full quality export – 7D footage

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jon,

You might have had “MPEG-2” as the FORMAT, then “Match Sequence Settings” below that, which attempts to match frame size and frame rate to the source.

Best to avoid Match Sequence and just choose the format you really want to export to, removes guesswork and surprises. For instance, choose “H.264” and “YouTube Widescreen HD” to get a decent HD export.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jon Gagnon]

Thanks.

How would I go about making a full quality Master for backup?

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jon,

There are different schools of thought on this. Some might say uncompressed, but when starting with a highly compressed source, this makes little sense due to the huge file sizes. H.264 is a delivery format – if you plan on perhaps re-editing the footage later or exporting to different formats, not a great choice because it is highly compressed already.

On the Mac, ProRes is an excellent archival choice. On the PC, the Avid DNxHD codec is freely available, as is Lagarith or the Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame HD codec.

Any of these will provide a high-quality master for later use, with decent file sizes.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jon Gagnon]

So if I wanted my master to be an export that matches exactly how the footage was originally shot on a 7D using Adobe Premiere I couldn’t?

Also when I try to export as a pro res quicktime .mov the resolution automatically goes to 1280 X 853?

Sorry forgot to mention I copied the edit into a DSLR 1280 X 720 sequence for various reasons. But to be clear I am getting all the same issues in a DSLR 1080 sequence as well.

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jon,

Truth is, you should not WANT to export to the SAME format you shot in. In order to squeeze as much video as possible onto a memory card, the video is very highly compressed in the camera. While this works pretty well for acquisition, those formats are not very robust for editing and archiving.

You’ll want to export to something better to maintain the integrity of the image. Consider that any titles and graphics in the project have not yet been compressed – you can keep the quality by exporting to something better than what you shot the clips with.

As for the export settings, there are countless options, but H.264 is not one I would use for archiving/mastering, that is for delivery.

See my original reply for codec suggestions

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers