Sunday, April 15, 2007

Apple catching on, proves CineForm right.

Several years ago, CineForm attempted to sell Apple on the idea of a digital intermediate codec for professional post. Unfortunately, back then they still had their heads stuck firmly in the DV sand, and believed DVCPRO-HD would be sufficient, which everyone today knows it isn't. With the announcement of Apple ProRes 422, it seems the CineForm message has finally taken some hold, but it seems only as far as offering an equivalent to Avid's DNxHD (good for CineForm.) It seems to be a DCT codec with nearly identical data rates to the Avid codec, 1080p24 is quoted at 22 MB/s or 176Mb/s (same as Avid.) It might be wishful thinking if the Apple codec is a CBR design like Avid's; I guess we will have to wait and see. Funny thing, with all our recent work on a 4:4:4 codec, it's like we knew this was coming. :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

any news about realtime effects for 3rd part ak cineform? I was about to throw in the towel and use PP but including color in the bundle makes it a hard decision (specially because iridas is 10K EUR)

-Kaspar Kallas

David Kirlew said...

I read on macrumors that the ProRez Apple codec s 4:2:2 VBR. Like anonymous Color is making this a hard decision, especially since I have a Mac. Over this summer I'll have to make a decision with two big vfx movie scripts on my table.

Anonymous said...

I found a clue:
32 bit YUV rendering but no mention about RGB and for 4:4:4 workflow one would have to use color for render - that would imply 8 bit RGB renders still

So to for best use for my current hardware would still be PP/Nuke/Iridas (ih yeah and the SI2K that I allready have) on a mac

to bad that I bought Shake with orignal price and have been user of FCP sience ver 1 - has been a nice ride but apple has decided to make avid mojo clone then it is time to change

-Kaspar Kallas

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Apple have done a great job marketing, yet not told us clearly what is under the hood. 4:4:4 8bit RGB workflow would be a shame.
-Christopher Barry

David Kirlew said...

Christopher,
the codec does not contain 4:4:4 at all. It is a 4:2:2 10-bit codec. After looking over the data I have received I will not be using ProRez at all. I will stick with a CineForm solution most likely with PPro.

Amit Karpe said...

Can we play CineFrom on Linux ??

We are ready to do it ?
Can u help us ?

Amit Karpe said...

Do u have any plan to port this to Linux ?