That´s why I use an external recorder (Ninja V) with my Canon R6 and R5 because the Ninja can record in ProRes 422 which is a breeze to edit on a silicon based Mac.
If your timeline is stuttering, try in the Davinci menu: Playback -> Render cache -> Smart. Still troubles? If you have too much sfx on a shot, your videocard has work to hard. Try in the edit tab -> right click on the file with the effect. Render in place. Choose DNxHR instead of DNxHD, DNxHD is for HD footage, DNxHR up to 8K..
Hi, but if I convert/transcode my 10 bit footages(H.265) to mp4(H.264), won't the color data get compressed? If so, then won't my color grading workflow be affected?
@vincentong7775 do you make videos for clients or for to impress others TH-camrs? Color grading is only preached by 'content creator's ' . Color grading is part of video but not the main thing. If your wanting to be a video maker and do client videos then no need to really worry about Color grading if you wanna be a TH-camr then you will as you have been brain wish to think Color is everything
H.264 can be lossles and optimized for editing while being much smaller than ProRes or DNxHR, as simple as using these settings on ffmpeg for 422 10-bit: -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv422p10 -qp 0 -g 30 -tune fastdecode For 420 8-bit just replace yuv422p10 for yuv420p.
If the camera supports it, the native All-I codecs work too. ProRes 422 (HQ) takes up quite a bit more space. Transcoding h.264 to ProRes 422 (HQ) for example is a waste of space as the original footage might not be good enough quality to begin with if shot in 8/10bit 4:2:0. Transcoding to ProRes Proxy is more than enough. Premiere Pro users should note there are different proxy formats and transcoding to h.264 proxies wouldn't make much of a difference.
Yeah, as I mention in the video an All-I codec is a good alternative. Depending on the camera (my GH6 shoots ALL-I in about 450Mbps, and ProRes at 520Mbps) I'd always go for ProRes, and as you say ProRes HQ is usually overkill for most of us. "Normal" ProRes 422 or even LT and 422 Proxy codecs are sufficient. Thanks for sharing! ;)
I have to disagree on one thing, it it is not mentioned, transcoding is also beneficial to preserving top quality when a lot of post work is being performed. It's not all about smooth playback in most of my cases.
Great explanation Paul, I have a 4k cannon camcorder and it only records h.264 but I cold convert some of the seens that have layered effects or Green screen that can slow down and be choppy. That is the main reason why editing h.264 is choppy when editing.
Apple Silicon solved this for me. Abandoning Intel was the best decision I ever made. Editing 6K HEVC and 4K H264 is great on this machine. It plays fine, it scrubs at about 80-90% as well as ProRes without transcoding the footage or rendering.
Hi! I’m interested in your experience, because I’ve been struggling with massive lagging in DaVinci (free version) and can’t understand the reason. I’m working on Mac (Chip: Apple M2, 8GB - but always have a lot of free space). Codec H.264 Does my Mac is Silicon version? I suppose it is, so why Davinci proceed lagging ((( it’s so annoying
HVEC on my DJI Action 4 edits a lot less smooth than H.264, even a single HVEC video on the timeline is choppy, when and entire 30 minute video edit with the H.264 clips are smooth. Why is this?
The DJI Action 4 (and pocket cameras) automatically record .LRF files which I use as proxy files. Rename them to .MP4., place them in a subfolder under your 4k footage, and then attach your 4k footage to them. I found doing this makes editing much smoother, even multicam editing which used to be impossible.
By mistake i made vlc the default player for macos, it did convert all media on my mac to mpeg4...not h264 so all my sony footage on hardrives is nownmpeg 4 ..cant believe it s possiboe. Donno how to reverse this curse .even the files from the memory card show mpeg4 not h264
Do you have a video about managing the files? What kind of storage are you using for recording and for editing? I'm asking about Gigas. For a 1hour filming, how many gbs do you need? How do you manage it with your computer? In few words ...😅
The “bruise” is simply because that clip is a screenshot and only 8bit, meaning the dynamic range is too low to show the details in the shadows. If this happens to you I suggest lighting the scene brighter or turn up the ISO. Afterwards you can adjust it down in premier ;)
For my gopro video files avc and hevc i use adobe media encoder to transcode files to apple pro res 422 422 HQ or to the gopro cine form yuv 10 bit its work perect with color correction and more thing ...
