Convert ProRes to MP4
Apple ProRes is the video format editors work in - beautiful inside DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut, or Premiere, and completely unplayable on an iPhone, in a browser, or on Windows. Wave re-encodes ProRes to H.264 in MP4 through your browser's hardware encoder, so you can hand a review copy to anyone without asking them to install pro editing software - and without waiting 20 minutes to upload a 20 GB master to someone else's server.
What actually changes
For context if ProRes is new to you: Apple launched it in 2007 as an "editing intermediate" - a video format designed for the middle of a post-production workflow rather than final delivery. It stores video at very high quality (essentially transparent to a filmmaker), with every frame stored as a complete standalone picture (which makes scrubbing, trimming, and effects rendering fast in an editor). The trade-off is huge file sizes. ProRes ships in seven quality tiers, from ProRes Proxy (roughly 45 Mbps at 1080p - the smallest) up to ProRes 4444 XQ (roughly 500 Mbps - for masters where you can never re-shoot). ProRes RAW is a separate camera-original tier at even higher bitrates. All of these decode fine on Apple devices - Macs, and recent iPhones and iPads - and in editing software like Final Cut, Resolve and Premiere. Off Apple hardware it's a different story: Windows players, Android phones, Chrome and most smart TVs can't play ProRes at all. That's the compatibility gap this page fixes.
Wave decodes every ProRes frame into raw pixel data, then re-encodes to H.264 using WebCodecs - a browser feature that lets web pages tap into the same hardware video encoder your device already uses for FaceTime, Zoom, and screen recording. On a modern machine with hardware H.264 acceleration (any Intel chip from 2015+ with Quick Sync, any NVIDIA GPU with NVENC, or any modern Mac with VideoToolbox - so basically every computer sold in the last decade), this runs at real-time or faster for 1080p footage. On browsers that don't expose WebCodecs H.264 (Firefox, older Safari), Wave falls back to a slower software-based encoder that still produces the same MP4-compatible output.
One thing that doesn't survive the conversion: the alpha channel. If you're working with ProRes 4444 or 4444 XQ, you probably chose those tiers specifically because they carry an alpha channel - a transparency layer used for green-screen composites, motion graphics with transparent backgrounds, or VFX plates. MP4 has no widely-supported way to carry alpha, so Wave composites the transparency against black during the re-encode. If preserving alpha matters for your delivery, keep the ProRes master and use it in workflows that respect it - After Effects, Motion, Nuke, or DaVinci Resolve. Use Wave's MP4 output for review copies and playback delivery only, where the alpha channel wasn't going to survive anyway.
The file-size reduction is dramatic and worth planning around. A one-minute 1080p ProRes 422 HQ master is roughly 1.6 GB on disk; the H.264 MP4 Wave produces from it is typically 40-80 MB at high visual quality - a 20-40x reduction with no visible difference on any consumer display. For 4K ProRes 4444 XQ, expect roughly ~4 GB per minute to shrink to ~200 MB per minute (at the cost of the alpha channel and full colour depth). This is exactly the trade-off you want for review-copy delivery, YouTube upload prep, or handing footage to a stakeholder for feedback. For your own archive or your editor timeline, keep the ProRes master - the MP4 is the "playable everywhere" version, not a replacement.
Three steps.
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Step 1
Drop your ProRes .mov onto Wave. Any of the seven ProRes variants works - Wave inspects and detects the flavour.
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Step 2
Wave confirms Re-encode - the source decodes to raw pixels and re-encodes to H.264 through your browser's WebCodecs encoder.
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Step 3
Convert. 1080p ProRes runs at real-time or faster on hardware-accelerated systems; 4K runs at 2-4x real-time on modern GPUs. Save the MP4.
Answers, specifically.
ProRes 4444 alpha - does it survive?
No. MP4 has no alpha-carrying codec that consumer players decode. The alpha channel composites against black during the re-encode. For alpha preservation, keep the ProRes .mov as your working master and deliver the MP4 for playback only.
How much visual quality is lost?
At the H.264 bitrate Wave targets for 1080p, the visual difference from the ProRes source is well below the perceptual threshold on any consumer display. Studio-monitor critical review might flag block-boundary artifacts on high-detail or high-motion content; the delivery MP4 is not intended for critical review.
Can I export MP4 directly from DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut without the ProRes step?
Yes. Resolve and Final Cut both export H.264 MP4 directly and that is faster than exporting ProRes then converting. Wave is for the case where you already have the ProRes master and need MP4 - a client sends you a ProRes master, a colourist delivers ProRes for review, an editor hands off ProRes to a stakeholder who can't play .mov.
ProRes RAW to MP4?
Yes. Same re-encode path. The RAW variant carries per-pixel sensor data rather than a Bayer-demosaiced image, so the decode debayers on the way through. It's slower than the other ProRes variants but still runs locally in the browser.
My ProRes file is 60 GB. Will Wave handle it?
Wave caps at 8 GB per file. Above that, ffmpeg from the command line locally is the practical path: `ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v h264_videotoolbox -b:v 20M -c:a aac -b:a 192k output.mp4` on macOS, `-c:v h264_nvenc` on NVIDIA, `-c:v h264_qsv` on Intel Quick Sync.
Frame rate handling?
Wave preserves the source frame rate exactly. A 23.976 fps ProRes stays 23.976; a 59.94 fps ProRes stays 59.94; a 29.97 drop-frame stays 29.97 drop-frame. Timecode metadata is copied through when the ProRes source carries it.
Colour space and HDR?
Rec.709 SDR ProRes converts cleanly to Rec.709 MP4. HDR sources (Rec.2020 with PQ or HLG transfer) go through the same re-encode; the resulting H.264 MP4 preserves the colour tags. Playback on an HDR-capable display shows the intended tone mapping; on SDR displays, the player handles the fallback tone map.
Two-pass encoding for better quality-per-bitrate?
Not in the current build. WebCodecs H.264 is single-pass with the encoder's built-in rate control. For delivery to a bitrate budget with best quality, ffmpeg with `-pass 1` then `-pass 2` locally is still the reference workflow.