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Apple ProRes White Paper
Apple ProRes White Paper
White Paper
January 2020
Contents
Introduction 3
Chroma Sampling 9
Data Rate 12
Quality 15
Performance 18
Appendix 23
Glossary 26
For a list of all authorized ProRes licensees and developers, and for
licensing information, go to support.apple.com/kb/HT5959. If you’re
using or considering purchasing a product that encodes or decodes
ProRes, and that product is not on this list, contact Apple at
[email protected].
As a variable bit rate (VBR) codec technology, ProRes uses fewer bits on
simple frames that would not benefit from encoding at a higher data rate.
All ProRes codecs are frame-independent (or “intra-frame”) codecs,
meaning that each frame is encoded and decoded independently of any
other frame. This technique provides the greatest editing performance
and flexibility.
With Final Cut Pro 10.3 or later, you can also export ProRes files inside an
MXF metadata wrapper instead of exporting .mov files. This makes the
exported video file compatible with a wide range of playback systems
that rely on the MXF standard for broadcast and archiving.
Chroma Sampling
Color images require three channels of information. In computer
graphics, a pixel’s color is typically defined by R, G, and B values. In
traditional digital video, a pixel is represented by Y’, CB, and CR values,
where Y’ is the “luma” or grayscale value and CB and CR contain the
“chroma” or color-difference information. Because the eye is less
sensitive to fine chroma detail, it is possible to average together and
encode fewer CB and CR samples with little visible quality loss for casual
viewing. This technique, known as chroma subsampling, has been used
widely to reduce the data rate of video signals. However, excessive
chroma subsampling can degrade quality for compositing, color
correction, and other image-processing operations. The ProRes family
handles today’s popular chroma formats as follows:
• 4:2:0 and 4:1:1 have the least chroma resolution of the formats
mentioned here, with just one CB/CR chroma pair for every four
luma samples. These formats are used in a variety of consumer and
professional video camcorders. Depending on the quality of a camera’s
imaging system, 4:2:0 and 4:1:1 formats can provide excellent viewing
quality. However, in compositing workflows it can be difficult to avoid
visible artifacts around the edges of a composited element. HD 4:2:0
formats include HDV, XDCAM HD, and AVC‑Intra/50. 4:1:1 is used in DV.
All Apple ProRes 422 formats can support 4:2:0 or 4:1:1 sources if the
chroma is upsampled to 4:2:2 prior to encoding.
Every image or video codec design must make tradeoffs between these
three properties. Because codecs used within professional camcorders
or for professional video editing must maintain high visual quality,
the tradeoff amounts to one of data rate versus performance. For
example, AVCHD camcorders can produce H.264 video streams with
excellent image quality at low data rates. However, the complexity of the
H.264 codec is very high, resulting in lower performance for real-time
video editing with multiple video streams and effects. In comparison,
Apple ProRes features excellent image quality as well as low complexity,
which results in better performance for real‑time video editing.
The following sections describe how the various ProRes codecs behave
and compare to one another in terms of these three important codec
properties: data rate, quality, and performance.
Data Rate
The ProRes family spans a broad range of data rates to support a
variety of workflow and application purposes. This section describes
how ProRes data rates compare to each other and to the data rates of
uncompressed video. The section also illustrates how frame size and
frame rate affect ProRes data rates. Finally, the text includes information
on the variable bit rate (VBR) nature of the ProRes codec family.
The bar chart below shows how the data rates of the ProRes formats
compare to those of uncompressed, full-width (1920 x 1080), 4:4:4
12-bit and 4:2:2 10-bit image sequences at 29.97 frames/sec. The
chart shows that even the two highest‑quality ProRes formats—
Apple ProRes 4444 XQ and Apple ProRes 4444—offer significantly
lower data rates than their uncompressed counterparts.
