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ProresHQ not ready for primetime
After struggling through many days of freezups and crashes we have decided to abandon prores HQ in favor of DVCPROHD. We have come to the conclusion that this codec is too unstable and buggy for deadline sensitive projects. We are cutting a multi episode series shot on HDCAM. We are delivering HDCAM masters(1080i 29.97). The first two episodes were done using Prores HQ and the third used DVCPRO HD. The third episode went off without a single problem, not one crash…this is why we feel the Prores HQ codec is the problem. When I have more time to troubleshoot I would like to try an episode using the regular prores (not HQ) to see if the stability is any different. Most crashes occured when rendering (progress would get to 99% then freeze) and when roundtripping to motion. Other crashes happened when simply moving around in the timeline. Basic editing in the timeline was also a lot slower with prores (to be expected I guess). We are capturing through a kona 3 from HDCAM using an 8core mac with FCP 6.02. Storage is fibrechannel using facillis terrablock. I would love to hear other peoples experiences with prores at HD resolutions.
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13 Replies
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I use pro res HQ without any of the problems you describe.
Gary
Mac Pro 3Ghz Intel Dual Duo, 6GB RAM, 30″ ACD
MacBook Pro 17″
Sony XDCAM EX with a Sachtler Tripod System -
You shouldn’t be having any of those problems, and you shouldn’t be having performance lag on an 8-core Mac. I would test using a different system if that’s a possibility. Also check your settings. AJA got a few of the ProRes settings wrong in their Easy Setups.
Sean
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If you research this forum, ProRes 1080i seems to have issues right now. 720 is working fine here, but we have not tested 1080i yet, but reading this forum and the Color forum, there do seem to be issues with 1080i ProRes.
FWIW, we have used the DVCPro HD workflow for over 75 broadcast HD Masters that were delivered in 1080i HDCAM. No Quality Control issues at all and in fact, we have received kudos for the quality of our work. I continue to use the DVCPro HD workflow for this very reason.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow! -
Sean, could you elaborate on the prores settings that AJA got wrong?
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Sean, could you elaborate on the prores settings that AJA got wrong?
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[Chris Campbell] “Sean, could you elaborate on the prores settings that AJA got wrong?”
Sure. For 1080i ProRes, go into sequence settings and click the advanced button to bring up the QT settings menu. Make sure “Interlaced Top Field” is selected, and that 4:4:4 is not selected.
Sean
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Wow this is good to know and totally unexpected (720 being ok but 1080i having issues)
I guess I’m glad that our G5 quad being unable to capture prores HD forced us into DVCPRO-HD for TV show post, which has not had any issues at all.
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I haven’t seen other topics specific to ProRes 1080i (other than this one) except for people trying to do it on PPC machines. I did a very large concert project using ProRes(HQ) 1080i from start to finish and it was fine. And this was before the 6.01 update. Sending to Color was a disaster, but that’s because I had created multiclips which Color cannot handle.
Just be aware the DVCProHD 1080i is only 1280×1080 (it downrezzes it from 1920×1080).
Sean
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[Sean ONeil] “Just be aware the DVCProHD 1080i is only 1280×1080 (it downrezzes it from 1920×1080).”
yes, and before I knew much about it, I would dismiss it automatically because of that fact.
But after actually looking closely at it, doing generation loss tests, testing compositing round trips: FCP to AE to FCP and also reading about Walter & Shane’s successes, I decided that full raster is a non-issue.
I’m very satisfied with the stability and flexability of DVCPRO-HD 1080.
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[Sean ONeil] “Just be aware the DVCProHD 1080i is only 1280×1080 (it downrezzes it from 1920×1080).”
Actually NTSC DVCPro HD is 1280×1080. PAL DVCPro HD 1080i/50, is 1440×1080. 720 DVCPro HD is 720×960.
HDV is anamorphic as well.
Anamorphic doesn’t cause any issues as far as final quality.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR
The new Color Training DVD now available from the Creative Cow!
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