Answers.Body: <p>I found the following explanation on the <a href="https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VFX" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ffmpeg wiki</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Fmpeg comes with 3 different prores encodes: "prores", "prores_ks"
    (formerly named "prores_kostya") and "prores_aw" (formerly named
    "prores_anatolyi"). In our testing we've used the "prores" and the
    "prores_ks" encoders and found "prores_ks" to be the best encoder to
    use. It is the only one that supports the 4444 colorspace and although
    it may be slightly slower. The color quality of the videos produced by
    these two codecs was visually indistinguishable Because of the 4444
    support we've decided to go with Kostya's version of prores.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>So, if you want to do 4444 and need alpha channel support, <code>prores_ks</code> is the way to go.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://wideopenbokeh.com/AthenasFall/?p=111" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This blog post</a> also suggests that <code>prores_ks</code> has a smaller footprint, and that <code>prores</code> and <code>prores_aw</code> are basically the same.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-02-01T09:57:56.133Z
Answers.Text: [Beware](http://video.stackexchange.com/q/20024/1871) of 4444+alpha encoding.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-08-20T00:02:28.543Z
Answers.Text: @Gyan Heads up for new people, the 4444+alpha bug has been fixed. Just make sure you're running the latest FFmpeg build.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Mint
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-02-01T09:28:59.673Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-02-01T09:28:59.673Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Patrick Kenny
Body: <p>I'm using <code>ffmpeg</code> and while looking through the list of codes with <code>ffmpeg -codecs</code> I realized there are actually three different prores encoders:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>prores</li>
  <li>prores_aw</li>
  <li>prores_ks</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>What are the differences between them?</p>
  
Tags: <ffmpeg><encoding><prores>
Title: What are the differences between the three bundled ffmpeg prores encoders?
UserDisplayName: Patrick Kenny
ThreadText: # What are the differences between the three bundled ffmpeg prores encoders?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-02-01)
  
  I'm using `ffmpeg` and while looking through the list of codes with `ffmpeg -codecs` I realized there are actually three different prores encoders:
  
  * prores
  * prores\_aw
  * prores\_ks
  
  What are the differences between them?
  
  **Tags:** ffmpeg, encoding, prores
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2017-02-01. Score: 3 | Accepted answer
  
  I found the following explanation on the [ffmpeg wiki](https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VFX):
  
  > Fmpeg comes with 3 different prores encodes: "prores", "prores\_ks"
  > (formerly named "prores\_kostya") and "prores\_aw" (formerly named
  > "prores\_anatolyi"). In our testing we've used the "prores" and the
  > "prores\_ks" encoders and found "prores\_ks" to be the best encoder to
  > use. It is the only one that supports the 4444 colorspace and although
  > it may be slightly slower. The color quality of the videos produced by
  > these two codecs was visually indistinguishable Because of the 4444
  > support we've decided to go with Kostya's version of prores.
  
  So, if you want to do 4444 and need alpha channel support, `prores_ks` is the way to go.
  
  [This blog post](https://wideopenbokeh.com/AthenasFall/?p=111) also suggests that `prores_ks` has a smaller footprint, and that `prores` and `prores_aw` are basically the same.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: [Beware](http://video.stackexchange.com/q/20024/1871) of 4444+alpha encoding.  
  > **username_2**: @username_1 Heads up for new people, the 4444+alpha bug has been fixed. Just make sure you're running the latest FFmpeg build.  
  
  ---
  
  