Can ProRes 4:2:2 HQ QT be used on a Windows7 PC with CS5?

[msp1518]

Gents, I know little about ProRes, other than it is loved by the MAC. Well, I don't have a MAC. I have a PC. But can I use ProRes 4:2:2 HQ QT in editing on a PC?

Here is the deal, I am shooting a wedding in April and the company I want to use for the 8mm scans can provide ProRes 4:2:2 HQ QT or High Def. Blackmagic 8 bit. Blackmagic is HUGE so thats out. But ProRes/ Can Premiere Pro handle it?

Half the footage will be High Definition from a DSLR camera so using that, plus ProRes would obviously be a mix and mixing is not ideal.

Forgive me for asking. I have researched this, but am unclear and would appreciate some assistance.

[lasvideo]

Yes, you can only playback Prores on PC.

http://support.apple.com/downloads/Apple_ProRes_QuickTime_Decoder_1_0_for_Windows

[msp1518]

I'm not exactly sure what that means... "only playback"

When I finish my edit, can I out put a Blu-Ray and also MPEG2 or MPEG4 video for Vimeo, etc?

[shooternz · Accepted solution]

You can edit Prores HQ or Prores422 or Prores LT in Premiere (assuming a suitably empowered system.)

HQ is probably excessive for your needs.

422 is more than adequate

and LT would do the job fine.

They are just different datarates.

lasvideo is telling you that you can not encode to Prores from a PC but thats not an issue in your case.

FWIW : It is actually possible to export Prores from a Windows PC. ( another story)

[Todd_Kopriva]

Just to confirm what shooternz and lasvideo have already told you:

I use ProRes 422 footage in Premiere Pro on Windows 7 almost every day. But I have to output to a different format, since Apple doesn't provide an encoder for Windows.

[welchphoto]

I just found this question, so to be clear is it Premiere 6 or will 5.5 play ProRes? And are there any plugin from apple required?

I edit on Premiere 5.5 now on Win 7. I plan on upgrading to 6 soon.

Also a related question, should I be able to output a .MOV file in HD? I only see SD Quicktime.

Thanks

Dennis

[SAFEHARBOR11]

Hi Dennis,

YES, you can edit ProRes clips in CS5.5 and CS6 on the PC. If QuickTime (free) is installed, you have the codec for playback. There was a hitch I believe with CS5.5 that IF the ProRes clip had 4-channel audio, it did not work, but then it was fixed with a later update from Adobe. CS6 is trouble free. Note that you cannot export to ProRes (there is a third-party freeware hack method, but nothing from Adobe).

I never export to QuickTime, so cannot answer your question on that. I would ask why you need .mov - are you sharing a file with a Mac editor or something? Otherwise there are plenty of other codecs I would use.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera

Safe Harbor

[nw42]

On Windows you can read Prores files via Quicktime decoder but can't write them because there is no encoder in Quicktime.

Only a few programs can write Prores on Windows - they bring their own encoder with them. (ffmpeg or some Premiere Plugins for example)

For sure you can export Quicktime Video in SD, HD and whatever resolution the QT codecs support.

Quicktime DNXHD would be a good choice to exchange material in mastering quality between Mac & Win and across all programms supporting Quicktime.

[welchphoto]

Thanks

[Cinemanate]

What about editing 10-bit Prores from the Panasonic GH4 + Atomos Shogun on a PC?  Can I just color it in AE and render the same colors and contrast I'm seeing in AE Panels?   Because when I try, the render (Jpeg image capture or full movie render) ends up washed out looking, less contrast and saturation.  Am I suppose to convert footage before grading in AE? or Just render to diff codec?

Desperate for help,

Thanks much!

[HarleyTDavis]

This is a moldy oldy...

Hey, how are you?  Just thought I'd let you know that the color you get with ProRes will be different after rendering through AE to a different format.  ProRes has full luma and chroma adaptation in hq, 422, and LT, though it does compress down in 422 and LT.  The adaptation is based on an algorithm that expresses smaller changes in color, gama, luma and chroma across smaller areas.  This gives a more vibrant gama look, but can wash out when passed out to a jpeg frame or mp4 video (based on jpeg frames).  The reason is pretty simple, the compression of the color truncates the values, squeezing them closer together, making them more solid and washing out a lot of the variation that provides more contrast and gama.  Red colors tend to show it the most.  Sometimes they are "Too Red" coming from Pro-Res to Windows.  The way to fix this... ....There really isn't one that's perfect.  But if you can find a few frames or a few seconds to use for calibration in a three color picker to balance, you can get close.  You want a white value, a black value and a grey that should match across both, write the number values down from the pro res file, then encode it.   Then mark the re-encode with the threecolor picker in the same frames for black, white and grey.  Now add another threecolor picker, put in manual values from your pro-res, which will stretch the other values out (almost averaging them in some cases, but in others, seems to get so close you barely tell any difference).  I don't exactly know why it works, pound for pound, but I've used it once or twice and the results were acceptable.  After you get them looking close, grade your color as you see fit with your re-encode.

[welchphoto]

Hi Jeff

Thanks for the answer, I have an upcoming project that will be delivered to me in ProRes I have never tried to edit in ProRes before. I have received .Mov files that I could not open that were an HD format but I didn't know if it was ProRes or some other .mov that only an apple could open. I will up grade to 6 before I start this new project.

My question about output in .mov HD was because I had a problem last week I had received some .mov files from England, not in PAL, that played fine and they were HD. I needed to send the edited version to an editor working in MAC FC and I wanted to send .MOV hd but I could not find a Quicktime HD in the preset for Quicktime. I gave it to them in MP4 HD and all seems to be fine.

I have Quicktime 7 pro on my computer does that interface with premiere?

Any suggestions of plugin I should get for the upgrade?

Thanks

Dennis

[cc_merchant]

‌The beauty of using Prores with any CS version is that you cripple your machine to a 32-bit crappy system with less than 3.3 GB of usable memory.

[HarleyTDavis]

The new Pro Res codecs actually run on 64bit with 64bit spaces.  However, in order to encode them on a PC you need to install a sh--load of open source software, and then run a frameserver inplementation and have it output straight from premiere instead of from Media Encoder.  This can be gotten around...  IF adobe can get media encoder to open the frame stream and make it accessible to external redirects through a codec, you could, in theory, run the frameserver in media encoder, and queue your work.  Alternatively, import the timeline cold into after effects, and send it to a renderserver on another machine that outputs through frameserver.  Queue several timelines in after effects this way for a more "Media Encoder" experience.  In CS5, you are in 32bits most of the way anyway, and in cs6 you are in 32bits on import of pro-res, but export is implementation dependent (ie, 64bit frameserver and ffmpeg yield 64bit processing output).  In CC you are, in fact, in 64bit memory space most of the way, allowing even 444 prores to show beautiful, accurate color.  If you have the open source implementations that allow it, you can downconvert to 32bit (if you installed 32bit ffmpeg and frameserver), or if you're better than I am at it, you can get a 64bit re-encode with the 64bit implementation.  Ta and DA.  I hope this was helpful, and thank you everybody for your input.  You're all awesome.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Yes, edit in ProRes. You can mix ProRes footage with your DSLR footage (ideally the same frame size and frame rate) on the timeline. Output to the export codec of your choice for output (H.264, MPEG-2, etc.) when you're done.

[lasvideo]

This thread reminds me of the old joke,

"How many editors does it take to edit in Prores on a PC"?

Answer - "One, and three to explain how to do it"