Best Video File Format for PT

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Tim R.

H.264 is a much more manageable file size when sending files to work remotely. As was mentioned it is terrible to work with in Pro Tools. Since I began transcoding every video I get to ProRes I have virtually eliminated my video playback issues in Pro Tools. The only down side in my experience is that the ProRes files are LARGE (and the transcode can be time-consuming and is a bit of a resource hog while it's working if you are on a "lean" machine like mine).

I'm curious as to why Pro Res and DVxHD?

[Watagushu2013]

H264 and MP4 never play the frames of video. Instead, they let the CPU decompress de frames making it not useful for professional video offline work. Never trust them. Be aware that it tackles your CPU and all the goodness of the little file size that this format offers, turnes against you.
As a general rule: The greater the file size, the less CPU intensive is the codec. As the size of the file decreases, the more CPU it uses.
That's why ina professional environments where sync between video and audio is essential, they never use h264 codecs.

The preferred codecs can be:
ProRes 422 or ProRes proxy (light on size)
Or AVID DN HD with different data rates.
Or photo jpeg codecs alike.

I hope this clarifies this thread.

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

I'm curious as to why Pro Res and DVxHD?

Mainly because I'm using the Mac's built in transcoder and it does Pro Res. Looks good enough to me, and works reliably.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Watagushu2013

H264 and MP4 never play the frames of video. Instead, they let the CPU decompress de frames making it not useful for professional video offline work. Never trust them. Be aware that it tackles your CPU and all the goodness of the little file size that this format offers, turnes against you.
As a general rule: The greater the file size, the less CPU intensive is the codec. As the size of the file decreases, the more CPU it uses.
That's why ina professional environments where sync between video and audio is essential, they never use h264 codecs.

The preferred codecs can be:
ProRes 422 or ProRes proxy (light on size)
Or AVID DN HD with different data rates.
Or photo jpeg codecs alike.

I hope this clarifies this thread.

Sure does, and thanks. To be fair, Avid does have in one of their Knowledge Base articles a list of codecs that work with PT and they list H.264, but add that performance may vary. Maybe they should just say it doesn't really play nice with PT and leave it at that! Transcoding is what I'll have to do. I wish Windows had a built-in transcoder!

[Bob Olhsson]

The thing to understand is that you never want your CPU transcoding video on the fly while working with audio.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

The thing to understand is that you never want your CPU transcoding video on the fly while working with audio.

Is that what's actually happening when working with H.264?



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[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by DonaldM

Is that what's actually happening when working with H.264?
lk

Bob can answer too, but I suspect by transcoding, he means the conversion from H.264 to Pro Res or whatever. I can vouch for the fact that Pro Tools becomes unusably sluggish while I'm converting (transcoding) video files. Granted, I have a rather "lean" computer. It is another caveat to consider though. If I am under the gun, I'll transcode on my laptop and copy over (which I can do while running PTs).

[Bob Olhsson]

Indeed it's an extreme file compression format based on storing only picture changes that need to be reconstructed with the missing frames synthesized into a video stream having enough accuracy to synchronize with audio. Doing all this on the fly requires a lot of overhead.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Indeed it's an extreme file compression format based on storing only picture changes that need to be reconstructed with the missing frames synthesized into a video stream having enough accuracy to synchronize with audio. Doing all this on the fly requires a lot of overhead.

Well, that makes sense. Thanks for that explanation. I've really appreciated all the helpful information on these threads.

You guys are great!

[reichman]

FWIW, I've found that Adobe Media Encoder is the deepest and by far the fastest transcoder (or remuxer). Cross-platform, too!