Thanks for your previous reply but I have pretty a major question that no one discusses on TH-cam. The question is what is the highest quality required for TH-cam that makes sense? One can have a lot of hassle recording 600mbps RAW formats, 10-12 bits, terabites of data but eventually all these videos will pass through severe TH-cam compressions which annihilates all tries and value of lossless and other high-quality formats. You may say - watch it in original quality but this contradicts with the main goal - mass accessibility. Delivering your videos is the main goal of what everyone does. How to find that reasonable quality? How does it look like? Otherwise, it may appear that Sony A7SIII and Panasonic G80 bring the same final result seen on TH-cam. I hope you get my idea and if you'll make a deeper video on that it may become viral.
Even though TH-cam compress the footage, a video shot on a better camera with higher bitrates will always look better on TH-cam. I guess it’s up to you to decide what’s worth it. I’m happy with filming in ProRes at 512mbps 10bits. Easy to edit and color grade. Not filming in Log and raw, as it’s heavier to work with.
I'm still confused. I'm working with multiple formats and rez, ultimately dumbing down to to SD. Premiere is a constant wrestling match. It likes to continue to play after trying to stop and it'll sit when I hit play. Messing w/ Min/Max usually kicks into playing. Should make all comps the same codec or embrace the suck as always?
@@larbueno LOL! Seems odd, eh? My project is finalized on DVD. Plus most of my video doodles are SD as well because I figure they'll be viewed on a small screen.
h264 is not interframe with All-I though, is it? I know you mentioned it in a footnote of sorts, but that does make that statement any less incorrect I think. But, of course, h264 and h265 are delivery codecs whilst DNxHD/HR and ProRes are for further processing - much like for example CineV and V-Log respectively.
Hmm. I captured all of my old vhs tapes using an Elgato video adapter about 6 years ago into individual h.264 files, am I SOL? These are pretty rough camcorder VHS tapes so the quality isn't really an issue, it's just me now wanting to edit them together but now I don't know what software I should use to do that having seen this. iMovie? I'm more of an audio guy, with only a little bit of dabbling in iMovie when I captured some old DV tapes a few years ago. And since the good old days of making DVDs from home movies has come and gone, I haven't looked into something that's not impossible to learn how to edit the videos with.
Thanks for this. H265 for this Mac M1 user looks like the way to go. Until then, unfortunately, I have 10 TB of h264 footage, much of which is stuttering and horrible on my M1 MacBook (in DaVinci Resolve, free version). Will upgrading to Studio fix the issue, or what MacBook (M2, M3, Pro, Max) can I switch to in order to play it smoothly. Transcoding and proxies is out of the question as I have too much data. (Footage shot on A7siii, by the way, XAVC S 4K, mostly 4:2:0 8-bit, some 10-bit.
Hi Paul! I have an iPhone 14 Pro 128GB which can record 4k at 60 fps with H.264 and 1080p at 30 fps with ProRes. Which is the highest resolution setting?
Hey Paul ;) Well, even though the resolution is higher in 4k h264, there’s more information in each frame when filming in ProRes, even if it’s only HD. Furthermore, as I mention in this video editing h264 is not good…
Great thanks for explaining! I already understood the codecs basic. All intra I see to be also called mezzanine but anyway I'm struggling to understand how crucial is to have a camera that records in pro res raw. What is the difference between filming in 264 and than transcoding to pro res or recording directly in pro res. How huge is the difference? Thanks!
Hey! H.264 is not a lossless format, meaning the information stored in each frame is “limited”. Transcoding this to ProRes means the information will still be limited, as you cannot get any information back. Filming in ProRes contains all information, as it’s basically a lossless codec. To sum it up: transcoding h264 to ProRes makes it easier to edit, but the image quality will always be inferior to filming natively in ProRes, which is easy to edit and has amazing quality. Hope this helps ;)
@@PaulHeimlund Great thanks for your reply. My greatest misunderstanding was assuming that 264 is still close to lossless but just with a more efficient encoding algorithm.
H.264 is as "losses", as mp3 is in audio. The same goes for H.265, AV1, VP9 and most codecs. So stick to ProRes, Blackmagic RAW, DNXHR and other "losses" codecs, as much as possible, until you do the final export. Btw., those high quality codecs are also compressed, but nothing like the "end user" codecs.
