Fastest Converter for h.264 to ProRes

Question

Level 1

38 points

Fastest Converter for h.264 to ProRes

So long story short, we'll be shooting a few videos with some Nikon D600s and bringing them into FCP7 for overnight edits on location with MacBook Pros. I usally use Compressor to convert the footage over to ProRes but since we will be shooting a lot of video and the edit times are very tight (overnight) I'm trying to find out if anyone has found a converter that can transcode the video faster than Compressor does? Runnng some small tests Compressor is going to be a bit too slow for our turnaround time, but I understand we may have to make due. Was just checking if anyone has found a converter or workflow that is noticably faster than Compressor?

Thanks

Posted on Mar 5, 2014 4:02 PM

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Answer 1

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:07 PM in response to starcrunch

Do you have Apple Qmaster set up for Compressor?

http://mediastorm.com/sites/default/files/pdf/SettingupAppleQMasterforfastertran scodingandcompression.pdf

MtD

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Answer 2

starcrunch Author

Level 1

38 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:18 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Thanks, but no I didn't, but that's becaue we we're all on Macbook Pros that are single processors already and we will not be in the same room as eachother or on a network together. I will be converting the footage in my hotel room on my macbook pro then giving it to the editor (on another floor probably) on a drive. Unless that Qmaster setup dedicates more processing power from a single processor I didn't think it would help?

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Answer 3

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:28 PM in response to starcrunch

Qmaster breaks the job down and applies it simultaneously to processor cores.

On my MacBook Pro i7, I have it set up to use 6 cores as simultaneous convertors.

Your other choice would be to edit on software that does not require conversion, such as FCP-X or Premire Pro.

MtD

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Answer 4

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:43 PM in response to Meg The Dog

I belive Compressor 4.1 is faster than 3.5 for similar tasks. The gotcha is you must be running OSX 10.9.

Otherwise, you want to run tests with MpegStreamclip (free) and Clipwrap2 ($50) to see how everything sugars out.

Clipwrap does offer a free demo (watermarked video) to give the workflow a test.

good luck,

x

(trust, but verify!)

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Answer 5

starcrunch Author

Level 1

38 points

Mar 5, 2014 4:51 PM in response to Meg The Dog

O.K. Great, Thanks! I didn't know it did that. I'll try a test then using Qmaster next.

We've been disscussing how to make the switch to Premire but we are a collection of freelancers all with our own issues with legacy projects both with this client and our individual ones (and 3rd party effects) so it's something we do need to adress but have been putting off for as long as we could. I'm sure we'll finally adress that once this job is over though.

Thanks again!

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Answer 6

starcrunch Author

Level 1

38 points

Mar 6, 2014 12:58 PM in response to starcrunch

So just an update for ya'll since I did the tests. I ran a bunch of tests with my i7 macbook pro (on 10.8.5) using a 2gig h.264 clip and found that it took 29:22 min to render a pro res clip in compressor 4, and 29:24 in compressor 3. Then after setting up the Qmaster as decribed in the doc and setting it for 7 instances it took 29:15 for compressor 4 and 29:33 in compressor 3 (strangly longer). So Qmaster made no diffrence for me at all.

Mpeg Streamclip did it in 26:30 so a bit faster. But the solution we're going to use is to render in the DaVinci Resolve lite which renderd it in 15min! The GPU rendering in Davinci really helped and I didn't have to put any Gama correction on the clip (for some reason compressor changes the gamma a bit).

Thanks again

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Answer 7

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Mar 6, 2014 6:19 PM in response to starcrunch

Thanks for your update. Useful information.

x

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Answer 8

Nov 30, 2015 11:06 PM in response to Studio X

As we know, H.264 is not an acceptable editing codec for Final Cut Pro owing to its high compression rate with heavy codec under different computer operating environment. To get Final Cut Pro work with H.264 videos beautifully is to convert the H.264 codec to Apple ProRes. A fast H.264 to ProRes converter is the key. Compressor does the job, but it caused quality loss at the meanwhile. Any software that can bring me a lossless h.264 to ProRes conversion?

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Answer 9

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Dec 1, 2015 8:28 AM in response to chriskick

If you are experiencing a perceptible quality loss when using compressor to convert H.264 to ProRes, then you need to check your settings.

MtD

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Answer 10

Jan 28, 2016 5:17 PM in response to Meg The Dog

Have you tried iDealshare VideoGo which can batch and fast convert any video to ProRes like convert h.264 to Prores, convert AVCHD, MXF, MKV, MP4, MTS to ProRes

It also helps to convert ProRes to other video formats.

Simply give it a try, and you will find it really works great.

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