Can you post some examples, either screenshots or video showing the problem?

@Tomasz-Pietryszek For what purpose are you rendering 4k XAVC to FHD Prores? Prores is an editing codec and not a final delivery codec.

Thanks for the answers. Videos are recorded in XAVS codecs. For clients, I need to have converted videos in ProRes 422 or HQ codecs. XAVS export in Vegas Pro 20 to 4K 422 codec is no different from XAVS. Fullhd 422 or HQ movies have high compression and noise. Only quality is good in Fullhd 422XQ codec same as XAVS but files are too big. It's strange that Vegas Pro renders some ProRess codecs well. Do you know any paid converters with the Apple Pro Ress license? I know Vegas Pro 20 is licensed for ProRes codecs and that's why I bought it.

Hello.

I bought Vegas Pro 20. The computer is on Windows 10. I record videos with a Sony 4K camera in XAVS codecs and after editing it saves ProRes 422 in 4K resolution. The image quality is the same as with the source XAVS codec. However, when it saves in a lower fullhd resolution in the ProRes 422 or HQ codec, these are large artifacts with compression. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

Upon rereading your post and looking at the magnified screenshots, I'm sure you are aware of the physical math. Full HD contains only 1/4 the pixels of 4k source, so most of the losses you see are probably caused by that. Downsampling algorithms are good at preserving color, but 75% of bilinear detail is simply lost to the numbers, so comparisons are pretty difficult.

I haven't seen the difference between ProRes templates in Vegas, but I'll run a couple of SSIMs, time permitting.

Do you know any paid converters with the Apple Pro Res license?

Yes, Vegas Pro 20 carries the Apple Pro Res license.

Once we eliminate the Bicubic Scaling algorithm from the equation, we find that the render quality between ProRes 422 UHD and FHD templates are identical in every other respect. The slight shading may come from 4:2:2 chroma subsampling, not encoding differences.

Note that when downsampling, there is no real difference between algorithms, due to the 75% resolution hit in our samples.

I know what 4K to FullHD scaling is. The problem is with artifacts at Fullhd resolution in the ProRes 422 and 422HQ codec after scaling 4K ProRes 422. This problem with artifacts is not in the Fullhd 422XQ or Photo Jpg codec after scaling 4K ProRes 422. You can easily check. I recommend adding some detail photo in FullHD resolution in Vegas Pro and saving to FullHD resolution ProRes 422 and ProresXQ or PhotoJpg. I recommend taking screenshots and zooming in on the images in a graphics program. Resolution will be so in FullHD in ProresXQ or PhotoJpg but big artifacts in ProRes 422 or HQ codec.

@Tomasz-Pietryszek I could not replicate your problem, It's strange. 422HQ is 230Mbit/s ALL-I , so it's not dependent on other frames, and rate control is not an issue, it's constant bit rate (although it shouldn't be). But you bring up 422XQ which is something like 1600Mbit/s (once again it shouldn't be should be 500Mbit/s) but you have no pixilation problems, suggesting it is a lack of bandwidth for Vegas's 422HQ and 422.

Can you show your actual 1080P pixelated video. upload to file sharing site or upload to youtube, or transcode it to mp4, ensuring you don't introduce artifacts and upload it to this forum

The video was recorded by Sony RX10 II in 4K XAVC 100Mbit/s resolution. In Vegas Pro 20, I converted the movie to 4K ProRes 422. The image quality is identical to XAVC on a Full HD monitor. When I want to convert a 4K XAVC or 4K ProRes 422 video to Full HD ProRes 422 resolution, the image has artifacts. I took screenshots of the monitor image and I also share files in the 4K ProRes 422 and Full HD 422 codec.

4K ProRes 422 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cLTwjBhpTh5EjYHbW4-kB9YQYox7MabA/view?usp=share_link

Full HD ProRes 422 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X-_nvbtQ0G6tVeCmgDRCPjxVND-YH9-j/view?usp=share_link

The problem is with artifacts at Fullhd resolution in the ProRes 422 and 422HQ codec after scaling 4K ProRes 422. 

Unfortunately, I'm unable to confirm your impressions. My preliminary tests are identical at different resolutions with the same encoder once the scaling variable is eliminated.