The higher compression codec, the worse playback in your NLE. So H.265 is already heavier to playback in an NLE, as H.264 is. H.266 will only be worse (as will AV1).
hey thanks for the video! what about colour profile? my original video was in clog3 and it looks weird and blown out after the prores conversion. thanks in advance!
@@PaulHeimlund hello thanks for replying....i figured something that works for me... pls let me know if this is the best/optmized way..... 1. shoot video in clog3, 4k 24 or 4k 60 (canon r7) 2. open that footage in da vinci 3. apply colour transform effect - input gamma = clog3 4. export footage : format = quicktime and type = Apple prores 422 proxy 5. the new exported video works fine and smooth in editing.
I edit 4k 360 video and this title is misleading, Watched about 1 minute if this before realizing this video has absolutely nothing to do with the codec this video is advertisement for apple Reported
well well, I am filming with my gh5 in 4K-h264-422-10bit-All Intra-vlog-400 Mbit/s. All Intra is just a parameter of that codec ok? And All Intra is not specific to a "delivery" codec ok? This is opposite since with All Intra you increase your bitrate. All Intra in the timeline is faster to edit because less calculation. And remember h264-422-10bit is not hardware accelerated at all (All-i or Lon Gop). My 2 cents.
I've never said all intra is specific to a "delivery" codec, nor do I talk about codecs being hardware accelerated. Furthermore, you don't increase the bitrate simply because the footage is All Intra.
@@PaulHeimlund Hi Paul, thx for your answer. You said:"...You’re correct regarding All-i, it is intraframe, but as you say, made for delivery not editing...." Let's say, and you are right, h264 and h265 are delivery codecs generaly speaking. But with all-I these codecs are becoming full editing codecs. Don't you think so? The only question remaining is: with same bitrate, are all-I h265 and "mezzanine" codecs (prores,etc.) Image Quality equivalent ? For same quality of the image of the intra frame, bitrate of all-I is greater than the long gop equivalent footage bitrate: that is the goal of long gop, replacing full information by more calculation.
H.264 sucks for editing because you use an Apple computer. Get something with an Nvidia or AMD video card that has hardware decoding and encoding H.264 and H.265, which is almost every card made after 2018, and stop apologizing for Apple. If I converted my camera's H.265 footage to ProRes, I'd need 4-8x the storage space.
No matter your OS or computer, H.264 (and 265, AV1 etc.) will always be harder to your NLE, than ProRes, DNxHR etc. Just put enough effects and color grading on your H.264, and even the strongest PC can experience dropped frames.
Yes, but you'd be moving into a professional direction in quality... if you want that quality. Large drives including SSDs have come way down in price you may have heard.
That´s why I use an external recorder (Ninja V) with my Canon R6 and R5 because the Ninja can record in ProRes 422 which is a breeze to edit on a silicon based Mac.
Intra-codec... well, that would explain why I'm struggling to edit some videos! Thank you for this simple explanation!
If your timeline is stuttering, try in the Davinci menu: Playback -> Render cache -> Smart.
Still troubles? If you have too much sfx on a shot, your videocard has work to hard. Try in the edit tab -> right click on the file with the effect. Render in place.
Choose DNxHR instead of DNxHD, DNxHD is for HD footage, DNxHR up to 8K..
Thanks for sharing the tips!
It's simple . If you use Mac use ProRes. If you use Windows use H.264. On Windows ProRes has the same issues that H.264 has on Mac.
Hi, but if I convert/transcode my 10 bit footages(H.265) to mp4(H.264), won't the color data get compressed? If so, then won't my color grading workflow be affected?
@vincentong7775 do you make videos for clients or for to impress others TH-camrs? Color grading is only preached by 'content creator's ' . Color grading is part of video but not the main thing. If your wanting to be a video maker and do client videos then no need to really worry about Color grading if you wanna be a TH-camr then you will as you have been brain wish to think Color is everything
H.264 can be lossles and optimized for editing while being much smaller than ProRes or DNxHR, as simple as using these settings on ffmpeg for 422 10-bit:
-c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv422p10 -qp 0 -g 30 -tune fastdecode
For 420 8-bit just replace yuv422p10 for yuv420p.
If the camera supports it, the native All-I codecs work too. ProRes 422 (HQ) takes up quite a bit more space. Transcoding h.264 to ProRes 422 (HQ) for example is a waste of space as the original footage might not be good enough quality to begin with if shot in 8/10bit 4:2:0.
