ProRes 422 and XDCam HD

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Dan Brazda

Thanks for the additional swat at the beast Greg. I brought it up again because I keep seeing it mentioned on other "reputable" sites that one should use an XDCam HD timeline but render in ProRes for the scenario I described. This site has a higher percentage rate of correct advice in my experience so I'm going with that.

Dan, I want to correct myself because I have been thinking in terms of one codec for the entire timeiine a la FCP5. But, with FCP6, you can apparently have your source material stay in the XDCAM HD codec, while using ProRes to handle graphics and transitions on the same timeline. That's a workflow being put forth by others to get the best of both worlds. As for what you would eventually master out to, that's your choice.

There has been two schools of thought on this for some time now. Either stay in your native mpeg2 codec end to end, or, take it immediately to an intraframe codec as Bennis suggests. However, with faster and faster systems, editing in an interframe codec isn't the nasty beast it used to be.


-gb-

[Hornady Setiawan]

ProRes is Apple's take on Avid's DNxHD.

Just like Avid, the Apple software suite will perform better with less hiccups using ProRes than if using native XDCAM Mpeg.

In Avid i notice render bugs n less performance if using native XDCAM mpeg, compared to using Avid's own DNxHD.

Haven't compared in FCP Studio 2, but my guess the logic will be the same.
The apps will better-support its own codec than outsider's codec.

So the advantage will be performance wise and less-crash/bug wise.

:)