphics and composites
For 4:4:4 sources, a data rate that is roughly 50 percent higher than the data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)
Direct encoding of, and decoding to, RGB pixel formats
Support for any resolution, including SD, HD, 2K, 4K, and other resolutions
A Gamma Correction setting in the codec’s advanced compression settings pane, which allows you to disable the 1.8 to 2.2 gamma adjustment that can occur if RGB material at 2.2 gamma is misinterpreted as 1.8. This setting is also available with the Apple ProRes 422 codec.
Apple ProRes 422 (HQ)The Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) codec offers the utmost possible quality for 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 sources (without an alpha channel) and provides the following:
Target data rate of approximately 220 Mbps (1920 x 1080 at 60i)
Higher quality than Apple ProRes 422
Apple ProRes 422The Apple ProRes 422 codec provides the following:
Target data rate of approximately 145 Mbps (1920 x 1080 at 60i)
Higher quality than Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
Apple ProRes 422 (LT)The Apple ProRes 422 (LT) codec provides the following:
Roughly 70 percent of the data rate of Apple ProRes 422 (thus, smaller file sizes than Apple ProRes 422)
Higher quality than Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy)
bogiesan

Proxy vs Optimised and Pro Res HQ vs H254

Hi guys,
I importet about 28h of HD footage and would like to edit it. I imported with the "proxy" option enabled.
Now I did a quick test and exported as Pro Res 422 HQ and H264. The Pro Res HQ looks a tiny bit better then the H264. Why is that?
Now comparing the export with the Original File of the clip, the quality is not as good. Not by far but a little bit worse. Could the reason be that I only enabled the proxy option but not the optimized one? What advantage would I have if I enabled both?
I am working on a Late 2008 MBP with 5GB Ram, so I would like to get the processing power down as far as possible for editing without loosing any final export quality. Whats the best for that?

Colour correction in Proxy is fine . . .
This is my pet simple explanation, of ProRes 422.
(I was confused by it for years, but a Ripple Training tutorial on MultiCam Editing finally cleared it up for me).
Most video cameras use very high compression to store media on cards or tape. If the native camera files you are working with play back and edit well with FCP X, strictly speaking, you don't need to transcode to ProRes (but it helps - especially if you have multiple camera angles and effects, titles etc - and with colour correction).
If your playback is problematic, it's best to transcode the material. You can do this at any time. ProRes 422 is not so highly compressed as native camera footage, so it's far easier for your Mac to play it back (not so much unpacking to do). The downside of the footage being lightly compressed is that it takes a lot more disk space.
If disk space is at a premium, use Proxy. Native 1920 x 1080 footage becomes 960 x 540 when converted to ProRes Proxy, so it this takes a fraction of the disk space but is much lower quality. This is absolutely fine for editing - but you must remember to choose 'Optimised or Original Footage' in FCP X Preferences before you export otherwise you'll export 960 x 540.
I use some XDCAM EX footage from a couple of Sony EX1 Rs and some H.264 from a Canon 5D mk2. Until recently, I edited the XDCAM footage natively but I transcode the H.264. Now I'm using Proxy more - especially for multicam editing.
I sincerely hope your Projects, Events and Media are on a fast (Firewire 800) external HD (Formatted OS Extended). Keeping them on your system drive makes it difficult for your Mac to operate. It's also a very good idea to hide Audio Waveforms in your Timeline when you don't need them. They waste a lot of processor power.
Andy

Feature film in Pro Res 422 hq to mpeg 2 program stream slightly slightly brighter ??

Having completed another feature we have decidec to try the encoding at our facilities for distibution .One we gave a try at is the conversion to mpeg 2 program stream at a cbr of 25mb/s large GOP Dolby 5.1 digital progressive from apple Pro res 422 hQ . After converting in compressor we viewed the outcome . Everything was great except for a slight , very slight brightness increase . Any way of converting without this outcome?

thank you for your responses-I tried transcoding everything to xdcam in a fresh project-no difference, crashing at the same rate, despite changing storage to fibre channel raid. so MM'd to Prores LT (no obvious difference to prores HQ on the cinema display) and all good.
David, the project was inherited with a whole load of identically named clips in different subfolders (!!!) although I doubt this caused the crashes. AFAIK they were editing w/o cards in the field.

Color Correct before or after compressing to Pro Res?

