Prores 422 vs AIC vs h.264

[makemassair]

I've been trying to find a good reference page or site explaining the key differences between these formats and the best time/job to use each.

I've been working at resolutions of 720p for most of this year and nearly all have resulted in web based delivery (where h.264 is to my knowledge the best solution)

Recently I've been working on a short AV film for screening early next year at the Tate Britain and I'm not 100% sure which is the best format to submit.

My workflow for most of the footage used was:
Filmed as 720p h.264 on a Flip Video / PJPEG 100% 720p / export

FCP will work with h.264 footage (as it will with pretty much any format) on the timeline but it is very very very sluggish and is not recommended.

I've also added and overlayed some motion design work which was exported as 720p PJPEG 100%.

Exporting to PJPEG isn't a problem, but it does result in a rather huge file of nearly 7Gb. Which at such a huge size for an under 6min video seems a tad excessive for distribution.

So I've been reading up on Prores 422 and AIC for distributing the video. Prores is a better quality/compression than PJPEG it would seem. Is this a recommended export for my project, or should I stick to PJPEG?

Compression is (like audio mastering) an art but there isn't much that I've found (so far) online outlining the differences and advantages and disadvantages of each.

There is some good (however specific to Apple's Compressor) stuff on Ken Stone's site, but it's more about the software than the technicalities behind the choice of codec.

Check here: http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage...ics_stone.html

[makemassair]

Ah, should add that I'm going to be downsizing the video to SD for projection/DVD.

Next question is the audio. 48000Hz is an SD DVD PAL isn't it?

[RickRobiN]

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/20...-cut-pro-tips/

Quite interesting story why the 48kHz (part 4)

My workflow is always ProRes

-Motiongraphics with the new 444 incl alpha channel

cheers RR

[deepvisual]

as a general rule you should work in the best quality you can ( prores) and export in whatever format you need...
I find AIC perfect for VJ playback.
ps you can jig the AIC compression by switching to photojpeg, setting the % you want, then going back to AIC. 65% is an optimum balance between size and quality.

[RickRobiN]

Still wondering;
Is it better to convert the original h264 content to Pro Res HQ is you do a lot off colourcorrection?

[vjpixylight]

What about converting to animation codec to work in? Worked well for that DeadMau5 edit I did.

[RickRobiN]

HD and the animation codec are not friends. ProRes loves HD

[deepvisual]

yeah, animation is huge and doens't like to playback at all...

[vjpixylight]

and we are saying Prorez = 10 bit 4:2:2 right?
If he down converts to SD, why not convert to animation codec to work SD?

[sleepytom]

i find this thread more confusing than the compresion codecs.

work in HD use prores for any intermediate render stages.
render a prores master archive version.
compress web versions (h264) / dvd versions from the prores archive master.

DVD is alsways SD MPEG2 - otherwise its not DVD.
I make H264 with the AppleTV preset for HD dsitribution / web upload
I Make PAL DVDs for people who want a disk.
I keep prores or animation codec masters for archive (animation if i need the alpha as i don't have FCP7 yet)