Apple Removes ProRes ?

Avid people are reporting that “   Apple has removed the ProRes codecs from their Pro Video Formats Package, and automatic upgrades in the macOS is removing it.”

where in hell ... ?

avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US...DhYWTnv8sCXjZC44Yc_0

If that's true, then why do I have the latest versions of everything, and I still have ProRes codecs running in my system just fine.

that’s what I was thinking but it is true that non ProApps users have problem. so I wonder what’s happening.

This sounds to me like the removal of 32 bit Quicktime components, as that folder no longer exists in Catalina and beyond.

I have the latest Avid 2020.12 running on Catalina 10.15.7 ProFormats 2.2 and can confirm that I just successfully exported ProRes and DNX encoded files, as both mov and mxf. They all play at OS level and QuickView works.

This is the best we have ever seen from Avid, as Apple abandoning QT 32 bit, has forced them to rework the export options with the new UME (Universal Media Engine) which is massively faster than the single threaded 32 bit exports previously.

Stu Wart wrote: Avid people are reporting that “   Apple has removed the ProRes codecs from their Pro Video Formats Package, and automatic upgrades in the macOS is removing it.” ...

I think the codecs in /Library/Quicktime were all 32-bit which won't run on Catalina or later. I just did a test restore of AppleProResCodec.component from a Time Machine backup. Inside that package is /Contents/MacOS/AppleProResCodec. Using the terminal command "file" on that component indicates it is i386 and 32-bit. 

Looking back through my Time Machine backups on my Catalina machine, between July 19, 2020 and August 25, 2020, something removed those obsolete and non-functional 32-bit Quicktime codecs. It's possible it was the installer for Pro Video Formats 2.1.2, which was on August 25. 

Of course this has no impact for people running Catalina or later since they can't run 32-bit code anyway.

But if you were running Mojave or earlier, were reliant on the 32-bit system-wide Quicktime codecs which have long been deprecated, and then installed Pro Video Formats 2.1.2 or later, it would be a problem.

My guess is this is an oversight by Apple in the installer for Pro Video Formats. It should do a version check of MacOS and only remove those components if Catalina or later, or else don't remove them at all.

If those Avid users were on Catalina or later, they wouldn't see this because ProRes support likely exists in 64-bit AVFoundation components in /Library/Video/Professional Video Workflow Plug-Ins/ 

There is not a specifically-named ProRes component in that folder, but it might be within one of the other bundles. Either way it exists somewhere because 3rd-party 64-bit apps like Handbrake, EditReady2, Premiere Pro, etc, have no problem decoding or encoding ProRes on Catalina.

Thanks Joema, so since 2018.12 and 2019.12 ( and now 2020.12) are 2 entirely different builds of Media Composer, I think you'd only get this problem if you were running the old UI 2018.12 on Mojave and you updated the Proformats. So it does sound like an Apple problem where it should check OS and App dependencies first.

Apple gave everyone a fair long-term warning that the QT framework was going away. Avid just chose to ignore that fact.  Just like Flash is now dead, any site still using it could blame Adobe, but hey, we had more than enough warning to prepare.

To a certain extent I do agree with you. It was 4months last year before my new MBPro would even run Avid MC, let alone be approved for it, due to QT Frameworks. It shipped with Catalina and there was no opportunity to roll back. Avid knew about the demise of QT for years and did very little.

However there is something to be said for the fact that Avid offer backwards compatibility , and whilst that does indeed stifle progress, it does mean you can take a Bin from 1998 and it still opens in 2020. At The BBC where I often work, there's probably a few hundred Media Composers, it's really tough for companies, especially small facilities with tight budgets, to keep their hardware and software up to date, it's hard too, to take the wheels off something, that is always moving. The Avid Website keeps a version Matrix:
avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/compatibility/en267087

and Chris Bove, (not paid by Avid) also keeps a comprehensive list of what is compabtible with what, on his website here:
www.alwaysediting.com/avid-mc-versions.html

FWIW and I don't expect you to be impressed, Avid have really tried to get a grip with version 2020, they are stuck between a rock and hard place, where even a shortcut move, incurs the wrath of some of their most loyal users. It is already approved for Big Sur and there has been huge improvements in performance and features in the last few months.

The problem wasn't just QT framework going away, but the suggested AVFoundation framework had no equivalent documented mechanism for system-wide 3rd-party codec extensions. A rough equivalent on Windows would be installing a "codec pack". 

I think one issue was codec software is very finicky, performance intensive and bugs in the 3rd-party codec processing can reverberate throughout the system. It's similar to the situation we now have with 3rd-party FCP plugins, where any little bug can crash FCP. That code is not generally validated or stress tested to the degree that FCP code is, but it's loaded into the same trusted address space. That issue is being addressed with FxPlug 4.

I think Apple's solution for 3rd-party codecs was to quit supporting those extensions. I don't think it had anything to do with 32-bit vs 64-bit.

Individual app vendors (Premiere, Avid, etc) could add parsers for whatever codec they wanted to support, but it would be app-specific, not system wide. 

With Quicktime framework, they were accustomed to someone else writing that which then magically became available system wide. E.g, add the Quicktime plugin extension for a certain codec, then all players and software calling Quicktime framework could suddenly read those files.

Apple could have updated Quicktime framework to 64 bits and maintained the 3rd-party extension interface. That was discussed for a while but they chose to not pursue it. I don't remember the reasons.

In actuality there is still a mechanism for adding 3rd-party codec support with AVFoundation, but it is undocumented. Apparently the codec provider (RED, Canon, Avid, etc) writes the specific software to decode and encode that format, then Apple provides the integration code for MacOS which packages it as either (1) An installable plugin which you download from the vendor, or (2) A part of Pro Video Formats which you get from Apple.

An example of #1 is the RED and Canon workflow packages for their RAW formats. An example of #2 is the DNx decoder bundle which is now part of Pro Video Formats.

I heard it was his foot...