ProRes HQ 422 conversion to Windows compatible codec?

[Nicole B]

What's the best option?

 

[Barend Onneweer]

You can play ProRes on Windows. You just can't write (export) to ProRes on Windows.

What are your needs exactly? Delivery? Edit?

 

[Alexander Ibrahim]

Well, as above, playback is easy.

So, moving from Mac to Windows is easy.

Going from Windows to Mac, or standardizing your workflow so you can go back and forth easily is another matter.

I recommend Cineform or Uncompressed.

I actually just did a bunch of tests for a project I am about to color correct.

I actually prefer Cineform 444 FilmScan 2 and ProRes 4444 to Apple's 10 bit YUV 422 uncompressed codec for most workflows. This is because both of those compressed codecs are 444 and 12bpc (bits per channel)

The major exception is if you have a low quality acquisition codec. Then your major concern must be avoiding any degradation of the source material at every step of workflow.

I consider a codec to be low quality if it is highly compressed, if its encoded at 8bpc, or if its chroma subsampled at less than 4:2:2.

What qualifies as highly compressed varies quite a bit based on the codec technology.

If you are using an older codec, like MPEG-2 (XDCAM) or DV (DVCPRO, DVCAM, HDV), then you can sustain roughly 10:1 compression. Of these, only a variant of the MPEG-2 XDCAM codec is available for quality acquisition. Convergent Designs nanoFlash uses a Sony MPEG-2 codec and can record at very high bitrates.

More modern codecs, like DNxHD, ProRes, Cineform and even h.264 can handle up to 17:1 compression when used as an acquisition format (about 80Mbps for 1920x1080/24p... i.e. ProRes LT) ProRes is available in Arri Alexa and AJA kiPro and KiPro Mini. Cineform is available in various high end recorders. h.264 is available as Panasonics AVC-Intra codec.

A lot of codecs fail more than once using these criteria. DVCPRO HD is highly compressed and just 8bpc, but at least its 4:2:2. Canon EOS h.264 is slightly less compressed, but its 8bpc and 4:2:0

Since the project I am working on was shot and posted (Windows, Premiere CS5) starting with a compromised codec (DVCPRO HD in this case) I chose uncompressed as a working codec purely to avoid a transcoding generation.

Also check this thread:
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?p=710699#post710699

 

[Nicole B]

What are your needs exactly? Delivery? Edit?

Both. For editing as my first concern now.