I'll download your examples and give them a look. Maybe something other than the codec is causing your concern.

Welcome to the discussions, and keep learning and asking! You will find lots of experience here.

We have discovered an issue when we send the ProRes files through our muxer during the rendering process. We are not entirely sure this will solve whatever problem you are seeing here, but we hope to have the fix for the problem we found available in the next update.

I ran a Difference Composite comparison, using a couple of ways to leverage Vegas' bicubic downscaler to negate the variable, and came up with no differences between the OP's 4k and HD renders, save for a bit of frequency noise in the shadows, that is invisible to the naked eye.

This test is not terribly scientific; hopefully @VEGASDerek will be able to shed more light on your impressions.

This is transcoding the Users 4K file to both AVC and Prores. Prores version generated what looks similar to low light camera sensor noise.

Not only in the shadows there are artifacts in the Full HD Prores 422 or HQ codec. The image is also less detailed when zoomed in. This problem also does not occur in the Full HD DNxHD codec and the picture is the same as in the original movie without artifacts. The DNxHD codec is similar to Full HD Prores 422. Vegas Pro does not properly render Full HD Prores 422 or HQ. It's a pity because I bought another Vegas Pro program for the new Full HD Prores 422 or HQ codecs. It would be good for the company to fix this error if they have licenses for quality ProRes codecs.

We have discovered an issue when we send the ProRes files through our muxer during the rendering process. We are not entirely sure this will solve whatever problem you are seeing here, but we hope to have the fix for the problem we found available in the next update.

However, the 4K Prores 422 and HQ codec also have artifacts after careful testing. Not only Full HD. In another Intertake 2 program, even the ProRes LT codecs have no artifacts. Though this program is not Apple codec certified.

@Tomasz-Pietryszek A popular and widely used open-source codec, although not certified by Apple, is prores-ks. For comparison, you can render directly from Vegas with prores-ks using the free Voukoder plugin. Btw, might help folks duplicate the problem and verify the Vegas update fix if you make the original camera footage available.

I am not interested in free programs that are not licensed for ProRes codecs, although they correctly convert XAVC or MP4 to Prores codecs. I already paid for Vegas Pro. However, Vegas Pro does not properly render XAVC or MP4 files to Prores codecs because there are artifacts. There is also a problem with the graphics. Even animation graphics from PNG image files do not render properly to ProRes codecs because artifacts appear as in the examples. It's easy to check for yourself. This program Vegas Pro is not suitable for image encoding in Prores.

If Vegas says it renders to ProRes, it ought to create compliant ProRes. There are still a lot of clients out there who demand that format.

Tomasz, have you tried to render out your files in Davinci Resolve to see if you get the same artifacts you're observing in Vegas?

I agree. Vegas has licensed the ProRes codecs but this does not give the correct image quality. Davinci resolve doesn't have a built-in collection of ProRes codecs or licenses, so it won't work.

Can standard def sources be encoded yet in ProRes @ 23.976fps?

In Vegas 19, the options for SD encoding frame rates were strictly 24.00/29.97/59.94 and could not be customized.

Czy standardowe źródła def mogą być jeszcze kodowane w ProRes @ 23,976 fps?

W Vegas 19 opcje szybkości klatek kodowania SD wynosiły ściśle 24,00/29,97/59,94 i nie można ich było dostosować.

Vegas 20. There is also no SD in ProRes 23.976 fps

We have confirmed that in the muxing process, ProRes VBR files are incorrectly labeled as CBR. To comment on the rest of this thread....

To ensure our ProRes certification, we spent a great deal of time working directly with Apple to ensure that files encoded by VEGAS using the various ProRes profiles were compliant with their standards. We will investigate the complaints raised in this thread, but we want to make it clear that Apple currently considers the files produced by VEGAS as fully compliant, which was the main prerequisite before we could officially include their codecs inside of VEGAS.

I did a test with a detailed photo for ProRes 422 rendering. The more detailed the image is, the bigger the artifacts will be in ProRes422 codecs and also in HQ. In the graphics program, I blurred most of the photo to minimize the details, then converted to the ProRes422 codec and there are no artifacts. When the whole photo exports to ProRes 422 and HQ codec. Artifacts appear.