DVCPRO HD vs ProRess vs ProRess HQ

[Jeremy Garchow]

Apple recommends to use ProResHQ for HD material.

[Gary Adcock]

“Apple recommends to use ProResHQ for HD material. “

and so do the storage guys,

you do not say anything about your original material or what it is on or how much of it there is?

DVCPROHD makes for smaller files
plain old ProRes is fine for most tape based captures.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php

[Jeremy Garchow]

[gary adcock] “and so do the storage guys, “

I believe storage sellers recommend strict Uncompressed workflows, and $:$:$, I mean 4:4:4.

If your footage is SD to begin with, ProRes (SQ) should suffice. FWIW I work in HQ all the time. Less compression in theory.

Jeremy

[Walter Biscardi]

We have yet to produce a show using the ProRes codec, we might next year. We’ve been using DVCPro HD for broadcast high def programming for three years now and it’s outstanding.

Haven’t really noticed a whole lot of difference between the DVCPro HD codec and ProRes, even after rendering filters.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Dan Nethery]

We have a bunch of Digibeta tapes and maybe a couple of BetaSP tapes here and there. What makes it so important to us is, we have a bout 4 years of Library footage on them. We still use tons of the content on 6 different shows. This last year we bought 4 new XDCAM HD cameras and have been trying to build up our library with some original HD content. But it will take time. 4 of the 6 shows will be dumped out to D5 for HD broadcast. And the other 2 will be HD next year. So we are planning on editing everything in HD. Hints why we are wanting everything in HD.

[Gary Adcock]

[JeremyG] “ProRes (SQ) should suffice. FWIW I work in HQ all the time. Less compression in theory.”

yeah, in my testing I found virtually no differences with DVCPROHD originals between SQ and HQ versions of ProRes – BUT I did have noticeably less output problems when I placed Native DVCPROHD material in the SQ timelines,

I hope the bug has been fixed with 6.02 but I have not tested it.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD

[Jeremy Garchow]

[gary adcock] “BUT I did have noticeably less output problems when I placed Native DVCPROHD material in the SQ timelines,

I hope the bug has been fixed with 6.02 but I have not tested it. “

Gary, what’d you see? Just curious.

And Walter, you don’t notice a difference in rt? Man, I think ProRes is the beesknees. Unless you are doing some sort of alpha channel/transparency plug in, ProRes just keeps on ticking.

Even when using fxplugs that create transparency, I can still watch the program in near real time (albeit at lower resolution). It’s nothing like DVCPro HD for me. We can argue about the difference in visual quality, but performance wise DVCPro HD doesn’t hold a candle to ProRes.

Jeremy

[Chris Borjis]

ProRes takes longer to render out of After Effects, I think because its a vbr based codec.

There is also a color shift issue with ProRes in After Effects.
Graemme N, made some comments about that.

I wish apple would fix that.

[Mark Maness]

All very good points…

Let me just throw in my two cents.

We are an XDCAM HD shop with HDV support. Almost everything we do is captured DVCProHD. Why? Space. ProRes is awesome, don’t get me wrong but it does take twice the space that DVCProHD does.

A one minute show open in DVCProHD is about 100 meg. A one minute show open in ProRes is about 213 meg. Same show open, same graphics. Is there a noticable difference… Barely. If DVCProHD is so bad, why is it a standard format for all HD stations?

So… all in all. This whole debate depends on lots of variables. What works for one shop, may not in another. This is the amazing wonderful world of FCP. There is a million ways to do the same thing.

I use ProRes on occasions where graphics are involved. It performs so much better. Besides, the original post from Dannyboyfl said that he is using a Kona 3. AJA built-in realtime support for DVCProHD, just as they did for HDV.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Wayne Carey] “Space. ProRes is awesome, don’t get me wrong but it does take twice the space that DVCProHD does. “

Coming from someone who onlines Uncompressed, ProRes is akin to my DVCPro HD. I could see if you mostly work native how ProRes might seem big. To me, it’s golden.

[Wayne Carey] “AJA built-in realtime support for DVCProHD, just as they did for HDV.”

Yeah but this is totally different than FCPs handling of rt with ProRes.

[Wayne Carey] “If DVCProHD is so bad, why is it a standard format for all HD stations? “

It’s not bad. This is why I said we could argue the quality of DVCPro HD. I don’t use it. We shoot with it, but I prefer to work in 10bit as MOST of our projects have graphics. Is it totally necessary? No. Do people complain about our work and it’s quality? Never, so I keep working in 10bit.