adobe and native 4:4:4 codecs

[Erik Lindahl]

I guess ProRes 4444 is your best bet given it’s not “Adobe Native” and I guess you’d be required to use a Mac for an efficient workflow. That said, ProRes 4444 is only 12-bit. But the CC Oct 2013 release will feature better, 64-bit native ProRes i/o (again on OSX).

But yes, this is an Achilles heel for Adobe. They claim they don’t want to introduce yet another codec between ProRes, DnXHD, DPX, EXR and what not. I understand that but if that’s the case they need to license a solid codec from someone else – be that ProRes, Cineform or similar.

[Tim Kolb]

Not sure what would constitute “optimized”…I guess maybe being able to “smart render” with the given codec?

Adobe handles everything…ProRes playback has improved markedly even on the Windows side (obviously encoding is available on the Mac side).

Compressed 4:4:4 codecs aren’t that common…CineForm has one of course, but DNxHD doesn’t even have a frame size beyond HD at this point, much less 4:4:4 color sampling, so it’s hard to know where it will shake out.

I doubt there is a 4:4:4 color sample spec inside an H265 profile, but I guess we’ll have to see where it goes.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Walter Soyka]

[al ellis] “Hi all, i seem to remember adobe promising to come out with native codecs of their own optimised for adobe products, including a 4:4:4 16 bit vers. Has it happened?, will it happen? was it just wishful thinking on my part in the first place.”

Sadly, it was wishful thinking — though I suspect it was wishful thinking that a great deal of us shared…

I too use CineForm and I think it’s fantastic. I’ve used 16b DPX files to go to systems that don’t support CineForm. (Be aware that you’ll probably need a fast RAID to keep up with the data rate of an uncompressed image sequence).

DNxHD does support RGB 444 at 10b, but as Tim mentions, it’s HD-only.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Tim Kolb]

[Walter Soyka] “DNxHD does support RGB 444 at 10b, but as Tim mentions, it’s HD-only.”

Yes…and interesting how Avid needs to double it’s data rate to get from Y’CbCr 4:2:2 to RGB 4:4:4 (220 to 440), whereas ProRes…somehow…maintains they make the same leap for only 50% more data (220 to 330)…something I’ve been curious about for years…

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Ivan Myles]

[Walter Soyka] “DNxHD does support RGB 444 at 10b, but as Tim mentions, it’s HD-only.”

Does 10-bit DNxHD 4:4:4 work? My attempts to use it resulted in green, stretched video.

[Walter Soyka]

That’s strange — works beautifully over here.

Are you using DNxHD in MOV by chance? I’m using it in MXF.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Ivan Myles]

Yes, it’s the MOV wrapper using CS6 on a Win7-SP1 system.