Transcoding to ProRes Proxy is more than enough. Premiere Pro users should note there are different proxy formats and transcoding to h.264 proxies wouldn't make much of a difference.
Yeah, as I mention in the video an All-I codec is a good alternative. Depending on the camera (my GH6 shoots ALL-I in about 450Mbps, and ProRes at 520Mbps) I'd always go for ProRes, and as you say ProRes HQ is usually overkill for most of us. "Normal" ProRes 422 or even LT and 422 Proxy codecs are sufficient.
Thanks for sharing! ;)
I have to disagree on one thing, it it is not mentioned, transcoding is also beneficial to preserving top quality when a lot of post work is being performed. It's not all about smooth playback in most of my cases.
Absolutely beautiful video! Stunning! Love the studio and lighting. Also great info on the .264 vs ProRes. Thanks!!
Great explanation Paul, I have a 4k cannon camcorder and it only records h.264 but I cold convert some of the seens that have layered effects or Green screen that can slow down and be choppy. That is the main reason why editing h.264 is choppy when editing.
Check if you can film in All-i. That’ll help the choppiness. If not do as you say and convert fx scenes to prores ;)
@@PaulHeimlundwe need x266 😢 for 4k compression its compression more hevc is best for 1440p h.264 is best for 1080p
Apple Silicon solved this for me. Abandoning Intel was the best decision I ever made. Editing 6K HEVC and 4K H264 is great on this machine. It plays fine, it scrubs at about 80-90% as well as ProRes without transcoding the footage or rendering.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
@@PaulHeimlundit’s because apple silicon has a special hardware module for encoding and decoding h264/hevc/prores
@@CrushedAsian255 was one of the main reasons I migrated. Have had an M3 Max since end of January and I’ll never look back!
Hi! I’m interested in your experience, because I’ve been struggling with massive lagging in DaVinci (free version) and can’t understand the reason.
I’m working on Mac (Chip: Apple M2, 8GB - but always have a lot of free space).
Codec H.264
Does my Mac is Silicon version? I suppose it is, so why Davinci proceed lagging ((( it’s so annoying
@@mariyka_kho8gb ram isn't enough, neither is 256gb ssd
What about transcoding (or using for Proxies) .mov ? Would that be better than H.264 ?
HVEC on my DJI Action 4 edits a lot less smooth than H.264, even a single HVEC video on the timeline is choppy, when and entire 30 minute video edit with the H.264 clips are smooth. Why is this?
Hey! You might need to install the HVEC codec on your computer. I suggest checking out Dji forums for more information. Hope this helps ;)
The DJI Action 4 (and pocket cameras) automatically record .LRF files which I use as proxy files. Rename them to .MP4., place them in a subfolder under your 4k footage, and then attach your 4k footage to them. I found doing this makes editing much smoother, even multicam editing which used to be impossible.
By mistake i made vlc the default player for macos, it did convert all media on my mac to mpeg4...not h264 so all my sony footage on hardrives is nownmpeg 4 ..cant believe it s possiboe. Donno how to reverse this curse .even the files from the memory card show mpeg4 not h264
Do you have a video about managing the files?
What kind of storage are you using for recording and for editing?
I'm asking about Gigas.
For a 1hour filming, how many gbs do you need?
How do you manage it with your computer?
In few words ...😅
Hello, the bruise on your face at 00:40 is also seen in my videos. What should I do? Or can we fix this in premiere pro?
The “bruise” is simply because that clip is a screenshot and only 8bit, meaning the dynamic range is too low to show the details in the shadows. If this happens to you I suggest lighting the scene brighter or turn up the ISO. Afterwards you can adjust it down in premier ;)
For my gopro video files avc and hevc i use adobe media encoder to transcode files to apple pro res 422 422 HQ or to the gopro cine form yuv 10 bit its work perect with color correction and more thing ...
Thanks for your previous reply but I have pretty a major question that no one discusses on TH-cam. The question is what is the highest quality required for TH-cam that makes sense? One can have a lot of hassle recording 600mbps RAW formats, 10-12 bits, terabites of data but eventually all these videos will pass through severe TH-cam compressions which annihilates all tries and value of lossless and other high-quality formats. You may say - watch it in original quality but this contradicts with the main goal - mass accessibility. Delivering your videos is the main goal of what everyone does. How to find that reasonable quality? How does it look like? Otherwise, it may appear that Sony A7SIII and Panasonic G80 bring the same final result seen on TH-cam. I hope you get my idea and if you'll make a deeper video on that it may become viral.
