Keep original h.264 files if I transcode to Cineform?

[Chris Wright]

first off, i think its awesome that you posted a new thread for a new topic.
in transcoding, you look at the psnr number ie. generational loss.

only a really low quality proxy file would be too low to grade on. by default, all exports use the original file.

if you went full offline(aka deleted all original footage), a level 5 cineform psnr is good for many generations of transcoding with no visual loss of quality. 4:4:4 filmscan mode level 5 is good for over 10 generations.

https://cineform.com/444-vs-422

[Carlen Cyphers]

Thanks for the help – that is a little over my head, but I will read up on it. None of this is straight forward haha

[Roger Averdahl]

Personally i would have saved the originals no matter what. All edit suites will be able to open your H.264 files in the future but can you open up Adobe encoded CineForm files in ten years in non-Adobe applications? Most software playes cannot even playback Adobe encoded CineForm files today. Adobe native CineForm files are “locked” to Adobe software, that´s the dangerous thing about it.

Even if you plan to stay in the Adobe world forever i think saving the originals, H.264, is a no brainer.

[Jeff Pulera]

Keep the originals – large hard drives are cheap and the camera-native files should be relatively small compared to any of the intermediate file options. If you delete the originals, then later somehow determine that the transcode to the intermediate file is somehow faulty, you are out of luck!

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Chris Wright]

the cineform codec is now open source; it will be around much longer than variants of h.264/dnxhd will. I agree to keep originals. that being said, you can get 8TB for like $180 now, lol.

[Carlen Cyphers]

Thanks I will keep the originals then!