Best editting codec for Premiere Pro

[Dave Brandt]

Hi
Premiere doesn’t have an editing codec like final cut or avid. It works with most files natively. If you are given a choice it’s hard to decide and personal preference will play a large part. Nearly all production codecs work well. Personally I would choose apple prores for its wide acceptance throughout the industry. Avid dnxhd is good also and has the advantage of being read and write on windows whereas prores is read only. Xdcam is another good editing codec. The list goes on and on…..

Hope that helps

Dave
https://www.solidmedia.ie

Macbook Pro 17″ i7 2.2 8GB
iMac i7 2.8 16GB
FCP 7 FCPX Adobe CS 5.5

[Tim Kolb]

Chances are that you can easily handle whatever codec the footage is shot in…no conversion is necessary.

ProRes is a standard for Mac. It’s a bottleneck on Windows.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Dave Brandt]

Tim, what exactly do you mean by bottleneck and
could you please support your statement with some evidence?
I use prores on windows all the time and find it to be super smooth and very robust. Maybe there is something wrong with your setup?
Dave
https://www.solidmedia.ie

Macbook Pro 17″ i7 2.2 8GB
iMac i7 2.8 16GB
FCP 7 FCPX Adobe CS 5.5

[Tom Daigon]

Dave, I avoid Prores on the PC for 2 reasons.

1.You can only playback Prores you cant encode (legally) to it on a PC.

2. It uses qt32server to bridge the gap between fast 64bit (CS6 apps) and older 32 bit applications like QuickTime. This acts as a major bottleneck in the workflow and effectively slows down processes dramatically.

I use MXF OP1a AVC-100 to master to. When I export it goes about 2X faster then if I used a QT based codec like Prores or DNxHD.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Daniel Herter]

Thanks for the replies! I asked for the footage in Apple Prores. I’m editing on a Mac so I don’t expect to experience any problems.

[Tom Daigon]

Prores’s performance on your Mac is dependent on your computers components(i.e., processors, GPU, raid,ram, etc).

FCP is optimized for Prores. Premiere is not, thought it plays back it and lots of other media natively.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Walter Soyka]

[Dave Brandt] “Tim, what exactly do you mean by bottleneck and could you please support your statement with some evidence?”

I’ll try to give the short summation.

Premiere Pro is a 64-bit application, but the QuickTime libraries are only 32-bit, meaning that Premiere cannot interface with QuickTime directly. In order to read ProRes files via QuickTime, Premiere uses a 32-bit “Adobe QT32 Server” helper process. This is a separate 32-bit application which handles QuickTime I/O and communicates with 64-bit Premiere via the system’s internal network stack.

Contrast this with other, more open formats which Adobe can support in a 64-bit application directly (via their own MediaCore engine) without relying on 32-bit helper processes and network I/O. Note that not all QuickTime files must be read via QuickTime; MediaCore can handle many QuickTime codecs itself. However, proprietary QuickTime codecs like ProRes and DNxHD must be handled via QuickTime in the manner described above.

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

[Micz Kicz]

Hi there guys!

I would like – if you don’t mind – to pick up the topic in slightly changed conditions.

I’m editing right now a set of image sequences (16-bit PNG in 2K).

My specs:

[Tom Daigon]

Hi Michael. I am also running CS6 on a PC (Z-820).

My first instinct is that you really need a fast external raid array to be able to play media of that size. It might be a good idea to download the free AJA drive speed app to see what performance you are getting.

AJA KONA System Test Version 1.2 located here.

https://www.aja.com/en/support/kona/mac/kona-3/

I have a Dulce DQg2 raid that gets about 1000MB/sec read and write speeds. It allows me to play Red 4K files back at 1/2 res. (2K) in real time with no rendering.

Sorry, I dont have any experience with images sequences.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Walter Soyka]

I agree with Tom. This is almost certainly an issue of disk speed. Two drives in a RAID 0 configuration will not be able to keep up with a 2K PNG image sequence.

Image sequences are difficult with small RAIDs like this not just because of the overall data rate, but because the disk access pattern is demanding. You’re not just reading one large file; you’re reading hundreds and hundreds of little ones.

A lightly compressed movie codec like CineForm will be much easier to use on your system.

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