Even though TH-cam compress the footage, a video shot on a better camera with higher bitrates will always look better on TH-cam. I guess it’s up to you to decide what’s worth it. I’m happy with filming in ProRes at 512mbps 10bits. Easy to edit and color grade. Not filming in Log and raw, as it’s heavier to work with.
I got windows computer not sure if matters I’m gonna be filming with iPhone using Blackmagic would you recommend h.265 or proress??
Prores if you have space on your phone ;)
You can always try the h.265 and see how it goes…
What camera do you use and what profile for this videos? The color correction look amazing 🙏🏼 really cool🙌🏻🙌🏻
I'm still confused. I'm working with multiple formats and rez, ultimately dumbing down to to SD. Premiere is a constant wrestling match. It likes to continue to play after trying to stop and it'll sit when I hit play. Messing w/ Min/Max usually kicks into playing. Should make all comps the same codec or embrace the suck as always?
Yeah, it might help to have all clips in the same codecs. However, it sounds more like a hardware issue…
I may not be thinking clearly, but why are you dumbing down to SD?
For me Premiere Pro works great, ALL problems in plugins, extensions and etc..
@@larbueno LOL! Seems odd, eh? My project is finalized on DVD. Plus most of my video doodles are SD as well because I figure they'll be viewed on a small screen.
h264 is not interframe with All-I though, is it? I know you mentioned it in a footnote of sorts, but that does make that statement any less incorrect I think. But, of course, h264 and h265 are delivery codecs whilst DNxHD/HR and ProRes are for further processing - much like for example CineV and V-Log respectively.
You’re correct regarding All-i, it is intraframe, but as you say, made for delivery not editing.
what about 265
I create 720p/1080p proxies in h265. I'm using resolve. And I rarely ever use more than 3 tracks of video simulatenously so I never run into issues.
But if you film in ProRes or a similar codec you don’t need proxies ;)
I dont have hdd space@@PaulHeimlund
Does this proxies somehow effect the footage initial quality?)
@@mariyka_kho no. Unless you render the proxy files, which is not the default and you have to go out of your way to to do
Hmm. I captured all of my old vhs tapes using an Elgato video adapter about 6 years ago into individual h.264 files, am I SOL? These are pretty rough camcorder VHS tapes so the quality isn't really an issue, it's just me now wanting to edit them together but now I don't know what software I should use to do that having seen this. iMovie? I'm more of an audio guy, with only a little bit of dabbling in iMovie when I captured some old DV tapes a few years ago. And since the good old days of making DVDs from home movies has come and gone, I haven't looked into something that's not impossible to learn how to edit the videos with.
Thanks for this. H265 for this Mac M1 user looks like the way to go. Until then, unfortunately, I have 10 TB of h264 footage, much of which is stuttering and horrible on my M1 MacBook (in DaVinci Resolve, free version). Will upgrading to Studio fix the issue, or what MacBook (M2, M3, Pro, Max) can I switch to in order to play it smoothly. Transcoding and proxies is out of the question as I have too much data. (Footage shot on A7siii, by the way, XAVC S 4K, mostly 4:2:0 8-bit, some 10-bit.
Hi Paul! I have an iPhone 14 Pro 128GB which can record 4k at 60 fps with H.264 and 1080p at 30 fps with ProRes. Which is the highest resolution setting?
Hey Paul ;)
Well, even though the resolution is higher in 4k h264, there’s more information in each frame when filming in ProRes, even if it’s only HD. Furthermore, as I mention in this video editing h264 is not good…
My trouble is that DaVinci Resolve 19 doesn't support the H.264 High L5.2 video file. Could you help me? THANKS!
Thank you!
Great thanks for explaining! I already understood the codecs basic. All intra I see to be also called mezzanine but anyway I'm struggling to understand how crucial is to have a camera that records in pro res raw. What is the difference between filming in 264 and than transcoding to pro res or recording directly in pro res. How huge is the difference? Thanks!
Hey! H.264 is not a lossless format, meaning the information stored in each frame is “limited”. Transcoding this to ProRes means the information will still be limited, as you cannot get any information back. Filming in ProRes contains all information, as it’s basically a lossless codec.
