CS5 Premier Pro Export to MPEG2

[Bob Dix]

If you have Premiere Elements 4 installed , try it, it may surprise you ? It does very, very good blu-ray disks and DVD’s to either H.264 or mpeg-2

Freelance Imaging & Video
AUSTRALIA

[Tim Thompson]

Thanks for the reply. I don’t have Premier Elements 4 but Premier Elements 2010 or some version that’s later than the one you mentioned. Why is it that Premier Pro won’t do as good a job? Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks

Tim

[Bob Dix]

Tim,
I wish I knew,I must admit I am a bit of a LUDITE, don’t upgrade till they have worked the bugs out, but, have been using Premiere Pro 1.5.1 which produces very good HDV but, can not handle H.264 out of a Canon 5D mark II but, PE 4 does it very well indeed. I have got a new Computer i7 Quad Core Nvidia Fx3800 and the rest , it has given the old software a new lease of life, but, I will go to CS5 soon. So for the time being, I Export to Movie h.264 from PE4 into Premiere Pro 1.5.1 and do all the major editing without a care in the world, and if I want to go to blu-ray , back into PE4 and presto it is perfect.But, We mainly go to Pro Tape and the old PP is perfect to do that.
Someone said you cannot do a DVD or blu-ray , now direct from Premiere Elements 8 or 9, I hope they are wrong ? But, apart from that I think Premiere Pro is magic to work with, I hope the new CS5 is as well ? We can only hope ?

Freelance Imaging & Video
AUSTRALIA

[Tim Kolb]

I think that Premiere Elements is a bit more auto-pilot, which can be handy in certain circumstances.

Are you going to letterbox 4:3 SD or 16:9 SD? (or if you’re in Europe 14:9 with a little of both…)

There are a couple of particular areas that may be creating less than ideal results in this scenario.

First, I’ve never been overjoyed with the results I’ve gotten taking interlace HD and reducing it to interlace SD. It’s mathematically messy. I wonder if it might improve somewhat if you could deinterlace your source material?

Second, if you shot DVCProHD, the actual frame resolution is only 1280×1080 in stored pixels for 29.97 fps and 1440×1080 for 25 fps, so it actually can appear somewhat softer than even AVCHD, which is more aggressively compressed, but has a full 1920×1080 raster.

Third, on the bottom of the Media Encoder settings panel, you do NOT want to have “Use Previews” checked as the preview files look good and aid in editing, but they are not like compressing from the source material. Yes, it’s faster for stuff like a proofing copy of the edit and so on, but for final output, you don’t want to use previews.

On the other hand I would try to check the “use Maximum render quality” in those settings in the Media Encoder. I have found it to make a visible difference, even when I’m compressing progressive material and reducing it to a smaller framesize, progressive file (23.976 fps 1080p XDcamEX to 720p H.264 or Windows Media for example).

Also, if you haven’t already, you might also try to set the “Bitrate encoding” setting to “VBR 2 pass”.

Using these settings will take longer for the final output, but in my experience, it makes a difference.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

[Brian Louis]

How long was the recorded concert that you are trying to downconvert??

[Tim Thompson]

1 hour and 20 minutes, give or take a couple minutes.

[Bob Dix]

TomK,

Your comment , DVCProHD, which has been shot on a Professional Camcorder is in fact 1440 x 1080 pixels @25fps PAL, (Intrigues me),but, are captured by a 1920 x 1080p sensor ? What is the technology to get it to display as 1920 x 1080i on a TV . Are the pixels in the end rectangle ?

Thanks,

Bob

Ps. All the Pro tape based Canons XH A1 etc do this, using pixel shift technology, it that right ?But, not the XF 100 or XF 305 HDD units ?

Freelance Imaging & Video
AUSTRALIA

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Tim,

For a video that length, you ought to be able to get a decent quality encode. Set the bit rate to CBR 6.7 and assuming Dolby Digital audio, you will have room to spare, and good quality. Be sure to check the “Maximum Render Quality” checkbox as suggested.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Tim Thompson]

Thanks for the reply.

1) The video was shot DVCProHD.

2) I can try your suggestions. However, have you ever deinterlaced footage as you suggested and what were the results?

Thanks again!

Tim

[Tim Thompson]

How did you arrive at 6.7? I’ll try that but I’d like to understand more. Did that come from a bitrate calculator? Which one?

Thanks

Tim