How to export ProRes or DNxHR from a free editor

Video by Zaweba, a free video editor for Windows, exports Apple ProRes in every flavour from Proxy to 4444 XQ, Avid DNxHR SQ, HQ and HQX in .mov (and HQ in .mxf), and CineForm. Open the export window with Ctrl+E, choose the codec and flavour, and render. There is no paid upgrade to reach these formats and the app runs offline with no account.

These codecs exist for a different job from MP4. An MP4 is built to be small enough to stream. ProRes and DNxHR are built to be edited, graded and handed on with as little loss as possible, so files are much larger but hold up when someone else works on them.

When you need an editing codec

You need one when your video is not the final stop. A colourist may want a high-quality master to grade. A broadcaster or festival may ask for a particular ProRes or DNxHR flavour. A motion graphics artist may need a clip with transparency to work over. Or you may want an archive copy that you can re-edit years from now without the loss that comes from cutting a compressed MP4 again.

Choosing a flavour

ProRes comes in six steps. Proxy and LT are light versions for offline editing and quick previews. 422 is the everyday choice for delivery, and 422 HQ gives more headroom for grading. 4444 and 4444 XQ keep full colour detail and can carry transparency, which makes them the choice for graphics and anything that will be layered over other footage.

DNxHR follows a similar ladder. SQ is the standard quality version, HQ is the higher quality step that many deliveries ask for, and HQX gives more room again. Video by Zaweba writes all three in .mov, and HQ in .mxf as well for workflows built round that wrapper.

CineForm is a third option, common in some camera and visual effects pipelines. If nobody has asked for a particular codec, ProRes 422 HQ or DNxHR HQ are safe, widely read choices.

Exporting the master

Finish your edit and press Ctrl+E to open the export window. Choose the codec and flavour from the professional formats. Set the range if you only need part of the timeline, since each timeline keeps its own export range. Check the sound settings in Export > More options, where channels and sample rate can be set to match a delivery request. Then start the export, or add it to the render queue so it runs after other jobs.

Other professional exports

The same window offers QuickTime Animation and uncompressed 10-bit for the rare cases that call for them, and image sequences as TIFF, JPEG, BMP, Targa, DPX or OpenEXR frames for visual effects work. For broadcast, there are interlaced exports and XDCAM HD422 1080i in .mxf, with upper or lower field first for MPEG-2, XDCAM, ProRes, DNxHR and uncompressed.

If your source footage is already ProRes and your export matches its profile, size and rate, smart rendering copies plain cuts rather than encoding them again. That saves time and keeps those frames exactly as they were. The export window says why when it cannot do this, which helps you match the settings.

Checks before a delivery

Ask before you export. A delivery spec will name the codec, flavour, frame size, frame rate and sound layout. Matching it the first time saves a long re-render.

Mind the disk space. ProRes 4444 XQ and uncompressed files are very large, so point the export at a drive with plenty of room. The scratch disk settings in Edit > Preferences let you keep proxies, previews and autosaves on a different drive.

Use the Project manager for archives. File > Project manager can collect a project's media, trim it to the parts you used with handles, or transcode it to ProRes 422 HQ or DNxHR HQ. That gives you a tidy, self-contained archive.

Camera cards can be ingested straight to these codecs as well, converting to ProRes 422 or DNxHR HQ as the files are copied, which is useful when footage from several cameras arrives in awkward formats.

Video by Zaweba keeps the whole job on your own PC, with no upload and no account.