Oct
For some years now Apple Prores codecs have been standardized as a very good codec solution with compression for TV workflows, documentaries, offline work, etc. Although initially they were a copy of Avid’s DNXHD, which came out earlier with the same working philosophy, the truth is that at that time Apple improved that generation of DNXHD and above all, as they always do so well, they did much better marketing of their codecs than Avid.
Gradually, Prores were used more and more and the final twist was when Arri decided to incorporate them natively into its Alexa camera. The workflow was clear and smart: do you use Alexa with TV or similar destination? Prores Do you want to use Alexa for big screen? Arri Raw. Although I know of productions that have used the highest Prores for cinema destination the truth is that in these workflows is not recommended compression in the starting codec (at least theoretically if you want a neat product) Then what everyone does…
Currently, given Apple’s uncertain situation with the professional world, both Alexa and other recording and post-production systems are using Avid’s DNXHD in addition to Prores in their codec catalogs. In addition, from version 6 onwards, Avid’s Media Composer and Symphony family of editors natively support both DNXHD and Prores. Obviously this is possible if you run Avid on a Mac, since Apple has limited the option to write Prores on PC and this can only be done through paid software such as Episode Pro or running headaches (very typical of Apple, an open company if ever there was one…).
Therefore, if we use Avid from version 6 onwards we will have two options when working with Avid Prores: linking to the QT (Prores natural capsule) through AMA or ingesting it into the Avid media folder (in this case the capsule will become MXF, which is the one used by Avid). It is worth mentioning that the first option (linking with AMA) is also available in version 5.
In this case we would work linked to the original material as Premiere Pro would do.
If we choose to ingest the Prores within Avid there are in turn two options and this is where the important difference comes in:
Option 1: Make a first linking with AMA and then copy the media inside Avid using the consolidate command (which as you know copies media without changing any of its original properties). The problem is that it does not let us do it, the reason you ask Avid, and if we run Transcode instead of consolidate, even if we choose as target codec the same as the original Prores, it will be transcoding, thus losing a “generation” of material and taking more time.
Although this is not dramatic, it is not adequate if we are doing a careful post-production process. What should we do then in order not to lose an iota of “quality” (I hate this word because although it is used a lot it means nothing) Option 2
Option 2: The old-fashioned way before “Avid LOVED you”: import. If when importing the files the target codec is the same as the original, a “fast import” is performed, i.e. only the capsule is changed from QT to MXF.
If we do this we will not lose any video generation in the process and it will be faster as we will not have to change codecs.
If when importing we choose another destination codec, this window will pop up reminding us that a fast import can be done, it will be up to us to keep the original resolution or change it (to make an offline maybe).
It will depend on your project to work with the original codecs or to change them at one point or another in the production. We talk about all these issues in our course on codecs, formats and workflows.
Here is a link in case you want to download free Alexa clips encoded in Prores for testing purposes
And I also leave you a video in which you tell you some of these things, it is not so detailed but it is nice 🙂 I hope you find everything useful.
UPDATE: As of version 6.5.2 of Media Composer and Symphony the recommended workflow for quicktime Prores if you want to work in Avid with the native codec is the traditional one: link with AMA to the files and consolidate. It seems that it is no longer necessary (although it is possible) to do the fast import.
