Easiest way to get M2TS (H.264) into ProRes?

[Behodar]

Hi everyone,

What's the easiest way to take an H.264 stream from a Blu-ray and get it into ProRes format? My current process is embarrassingly complicated to the point where I don't even want to describe it

Mac tools are preferred, but I also have a Windows machine. Admittedly I don't know much about working with video under Windows - I don't even know whether a ProRes codec is available - so any Windows instructions would need to be newbie-friendly.

It seems that I may need to avoid (or at least limit the use of) QuickTime; some Blu-ray H.264 files work OK when dropped into QT Pro (after remuxing into .m4v) but others end up with duplicated or dropped frames - a brief search has indicated that QT doesn't really "like" some Blu-ray-sourced files.

Anyway, I'll shut up now and let you answer the question

Any tips?

PS. If there's another Mac-compatible codec that can accomplish the same sort of job then I'm all ears. And free tools are preferred, although I don't mind spending a small amount.

[bendermac]

On Mac: Adobe Media Encoder. PERIOD!

PRO:
Fast encoding
100% true Apple Codec usage

Con:

can't handle VC-1

If you need audio in your ProRes QuickTime movie, make sure the audio in your source is either AC3 or PCM. If you can life with a separate stream, use your audio tool of choice.

Windows has afaik only one Application that does proper ProRes, but it's not cheap.
Apple never made a ProRes encoder for Windows and will probably never do. But I never tested Adobe Media Encoder for Windows. It might have also the option to export to proper ProRes.

Stay away from FFMPEG ProRes if you can. While it works most of the time, it can cause problems like slowdowns in your NLE.

[Stamper]

fcpx is the best and easiest.

[Behodar]

On Mac: Adobe Media Encoder. PERIOD!

Thanks. I've downloaded the trial and you're right about it being fast - but it still won't finish before I have to go to work so it'll be ~10 hours before you hear whether it worked or not

Naturally I can't find any documentation around what the limitations of the trial version are, so I suspect that it'll stop working at some point (30 days?). I also haven't yet found any pricing information on Adobe's site, but being Adobe it's probably expensive...

fcpx is the best and easiest.

At NZ$450 it doesn't meet the "spending a small amount" criteria

[Behodar]

Well, it looks like Media Encoder did the trick! Now I just need to throw as much as I can at it before the 30 days are up

[dvdboy]

After 30 days, what about FFMPEG?

http://www.transcoding.dk/2012/01/29/prores-ffmpeg/

[Behodar]

Thanks; that looks like it could be useful!

Edit: Or perhaps not:

Stay away from FFMPEG ProRes if you can. While it works most of the time, it can cause problems like slowdowns in your NLE.

[spoRv]

it still won't finish before I have to go to work so it'll be ~10 hours before you hear whether it worked or not

Please, explain it to me... it takes 10 hours to load the m2ts and convert it to lossless file?!?

Even with my old PC (Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz) it took two/three minutes to build the index in avisynth, and about the time of movie lenght, if not less, to encode it lossless...

[Behodar]

Nope, doesn't take 10 hours, but I had to go to my job and therefore I didn't know whether it had worked until I got home again (about 10 hours later).

[spoRv]

Ah-ha, thanks for the explanation!