Hi,
I have about 53:00 of footage that is 90% xdcam hd 422 footage (1080i60, 1920/1080, 29.97fps). Unfortunately, some of the material was shot 23.98. After researching it, I converted those to Pro Res 422 29.97.
I need to deliver the project in either XDCam 422 HD or Pro Res. Since I had the 23.98 issue I'm going to convert everything to Pro Res.
I will need to deliver the entire media managed project. So I'm going to compress to Pro Res then.
My question is, should I color correct before or after? I'm still waiting to get final approvals so I'd love to start color correcting now, but I hate to waste time if it's not going to be accurate later. Nothing is broadcast safe and the chroma need to be pumped up in the interviews and taken down in other places.
My deadline is next friday, so it has to be at FedEx on Thursday.
Thanks for you help!

Does anyone have an opinion?

Apple pro Res or cineform Neo in prp 5.5

I wonder if I should transcode my clips as my project is a real Long-Player and I use different Material: mainly XDCAM hd422, some avchd, HDV and allready transcoded stuff (Apple pro Res). I have allready started the project and I have crashes, mostly when things get longer in the timeline (over 20 Minute).
What is your suggestion: Trust Adobe's nativity? Or transcode to: prores? Or: cineform Neo?
Has anybody used Neo in Premiere pro?
Which one is more reliable and stable: pro Res or Neo?
Thanks!

There is a decoder for ProRes...
http://support.apple.com/downloads/AppleProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_forMac
Shane

Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder - Both types say I have "a newer version installed", but I can't view Pro-Res files on either type of machine.

I'm trying to view a Pro-Res file from Final Cut Pro on machines that have Quicktime Pro, but having no luck. I've tried installing the "
Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder " for both Windows and Mac (on the correct machines), but I keep getting "You already have a newer version of this installed" on each machine, and can't finish. Needless to say, the Pro-Res file will not play on either machine, and there seems to be no way to remove a "newer version" and install this one. Thanks for any suggestions.

Rob,
There is no quicktime folder there. And no quicktime program is installed when I try to install iTunes. The only reason I tried installing quicktime in standalone was because the itunes install was not actively going to the quicktime part of its installation.
I've tried removing everything and only installing iTunes. But even after deleting the physical files, using the WIndows Install cleanup tool, and cleaning up my registry, the quicktime portion of the iTunes install doesn't complete, and I keep getting "unknown" errors from the crash prevention program, and from what I can see it's because there's no physical Quicktime program installed.
As for other accounts, no I cannot start it up with other accounts, I keep getting the "Unknown" error and there is no physical files for quicktime anywhere.
And selective startup doesn't seem to work as there is NO qttask option when I run selective startup.
So, I seem to be out of options, and thing else I could try?
~Jay

New problems importing Pro-res files

Hi,
I am running CC14 on PC (HPz800 Windows 8) - and I have recently become unable to import Pro-res files into After Effects or Media Encoder. These files DO open in premiere
I have tried the following:
Restarted
Cleared my cache
Cleared all my appdata settings
uninstalled and reinstalled latest Quicktime
reverted back to a previous version of After effects (this is where i noticed the problem first and I had recently got a new update)
copying the file to a different location on my drive and importing it from there
Additionally:
I have had no problems with Pro-res in the past
The same file works fine on other computers in my office with the same versions of Ae/Encoder
The video file works in premiere
The video file plays fine in Quicktime
I get the following errors:
In Ae - "this '.mov' is damaged or unsupported"
In media encoder - "could not be imported. could not read from source. please check settings and try again"
In the meantime I have re-encoded a proxy using premiere - however this is not an adequate long-term solution
Not sure what to try next, don't really want to re-image my whole computer (i already did this on a month or so ago)
Any help is appreciated

troubleshooting QuickTime errors with After Effects
fixing permissions problem

After burning a successful DVD in iDVD out of FCPX, how can I see the settings it used? So I finally burned a DVD out of a Apple Pro Res file into iDVD in PAL format. My question now is how can I find out what the exact burn properties were so that I ca

After burning a successful DVD in iDVD out of FCPX, how can I see the settings it used?
So I finally burned a DVD out of a Apple Pro Res file into iDVD in PAL format. My question now is how can I find out what the exact burn properties were so that I can apply the same burn properties to a project in Compressor 4?
Is it possible to see what iDVD did?

