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Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Mac and Windows

by Cory Bohon Aug 28th 2008 at 11:45PM

Earlier tonight we saw the release of the ProRes Decoder tool for QuickTime. According to Apple, this tool will allow QuickTime to play Apple ProRes 422 files, using the codec that provides "visually lossless, uncompressed HD video at SD data rates" for Final Cut users. This is the first version of the codec that includes playback on Windows machines.

"It is an excellent choice for mastering and can easily be transcoded to distribution formats like H.264. With new support for playback on both Mac and Windows computers, Apple ProRes can also be used for review and approval of Final Cut Studio sequences," says Apple.

The Mac update/plug-in can be downloaded for free from Apple's support downloads website, and if you are using QuickTime on Windows, there's a separate download.

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Earlier tonight we saw the release of the ProRes Decoder tool for QuickTime. According to Apple, this tool will allow QuickTime to play...
 

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John

Althougth it has been pointed out here that technically ProRes422 is lossy, there are two different kinds of lossy.

Formats like JPEG, MP3 and H.264 are incrimentally lossy, each time you edit them you have to re-encode them and lose some quality, which means that it keeps degrading the more you work with it.

With formats like ProRes422 and DV you throw away some material at the first save, but when edit it and re-encode it there is no additional loss of data. Therefor these formats are suited for editing because they are not lossy anymore after the first time encoding.

August 29 2008 at 6:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Troy Blank

So, i am trying to import proRes into after effects running on window, and before it used to say "file not accepted" i am pretty sure, now it just crashes after effects, or premiere.

Anyone know if this is just meant for QT playback or for decoding in video editing programs as well?

August 29 2008 at 2:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
high fivers

@ Michael Rose

I'm not sure of the distinction between lossless and virtually lossless. Seems like you're splitting hairs here. What I can say about ProRes is that, "lossless" or not, you cannot tell the difference between footage that's ProRes vs Uncompressed. The alpha channel would be nice but not necessary (you still cannot have transparency on tape) and 4:4:4 is rare on a day-to-day basis for so much HD post-production that most HD users will never need 4:4:4.

Check out this split screen comparison:
http://www.plastercitypost.com/prores-example.php

August 29 2008 at 11:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to high fivers's comment
homan2

Thanks for the link - try as I might, I could not detect a difference between the 25 MB/s and 189 MB/s portions of the image. I downloaded the full rez image and zoomed it to 400% trying to find the darn line.

Pretty revolutionary, imo. Kinda like WAV vs mp3, but w/o any detectable media degradation.

August 29 2008 at 1:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

Will this work with other apps? I would like to use this codec with Blender.

August 29 2008 at 3:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

FINALLY! My team does everything in ProRes its fantastic. I couldn't dream of not having it again. But for final delivery we always have to go uncompressed which is huge in both size and transfer times. I'm getting all my agencies and their production houses updated with this as soon as possible. Finally my world is much easier!

August 29 2008 at 2:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
high fivers

ProRes is lossless. Many TV shows and commercials are produced and broadcast after being mastered in this format. It's efficient for storage and still looks amazing when transfered to tape. However, ProRes has always been compatible with Quicktime if you have the AppleProRes422.component installed.

August 29 2008 at 2:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to high fivers's comment
Michael Rose

ProRes 422 is NOT a lossless codec. It's designed to provide very high quality for HD production at manageable bitrates, making it appropriate for use with FCP and Xsan, but it's not lossless. "Visually lossless" "or "virtually lossless" = marketing-speak for "lossy, but good."

I amended Cory's post to include the key word "visually" from Apple's description.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/wilson_tim/ProRes01/page02.php

August 29 2008 at 10:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eric

Yeah it seems it is close to lossles which is good I guess. I saw this story though hours ago on a site I came across zollotech.com good to know though

August 29 2008 at 12:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
teryan2006

The page says "visually lossless", not just "lossless". So it's lossy but nearly lossless?

August 29 2008 at 12:01 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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