The best codec to use in Premiere?

[Kevin Monahan]

Most of our users seem pretty happy with Cineform. https://www.cineform.com/

Kevin Monahan
Sr. Content and Community Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
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[Jeff Greenberg]

Cineform or (free) DNxHD – avid’s parallel to ProRes. Free and encodes/decodes at similar data rates to ProRes. Even handles an alpha channel.

But pay? Cineform 100%

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Tom Gomez]

Thanks gents.

I downloaded DNxHD and I’m playing around with it. Seems like a great codec. The more I play around with Premiere the more I like it. Haven’t used it since 4.0 in film school!

Super quick newbie questions:

> When I select a timeline preset for DSLR, it says the codec is MPEG I-frame. Is that the “editing” version of H264?

> When I throw different footage of different codecs on my sequence, and then go to output, does it first render the whole thing to the sequence codec, and then over to my output codec? Or does it take the source files and bump directly over to the output codec? Seems like the latter would preserve quality better.

> Finally, unless I am “matching sequence settings,” no matter I do I can’t get the export settings to say anything other than 720×480 for my output size… and so it letterboxes my 1080 sequence into an SD file.

thanks again folks

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[Chris Knight]

[Tom Durham] “> When I select a timeline preset for DSLR, it says the codec is MPEG I-frame. Is that the “editing” version of H264?

If memory serves, it’s MPEG-2, and these files are only for preview purposes in the timeline. You can change it to other codecs if you want.

> When I throw different footage of different codecs on my sequence, and then go to output, does it first render the whole thing to the sequence codec, and then over to my output codec? Or does it take the source files and bump directly over to the output codec? Seems like the latter would preserve quality better.

The latter is the default. You can also set it up to use the files generated during previewing to create the output file. Not necessary for most things.

> Finally, unless I am “matching sequence settings,” no matter I do I can’t get the export settings to say anything other than 720×480 for my output size… and so it letterboxes my 1080 sequence into an SD file.”

Pick a format, pick a preset, then modify the settings to suit your needs. You can visually preview the AR results with the two tabs on the left side of the export window. Save as a new preset if you think you’ll be making the same modifications over and over.

[Jeff Greenberg]

[Tom Durham] “> When I select a timeline preset for DSLR, it says the codec is MPEG I-frame. Is that the “editing” version of H264?
“

This is meant solely for quick preview (Rendering.) When you go to export, it (by default) ignores these files unless you specifically use them; Otherwise, you final export is drawn from the raw material (but obviously the export is therefore slower.)

[Tom Durham] “> When I throw different footage of different codecs on my sequence, and then go to output, does it first render the whole thing to the sequence codec, and then over to my output codec? Or does it take the source files and bump directly over to the output codec? Seems like the latter would preserve quality better.
“
No sequence codec. That’s the hard thing to wrap around. The Sequence has a frame rate and a size; the codec rendered out is whatever you specify for output directly. It’s the latter and it does produce better quality.

[Tom Durham] “Finally, unless I am “matching sequence settings,” no matter I do I can’t get the export settings to say anything other than 720×480 for my output size… and so it letterboxes my 1080 sequence into an SD file.”

That depends on what you’re making for output….what are you making for output. for example, all DVD presets are 720×480, because all DVDs are 720×480.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Tom Gomez]

Thanks gents.

In export…

Format is set to Quicktime.
Preset is Custom.
Codec is set to Avid DNxHD (one of the 1080 flavors).
(And my sequence preset is a 1080 DSLR preset.)

But the Output summary says 720 x 480, and that’s how it renders. For the life of me I cannot find how to make a QUICKTIME do anything other than 720 x 480 in the Export Settings. The same result with any of the codecs.

When I change the format to anything other thank Quicktime, the output resolution changes appropriately. But if quicktime is selected, no dice. Any thoughts?

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[Jeff Greenberg]

QuickTime doesn’t permit that sort of interaction with Premiere Pro; you have to manually go in and set the output parameters for QuickTime.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Tom Gomez]

That’s what I figured… QT not playing nice with Premiere.

How do you manually do that in QT?

Is this also why my DNxHD timelines in Premiere play stuttery… because it’s playing through the QT engine?

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[Jeff Greenberg]

Stuttery – Drop the playback to 1/2 or 1/4

QuickTime – you have to build it custom by 2x clicking the preset. Then you’ll have to go to the Video tab. Pick a different codec (what kind of video are you trying to make? The default of DV is always 720×480 in NTSC). I picked animation (for example) and the width/height became free for me to make changes)

That should get you started.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer | Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC | Adobe Cert. Instructor
————
You should follow me (filmgeek) on twitter. I promise to be nice.
New- my book (with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman)- An Editor’s Guide to Adobe Premiere Pro
Compressor Essentials from Lynda.com
(older but still good) Marquee, Media Composer (3.5) and Basic/Advanced Color DVDs (1.0) from Vasst.com
Contact me through my Website

[Tom Gomez]

Thanks Jeff. I think I’ve got it cooking along now. The Force is with you.

================================================
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