The h264 from X is whatever compressor setting you’re using. You’re really adding a step (and a teeny weeny extra generation) by going to 4444 from X, then into compressor when you can output the exact same thing via a compressor preset from within X.
But as we cleared up in a later post, this has nothing to do with the issue he’s having. Quite the reverse.He’s having a prores output (like your 4444) actually look worse than the original h264 files. But only in QT player. You can reimport the prores back into X and it magically loses the banding it displayed in QT player, so obviously QT player is degrading the quality to 8 bit or something in favor of performance. Seems logical to me as the job of QT player is to play back and arguably not be a judge of quality.
Used to be people complained all the time DV footage looked bad in QT player. There was a setting to play DV footage at full quality that wasn’t set on by default.