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Poor quality of video exported from Premiere Pro
Hello COW Community,
I really need your help.I have an issue that has “haunted” me for every project I do.
During the course of my video editing I get exited by my creativity and I can’t wait to see the end results of the project. But my good feelings always hit an abrupt halt when I get the final exported media to the TV screen. Throughout all the previewing while editing, I see what I have made, how I have made it. The quality of the footage is as it should be. But when I export from Premiere Pro all the edges are slightly jagged and I get some quality issues resembling lines going with the motion of the video. I really am at a loss at what is going wrong. There aren’t many settings to go off of. I just feel so helpless when this happens.When I export from After Effects the quality is perfect, but with enormous file sizes. They then go right into Premiere Pro for the editing process.
Technical Specifications:
-Adobe CS4
-Windows 7 64-bitIf it is unclear of the issue I am talking about, I might be able to post screenshots of the issue.
Any help on this matter would be very much appreciated.
Thank you,
-Evan -
36 Replies
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What codec and export settings are you using?
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I have tried several.
I mainly use:
Format: H.264
Preset: HDTV 1080p 29.97 High Quality
fps: 29.97
Field Order: Non (Progressive)
Pixel Aspect Ratio Widescreen 16:9Is that sufficient information?
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Evan – what’s the data rate of your h.264 file? “High quality” doesn’t really get too specific. The higher the data rate the better the picture for h.264, generally speaking. Now keep in mind that h.264 is a good delivery codec but it is highly compressed.
Also, what are you viewing your exported footage on? Projector? Computer screen? Broadcast monitor? What is your original ingested material (size, codec, frame rate, etc). I’m asking because many things to into making your final product. Just wondering if something got over looked somewhere.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost -
Ryan,
The preset that it is set to is “HDTV 1080p 29.97 High Quality”. That is what it is called. Beyond that I’m not to sure what the data rate is. I have not seen a data rate setting.
I’ve tried on other presets too and it does the same thing.
Please excuse my short amount of knowledge in this area. I have not been fully introduced to exporting settings and all so I might not know too much about it (Hence your help).If I was to do the video for something other than the web, what format would you suggest for the best quality?
A video will usually be played on computer screens and TV screens. The one I am working on now would be eventually displayed on a projector.
By “original ingested material” I am assuming that means what the original clips were before they were imported into the project to be edited. And to answer that, past projects have varied I’m sure. This project contained hardly any footage, being mostly generated in After Effects.
Thank you for your responses,
-Evan -
[Evan Thompson] “The preset that it is set to is “HDTV 1080p 29.97 High Quality”. That is what it is called. Beyond that I’m not to sure what the data rate is. I have not seen a data rate setting.”
When you scroll down the video tab of your Export window, you’ll see two Data Rate sliders. Target Bit Rate, Maximum Bit Rate. That will tell you what it is.
H264 can look amazing on televisions depending on how it is compressed and then played back. We use H264 often for computer generated delivery. But it is much more compressed than say ProRes or DNxHD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaFoul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People. -
Yes, the bitrate. I wasn’t aware of the other term for that.
Alright, so the bitrate settings for that preset are:
-Bitrate Encoding: VBR 1 Pass
-Target Bitrate [Mbps]: 32
-Maximum Bitrate [Mbps]: 40I had tried putting them up to the max with 2 passes one time, but it didn’t seem to help.
I don’t seem to be able to export ProRes or DNxHD. Are there plugins I can get for those?
And what would you say is the general best for a final export, to be the original file that I can always go back to and copy from to display anywhere?
Thanks,
-Evan -
In older versions of Creative Suite the H.264 encoder wasn’t very good. CS4 was either right before or during the transition period. Test the H.264 encoder by rendering a short clip at maximum quality. On your main sequence adjust the work area bar above the timeline to only about 1-2 seconds of footage, preferably in an area where the quality was poor when previously encoded.
Export the work area as H.264:
– On the bottom of the left window in the export panel, set the Source Range to Work Area
– Format: H.264
– Preset: Custom
– Profile: High
– Level: 5.1
– Verify that TV Standard, Frame Width, Frame Height, Frame Rate, Field Order, and Pixel Aspect Ratio are the same as the sequence
– Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 2 pass
– Target Bitrate: Max
– Maximum Bitrate: Max
– Under Advanced Settings, set Key Frame Distance to 1
– Click OK to encode
– Import the encoded file to Premiere and insert in on the timeline on a track above the current work area
– Toggle the new track on and off and compare individual frames to the original videoThese export settings are the best that Premiere can produce, so you should consider other options if the rendered file is still not satisfactory. Also, does the video contain quick changes or high motion? If so, it might be taxing the encoder.
Here are some other codec choices:
– Export from Premiere Pro using MPEG2. This is a good encoder that produces attractive video at high frame rates. The codec requires licensing fees if you plan to distribute the video.
– Download and install the DNxHD codec and use it to export your video from Premiere Pro. You can play the DNxHD file in QuickTime on computers that have the codec installed, but if you want to distribute the file to other people it should be transcoded. Use QuickTime Pro to convert the DNxHD file to H.264/MP4 or H.264/MOV.
– Export an intermediate file from Premiere Pro with either QuickTime PNG or QuickTime JPEG2000. Use QuickTime Pro to transcode the intermediate file to H.264/MP4 or H.264/MOV. Alternatively, download Expression Encoder 4 to produce a VC-1/WMV file.
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Ivan,
Thank you for the information.
I put the settings up to full power like you said, and it seems to have greatly reduced the problem, but it’s still there. Especially when viewed on a large screen.Here is a sample of what I had before:
Export Example 01Everything looked nice and crisp in After Effects.
-I had no idea that a licence or anything was required for using MPEG2. If that is the case, I don’t think I can use MPEG2.
-I also downloaded and installed the DNxHD codec you linked to, but it doesn’t seem to have done anything; I don’t see a DNxHD format in Premiere Pro and the “Avid” folder in Program Files is empty. I don’t know what’s up with that.
-Evan
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[Evan Thompson] “I also downloaded and installed the DNxHD codec you linked to, but it doesn’t seem to have done anything; I don’t see a DNxHD format in Premiere Pro…”
When exporting, select:
– Format: QuickTime
– Video Codec: DNxHD
– Click the Codec Settings button to choose the appropriate variant and set Color Level to RGB -
Thank you, I found it.
The DNxHD worked pretty much perfectly!
I do however, find it very difficult to convert from that to any other format without losing any quality or proper dimensions. Is there any free program that can convert without changing dimensions or quality?If there is any way I can export to MP4 or the other formats directly from Premiere Pro with the same results, I would love to know how.
This issue is also a major problem with Adobe Encore as well. The menus all have the same effect. What would I need to do to resolve the issue with Adobe Encore?
Thank you,
-Evan
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