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Problem with ProRes 4444?

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:28 am
by tangierc
Folks, I've been making a DCP with version 2.12.20. Essentially anytime I use a ProRes 4444 as the source for the DCP, the process is faster, but the sound is there and pictures isn't. There's a lot of black and then freeze frames - using DCP-)-Matic 2 Player. Here are the details of tests:

Source: 85 minute Quicktime movie from FCP X with 5.1 Surround L C F LFE Ls Rs
DCP settings: 2k Full flat, 5.1 audio, no scale.

Trial 1
  • Exported 2k Full frame ProRes 422 @ 23.98
    Converted to ProRes 4444 and frame rate conversion in Apple Compressor to solid 24fps
    Forced 5.1 L C F LFE Ls Rs in Compressor setting (because using "automatic" setting changes to C L R Ls RS LFE)
    DCP-O-Matic 2.0 took about 13 minutes to make DCP
    In DCP-O-Matic 2.0 Player there seemed to be black for a while until picture showed. I could hear sound though.
Trial 2
  • Exported 2k Full frame ProRes 422 @ 23.98
    Let DCP-O-Matic 2.0 handle frame/audio conversion
    DCP-O-Matic 2.0 took about 7 hours (this is more what I expected)
Successful DCP creation

Trial 3
  • Exported 2k Full frame ProRes 422 @ 23.98
    Converted to ProRes 4444 in Compressor - no frame rate conversion
    Forced 5.1 L C F LFE Ls Rs in Compressor setting (because using "automatic" setting changes to C L R Ls RS LFE)
    DCP-O-Matic 2.0 took about 30 minutes to make DCP
    In DCP-O-Matic 2.0 Player there seemed to be black for a while until picture showed- freeze frames. I could hear sound though.

Next test is to export the 4444 directly from FCP X then put that into DCP-O-Matic. If successful, this means something Compressor is doing is the problem.

Re: Problem with ProRes 4444?

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 1:09 am
by Carsten
Weird. How long is the original piece? Could you upload a short snippet of both 422 and 4444 for us to test?

One thing for sure, you don't need to do a frame rate conversion, DCP-o-matic will happily straighten 23.98 to 24fps with no impact on quality.

Maybe ffmpeg has a problem with 4:4:4:4

Which settings do you use in DCP-o-matic ?


- Carsten

Re: Problem with ProRes 4444?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 1:29 am
by tangierc
So sorry this is very late. I never knew anyone responded.

Settings were SMPTE, Single Reel, Full Frame, 2K, 24 frame rate at 100 Mbit/s and audio is 6-5.1

Re: Problem with ProRes 4444?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 7:47 am
by Carsten
Hmm, why did you always go through that intermediate ProRes4444 from 422 - why not use the original 422 master for DCP conversion? There is no need for an explicit framerate conversion - DCP-o-matic will handle that. You can safely increase the encoding bandwidth to something like 200MBit/s.

- Carsten

Re: Problem with ProRes 4444?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 3:58 pm
by tangierc
The original was never from the camera was never 422 to begin with so I was exporting to 4444 to get the best quality I could. Typically I use 422.

Re: Problem with ProRes 4444?

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:01 pm
by tangierc
The original movie is about 1.5 hours by the way. It's not my film and is on the festival circuit so I cannot post a clip.