ProRes vs ProRes HQ

[Herb Sevush]

Gary –

I’ve got it now – coming from 10bit source – go HQ. Coming from 8bit source – go standard.

Thanks for walking me thorugh it.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions

[Chris Borjis]

[Chris Campbell] “HQ shows a lot less noise and artifacting.”

that has been my experience as well and its only marginally smaller file wise.

better to just run HQ by default.

[Rod Main]

So having read this informative thread am I right in thinking that if I edit footage that has been brought in from DigiBeta (PAL) and I want to record back to DigiBeta (PAL) to deliver to broadcaster it makes no discernable difference whether I edit it in Prores or Prores HQ? Or am I misunderstanding?
Rod

[Mike Johnson]

Gary,

Does this hold true with the HDV to ProRes setup or was this based on tests captured as HDV and then converted to ProRes? I’d like to think its the exact same thing, but I just want to be sure.

My post today will explain why I’m asking this; the savings in file size from the standard ProRes could make all the difference to me.

[Gary Adcock]

[Mike Johnson] “Does this hold true with the HDV to ProRes setup or was this based on tests captured as HDV and then converted to ProRes? I’d like to think its the exact same thing, but I just want to be sure. “

I have done it both ways a whole bunch of times (nearly 100 total live test captures)

Since HDV is only an 8bit codec to start, so you gain nothing but hassle working in the HQ versions of ProRes except headaches especially on anything but the most powerful machines.

Hardware conversion of HDV (Capture via Component or HDSDI to ProRes) will always be better that a software conversion over the FW connection.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

Inside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php

[Mike Askew]

Thanks for this thread–just what I was looking for!

[Jeff Fust]

Hi Gary,

Very informative post, thanks. I had a couple more specific questions about this.

What do you mean when you say the plain version of pro-res just “allows the 8bit camera file to just float inside the 10bit color space – only adding the extra information to the video file when it is needed, rather than forcing all of those 768 additional levels of gray to be occupied all the time like the PRHQ version does.” Are you saying that the standard Apple pro-res codec would leave an 8bit source in the 255 color map, and would only switch to a 1024 color map if coming from a true 10bit source?

Also, based on my visual tests I cannot tell any difference from a pro-res vs. pro-res hq if coming from an 8 bit source so I agree with you there. But wouldn’t you still benefit from compressing to pro-res hq if you’re going to the color grading process being that there are 1024 gradations of the image available as opposed to just 255?

Any feedback would be appreciated!