Today may very well be seen as a seminal moment in post-production as Adobe announced ProRes encode and export support on the Windows platform. Check your Creative Cloud app as the update is rolling out.

It’s a small point release in number (as Adobe Premiere Pro goes to 13.0.2) but a big release in functionality as this update allows Apple-blessed, officially licensed, ProRes encode (the Apple ProRes white paper is a good read to learn more about ProRes in general) on the Windows platform. This is big news as up until today ProRes encode on Windows has been the domain of either high-end (often expensive) software like Assimilate Scratch or 3rd party “hacks” that could produce Windows ProRes files but they might not meet quality control when it came to network QC. I don’t know why it took so long for official ProRes encode support to make it to the Adobe Windows video apps (there has been the ability to playback ProRes on Windows for a long time) but I’m guessing that Apple was keeping the encode side of things close to the vest to give the Apple platform a slight advantage in content creation. To me, this update says that both Apple and Adobe have realized that ProRes has become a dominant codec (I hesitate to use the word “standard”) for delivery across many different forms of media and entertainment. I’m sure Adobe has been asking for this for a long time and I’m glad that Apple finally agreed to allow ProRes encode on the Windows platform.

A look under the Windows Media Encoder Presets shows a new batch of Apple ProRes options with most all flavors available for export. You can now create those ProRes Proxy files for a fast and efficient offline workflow right on your Windows workstation.

Checking the Export dialog box right from Adobe Premiere Pro you can also see the presets in Windows ready to go.

Missing from the presets seems to be ProRes 4444 XQ but that flavor should be available when accessing the codec directly from within the Video Codec settings. All the other codecs are still there, ProRes is just added to the list on Windows versions of the Adobe video apps. I see no mention of ProRes RAW.

This is good news for editors everywhere as ProRes encode on Windows has longed been asked for in the entire Adobe suite. After Effects also adds ProRes export as well which makes sense as both PPro and After Effects use Adobe Media Encoder for output. If you add it in Media Encoder, you add it across the Adobe video apps. Now go do some ProRes encoding on your PC!

Read release notes for:

• Premiere Pro CC 13.0.2
• After Effects CC 16.0.1
• Adobe Media Encoder CC 13.0.2

And the internet seem happy.

Hallelujah! ProRes exports on Windows. Thank you @AdobePremiere https://t.co/jNa4WUthtt

— Ken Montgomery (@montken) December 11, 2018

https://twitter.com/JDempe_DP/status/1072503070637125632

https://twitter.com/ninastaum/status/1072520714471833602

It’s about fucking timehttps://t.co/QzbPzTuQfa

— Lumberjack Michael (@NSAPROPAGANDA) December 11, 2018