ProRes

To encode a video to the ProRes format, it is best to select the .mov (Quicktime) file format, although it may also be contained in .mxf (Material eXchange Format) or .mkv (Matroska) formats.

Then, select the Apple ProRes codec in the settings tab of the output file node properties panel.

You can also select the Profile, and with one of the 4444 profiles, you may also check the Transparency / Alpha option if you need to keep the transparency in the output file. Checking the Transparency option with Proxy, LT, SQ or HQ options have no effect as these profiles can’t store the alpha channel.

Presets

DuME comes with a few output presets to let you quickly set the most common parameters for standard ProRes output.

Compatibility and details

ProRes is a proprietary format developed by Apple, and DuME uses the open-source FFmpeg ProRes encoders to output ProRes files. Two different encoders are usually available in FFmpeg: prores and prores_ks. DuME uses prores for most of the files, which is faster, but needs to use propres_ks for 444(4) encoding.

DuME also takes care to add the proper flags and metadata to the output file to make it compatible with all software and most hardware, and the output file should pass usual checks and validation. For example, it overrides the “vendor” data to set it to Apple instead of FFmpeg.

The pixel format can’t be manually set when encoding to ProRes, as it depends on the profile.

For your information, these are the pixel formats used by the different profiles:

Profile Pixel format
Proxy YUV 4:2:0 (10 bits)
LT YUV 4:2:0 (10 bits)
SQ YUV 4:2:0 (10 bits)
HQ YUV 4:2:0 (10 bits)
4444 without alpha YUV 4:4:4 (10 bits)
4444 with alpha YUVA 4:4:4:4 (10 bits)
4444QX without alpha YUV 4:4:4 (10 bits)
4444QX with alpha YUVA 4:4:4:4 (10 bits)

For now, 12-bit YUV 4:4:4 is not supported by DuME nor FFmpeg.

For more information about ProRes encoding with FFmpeg or DuME, read this detailed info by Harry Munday.