ProRes on the PC at DVinfo.net

Perrone Ford · January 20th, 2009, 04:58 PM

I wanted to refute something I said on these forums some time ago, and it's a pleasant thing so hopefully this helps others.

In my work, I have occasion to trade files back and forth with Mac users. In the past this has been a royal pain. Having to work in QT Lossless, or PNG, or other such format. Recently, I moved to using the Avid DNxHD codec, and that's terrific for new work where the Mac user knows he or she will be working with a PC user and needs a suitable format to trade back and forth with.

Recently, Apple enabled ProRes playback in Quicktime. I had previously thought (and said) that this was playback only, and was not helpful for editing. However, after a user here on DVi helped me with some testing, I can confirm that I was able to open and edit both a ProRes 422 and a ProRes HQ file. So it seems that if the PC user installs the latest Quicktime, or installs codec support for ProRes, they can indeed open and edit Mac ProRes encoded files.

I cannot verify this for anything but Sony Vegas 8.0c and 8.1. Hopefully others can try this with Premiere, Edius, Avid, and others. But at least its a real start in opening up high quality transfers between the two major platforms.

All I can say is, it's about friggin' time Apple!

Note, I still support DNxHD for projects that must go back and forth, since PC users still cannot encoded to ProRes. Which is a shame.

Battle Vaughan · January 21st, 2009, 10:48 AM

At the risk of cross-posting (I replied in the Mac section) , out of curiosity I tried the clips on my Premiere CS4 install at home, and the clips worked fine...needed to render, of course, but played fine and output to a test AVI file with no problem. //B.Vaughan

Mike McCarthy · January 21st, 2009, 03:50 PM

The original post is a bit confusing, because you infer that ProRes support is not just playback only, and then describe playback functionality.

End result, ProRes QT files have playback-only support on PC, still not encode/write support. Maybe someday, but don't hold your breath.

Perrone Ford · January 21st, 2009, 10:11 PM

Sorry for the confusion Mike. The Apple site talks about playback inside quicktime only. It says nothing of enabling PC based NLEs to access ProRes or ProResHQ files on the timeline. This is something that I hadn't expected, but is a TERRIFIC perk for PC users wishing to handle ProRes files.

No, you still can't encode to it, and I won't hold my breath. It's taken this long just to be able to READ the things. Now if Apple would get off their Duffs and allow an AIC reader, I'd be in business.

Devin Termini · January 22nd, 2009, 01:16 PM

Apple could make a few extra dollars if they sold a ProRes encoder as a standalone product.

Perrone Ford · January 22nd, 2009, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devin Termini

Apple could make a few extra dollars if they sold a ProRes encoder as a standalone product.

They could make a LOT of extra dollars... But knowing Apple, they'd charge $299 for it and it would gather dust on the shelves.

Steve Oakley · February 1st, 2009, 09:39 PM

if your NLE can work with QT, it can work with ProRes since its a part of QT. what I found on a single core machine is that movieplayer played 720p24 ProRes fine, but in PP it choked badly. of course rendering it to the TL codec, all was ok.

Perrone Ford · February 1st, 2009, 10:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve Oakley

if your NLE can work with QT, it can work with ProRes since its a part of QT. what I found on a single core machine is that movieplayer played 720p24 ProRes fine, but in PP it choked badly. of course rendering it to the TL codec, all was ok.

This was NOT true until just a few months ago. I was working with all manner of QT files and rendering to them to give to FCP/FCE users. But I could not handle their Prores files. Now I can.

January 20th, 2009, 04:58 PM	#1
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	ProRes on the PC I wanted to refute something I said on these forums some time ago, and it's a pleasant thing so hopefully this helps others. In my work, I have occasion to trade files back and forth with Mac users. In the past this has been a royal pain. Having to work in QT Lossless, or PNG, or other such format. Recently, I moved to using the Avid DNxHD codec, and that's terrific for new work where the Mac user knows he or she will be working with a PC user and needs a suitable format to trade back and forth with. Recently, Apple enabled ProRes playback in Quicktime. I had previously thought (and said) that this was playback only, and was not helpful for editing. However, after a user here on DVi helped me with some testing, I can confirm that I was able to open and edit both a ProRes 422 and a ProRes HQ file. So it seems that if the PC user installs the latest Quicktime, or installs codec support for ProRes, they can indeed open and edit Mac ProRes encoded files. I cannot verify this for anything but Sony Vegas 8.0c and 8.1. Hopefully others can try this with Premiere, Edius, Avid, and others. But at least its a real start in opening up high quality transfers between the two major platforms. All I can say is, it's about friggin' time Apple! Note, I still support DNxHD for projects that must go back and forth, since PC users still cannot encoded to ProRes. Which is a shame. __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels. Last edited by Perrone Ford; January 21st, 2009 at 10:57 AM.

January 21st, 2009, 03:50 PM	#3
Mike McCarthy Major Player Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Northern California Posts: 517	The original post is a bit confusing, because you infer that ProRes support is not just playback only, and then describe playback functionality. End result, ProRes QT files have playback-only support on PC, still not encode/write support. Maybe someday, but don't hold your breath. __________________ For more information on these topics, check out my tech website at www.hd4pc.com

January 21st, 2009, 10:11 PM	#4
Perrone Ford Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Tallahassee, FL Posts: 4,100	Sorry for the confusion Mike. The Apple site talks about playback inside quicktime only. It says nothing of enabling PC based NLEs to access ProRes or ProResHQ files on the timeline. This is something that I hadn't expected, but is a TERRIFIC perk for PC users wishing to handle ProRes files. No, you still can't encode to it, and I won't hold my breath. It's taken this long just to be able to READ the things. Now if Apple would get off their Duffs and allow an AIC reader, I'd be in business. __________________ DVX100, PMW-EX1, Canon 550D, FigRig, Dell Octocore, Avid MC4/5, MB Looks, RedCineX, Matrox MX02 mini, GTech RAID, Edirol R-4, Senn. G2 Evo, Countryman, Moles and Lowels.

January 21st, 2009, 10:48 AM	#2
Battle Vaughan Trustee Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami, FL USA Posts: 1,505	At the risk of cross-posting (I replied in the Mac section) , out of curiosity I tried the clips on my Premiere CS4 install at home, and the clips worked fine...needed to render, of course, but played fine and output to a test AVI file with no problem. //B.Vaughan

January 22nd, 2009, 01:16 PM	#5
Devin Termini Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Mount Pleasant, MI Posts: 177	Apple could make a few extra dollars if they sold a ProRes encoder as a standalone product.

February 1st, 2009, 09:39 PM	#7
Steve Oakley Trustee Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: United States Posts: 1,158	if your NLE can work with QT, it can work with ProRes since its a part of QT. what I found on a single core machine is that movieplayer played 720p24 ProRes fine, but in PP it choked badly. of course rendering it to the TL codec, all was ok.