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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?

James McLellan

James McLellan

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I've switched to Premiere Pro now. Still use ProRes for export but I wonder what effect the death of Final Cut will have on the whole ProRes-Alexa area.

How many people use ProRes in non-apple workflows?

Some here will argue that FCP7 is still in widespread use but with all the OS's moving to 64bit FCP7 will be done soon I think.

Any thoughts?
 
My understanding was that you could only export pro res if you are on a mac? can you get the encode pro res codec for PC?
 
Last time I looked, Final Cut was alive and well. :smiley:

Or to quote Samuel Clemens on its behalf, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
 
FCP7... It's EOL, it's outdated, it's crippled in comparison to more current software that actually scales to multiple CPUs, uses GPU hardware for acceleration, etc.. That said, it still works just as good today as it did last year, or the year before that... Lots of people still using it because it's what they are comfortable with or it's what they prefer. I personally find it to be much slower to work with than newer NLE software, but that's me and not necessarily everyone else.

ProRes is going to be around for a long time. It's a great codec base and as long as Apple continues to add to it and improve it, which I'm sure they will, it will keep on going.

Not too many people using ProRes outside of Mac-centric workflows though. Especially with DNxHD being freely available these days and ProRes being read-only on Windows. There are ways to write ProRes on Windows, but it's a complete kludge at the moment and nothing I would use or recommend for use in a real production environment.
 
I'm sure Apple would come up with Prores 2K and 4K before they let it die. As it is, 1080p is still very relevant. JVC and Sony currently have projector systems that will scale 1080p to 4K. The main thing is that we, as filmmakers and consumers in general, haven't gotten past really good 1080p yet. So far we've had the early days of HD going from 720p to 1080p but then that had to be compressed in various formats, the most notorious being HDV. Today, cell phones and even children's toys are capable of 1080p video but, even though it's so widespread, it's only been in the past few years with cameras like the ARRI Alexa, Sony F/FS series, and the newer HDSLR cameras that people have noticed how good 1080p can look. Naturally, it's because technology and storage have caught up so that compression isn't much of an issue anymore. It's never been easier or cheaper to use uncompressed HD workflows for mainstream use and more and more cameras are being made to allow for that, like the Nikon D800. More advanced compression plays into this as well so even the compressed 1080p is looking better than ever. Getting back to the distribution side of things, projectors and media players are getting better at converting material to newer standards, like SD to HD with DVD and signal upscaling, and now there's going to be the next stage with the aforementioned 1080p to 4K upscaling. So, if anything, Prores will live as long as there is a demand for 1080p material.
 
Yep, been using ProRes at 4K resolution for a couple years now...
 
Like all closed systems, it will die, unless it is opened up to PC users.
 
The only reason ProRes would die would be if Apple made something better, remember Pixlet? I'm not sure if anyone uses that anymore but I didn't see it in the codec list of my quicktime player 7 export list.
 
Tom Lowe said:
Like all closed systems, it will die, unless it is opened up to PC users.
Click to expand...

Yup, like Jeff said, Avid's DNxHD is cross platform, free, and looks great.

I have more clients asking for their deliverable in it than ProRes these days.
 
Prores 4444 is a useful intermediate for compositing with its alpha layers. Not that hard on the processor. I have no idea what to compare this to in the PC world, but it is useful in many ways for what it is.

I may check out dnxhd a little more though given the comments here.
 
Is DNxHD codec/encoding free, or do you need to have avid to use it? Any format that requires you purchase the host software will eventually die, it's just a matter of how long it will take. The resolution changing of the guard (4k and beyond) will expedite "legacy" formats demise... I currently use ProRes because that's what people ask for, but wish I didn't have to (especially because of the mac requirement/limitation).
 
One of the reasons I'm asking the question is with Premiere Pro. So I moved from FCP7 in a very comfortable ProRes world to a better R3D workflow world but I am asking myself what the end deliverable should be. DNxHD is Avid and ProRes is Apple. For FCP7 and MC users the choice seems simple. For PPro, what are people generally using as their deliverable?
 
James McLellan said:
One of the reasons I'm asking the question is with Premiere Pro. So I moved from FCP7 in a very comfortable ProRes world to a better R3D workflow world but I am asking myself what the end deliverable should be. DNxHD is Avid and ProRes is Apple. For FCP7 and MC users the choice seems simple. For PPro, what are people generally using as their deliverable?
Click to expand...

Well, DNxHD is Avid but it's an open standard so it's a hell of a lot better than ProRes.

Though yes - the lack of an Adobe-made equivalent is a huge disadvantage for Premiere vs Avid in my opinion. I have no idea why they didn't buy Cineform!

Media Composer 6.5 just added built-in support for JPEG2000 archiving standards as well, so the gap is widening.

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
Don't sleep on FCPX

Don't sleep on FCPX

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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

My point above. FCP is far from dead.
 
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