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Apple ProRes 422 HQ different result from one machine to another
Hello,
I have a situation that make me a little bit confused and hoping somebody could answer my problem.
I work in an small animation company which had 2 FCP machines, (i) for editing and (ii) for data wrangler. (I’m currently working in (ii)). Our work flow is to get the CG image sequences from our server & converted into Apple ProRes 422 HQ quicktime, edit the clips, and then deliver as Apple ProRes HQ to the tape recording company.
Basically the pipeline is like this, my machine (ii) converted the image sequences into Apple ProRes 422 HQ with Compressor. Then I send the QTs to fcp machine (i) for editing. The machine (i) export the QT in FCP using QT conversion as Apple ProRes 422 HQ. The result QT file is good and the color from the QT are the same with the CG image.
But because of the deadline & the amount of workload in FCP machine (i) is too many, so my machine (ii) is ready to help out exporting for the final QT. Until something terribly happened. The QT result from my machine (ii) came different with the machine (i). The gamma is shift down and make the color in that QT more darker than the original CG image sequence. What’s wrong with that ?
So I tried out to export in other different method, such as use export QT movie in FCP & send to Compressor. Both method weren’t working. They still produce a darker image in my machine (ii). Is this mean that every ProRes codec in each machine has a different information value base on their OSx update ? see because we got a different update of OSx in each machine.
Any body care to give an answer ?
Thanks.this are the specification of both machine:
machine (i) editing
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Mac OS X Version 10.5.8
Model Identifier: MacPro4,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Memory: 6 GB
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
QuickTime™ Version 7.6.9 (1680.9)
Final Cut 7.0machine (ii) data wrangler
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Mac OS X Version 10.6.7
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Memory: 6 GB
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
QuickTime™ Version 10.0 (118.1)
Final Cut 7.0.3 -
7 Replies
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well you have two different versions of quicktime, that could be it.
always best to be running the exact same software versions on both machines for consistency
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I’ve had the same thing happen. I had two Macs render the same compositions in After Effects to ProRes 422. One Mac is a G5 with FCP 6, the other an Intel Mac with FCP 7. The Intel rendered with a darker gamma.
On the Intel Mac, switching the ProRes codec’s gamma setting between “None” and “Automatic” doesn’t make a difference. On the PowerMac, there is no gamma setting.
I haven’t found a solution yet.
Chris Linke
PRC Digital Media
http://www.prcdigital.com -
[Chris Linke] “I’ve had the same thing happen. I had two Macs render the same compositions in After Effects to ProRes 422. One Mac is a G5 with FCP 6, the other an Intel Mac with FCP 7. The Intel rendered with a darker gamma.”
Beside the possible QT mismatch pointed by Chris, probably the Intel is running SL (gamma 2.2) while the G5’s gamma should be at 1.8.
See if QT Player has checked the “Allow FC Compatibility”, and try to compare the picture at the same screen gamma. That doesn’t grants any success. What you get on your Mac monitor depends of too many things.
The only way to avoid those issues is using an external monitor for references.
rafael -
[Chris Linke] “One Mac is a G5 with FCP 6, the other an Intel Mac with FCP 7.”
the G5 has a different implementation of ProRes.
again…matching software to machines helps.
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[Chris Borjis] “the G5 has a different implementation of ProRes.”
(smacks head hard) And we accept this why? I suspected architecture was the problem, but dadgummit it’s still frustrating.
Thank you.
Chris Linke
PRC Digital Media
http://www.prcdigital.com -
[Rafael Amador] “The only way to avoid those issues is using an external monitor for references.”
Hi Rafael,
Actually in the machine (i) already had a broadcast monitor, but not in machine (ii). And also the information in the vectorscope monitor, the value of each QT are different.
[Chris Borjis] “again…matching software to machines helps.”
Is it only the software ? or we should match the hardware too ?
thanks
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[Taufik Ramadhan] “s it only the software ? or we should match the hardware too ?”
yes match software.
yes match hardware (g5 only or intel only)
one of the forum members here pointed out the quality of prores was better on intel machines, I did testing and found that to be true.
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