RED - Quicktime/crossplatform?

[Clark Dunbar]

Have a question on the Apple Quicktime components for RED footage.

With Apple's DVCPro HD codec, it is only available with FCP, and Apple does not offer a PC version.... so will Apple/RED make the RED/QT wrapper available as a cross platform codec/wrapper?

And even better would be the ProRes422 - as a crossplatform QT codec - allowing the movement for clips and footage as a delivery/production codec to all platforms......

[Emery Wells]

It has already been mentioned elsewhere that the quicktime codec will be available cross platform.

[Clark Dunbar]

great - hadn't seen the mention or the thread.... now if we can get ProRes too

[Rob Lohman]

For the Apple stuff you need to contact Apple. RED's QuickTime codec (REDCODE) will be available for both Windows & OS X.

[Steve Freebairn]

It will be interesting to see if ProRes comes to the PC, so far when talking to the Avid people at NAB, it was interesting for them to confirm my suspicions that ProRes is pretty much a rebranded version of DnxHD which is available on the PC. It is kind of suspicious that they used the same compression technology and bit rates. Apple should be commended for their PR group, they are amazing. They could buy windows movie maker and then advertise it in a new way and they would have flocks of people trying to use it. ProRes looked good, don't get me wrong, but if you can afford to work with a top end MAChine (8 core mac), then why not edit with redcode directly. The presentation in the booth was well done and looked great. It also makes it so you don't have to have proxies of all your files which obviously takes up more space.

[Emery Wells]

Well ProRes on PC as well as every other mac specific codec will need to be available on the FCS (Final Cut Server) PC client. Whats the point of having a FCS PC client that cant view DVCPRO HD?

[Chris Kenny]

It will be interesting to see if ProRes comes to the PC, so far when talking to the Avid people at NAB, it was interesting for them to confirm my suspicions that ProRes is pretty much a rebranded version of DnxHD which is available on the PC. It is kind of suspicious that they used the same compression technology and bit rates.

I'd be extremely surprised if Apple had actually licensed Avid technology. The codecs are probably technically similar mostly because they're trying to solve the same problems.


Well ProRes on PC as well as every other mac specific codec will need to be available on the FCS (Final Cut Server) PC client. Whats the point of having a FCS PC client that cant view DVCPRO HD?

Apparently FCS can automatically generate proxies, which you'd probably want to do anyway, since most people interacting with the footage wouldn't need the full quality HD version.

Apple does surprising things sometimes, but my guess would be that DVCPRO HD and ProRes QuickTime codecs will not be released for Windows. While such a release would certainly be convenient for people working in cross-platform environments, the fact that these codecs are available only on the Mac provides a competitive advantage to Apple that they probably don't want to give up.

[Emery Wells]

Apparently FCS can automatically generate proxies, which you'd probably want to do anyway, since most people interacting with the footage wouldn't need the full quality HD version.

Apple does surprising things sometimes, but my guess would be that DVCPRO HD and ProRes QuickTime codecs will not be released for Windows. While such a release would certainly be convenient for people working in cross-platform environments, the fact that these codecs are available only on the Mac provides a competitive advantage to Apple that they probably don't want to give up.

So I should probably qualify my statement. If the PC clients wanted to view source media then they would need the current slew of Mac only codecs. I do agree with you that it is unlikely we will see these codecs on the PC as they certainly offer apple an advantage over competing products. Also, as you pointed out, FCS can generate proxies. However, generating proxies for all the media in the DB can amount to quite a bit of data and it wont always be the ideal solution for PC clients. If the the source media is stored on a fast SAN, playing full res files will not only save storage space but it will often be a necessity in many cases. Many workflows are currently centered around DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD and I suspect ProRes in the near future. Playing the source media from a PC client will be unsupported in its current iteration, making the PC client a bit crippled.

Being that they announced a PC client, it begs speculation of cross platform codecs.