PCCS5 Adventure begins

[Mohammed El Sharqawy]

That's a good question. I have no idea what is they codec that Adobe uses for this, if it even has a name.

Native means native.. when you are working on R3Ds the are read from the native files to the engine which renders you a preview image on the fly while you work..
when you need to render previews.. the preview files are rendered in MPEG2-I frame.. which is a lossy format.. but this is just for preview..
then when you export your final work, premiere reads back from the original files and renders the highest possible quality output the never went through any intermediate codec..
the codecs that is discussed here are used to be the intermediates if needed.. say, you need to add some stuff on the video the needs to be rendered from an external application.. then you need an intermediate codec..
FCP is a strict quicktime application, it simply can't read the native files if they are not converted (on the fly or pre-converted as proxies) through quicktime.. that why apple invested in a good intermediate codec.. just lack of technology.. on the other side adobe invests development on reading the native original files as they are with highest quality direct processing, the use of gpu power and benefiting from 64-bit architicture you get realtime playback..

 

[Olivier Madar]

Olivier, it is a great myth that ProRes is "visually lossless". The fact of the matter is it is a lossy codec. In fact, it throws away an alarming amount of information! Check this difference test: http://thomasberglund.no/misc/codecwars09/. The grabs indicate how much information is thrown away or lost. ProRes 4444 is the only acceptable codec, in my opinion. That is why, I always, always, stick to a lossless codec. But of course, do your own difference test and see it for yourself. By the way, the tests above are on a very simple shot. A more complex shot and you throw away even more information!

Here's another article which briefs on the most popular lossless codecs: http://www.videopia.org/index.php/read/articles-mainmenu-229/576-lossless-codec-quick-survey.html. It doesn't mention UT, which is very fast. For archival purposes, you could also use MSU Lossless, which boasts an average compression ratio of 4:1. The drawback is that it is slow. So, next time you transcode to ProRes or Cineform, think again! One could say - "Oh, but in the final deliverable after all the compression you won't really see a difference". But why waste when you have an option? PC has a far broader range of codecs, of all kinds, and many of them are free.

As for Premiere Pro's native codec. Are you referring to the "Render Preview" option? Personally, I never use it. There's not much use when you have a real-time preview in the software! But in my trial, I noticed it is MPEG-2 PS. If you mean what is used internally, then it is native. There's no transcoding going on whatsoever for the precaching. Sometimes, I would want a HQ preview, a final draft of sorts, in which case I render out to x264VfW CRF 15 Ultrafast. It is a better option than DNxHD 36 and Cineform Low. (And presumably ProRes LT) If you choose "no codec", then it is Uncompressed, I think.

On older dual-core machines with 2GB RAM, a lossy intraframe codec might make sense. But on a modern machine, the lossless codecs are not a bottleneck.

Thank you very much for these informations !

I am waiting my PC and I will do some tests before choosing the best solution. I am happy to use Vegas again (I was used to it 3 years ago but I leave it with the Mac).

Olivier