I don't know any way you can interrogate iDVD to reveal settings to the extent that you can in a Compressor project. What you could do is open up the show's VOB in MPEG STreamclip, go to File and Reveal Stream Information; that will at least give you some rudimentary info like average bit rate. Perhaps someone, with more iDVD experience, can chime in here.
The broader question is why use Compressor at all if your current workflow is doing the job to your satisfaction?
The value of Compressor is that it gives you control over the many parameters that affect size quality. and playability. The Compressor presets can give you a starting point for DVD delivery, Web, etc. From those presets, people typically experiment by adjusting the parameters until they get the desired results for their specific show. It's a little bit science and a little bit art. After experimenting, you may be able to get slightly better quality for the project you've successfully burned in iDVD by using Compressor and something likeToast…or maybe not.
Good luck.
Russ

Issue with Pro Res sources when encoding in Media Encoder.

There seems to be a big issue with Pro Res sources in Media Encoder. I've noticed that when exporting using the 'software only' mode my graphics and titles look horrible, they are pixelated around the edges and the compression looks bad. This issue only happens when it's being made from a Pro Res source, if I make the exact same file Uncompressed this issue is resolved. If I use the 'Cuda' option (which I already know is the better option) this issue is resolved. The thing is, in a work environment not all of our systems are Cuda enabled and I would like to use Media Encoder as a exporting option overall. I love Media Encoder, it's fast and easy to use but this Pro Res issue is huge because the majority of the time we are working in Pro Res. I also did a test out of Avid Media Composer to Media Encoder, I sent a reference file referencing the Avid MXF material and the issue is gone, this seems to my knowledge to be a Pro Res only issue. The settings I am exporting to is 960 x 540 h.264 and also .mp4. This is coming from a 1080p source and yes I do have the 'maximum render quality' checked for best scaling. I understand that Software only vs Cuda and Open CL use different algorithms when scaling but this seems crazy to me that it would look this much worse.
Anyways if somebody can please look into this that would be great, this seems to be an issue where I can't continue at this moment to use Media Encoder. Making my source files Uncompressed every time to do an export is just not a real workflow I want to do.
On a side note I've also recently noticed on a clip that had text over a grey background that there are lines going all down the screen evenly when exporting to even a non scaled 1080p .mp4. Once again, this issue goes away with any format but Pro Res. The weird part is this happens even with Cuda enabled. This is why I am thinking Media Encoder is having some sort of issue with the Pro Res codec.
I am on a current new 27'' fully loaded iMac with the latest Adobe CC updates.
Has anyone else experienced this?
thank you

No, it is why advance users do not use the wizard.
Have a look at OpenOffice.org and its form creation. Once you add your fields in OpenOffice.org, just export to PDF and the form fields will be named just like you named in them in OpenOffice.org and the drop down values carry over.

Pro Res in Final cut express How do i get a good quality SD DVD

I recently bought final cut express and have suffered getting a good quality SD DVD out through the workflow from my cannon XHA1.
On screen its fine but when i author through imovie to DVD the quality is poor.
So reading the various threads it would seem that i need to use Pro res and the ingress codec... But cant find this option in express ?
Question is. Is pro res codec available in express and if not can someone suggest the optimum set up for HD capture to SD DVD output
Many thanks

Use either of these techniques to get good quality DVDs from AIC.
1. Edit your HDV/AIC in the timeline. Then create a new DV-PAL (NTSC) Anamorphic sequence. Copy your edited HDV/AIC to the new sequence. Do not alter anything. Render the sequence ..... this will take a long time - up to twice the length of the project. Then File>Export>QuickTime Movie (Not Self-contained).
However, if you use the QT Movie in iDVD you will get a squashed 4:3 movie, so first of all you must make QT stretch it out to its proper 16:9 dimensions like this:-
+a. Open the exported movie file in the QT Pro player.+
+b. Go to Window>Show Movie Properties.+
+c. Select the "Video Track" and in the "Visual Settings" panel uncheck "Preserve Aspect Ratio".+
+d. In the "Scaled Size" box set the width to 1024 pixels for PAL.+
+e. The "Video Track" will have turned grey, so click it to make it blue again.+
+f. The opened movie file will jump to 16:9.+
+g. Close it with the red button and click Save.+
2. This method is fast. Set your camera to "Locked DV" which means that FCE/FCP will capture it as anamorphic DV and edit it as standard definition anamorphic DV. (Use Easy Setup ... DV-PAL (NTSC) Anamorphic).
You can then Export>QuickTime Movie to be used in iDVD and use the stretching technique mentioned above.

Pro-Res vs XDCAM HD

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