• Avid Media Composer

  Prores & Prores Proxy transcoding – MC 6

  Posted by Simon Bills on July 17, 2012 at 9:10 am

  Hello,

  I have ripped a DVD into ProRes 422 for editing in Avid

  The resulting file is about 30 gig – “DVD.mov”

  In AVID, I then linked the file using AMA – but found MC6 to be pretty sluggish whild trying to edit. (I am using a mid 2009 17″ MBP with 8 gig of RAM)

  I would like to transcode this file to prores proxy but when I go to Clip / Colsolidate/Transode – and select “Prores Proxy MXF” – the ‘Transcode’ button is greyed out and not available. (although if I select “HDV 720p” – the “Transcode” button becomes active)

  

  I have attached a screenshot. I think this is to do with the ‘space available / space required’ – bit I have 40 gig free on the drive and the ProRes version of my file should be much smaller than that – or am I missing something ?

  If anyone could help me understand why this is that case – that would be amazing.

  Cheers

  Simon (New user)

  Christopher Bjelland replied 14 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Richard Sanchez

  July 17, 2012 at 2:36 pm

  It definitely has to do with your space available / space required. You mentioned you ripped a DVD, so your Pro Res file is clearly standard definition, but you mentioned transcoding to 720p HDV. Have you tried changing your Project Format from 720 to NTSC? That way, you’ll be transcoding to standard def which will also take up less space.

  Also keep in mind, if all you have left is 40 gigs on your drive and you want to transcode a file that you anticipate taking up 30 or so gigs, your hard drive will get very full and you might see a performance hit. In general, you want to always keep your hard drives about 20% empty for best performance. You can push it to 10, but any less than that and you risk both performance, and potential file corruption.

  Richard Sanchez
  Los Angeles, CA

  “We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
• 

  Simon Bills

  July 17, 2012 at 3:55 pm

  Thanks very much for the info Richard – superb!

  What I did last night was to create a new project – and File/Import the original ProRes File (ProRes 422 – 720×576 (1024×576) qt_apcn)

  In the import dialogue – under the ‘Resolution’ drop down menu, I selected ‘Apple ProRes Proxy MXF’ – and clicked ‘Open’.

  I understand that will transcode my original file into ProRes Proxy – is that right?

  It took about 3 hours and now I can see and edit the new file in my project.

  What I would like to know is – when I am ready to export, how do I relink to my original full rez ProRes file?

  Also – when I look at the source of the transcoded file – it still points to the original ProRes file and not the new Proxy Mxf files. (although , when I do a ‘Reveal File’ – it does go to the new Proxy transcode)

  Any info much appreciated

  Kindest Regards

  Simon
• 

  Christopher Bjelland

  July 17, 2012 at 9:22 pm

  Why on earth would you want to use that backwards and inferior codec? avoid it if you can, use the open source DNXHD codec, unlike the prores codec this will not ruin your images with blocky colours and mad banding issues.

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