ProRes422 vs. DNxHD in Premiere Pro CC

[Ht Davis]

Off hand, not much difference that I can tell. Pro res is similar to the old lossless hufyuv. DNxHD is more like a low-loss (almost none) x264. The chroma and luma are the factors that affect the green screen quality. Avid is more for Broadcast quality, which blends interlaced fields and blurs them together, which, in turn gives a more “analog” feel to the green screen and motion (it looks like normal Television rather than real life action sharp edges). If you are working in interlaced broadcasts, you won’t go wrong with DNxHD. If you archive and create highlight reels and such, render another in prores, and render an output in prores when you’ve got time.

I keep everything on disc images, which I rat-split and burn to discs for archival. That way I can rebuild any project at any time, and continue working. I use proresLT for most of my non-broadcast work as a full format, and proxy it. I’ve used DNxHD once or twice because it was already in that format when I got the project.

PS
Avid does not prefer DNxHD. DNxHD is a format that was designed to work better with Avid, though AVID will work with almost any installed codec on your system. IF they are on PC and you are on MAC, stick with DNxHD. It is fully compatible and all stages are relatively the same for quality. Pro-res will play back great on both, edit okay on PC, but quality isn’t the best in output.

[Mark Dagostino]

Thanks so much for your reply Ht. Our Avid editor prefers DNxHD because he’s had some issues with ProRes, but that could be his issue. He may actually be switching to Premiere Pro to be in line with our four other systems. I’m still waiting for one simple standardized codec, (ha). I liked the days of tape where if you couldn’t play the format sent to you the solution was easy. Just purchase a $40,000.00 deck and move on.

Mark D’Agostino
Video Producer
Creative Media Productions – Exelon
Baltimore, MD
MacPro,2.7 Ghz 12-Core Intel Xeon E5, 64GB 1866 Mhz DDR3 ECC, AMD FirePro D700 6144MB

[Ht Davis]

He’s had issues? What issues? Choppy playback? etc?
If so, he’s fallen into the old problem of data rate dropage. Start sending him Pro-res proxy. IF his avid can pick it up (if it’s installed correctly and the codec as well), he should be able to edit with that. AVID is processor hungry. Send him a Pro-res Proxy. Quality will be very close, and he won’t have to learn new software the hard way. Also, just because he doesn’t like your codec, doesn’t mean you can’t love his. IF he encodes the file correctly (blows it up correctly), it should work superb with any effect you use. However, if he still has his druthers about green screen usage, suggest AVCIntra. It’s a nice middle ground. Similar to prores by design, but compatible with just about everybody. Use the 100 for the full file, use the 50 for the proxy.