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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

How long till ProRes dies?

Kalechi Noel said:
Uhmm... everyone keeps sleeping on Final Cut X..... It will emerge as one of the simplest most intuitive NLE's and take over. (Apple just needs fine tune couple more things, and ofcourse include r3d suppor)t... and the industry will embrace. I Made the switch the FCPx (From Premiere / fcp7), and can't go back. AFter Effects ofcourse is irreplaceable at the moment, but as a all in one NLE, fcpx takes the cake.
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CS6 FTW.
 
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Jeff Kilgroe said:
Yep, been using ProRes at 4K resolution for a couple years now...
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Huh. All I ever heard Prores being used for was 1080p production. Oh well, learn something new every day!
 
It's no better or worse than DNxHD, and much more requested as a deliverable. I'm sure it will be around for aaaages.
 
being a Mac user for 20 years... Apple now suck and I'm all PC/Linux so ProRes got the boot awhile back and I use my old Mac to make ProRes deliverables if requested.

My career thanks me on a daily basis :-)
 
roryhinds said:
being a Mac user for 20 years... Apple now suck and I'm all PC/Linux so ProRes got the boot awhile back and I use my old Mac to make ProRes deliverables if requested.

My career thanks me on a daily basis :-)
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I guess that seals the deal; ProRes officially dead. :smiley:
 
Initially I thought the Apple Only status was the result of Apple just not bothering to port it to PC. But now that it's been a few years I can only assume they're actively banning its licensing to anyone who wants to release a PC encoding application.

I'm seeing a lot of momentum towards DNxHD as a result. If Apple is willing to license the codec to developers who make PC applications I think ProRes will be around for a long time. With Final Cut slipping back into 'just another NLE' with Premiere's rise keeping it single platform will mean that more and more developers are going to simply be unable to encode ProRes and less people will demand ProRes deliverables. Once that happens it's all over for ProRes. Why use a codec that's equivalent to another when it's less compatible with half of your vendors?
 
Gavin Greenwalt said:
Initially I thought the Apple Only status was the result of Apple just not bothering to port it to PC. But now that it's been a few years I can only assume they're actively banning its licensing to anyone who wants to release a PC encoding application.

I'm seeing a lot of momentum towards DNxHD as a result. If Apple is willing to license the codec to developers who make PC applications I think ProRes will be around for a long time. With Final Cut slipping back into 'just another NLE' with Premiere's rise keeping it single platform will mean that more and more developers are going to simply be unable to encode ProRes and less people will demand ProRes deliverables. Once that happens it's all over for ProRes. Why use a codec that's equivalent to another when it's less compatible with half of your vendors?
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Apple will make ProRes available to any third-party product maker who agrees to their licensing terms and companies have been adding it to their products over the past two years, including Windows-based solutions.
 
Final Cut may be alive and well....but it's days as a viable, professional platform are slowly waning...everyone I know is jumping to AVID...or if not...to PREMIERE (usually smaller shops, or people making stand alone stations).
 
Nick Morrison said:
Final Cut may be alive and well....but it's days as a viable, professional platform are slowly waning...everyone I know is jumping to AVID...or if not...to PREMIERE (usually smaller shops, or people making stand alone stations).
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You may be forgetting one thing... FCP now costs $300 and will run pretty well even on cheaper Macs. Folks can leave the party today and come back tomorrow without worry. The barrier for re-entry is non-existent. Folks just may be coming back, and soon.

Right now I can't blame them. I'm using it for a series of file based web shorts now (exactly what it is designed for) and find that I love/hate it.
 
hmm

hmm

people can argue FCPX is currently viable for professional usage all they want, but if all the post houses switch(ed) then what does it matter if the "couch editors" are using it? my job phased out Apple entirely and bought PC's to run Avid. At home I am about to upgrade to a new machine and I am not even sure I want to bother installing FCP7 on my new machine. Seeing what SSD costs per gb its tough to justify an EOL 32bit program...
 
Brian Merlen said:
people can argue FCPX is currently viable for professional usage all they want, but if all the post houses switch(ed) then what does it matter if the "couch editors" are using it? my job phased out Apple entirely and bought PC's to run Avid. At home I am about to upgrade to a new machine and I am not even sure I want to bother installing FCP7 on my new machine. Seeing what SSD costs per gb its tough to justify an EOL 32bit program...
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Well that marginalizes a whole lot of people, but it does nothing to predict the life span of a codec. It may be good to remember that the lion's share of Kodak's revenues came from consumer film sales. It was consumer photography that kept film alive, not professional production. If the same holds true for digital (edit: snip acquisition) formats then the state of FCP is largely irrelevant.
 
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I don't have FCP7 installed on any of my machines. Haven't used it in over a year.

As for FCPX, post houses are only a small piece of the overall picture. People are indeed using it and it's finally gaining some traction. Apple really screwed themselves by launching it half-baked. All things considered, it is a very intuitive NLE system and quite powerful if one takes the time to actually explore its abilities. The next major update (already announced some time ago) will bring several new codecs, including R3D support, along with a host of other professional features. Many of the industry pros who originally scoffed at FCPX, like Larry Jordan, have changed their tune and are eagerly awaiting the next iteration. Not saying that they're all embracing it as their choice NLE, but recanting many of their scathing opinions from its initial release.

ProRes is still a great Codec set and is far from dead. It's not a closed system as Tom and others have stated. Apple has made it difficult to fully support it on Windows due to their licensing terms. Stand-alone devices can implement it for recording and playback. It's freely usable for software developers on the Mac platform. Freely usable by Windows application developers for playback. Apple has had a hard-lined restriction about software applications on non-Mac systems [read Windows] being allowed to write ProRes files. They are beginning to relax on this somewhat. Some out there have circumvented the licensing (ffmpeg) and created software to write it. However, without Apple's direct support and trying to do it without drawing much attention, it's become a slow process with relatively poor results and an implementation that would be a poor choice in a professional workflow.

With DNxHD being freely available on all platforms, Apple may have to open up ProRes support the rest of the way. It will only help them if they do and will help everyone else as well. ProRes 4x4 is one of the best intermediate and working codecs out there.
 
Can macs without FCP installed still encode prores? Speaking of its lack of openness...
 
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