To sum it up: transcoding h264 to ProRes makes it easier to edit, but the image quality will always be inferior to filming natively in ProRes, which is easy to edit and has amazing quality. Hope this helps ;)
@@PaulHeimlund Great thanks for your reply. My greatest misunderstanding was assuming that 264 is still close to lossless but just with a more efficient encoding algorithm.
H.264 is as "losses", as mp3 is in audio. The same goes for H.265, AV1, VP9 and most codecs.
So stick to ProRes, Blackmagic RAW, DNXHR and other "losses" codecs, as much as possible, until you do the final export.
Btw., those high quality codecs are also compressed, but nothing like the "end user" codecs.
Thank for the info
I am on p.c. so I take h.265 on my smartphone into handbrake transcode to h.264 or other dnhq
that takes an additional hit to the quality there. One needs to transcode to a good intermediate codec, ProRes, CineForm, etc.
Hevc is good but we need h.266 x266 codec now days for 4k
The higher compression codec, the worse playback in your NLE.
So H.265 is already heavier to playback in an NLE, as H.264 is. H.266 will only be worse (as will AV1).
@@akyhne Nvidia ai compression 😂
hey thanks for the video! what about colour profile? my original video was in clog3 and it looks weird and blown out after the prores conversion. thanks in advance!
Hey! It can be many things. Did you convert the clog to 709 before you did the ProRes conversion?
@@PaulHeimlund hello thanks for replying....i figured something that works for me...
pls let me know if this is the best/optmized way.....
1. shoot video in clog3, 4k 24 or 4k 60 (canon r7)
2. open that footage in da vinci
3. apply colour transform effect - input gamma = clog3
4. export footage : format = quicktime and type = Apple prores 422 proxy
5. the new exported video works fine and smooth in editing.
@@shivamnandiofficial Yeah! That’s the way to do it ;)
I edit 4k 360 video and this title is misleading, Watched about 1 minute if this before realizing this video has absolutely nothing to do with the codec this video is advertisement for apple
Reported
@@TLgamer_TL This video has EVERYTHING to do with codec. Maybe you should watch more than a minute of the video. Lmfao!
@ omg. Ok. Love your reasoning.
i'm a avid user. always using mxf
3:12 song?
I can’t remember. It’s from Artlist. Check out link, will find out by tomorrow :)
wow I totally didn't see Apple working for Apple. Who would have thought :O
Thank you bro ✊🏼✊🏼
6679 McClure Extensions
thanks so much!
well well, I am filming with my gh5 in 4K-h264-422-10bit-All Intra-vlog-400 Mbit/s.
All Intra is just a parameter of that codec ok? And All Intra is not specific to a "delivery" codec ok? This is opposite since with All Intra you increase your bitrate.
All Intra in the timeline is faster to edit because less calculation.
And remember h264-422-10bit is not hardware accelerated at all (All-i or Lon Gop). My 2 cents.
I've never said all intra is specific to a "delivery" codec, nor do I talk about codecs being hardware accelerated. Furthermore, you don't increase the bitrate simply because the footage is All Intra.
@@PaulHeimlund
Hi Paul, thx for your answer. You said:"...You’re correct regarding All-i, it is intraframe, but as you say, made for delivery not editing...."
Let's say, and you are right, h264 and h265 are delivery codecs generaly speaking.
But with all-I these codecs are becoming full editing codecs. Don't you think so?
The only question remaining is: with same bitrate, are all-I h265 and "mezzanine" codecs (prores,etc.) Image Quality equivalent ?
For same quality of the image of the intra frame, bitrate of all-I is greater than the long gop equivalent footage bitrate: that is the goal of long gop, replacing full information by more calculation.
Very useful
pffff.. I thought that I had resolution for lagging editing here but no.. apple product.. next video -->
H.264 sucks for editing because you use an Apple computer. Get something with an Nvidia or AMD video card that has hardware decoding and encoding H.264 and H.265, which is almost every card made after 2018, and stop apologizing for Apple. If I converted my camera's H.265 footage to ProRes, I'd need 4-8x the storage space.
No matter your OS or computer, H.264 (and 265, AV1 etc.) will always be harder to your NLE, than ProRes, DNxHR etc.
Just put enough effects and color grading on your H.264, and even the strongest PC can experience dropped frames.
Agree 110% :)
Yes, but you'd be moving into a professional direction in quality... if you want that quality. Large drives including SSDs have come way down in price you may have heard.