Poor quality of video exported from Premiere Pro

[Evan Thompson]

Alright, great to know!

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and time.
I should now be fully prepared to get the best quality I can to wherever I need it.

Thank you,
-Evan

[Jordie Robinson]

Hi Evan,

As someone who suffers a similar problem in regards to video quality after exporting, I’m glad you figured the problem out.

I’d like to know exactly what you did here: “I recreated my compositions and sequences and then exported them all on the same settings.”

My knowledge is very limited, so if you could tell me where/how you adjusted the composition and sequence settings, it could really help me.

Thanks,
Jordie

[Evan Thompson]

Hello Jordie,

Being that this was 10 months ago, my mind may not be the sharpest to exact details. I’ll try to help you out as best I can.

The issue was that I didn’t set all the steps to the same settings. When you start a PPro project, you create your sequence and then import your footage. This is where I needed the correction to be made. I need to have the aspect ratio and the frame rate of the sequence and source video to match.
For example, I have a 1920×1080 29.97 fps video clip that I import into the project. When I create a new sequence, if I choose the DV – NTSC Widescreen 48kHz 720×480 setting and import the footage into it, there will be a red bar over the footage. This means that the footage does not match the sequence and you must render for preview (enter) for it to preview smoothly (not resulting in better quality after exporting). I must create a sequence with the appropriate settings, which in this case would be the AVCHD 1080i30 (60i) Anamorphic preset which is the closest, and has a yellow line above the footage indicating that they match and don’t need to be rendered for previewing.
You may have to play around and create different sequences to see which one has the settings you want and has a yellow bar over the imported footage. I believe that versions newer than CS4 allow you to create a sequence from the footage, so that it matches perfectly.
The same goes when taking the project to or from After Effects, the aspect ratio and frame rate must be the same across all project sequences and compositions for that video clip. And then exporting the video needs to be the same as well.
That is what I found I was missing, and it seemed to have fixed the problem. The footage was being interpreted multiple different ways up to the final export.

So that’s what I found. And if that is your problem as well, then it might be an easy fix.

I hope you find this helpful.
-Evan

[Jordie Robinson]

Thanks so much, Evan!
Yes, my sequence settings were on 720p when the video files are 1080p. I opened a new session with the new settings and was able to copy and paste the clips (I think) I had previously edited. I did a test export of a few seconds, and the quality is much better. Whew!
Thanks for your help.

[Evan Thompson]

Hey Jordie,

I’m glad it worked out for you!
I know it can be frustrating to have the outcome so poor when you work so hard putting everything together.
Don’t forget to keep the aspect ratio and frame rate settings the same for exporting as well.

And thank you for asking. I’m glad you found my thread and got your answer.

Happy Editing!
Best Regards,
-Evan

[C. edward Brice]

I’m having the same problems every time I try to export out of Premier pro cc. Out of AE it’s great and I went back and tested fcpx. Again flawless. I try to get out on both QuickTime and h.264 and try multiple settings. Nothing works. I’m not sure how you synchronize sequence settings as I only use one sequence. I’ll go back and Double check sequence so thx for the post. I’m ready to throw the towel back and head back to fcpx if I can’t find a better solution. I even tried just media encoder and the exports still suck.

[Evan Thompson]

Hi C. Edward,

Make sure that your sequence settings match that of your video input. If you’re importing 1080p video into a 720p sequence, it is going to degrade the quality. Make sure the size and aspect ratios match. The field order should be set accordingly as well.
One way to tell if the settings match, is the colored bar that appears above the video when you import it into the sequence. If it’s red, something doesn’t match. If it’s yellow, everything should be good. If you know the settings match but the bar is still red, try changing the field order of the sequence.
Finally, it all must match on export/output as well. Same size, aspect ratio, field order, etc.

That’s what I found to be the big issue I was having all the time.

I hope this helps.
-Evan

[Ryan Holmes]

[C. Edward Brice] ” I try to get out on both QuickTime and h.264 and try multiple settings. Nothing works.”

You need to be more specific than this if you want better help. What is your original footage comprised of (resolution, codec, etc)? What are your timeline settings? What settings are you using on export? Saying that you used Quicktime and h.264 and it didn’t work is kinda like me saying I had food last night and didn’t like it (well…what kind of food – Italian, American, etc, how was it prepared, where’d you buy it, etc). You need to unpack your statement more for this forum to be of any help.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[James Huson]

Ok,so this is an old thread, but the most up to date one on a similar topic. Having same issue as above. Although, importing many various types of footage sources. All shooting 1080p 60 frames or btr. Some from cannon dslr, go pro, and sony hdr-pj760.occasionally a red or other highend professional line. Cameras are set to capture highest quality possible by their respective sensors. Problem is unlike my previous version of ppro, you can’t select source format at start of new project… other than dv or hdv. Dealing with super large files here in the terabyte range. Ppro cc 2015. Have tried like 15000 different setting all produce, blurred edge, pixel warp, failed interlacing even some audio mapping issues when converting to mp4 format. Interesting enough doesn’t seem like a high quality mpeg4 is even available. Level 5 is all that seems to be offered on advanced simple. This only outputs 720×480. Anyway looking to take these huge production size videos down to maybe 300 to 700 mb per 10 min, and still have med high def while playing on large screen monitor. Say up to 30inches. Doesn’t seem possible with mpeg4. Is h.264 the way to go…. I guess I have many ?’s here. Best video quality I can get so far with low memory, is 900meg per 10min. I was getting same quality at 300meg/10 with mpeg4 in old ppro. Any ideas…. can’t go back, lost machine when cooling fan failed on 3 tb render. Had given my backup ppro to friend who conveniently cracked the disc. Lesson learned…..

[Duke Sweden]

What version of PPro did you want to go back to? You can get PPro CC 2014, plus the updates at prodesigntools.com
It’s an Adobe approved site, not a pirate site.