Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

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Seth Marshall

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Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostSat Feb 11, 2017 5:51 pm

I need a new workstation and am over Apple. Instead I want to buy a new PC and want to avoid unexpected issues. For starters I'll need to stop using ProRes and assume DNxHD is the way to go. I work mostly with 4k 10-bit footage (XAVC or better).

But most of my clients are Mac people and use ProRes exclusively. Researching online makes me concerned about transcoding ProRes to DNxHD. I've yet to find a thread anywhere that discusses the proper way to do this. Every thread is people who are having issues and none of the responses seem to be helpful. I imagine this is something that once you figure it out you simply know how to do it.

Can someone please tell me how they deal with ProRes from clients on a PC? Are there any issues I should expect? Should I simply spend the extra money on ancient hardware and stick with Mac?
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Adam Simmons

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostSat Feb 11, 2017 5:53 pm

ProRes should work fine on a PC, you just can't re-encode to ProRes on output
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Jim Simon

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostSat Feb 11, 2017 11:29 pm

Seth Marshall wrote:Should I simply spend the extra money on ancient hardware and stick with Mac?


I wouldn't.

My Biases:

You NEED training.
You NEED a desktop.
You NEED a calibrated (non-computer) display.
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Peter Cordes

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostSun Feb 12, 2017 8:55 am

Seth Marshall wrote:Can someone please tell me how they deal with ProRes from clients on a PC?



Simply use cliptoolz to reencode from anything (also DNxHD/DNxHR) to prores.

No-one of your clients will notice it.

I worked two years parallel with win and mac, encoding all of the stuff i got with cliptoolz to prores.
No single issue with those stuff in using on mac.
Neither on my own, nor at my clients.

Actually my mac is retired ... It's on standby in case I need something I forgot. :-)

I hope it helps.
Peter
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Mark Kenfield

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostSun Feb 12, 2017 9:29 am

Jim Simon wrote:
Seth Marshall wrote:Should I simply spend the extra money on ancient hardware and stick with Mac?


I wouldn't.



Bit of a daft comparison he's making there. But Apple has stooged the lot of us (I've just had to spend a small fortune maxing out a 7 YEAR OLD Mac Pro, because I still need ProRes and FCPX, and the D700s on the Trashcan are problematic with Resolve).
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Glenn Sakatch

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostSun Feb 12, 2017 6:06 pm

I've been usin a pc for years, and use prores all the time. There is no need to transcode from prores.

Cutting a feature right now in Avid using prores links for my sources.

If I need a prores output I run it through a hyper deck, or send to a Mac mini or iMac for a conversion.
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Seth Marshall

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostTue Feb 14, 2017 3:56 am

Thanks for all the advice. I guess you all haven't experienced problems transcoding back to ProRes. I'm further glad to hear you haven't had problems working in ProRes in Resolve on a PC.

Glenn Sakatch wrote:If I need a prores output I run it through a hyper deck, or send to a Mac mini or iMac for a conversion.


What's the best way getting it onto a Mac? I take it one isn't sending a DNxHD to a Mac.
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Glenn Sakatch

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostTue Feb 14, 2017 2:30 pm

I share my storage at that point...either render it with avid or resolve on the other box.

Failing that i would probably do an uncompressed quicktime..although you certainly could do dnx444...just make sure your color bars are looking accurate on the new bix no matter what method you use.
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Ryan Earl

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostWed Feb 15, 2017 1:24 am

I've used a PC for the past 6 months with a GTX 1080, switching from a 2008 Mac Pro. I will export the project on a 5K iMac when needing ProRes after logging and editing on the PC. Considering the low entry cost (under $2,000) to build a custom PC you can add in a 5K iMac and still be well below the cost of a maxed out 2013 Mac Pro that would be needed to edit and playback 4k raw or ProRes files.
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John Burton

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostWed Feb 15, 2017 9:33 pm

I did a lot of testing of windows software to go from DNX to ProRes and Acrovid's Footage Studio software was the best hands down. Do your own research but those guys have things dialed in right.
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Seth Marshall

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostThu Feb 16, 2017 3:54 am

Thanks for much for everyones replies. I'm convinced now this won't be an issue. I'm 100% over Apple. They specialize in Emoji buttons and dongles these days. So sad to see what's happened the past 5 years.
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Michael Del Papa

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostThu Feb 16, 2017 1:56 pm

Glenn Sakatch wrote:If I need a prores output I run it through a hyper deck


And that, my friends, is the answer to why BMD does not offer ProRes encoding within DR on a PC. At the end of the day, BMD is a hw company, not a sw company. Although, with the growing number of DR users, I would be thinking real hard about how to monetize them if I were BMD.

PC user here as well. Never a problem grading ProRes footage. In fact, I prefer it over DNX workflows. I echo the sentiment, however, to vet all your workflows with colorbars or some sort of test signal (my main beef is the undocumented behavior of how DR converts YUV 422 sources to RGB). And like the others, if I need to deliver in ProRes, there are so many different free and paid options for PC, I am beginning to lose count ;)
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Andrew Kolakowski

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostThu Feb 16, 2017 2:40 pm

It's not the answer. Answer is that Apple doesn't want it to happen on a huge scale. If BM would allowed they would add it within seconds to Resolve.
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Dan Sherman

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostThu Feb 16, 2017 4:17 pm

Michael Del Papa wrote:[ And like the others, if I need to deliver in ProRes, there are so many different free and paid options for PC, I am beginning to lose count ;)


ffmpeg supposedly does a good job of it. though I have never personally tried.
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Michael Del Papa

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Re: Switching to PC, need advice (ProRes to DNxHD workflow)

PostThu Feb 16, 2017 6:48 pm

if you are talking about kostya's prores encoder, yes, it is a decent option versus the non-kostya version.

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