Data Rates - Uncompressed and Apple ProRes at 1920 x 1080, 29.97 fps
3,000
4:4:4 formats 4:2:2 formats
2,237
2,250
Mb/s
1,500 1,326
750
495
330
220 147 102 45
0
Uncompressed ProRes ProRes Uncompressed ProRes ProRes ProRes ProRes
12-bit 4:4:4 4444 XQ 4444 10-bit 4:2:2 422 HQ 422 422 LT 422 Proxy
(no alpha) (no alpha)
The data rates shown in the bar chart above are for “full-width”
(1920 x 1080) HD frames at 29.97 frames/sec. The ProRes family also
supports the 720p HD format at its full width (1280 x 720). In addition to
full-width HD formats, ProRes codecs support three different “partial-
width” HD video formats used as the recording resolutions in a number
of popular HD camcorders: 1280 x 1080, 1440 x 1080, and 960 x 720.
ProRes 422 LT
1440 x 1080 70
ProRes 422
1920 x 1080 82
23.976 fps
1440 x 1080 101
1440 x 1080 87
0 38 75 113 150
Mb/s
ProRes is a variable bit rate (VBR) video codec. This means that the
number of bits used to encode each frame within a stream is not
constant, but varies from one frame to the next. For a given video
frame size and a given ProRes codec type, the ProRes encoder aims to
achieve a “target” number of bits per frame. Multiplying this number by
the frames per second of the video format being encoded results in the
target data rate for a specific ProRes format.
800000
Max
Target
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Frame
Sequence depicted is ASC/DCI Standard Evaluation Material (StEM) Mini-Movie at 1920 x 1080.
Note that for this particular sequence of over 10,000 frames, only
one frame uses the maximum number of bits and most frames are
clustered within a few percent of the target. However, many frames use
significantly fewer bits than the target. This is because ProRes encoders
add bits to a frame only if doing so will produce a better match to the
original image. Beyond a certain point, simple image frames, such as
an all-black frame with a few words of text, incur no quality benefit if
more bits are added. ProRes encoders do not waste bits on any frame if
adding more will not improve the fidelity.
Quality
Although the ability to produce high-quality output is a key attribute of
image and video codecs, it is quality preservation—or fidelity—that is
the actual goal of a codec. Imagery often goes through many stages of
processing prior to ProRes encoding, and these stages may add visible
flaws, or “artifacts,” to the images. If an image sequence has visible
artifacts to begin with, ProRes will perfectly preserve these artifacts,
which can make viewers mistakenly think such flaws are caused by the
ProRes codec itself. The goal of every ProRes family member is to perfectly
preserve the quality of the original image source, be it good or bad.
70 D5
Luma PSNR (dB)
60
50
40
Measured using ASC/DCI Standard Evaluation Material (StEM) Mini-Movie at 1920 x 1080.
The next graph shows the same sequence plotted for each
Apple ProRes 422 codec. As the graph shows, there is a difference
in PSNR between one family member and the next. These differences
correspond to the comparative data rates of the Apple ProRes 422
codecs. PSNR for Apple ProRes 422 HQ is 15–20 dB higher than that
for Apple ProRes 422 Proxy, but the Apple ProRes 422 HQ stream has
nearly five times the data rate of the Apple ProRes 422 Proxy stream.
The benefit of higher fidelity comes at the cost of larger file sizes, so
it’s important to select the ProRes family member according to your
workflow requirements.
60
Luma PSNR (dB)
40
ProRes 422 HQ
20 ProRes 422
ProRes 422 LT
ProRes 422 Proxy
0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
Frame
Measured using ASC/DCI Standard Evaluation Material (StEM) Mini-Movie at 1920 x 1080.
Multigeneration PSNR
60
50
Luma PSNR (dB)
40
30
ProRes 422 HQ
ProRes 422
20
1 3 5 7 9
Generations
ProRes 422 Very rare High, very good for most multi-gen.
workflows
ProRes 422 Proxy Subtle for high-detail OK, intended for first-gen. viewing
images and editing
Performance
The ProRes family of codecs is designed for speed, and high speed of
both encoding and decoding is essential to avoid workflow bottlenecks.
