ProRes codec available on Windows

[Paul Gale]

Anyone seen this:

DNxHD VC-3 ProRes Codecs Overview

Apparently allows full ProRes and DNxHD support on both Mac and Windows.

I don't know if it works within Premiere Pro CC although I've asked them to confirm - and what performance etc is like.

For $50 worth a look though - especially if it works with CD Odyssey 7Q files soon to make an appearance.

Paul.

[Chris Medico]

That looks interesting. I wonder if this has been fully blessed by Apple.

One thing to remember with using the MOV wrapper on a Windows machine is Apple has yet to fix the gamma shift bug in quicktime. I just got a nice dose of the problem while doing color correction job on a ProRes project. When exporting from Resolve all the MXF renders round-tripped fine but the MOV renders did not.

The lesson is if you have a choice for container choose something other than MOV when rendering/importing ProRes or DNxHD material. Your gamma will thank you.

[Paul Gale]

I think they have to get certification don't they - like Convergent Design has to for writing ProRes files? But then if it's not official ProRes, maybe not - but aren't they then falling foul of patents etc? I presume ProRes is patented?

some talk on twitter that this solution is an ffmpeg solution - not sure I like that at all.

[Chris Medico]

FFMPEG is an awesome utility and it does work quite well. It isn't operator friendly unless you use one of the readily available GUIs.

FFMPEG isn't "approved" by any organization so it isn't considered "professional". With that said I do use it when other tools such as Squeeze fails me. It is a very valuable and useful utility to have in your pocket. I highly recommend learning how to use it. Even if its only a plan-b.

[Paul Gale]

I did use FFMPEG a long time ago and was comfortable with it but not used it in a long time.

These days, I much prefer to stick to AME for outputs from P Pro and sometimes AE, although that's usually image sequences.

[Paul Gale]

Just got this from Miraizon:

Yes, our codecs will work fine under Windows 8.1.

Since the codecs install as QuickTime components, they will be available to all applications that support QuickTime including Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects. For example, in Premiere just choose Export Media and then you will see the new codecs available as Video codecs. You will also be able to import MOV files that are encoded with DNxHD or ProRes and edit them.

The performance of our codecs should be quite good, and it will improve if you have more CPUs on your machine. The encoding speed of our DNxHD codec is as good as Avid, and our ProRes codec may be slightly faster than Apple's codec. Both codecs can play 1920x1080 HD video in real time on a reasonably fast machine.


Sounds promising :)

[Chris Medico]

Originally Posted by Paul Gale

Just got this from Miraizon:

Yes, our codecs will work fine under Windows 8.1.

Since the codecs install as QuickTime components, they will be available to all applications that support QuickTime including Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects. For example, in Premiere just choose Export Media and then you will see the new codecs available as Video codecs. You will also be able to import MOV files that are encoded with DNxHD or ProRes and edit them.

The performance of our codecs should be quite good, and it will improve if you have more CPUs on your machine. The encoding speed of our DNxHD codec is as good as Avid, and our ProRes codec may be slightly faster than Apple's codec. Both codecs can play 1920x1080 HD video in real time on a reasonably fast machine.


Sounds promising :)

The part in bold above is a serious problem for anyone editing on the PC side of the fence. It won't be a real improvement unless they support containers other than MOV.

[Paul Gale]

Yes true. I hate MOV, always have done ;)

[Roy Feldman]

Or for half the price: ClipToolz Home

[Paul Gale]

That's a stand alone app though. The codecs I posted are supposed to work inside of PPro, AME, AE etc etc.

[Paul Gale]

Well I tried it - bought the codecs and encoding to both ProRes and DNxHD seems to work well. Even tried a 4K ProRes 422 HQ encode from 4K RAW Odyssey 7Q footage. Takes a while to encode though, even with the CODECs being multi threaded.

I have got a problem I'm working through with their tech support though with serious problems playing Odyssey 7Q ProRes files on the Premiere Pro timeline. They just won't play. Not sure yet what's causing the issue and whether it's possibly SLog2 footage. Still testing. If I uninstall the codecs the files play fine just using the native QT codecs (no encoding options then though of course).

[Alen Watts]

Hi Paul,

"I have got a problem I'm working through with their tech support though with serious problems playing Odyssey 7Q ProRes files on the Premiere Pro timeline. They just won't play. Not sure yet what's causing the issue and whether it's possibly SLog2 footage. Still testing. If I uninstall the codecs the files play fine just using the native QT codecs (no encoding options then though of course)."


Just wondering if you got any further with this? Were you using Premiere version 6?

[John Mastrogiacomo]

I asked Miraizon this question today:

"I heard there was a problem playing back Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q ProRes files from within PP CC 2014. Do you know if this problem has been addressed yet?"

This is the reply I got back from David at Miraizon:

"We are not aware of any problems in playing back Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q ProRes files. Generally, if a ProRes file was not created using our codec, it will play back using the built-in ProRes playback-only component in QuickTime."

[Nick denBoer]

I've purchased the MiraizonPro Res / dnxhd codec and it works great for exporting ProRes on Pc with Premiere / Media encoder.

I had problems opening / reading Pro Res files at first but it was due to a conflict with existing avid codecs installed in the quicktime components folder. Once removed, I was able to read proRes files.

I still have glitches when working with some ProRes 422LT files using the little endian audio codec in Premiere CC2014. It freezes the video in the timeline and I have to restart Premiere. 422 HQ files work without issue.

Media encoder can convert to and from ProRes no problem.

My main objective was to be able to deliver ProRes to my client from my PC and for $50, this is a great solution.

[Michael Gyori]

Originally Posted by Chris Medico

The part in bold above is a serious problem for anyone editing on the PC side of the fence. It won't be a real improvement unless they support containers other than MOV.

Has this gamma problem with ProRes in the MOV container been fixed?