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  • Adobe Media Encoder

    recommended encoder settings

    Posted by Rick Neely on August 12, 2020 at 9:55 pm

    Hey all,

    converting some VHS to MP4 for a client and wanted some advice. My workflow is straight copy to DVD (via DVD recorder), then export DVD to Mp4 using Handbrake (use 1080p/30 settings).

    For files/tapes that do not need editing or trimming, I give the client the handbrake encoded mp4s. But for the ones needing editing, I import in to Premiere Pro for edits and export back out to AME and encode H.264.

    I have been using ‘match source/high bit rate’ for the setting for output, but the file size gets pretty huge (with no gain in resolution).

    Does anyone have recommendations on settings to getting the output from AME to smaller file size (as the handbrake output) yet same/reasonable resolution?

    Thanks in advance.

    Rick

    Rick Neely replied 5 years, 8 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies

  • Chris Wright

    August 13, 2020 at 4:32 am

    Wait, you’re converting VHS directly to DVD mpeg-2 low quality, then compressing again to mp4?
    Then you edit the mp4 in Premiere and then export out again to H.264? That’s like 3 generations of quality loss!

    These codecs don’t re-compress when editing in Premiere.
    https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/premiere-pro/using/smart-rendering.html

    I’d capture VHS in a non-interframe codec so there’s no motion artifacts, deinterlace with QTGMC, then create a graded master using dnxhd, prores, cineform, and use that for rendered dvd and h.264 compression. if exporting to handbrake, use RF 18 or less for quality. bitrate controls the file size, but the resolution per bitrate controls the overall quality. 2-pass may be a bit smaller.

  • Rick Neely

    August 13, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    Chris,

    thx for the response. Most of my clients who give me VHS want DVD so for efficiency and client expectation, I got to DVD than export the h.264 from it when they ask for it.

    I have tried different workflows using canopus, aja io, elgato, dv input;etc but they all yielded different outputs with many losing audio/video synch + slowing me down.

    I’ll do the handbrake to rf18 and see if I can do similar setting in media encoder. For now, I’ll also look into adjusting the export by trimming the range (in seconds).

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