Is native prores stable enough to edit feature film? Or should we go dnxhd?

[John Pale]

1) Importing a Pro Res file as Pro Res MXF is NOT a fast import (just said Creating Video). Even with a 30 sec spot as a test it was quite slow (a little less than real time), which indicated re-encoding.

2) Transcoding a Pro Res file to Pro Res MXF was quite slow, similar in time to importing.

I think we can say its re-encoding, not just rewrapping.

[Toke Trangbæk]

What i see as the important question now is: how is to edit the prores wrapped as mxf? Is it just as fast as native dnxhd? Is it stable?

We have tried editing prores in ama mode in Avid 5.5 – that was not very positive!! Did not work! So hope this native prores feature is working the true Avid-way.

[Toke Trangbæk]

Strange – it should just rewrap – not re-encode!!

I will try and find time to test it tomorrow with some alexa prores files.

[John Pale]

Toke, I think you are better off working with DNX HD, if possible.

You really don’t get any real benefit working Pro Res, just more hassles. Avid and DNX are pretty bulletproof. Maybe down the line, Pro Res support might be improved, but with FCP’s relevance in the post world becoming more diminished, I don’t think it will be much of a priority for anyone in a couple of years.

[John Pale]

My mistake.

I neglected to change the import setting to 601/709 rather than RGB.

Now it fast imports…

Sorry for any confusion on my part.

[Toke Trangbæk]

If i have alexa assets shot in prores it would be nice not to need to reencode to dnxhd.

But i hear what you say!

[Michael Phillips]

Thanks John – that was my understanding for Mac; Fast import is the way to get rewrapped ProRes from QT to MXF. AMA is for instant access and editing, but not as a means to rewrap via a consolidate to MXF to be “Managed Avid Media”.

Maybe AMA/consolidate will be implemented in the future as it is more logical, allows for viewing and selection before the process as well as triage within the clips themselves.

Michael

Michael Phillips

[John Pale]

Michael,

Interestingly, linking via AMA and transcoding was slower than Fast Importing. That seems to indicate its re-encoding.

Toke,

The Alexa shoots Pro Res 4444, correct? There does not seem to be an option to import or transcode to Pro Res 4444 MXF…there are only the other flavors of Pro Res. So you will be re-encoding no matter what.

[John Pale]

As native MXF Avid media, Pro Res seems to work fine, however I am not editing a huge project with it. No difference is noticeable. This is not like AMA.

[John Pale]

Toke,

I just realized something else and did a quick test.

Initially, I was not seeing ProRs 4444 as an import or transcode option. ProRes 4444 only seems to be supported when your project is set to RGB. In FCP, it is supported in both RGB and YCbCr projects.

I you try to import into a ProRes 4444 file into a project set for YCbCr you will only have the other flavors of ProRes available, and you will not get a Fast Import, as you will be transcoding.