Converting Prores RAW without loosing quality

[Craig Seeman]

[Grzegorz Kwiatkowski] “We don’t want to loose any bit of quality.”

Transcodes generally impact quality. They may not be observable and, with the right one, may have little impact on compositing or grading. That said, the best way to go would probably be to transcode to ProRes 4444. Of course, depending on your workflow, there may little appreciable difference between recording ProRes Raw and recording ProRes HQ which the Atmos Shogun also supports and you’d save the transcode, the time and space involved with that.

When choosing an acquisition codec you really need to evaluate your entire workflow as sometimes more isn’t better, it’s just more, more time, more money, more storage space.

Do you really need a ProRes Raw to ProRes 4444 workflow over ProRes HQ?
Of course, if you were working in FCPX, ProRes RAW could easily make sense over ProRes HQ in many cases.

If not losing any bit of quality is REALLY your primary concern then you would edit in FCPX on Mac. Again you need to really determine what your priorities are and what is the best workflow for your job from an agnostic position.

[Chris Wright]

I understand what you’re saying. you could go Apple ProRes 4444 XQ 12 bit 495 mbits/sec or 2,237 mbit/sec full uncompressed. prores can go multiple generations with low PSNR values. https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
or you could go EXR half float for perfect math copy but your hard drive would fill up too fast.

even the prores 422hq 10 bit is good for multiple generations so I’d do a few tests to see what you could get away with.

I usually match up the bits to determine my codec as that determines precision with colors. If your Atomos Shogun
only shoots 10 bits, 4444XQ is probably overkill.

[Grzegorz Kwiatkowski]

Thanks for your answers.