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Premiere timeline codec vs. export codec
Two studios I’m connected with are moving to Premiere and so far loving it. I’m trying to understand the way it thinks.
Question: Let’s say my timeline is h264, with lots of effects and stuff. My export is DNxHD or something similar. I’m assuming it will NOT render to h264, THEN transcode to DNxHD when I export–but go right from the source files, through the effects engine and right to the new codec. Correct? Probably obvious but just making sure.
Question: Thanks to geniuses on the Cow, I’m understanding that anything that needs QT cannot take advantage of Premiere 64-bit goodness. On a mac, I’m having a hard time finding any 10- or 12-bit codec that supports alpha, that doesn’t require QT. ProRes, DNxHD both seem to exist in QT wrappers. Does Cineform? Any other suggestions?
THANKS!
-Tom
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7 Replies
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[Tom Durham] “Question: Let’s say my timeline is h264, with lots of effects and stuff. My export is DNxHD or something similar. I’m assuming it will NOT render to h264, THEN transcode to DNxHD when I export–but go right from the source files, through the effects engine and right to the new codec. Correct? Probably obvious but just making sure.”
No, although you can choose to use “previews” to accelerate the export (say for client review) by checking “use previews” in your export settings.
[Tom Durham] “Question: Thanks to geniuses on the Cow, I’m understanding that anything that needs QT cannot take advantage of Premiere 64-bit goodness. On a mac, I’m having a hard time finding any 10- or 12-bit codec that supports alpha, that doesn’t require QT. ProRes, DNxHD both seem to exist in QT wrappers. Does Cineform? Any other suggestions?”
Yes, Cineform supports Apha channels. That’s the only thing I can think of. There’s always bootcamp 🙂
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
[Vince Becquiot] “No, although you can choose to use “previews” to accelerate the export (say for client review) by checking “use previews” in your export settings.”
Thanks Vince. So you “no” means: No it will not go to h264 before going to my export codec. Right?
[Vince Becquiot] “Yes, Cineform supports Apha channels. That’s the only thing I can think of. There’s always bootcamp :-)”
So you get 64-bit performance out of cineform on a mac? that would be awesome.
Yes, I’ve actually encouraged our shop to start the transition to windows. Any other advantages of switching over that might be good ammo in a budget discussion?
THANKS!!!
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[Tom Durham] “Thanks Vince. So you “no” means: No it will not go to h264 before going to my export codec. Right?”
That’s correct.
[Tom Durham] “So you get 64-bit performance out of cineform on a mac? that would be awesome.”
Well, I assumed you had tested that theory 🙂
[Tom Durham] “Yes, I’ve actually encouraged our shop to start the transition to windows. Any other advantages of switching over that might be good ammo in a budget discussion?”
I found Windows 7 on Mac hardware very stable, and I constantly go back and forth depending on my needs. I find Premiere on Win 7 much snappier than on OSX (again, personal experience, and I only used the trial version on the OSX side). The obvious advantage is the use of extra formats, the disadvantage is the loss of Prores access.
Another disadvantage is with people handing you Mac formatted drives. Macdrive performs pretty well, but I’ve encountered issues here and there. Again, that’s why bootcamp is so wonderful…
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Great suggestions Vince. Thanks. Maybe we’ll bootcamp it before buying windows boxes…
Yeah, I installed Cineform a while ago and it works great, but I can’t tell if it’s working in 64 or 32 bit.
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[Vince] “No, although you can choose to use “previews” to accelerate the export (say for client review) by checking “use previews” in your export settings.”
As far as I can tell, there is no difference when checking the use previews button on or off. I’ve done timed tests exporting a rendered timeline using the previews (to the same codec as the render files), and exporting an unrendered timeline. On my Mac 10.7 PPRO CS6, it takes the exact same time either way. Anyone else notice that? Or am I missing something?
I have also noticed exporting to Proress takes longer than other codecs in PPro6.
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[Chad Gilmour] “As far as I can tell, there is no difference when checking the use previews button on or off. I’ve done timed tests exporting a rendered timeline using the previews (to the same codec as the render files), and exporting an unrendered timeline. On my Mac 10.7 PPRO CS6, it takes the exact same time either way. Anyone else notice that? Or am I missing something?”
Was your timeline rendered? The difference in time will be greater with filters, since they won’t have to be re-encoded.
Vince Becquiot
Indigo Live
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Good point, I don’t recall what my filter situation was, I usually don’t have too many going on, usually just basic color correction since I tend use AE for anything more than that. Perhaps that is the culprit.
My test consisted of exporting an unrendered timeline (with yellow bars) to a proress422 QT file. I then rendered that same timeline to proress422 and exported it to a proress 422 QT file with use previews enabled. The time taken to create both QT files was the exact same.
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