[FFmpeg-user] ? About ffmpeg's prores implemention

[Paul B Mahol]

On 8/30/20, Edward Park <kumowoon1025 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> After more research, I’ve found that the two other encoders that I have
>> which write Prores create files that Afterburner recognizes as Prores and
>> plays them in real time.  Unfortunately ffmpeg’s Prores isn’t recognized
>> as such by the Mac and I’ll have to switch to AME for this going forward.
>> Too bad because ffmpeg is so beautifully multithreaded and fast… I’ll miss
>> it!
>
> Well, Adobe pays Apple to use their ProRes codec in AME, so that should be a
> foolproof option.
>
> Basically, authorized partners have access to a lot more comprehensive and
> definitive specifications and architectural directives from the original
> authors when they develop their codecs, and they go through the pass/fail
> tests that all but guarantees that their output works with any and all other
> official implementation. Th
>
> On the other hand, and I might be wrong about this, but the ProRes
> implementation in FFmpeg was pretty much reverse engineered by a couple
> (extremely talented) people, and it was done a long time ago. As talented as
> the authors are, obviously it is impossible to replicate the codec perfectly
> without the "blueprints." Nevertheless, it worked fine (until now), and it
> is definitely maintained, but some significant updates were made by Apple
> that I don't think have been fully realized by the changes in FFmpeg,
> especially in the last few minor versions of motion.
>
> Since you are on a Mac, implementing the ProRes encoder through videotoolbox
> would be your solution. I tried to tackle that a few weeks ago actually, but
> I think I may have been in way over my head, haha. Since it's a feature that
> would only benefit macos builds, priority might be low, I don't know how
> much you want ProRes+FFmpeg, but I'm thinking you could hire whoever does
> the heavy lifting in macos videotoolbox to implement the prores encoder as
> well.

Again just typical FUD from same person.

>
>> Unfortunately ffmpeg’s Prores isn’t recognized as such by the Mac and I’ll
>> have to switch to AME for this going forward.  Too bad because ffmpeg is
>> so beautifully multithreaded and fast… I’ll miss it!
>
> I'm a bit confused this comment though... How beneficial additional threads
> are to performance is firstly dependent on the actual codec, FFmpeg, and AME
> more like orchestrates the multi-threading, and I can't see AME falling
> behind very much in this specific case... Do you mean ProRes rendering
> doesn't rev up the CPU usage over 300% or 600% if you use AME?? (Depending
> on source) Ultimately it's the same as all the other "Apple authorized"
> ProRes apps, videotoolbox.

It is obviously slower, hahaha.

>
> Regards,
> Ted Park
>
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