Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
Lets say you are done with your project & you want an uncompressed copy of it as your master. If you keep importing it back into Final Cut Pro, & keep exporting (Quicktime movie), will it ever start to lose quality?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
I've never seen a number given, but would think it is very high.
Apple describes ProRes here:
And in that document says:
"while remaining visually lossless through many generations of decoding and reencoding."
I don't think I've ever seen degradation caused by recompression or multiple compassion, but as a workflow if you output a master file, then re-import it to add graphics and export that, you would only be 1 generation down from the master file. If you wanted to make multiple versions, you can always go back to, and re-import, the master file and make the changes, then export, so all you exports stay only 1 generation down from the master file.
MtD
I've never seen a number given, but would think it is very high.
Apple describes ProRes here:
And in that document says:
"while remaining visually lossless through many generations of decoding and reencoding."
I don't think I've ever seen degradation caused by recompression or multiple compassion, but as a workflow if you output a master file, then re-import it to add graphics and export that, you would only be 1 generation down from the master file. If you wanted to make multiple versions, you can always go back to, and re-import, the master file and make the changes, then export, so all you exports stay only 1 generation down from the master file.
MtD
So basically, any parts of the exported master that are altered in any way loses a generation right? What about parts that are left untouched?
I am not a technical expert but in my understanding, as long as you keep Recompress all frames unchecked,
Then the frame is copied, not recompressed, as there is no reason to recompress it. And copying is lossless.
This is one of the biggest advantages in working in an I-frame codec like ProRes versus an Mpeg format.
MtD
I wouldn't think there would be any loss in quality, however... Errors could creep into any file copy. I know it's not any fun, but you always need to screen your output very carefully. I've been wrangling a feature for the last 6 months and had to watch innumerable outputs. It's gotten painful.
If you need the best quality, love huge (seriously huge) files and you think that anal retentiveness is a gift to humanity, set your renders to uncompressed 10 bit.
Actually besides the facetious part of the response above, the rendering to uncompressed practice is essential when quality is top priority.
How many times can you "Export - Quicktime movie" the same ProRes 422 file until it starts to lose quality?