ProRes 422 LT 23
ProRes 422 23
ProRes 422 HQ 20
ProRes 4444
11
(no alpha)
ProRes 4444 XQ
10
(no alpha)
0 6 12 18 24
Number of simultaneous streams (better quality)
Testing conducted by Apple in December 2019 on preproduction 2.5GHz 28-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro
systems with 384GB of RAM and dual AMD Radeon Pro Vega II graphics with Infinity Fabric Link and 32GB of
HBM2 each, configured with Afterburner and a 4TB SSD. Tested on macOS Catalina with Final Cut Pro 10.4.7,
using 90-second picture-in-picture projects with 23 streams of Apple ProRes 422 Proxy video, 23 streams of
Apple ProRes 422 LT video, 23 streams of Apple ProRes 422 video, 20 streams of Apple ProRes 422 HQ video,
11 streams of Apple ProRes 4444 video, and 10 streams of Apple ProRes 4444 XQ video, all at 4096 x 2160
resolution and 23.98 frames per second. Performance may vary based on system configuration, media type,
and other factors.
ProRes 422 LT 6
ProRes 422 5
ProRes 422 HQ 4
ProRes 4444
3
(no alpha)
ProRes 4444 XQ
2
(no alpha)
0 2 4 6 8
Number of simultaneous streams (better quality)
Testing conducted by Apple in December 2019 on preproduction 2.4GHz 8-core Intel Core i9-based 16-inch
MacBook Pro systems with 64GB of RAM, Radeon Pro 5500M graphics with 8GB of VRAM, and a 4TB SSD.
Tested on macOS Catalina with Final Cut Pro 10.4.7, using 90-second picture-in-picture projects with
7 streams of Apple ProRes 422 Proxy video, 6 streams of Apple ProRes 422 LT video, 5 streams of
Apple ProRes 422 video, 4 streams of Apple ProRes 422 HQ video, 3 streams of Apple ProRes 4444 video,
and 2 streams of Apple ProRes 4444 XQ video, all at 4096 x 2160 resolution and 23.98 frames per second.
Performance may vary based on system configuration, media type, and other factors.
12 1.6
Number of processor cores
6 2.5
4 3.3
2 5.8
1 11.2
0 5 10 15 20
Decoding time (ms per frame; shorter is faster)
Testing conducted by Apple in May 2014 using OS X Mavericks v.10.9.2 and a Mac Pro with 2.7GHz
12-core Intel Xeon processor. Performance may vary depending on system configuration, content, and
performance measurement tool use.
1.3
ProRes 422 Proxy Full Size
0.8 Half Size
1.8
ProRes 422 LT
1.0
2.3
ProRes 422
1.1
3.2
ProRes 422 HQ
1.3
0 2 4 6
Decoding time (ms per frame; shorter is faster)
Testing conducted by Apple in March 2014 using shipping 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display quad-core
2.6GHz units with 1TB flash storage, 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics, and OS X 10.9.2.
MacBook Pro continuously monitors system thermal and power conditions, and may adjust processor speed as
needed to maintain optimal system operation. Performance may vary depending on system configuration,
content, and performance measurement tool use.
For file-based transcoding of video files that have been encoded with
other (non-ProRes) video codecs, transcoding to ProRes entails both
decoding of the starting technique and re-encoding to ProRes. The
minimum total transcoding time will therefore be the sum of the time
required to decode the file and the time required to re-encode it to
ProRes. For certain video codec formats known to be highly complex
and therefore relatively slow to decode, such as JPEG‑2000 and the
REDCODE RAW (R3D) native codec format, the overall transcoding time
will be dominated by the decoding time. Still, fast ProRes encoding helps
make the total transcoding time faster.
Alpha values are essentially numeric data that specify how to blend, or
composite, a foreground image into a background image. For this reason,
Apple ProRes 4444 XQ and Apple ProRes 4444 encode alpha values
exactly rather than approximately. This kind of exact encoding is called
“lossless” (or sometimes “mathematically lossless”) compression. It uses
different encoding techniques from those used by the ProRes codec
family for RGB or Y’CBCR pixel values, where approximate encoding is
acceptable as long as differences from the original are not visible to the
viewer and do not affect processing. The Apple ProRes 4444 XQ and
Apple ProRes 4444 codecs losslessly encode alpha channel values of
any bit depth up to and including 16 bits.
