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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 :)

ProRes Encoding on PC?

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Dave Cox

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So I have been watching the Mac Pro situation for a while, and am always looking at better ways to do the same job. Being able to replace a Mac Pro with a rack-mountable PC with 7 PCI slots and some kind of 6-core CPU seems like a really good option for the next generation of loading stations.

One thing that people request a lot though is ProRes encoding for dailies. Is there any way, hardware or software, to render to ProRes on a windows workstation? Given that I'm already saving the cost of a PCI expansion chassis with a PC, a hardware-based solution is not out of the question if it can get the job done.

Anyone know the answer to this? I've been googling for about a half hour and I'm getting curious!

Thanks!
 
There is now an open-source ProRes encoder through FFMPEG that is coming along nicely. Several RedUser members are using it with Linux and report that it is significantly better than the Apple product, but I have no idea how it performs under Windows.
 
I personally think DNxHD is better, especially now with DNxHD 444. Apple is also moving away from ProRes with it's A/V Foundation. Does FFMPEG actually encode ProRes or just decode?
 
Both. But the decoder is a bit further along than the encoder at this point.
 
Is it a freeware or what it is it? Where can I download it? What type of ProRes can it handle? All the way up to ProRes 4444?
 
Christoffer Glans said:
Is it a freeware or what it is it? Where can I download it? What type of ProRes can it handle? All the way up to ProRes 4444?
Click to expand...

ffmpeg is and always has been an open source project. All you have to do is google "ffmpeg prores" and you'll get all the information you want. Fair warning: if you're looking for a custom built, gui driven, do-it-yourself-even-if-you-know-nothing-about-it prebuilt application, you're not going to find that because that's not what it's about.
 
ProRes encoding works great on Windows, and yes, a lot faster than the Apple's OS X encoder. It will be even faster once they optimize multithreading. Grab the latest Zeranoe build, insert these in your ffmpeg frontend: "-vcodec prores -acodec" between the input and output strings - that's all to get started. The default is ProRes 422 HQ. Only restriction for encoding so far is ProRes 4444 is missing - but should be available in a future build. As far as I know, none of ffmpeg's GUI frontends integrate ProRes natively, but that is just a matter of time.

Decoding has been around for months and is extremely fast and stable.
 
Awesome, this is really helpful. I will definitely be looking into this possibility. Thanks!
 
Can anyone either confirm or deny whether or not Resolve for Windows can export to ProRes? That would be super nice (though I don't have high hopes for it) :-)
 
Tony Lorentzen said:
Can anyone either confirm or deny whether or not Resolve for Windows can export to ProRes? That would be super nice (though I don't have high hopes for it) :-)
Click to expand...

At this point the answer is no. Read, yes. Write, no.
 
Dave Cox said:
Awesome, this is really helpful. I will definitely be looking into this possibility. Thanks!
Click to expand...
They've posted a new major release just yesterday, dec 11th.
 
I have a parallel patch processing GUI for ffmpeg, ffmbc etc.
Download here: AnotherGUI

It doesn't have ProRes preset included now but it is very easy to create yourself.
I will add it later tomorrow.

Only some presets are included in download.
You can download more presets from Presets page.

It is freeware. Its portable.

Regards
Priit

EDIT: 4 presets for ProRes are now included in basic download pakage.
 
u could always just have a mac on standby with a copy of resolve and throw the dongle on that to write to pro res, you can have a shared database. render times are slower, but the performance on the system is usually more important for real time color than the final output.
 
Hey guys I just found out about this ffmpeg ant anothereGUI but it doesn't seem to be able to encode from r3d files or even proxies....Am I missing something?
 
Actually it is possible to convert Red files using Avisynth and Gabor's plugin.
Homepage here. Old thread here
ffmpeg is able to process Avisynth AVS files.
The problem is that Avisynth is 8-bit only.
We make files for offline using Gabor's plugin.

I have a batch R3D -> AVS creator.
Let me know you if like to have this.

Priit
 
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