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gregghz
Asked: 2010-10-20 19:58:41 +0800 CST

ProRes encoding and decoding?

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Is there a way to encode/decode prores mov files (mostly decode)? I've been playing around with ffmpeg and mencoder/mplayer from the ubuntu repos, but they both report that it's an unknown codec. Totem as well.

I guess it comes down to getting the right codecs in place. Maybe compiling from source?

I have seen a few comments on the internet about getting mplayer/mencoder working with prores files in OS X, but I'm hoping there is a way to do this in Ubuntu.

video ffmpeg codecs mencoder

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Times have certainly changed and now an up to date FFmpeg, including the version packaged with Xenial Xerus LTS, will now easily encode ProRes files. The following will work well:

    ffmpeg -i input.mp4 \
       -c:v prores -profile:v 3 \
       -c:a pcm_s16le \
       output.mov

    The available -profile settings are as follows:

    -profile 0 = Apple ProRes Proxy
-profile 1 = Apple ProRes LT
-profile 2 = Apple ProRes 422 for SD (lower bitrate)
-profile 3 = Apple ProRes HQ for HD (higher bitrate)

    You can test your own copy of FFmpeg for ProRes capability as follows:

    andrew@ilium~$ ffmpeg -encoders -hide_banner | grep -i prores
 VF.... prores               Apple ProRes
 VF.... prores_aw            Apple ProRes (codec prores)
 VFS... prores_ks            Apple ProRes (iCodec Pro) (codec prores)
andrew@ilium~$

    (Note that as my colleague @llogan has mentioned there are actually only two ProRes encoders available: prores_aw (the default aliased to prores) and prores_ks.)

    The leading letters indicate:

    Encoders:
 V..... = Video
 .F.... = Frame-level multithreading
 ..S... = Slice-level multithreading

    For playback you should find that most of the major media players, examples being MPlayer, SMPlayer and VLC, will happily play these files...

    References:

    • 4

  2. The short answer is unfortunately "no". There are patches floating around that enable Qt binary codec loading in MPlayer / mencoder, but they seem to be Mac-only.

    ffmpeg supports DNxHD on Linux, which is a ProRes alternative that you may want to look into as an intermediate codec.

    • 2