With any kind of lossless compression, the data rate varies according
to the amount of image detail being encoded. This is true of
Apple ProRes 4444 lossless alpha channel compression as well.
However, in practice alpha channels typically contain just the information
related to object outlines, so the optional alpha channel typically adds
just a few percent to the overall Apple ProRes 4444 data rate. For this
reason, the presence of an alpha channel in an Apple ProRes 4444
stream typically reduces decoding and encoding performance by only
about 10 percent or less.
Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr
Dimensions Frame ProRes 422 ProRes 422 ProRes 422 ProRes 422 ProRes 4444 ProRes 4444 XQ
Rate Proxy LT HQ (no alpha) (no alpha)
Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr
50p 76 34 170 77 245 110 367 165 551 248 826 372
60p 91 41 204 92 293 132 440 198 660 297 990 445
50p 86 39 194 87 280 126 419 189 629 283 944 425
60p 103 46 232 104 335 151 503 226 754 339 1131 509
30p 70 31 157 71 226 102 340 153 509 229 764 344
50p 117 52 262 118 377 170 567 255 850 382 1275 574
60p 140 63 314 141 452 203 679 306 1019 458 1528 688
QFHD 24p 145 65 328 148 471 212 707 318 1061 477 1591 716
3840 x 2160
25p 151 68 342 154 492 221 737 332 1106 498 1659 746
30p 182 82 410 185 589 265 884 398 1326 597 1989 895
50p 303 136 684 308 983 442 1475 664 2212 995 3318 1493
60p 363 163 821 369 1178 530 1768 795 2652 1193 3977 1790
4K 24p 155 70 350 157 503 226 754 339 1131 509 1697 764
4096 x 2160
25p 162 73 365 164 524 236 786 354 1180 531 1769 796
30p 194 87 437 197 629 283 943 424 1414 636 2121 955
50p 323 145 730 328 1049 472 1573 708 2359 1062 3539 1593
60p 388 174 875 394 1257 566 1886 848 2828 1273 4242 1909
Dimensions Frame ProRes 422 ProRes 422 ProRes 422 ProRes 422 ProRes 4444 ProRes 4444 XQ
Rate Proxy LT HQ (no alpha) (no alpha)
Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr Mb/s GB/hr
5K 24p 243 109 547 246 786 354 1178 530 1768 795 2652 1193
5120 x 2700
25p 253 114 570 257 819 369 1229 553 1843 829 2765 1244
30p 304 137 684 308 982 442 1473 663 2210 994 3314 1492
50p 507 228 1140 513 1638 737 2458 1106 3686 1659 5530 2488
60p 608 273 1367 615 1964 884 2946 1326 4419 1989 6629 2983
6K 24p 350 157 788 354 1131 509 1697 764 2545 1145 3818 1718
6144 x 3240
25p 365 164 821 370 1180 531 1769 796 2654 1194 3981 1791
30p 437 197 985 443 1414 636 2121 955 3182 1432 4772 2148
50p 730 328 1643 739 2359 1062 3539 1593 5308 2389 7962 3583
60p 875 394 1969 886 2828 1273 4242 1909 6364 2864 9545 4295
8K 24p 622 280 1400 630 2011 905 3017 1358 4525 2036 6788 3055
8192 x 4320
25p 649 292 1460 657 2097 944 3146 1416 4719 2123 7078 3185
30p 778 350 1750 788 2514 1131 3771 1697 5657 2545 8485 3818
50p 1298 584 2920 1314 4194 1887 6291 2831 9437 4247 14,156 6370
60p 1556 700 3500 1575 5028 2263 7542 3394 11,313 5091 16,970 7636
video An image sequence for which the image frames typically use the
Y’CBCR color space and subsampled chroma channels, usually with one
of the following patterns: 4:2:2, 4:2:0, or 4:1:1.
video format A video sequence for which the frame height, frame width,
and frame rate are all specified. For example, a “1920 x 1080i 29.97
video format.”
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