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Best codecs for footage import
Hi All,
I’m working on a project in which i have to combine a lot of different footage, such as HD youtube mp4’s and Xvid avi’s..
Both give problems when imported in premiere (for instance cluttering or only audio import).
I now try to convert these movies and clips using “SUPER video converter” to avi’s in h264 format.This is however time consuming and delivers mixed results (such as cluttering in preview playback, etc.)
So my question is:
What is the ultimate way to convert footage to a format that premiere can handle best? (what codec / compression and what program is to used best?..)Thanks a lot in advance!
Best regards,Bas
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5 Replies
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It depends on your system specs. You could export uncompressed, but that requires fast drives and processing to edit. You could batch export to both uncompressed and DV. Edit in DV and at the end of the edit replace the footage with the uncompressed version.
Be sure to test that prior to verify that your exports have matching audio and aspect ratio.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Thanks you Vince for the reply.
I’m working with Bas on this project. I was wondering what the best codec/format combination is for Premiere. I’ve heard that DV AVI is the preferred format, but DV AVI is always PAL or NTSC resolution right? Sometimes we have footage in different resolution and we don’t want to change it.
We currently convert files to h.264 AVI’s (using the convert program Super). They work with Premiere, but they can be real slow. So are there any better formats/codec into which we can convert our footage? Which programs are best to do this and with what settings?
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You can EDIT in DV AVI (PAL or NTSC), and replace the footage at the end when you are ready to export.
That’s the best way to go about it to avoid quality loss, and keep your machine from choking on the footage.
However, this means exporting your original footage twice, once for DV and once for AVI uncompressed.
Any other format will mean more compression, and further quality loss, which you really want to avoid, especially on Youtube videos.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
I would avoid h264 or other MPEG based codecs. As you have found, they are slow. If you don’t have hardware I/O (like AJA or BlackMagic), then the most “native” codec would be DV as Vince suggests. HDV might work for HD workflow; but I have no experience with HDV (I use hardware I/O).
-jeff
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Hi Vince,
I was wondering if you can tell me exactly how you would go about editing the footage in DV and export in both formats at the end of the edit? I was under the impression you had to export your footage pretty much the same as you import ( with regards to file compression) I definitely would like to know your process, Thank you very much
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