Editing H264, but exporting ProRes 422

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Level 1

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Editing H264, but exporting ProRes 422

So I have some raw footage that's been given to me, and Finder says the codec of the footage is H264. When I edit in FCPX and finally export using ProRes 422, do I actually get a ProRes 422 quality file, or is it doomed to remain H264 because Finder says the footage's codec is H264?

An associated question would be should I batch convert all my H264 footage beforehand to ProRes 422 and then begin editing? Will that help with quality of the final ProRes 422 export?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 14.0

Posted on Oct 3, 2023 5:02 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,825 points

Oct 3, 2023 6:10 AM in response to sudervandel

ProRes will not improve the quality of the original matter, but it will not make it worse. Unless you going to be doing heavy compositing, effects, or grading work there isn’t much benefit of optimizing the media.

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Answer 2

Oct 3, 2023 7:02 AM in response to sudervandel

Under the conditions Tom mentions, ProRes can help slightly but just do a little test.

Export about a minute of video in ProRes and the same clip in H.264.

Then open both clips in FCP and examine them closely.

Export a frame as a tif or jpeg in one and the identical frame in the other. Blow them up in Preview.

I bet you won't see any difference . . . except the PR file will be up to 10x bigger.

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Editing H264, but exporting ProRes 422

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