[Ivan Myles]

CS5/5.5/6 use the Muli-Camera Monitor, which has a track selector. I’m not sure if it’s still available in the new CC release. The following thread provides more information:

Where is the Multicam Monitor in Premiere Pro CC?

[Ivan Myles]

For the same reasons Jeff describes, the results will probably be better using Title Designer if the text was imported as an image file. Also, I have found that native Photoshop and Illustrator files work better than png/jpg images as long as the psd/ai files are not resized.

[Ivan Myles]

I exported an H.264 test file from Premiere Pro and uploaded it to both Vimeo and YouTube. There were no significant issues when comparing all the files to the original Premiere sequence. The only observable difference was a loss of edge definition attributable to 4:2:0 chroma subsampling in the H.264 files. In addition, the first frame was repeated in the transcoded Vimeo video. There was no change in black or white points after export from Premiere Pro or after transcode by Vimeo/YouTube.

Please refer to the following images. It is easier to compare by opening each link in a new tab.

Composite Video:
– Premiere Pro sequence
– Exported H.264 file
– Vimeo transcode
– YouTube transcode

All Scopes:
– Premiere Pro sequence
– Exported H.264 file
– Vimeo transcode
– YouTube transcode

So going back to the original post, it would seem likely that the issue is occurring during the AE to QT Animation to Premiere Pro transfer, or the software you are using to compare the files is not accurately representing the color.

[Ivan Myles]

Are you referring to the white text from 00:06-00:11?

In general, 5Mbps is relatively low for 1920×1080. Does the issue exist at higher bitrates?

[Ivan Myles]

There are several potential causes within the workflow, or it could just be the media player. Where do you first see the difference compared to the original AE composition:

– QT Animation file
– Premiere Pro sequence
– H.264 file exported from Premiere/AME
– Transcoded Vimeo file viewed online
– Transcoded Vimeo file downloaded and viewed offline

Here are a few recommendations for your workflow, but they are based more on best practices and might not resolve the issue:

– Set bit depth to 16-bpc or 32-bpc in your AE project
– Create a dynamic link between Premiere Pro and the AE composition instead of exporting a QT Animation file
– Render from Premiere Pro using the standard AME H.264 codec rather than QuickTime H.264
– Compare files by importing into Premiere Pro and viewing with the Y-Waveform and RGB Parade scopes

[Ivan Myles]

If you are on a Windows PC consider using the free version of Expression Encoder 4. You would need to export an intermediate file and then use EE4 to transcode to VC-1/WMV.

[Ivan Myles]

Yay, Stubbs BBQ!

[Dan Nastro] “Here are two screens of the export settings I most commonly use”

– In the ProRes export, set Depth to 48-bit. The 24-bit setting you are using is encoding the file at 8-bpc. Also enable the Max Bit Depth parameter in the Sequence Settings.

– In the H.264 export, go to the Multiplexer tab and ensure Stream Compatibility is set to Standard. It defaults to iPod.

– Are you uploading the ProRes or H.264 file to the online sites? The H.264 bitrate (8-Mbps) seems low for 1080p video, especially because the uploaded file will be transcoded. In addition, I typically set Maximum Bitrate to 1.5x Target Bitrate.

[Dan Nastro] “As you can see in the output preview monitor the blacks are not as deep as in the program monitor on the right… However, when bringing the file back into premiere as you had suggested the black levels are correct. Still my main concern is final delivery and how it will look in the setting it lives in (usually vimeo, youtube or a player like brightcove).”

As you have realized, a visual comparison of the export preview to the Project Monitor is not an appropriate evaluation. Render a short test clip, upload to YouTube/Vimeo/etc, download the transcoded files generated by the online sites, import all the files into Premiere, and compare to the original sequence using the Y-Waveform scope.

I have not seen any dramatic shifts in black point for my YouTube and Vimeo uploads. If you see an issue after performing the test, please upload screen captures of the Y-waveform for the same frame from each file and the original sequence.

[Ivan Myles]

When you import the VOB file, do you get the full audio or just the first 14 seconds? Try checking in the Source Monitor by selecting Audio Waveform under the display options.

If you have the whole audio track from the VOB file, a work-around would be to export an audio wav file from the VOB version and then match it up with the mpg file. If Premiere doesn’t see the whole audio file, you could try extracting the audio with a different program (VLC or WMP?).

[Ivan Myles]

I’m going off my experience with QuickTime Pro, but I believe it’s the same setup as Compressor.

– To specify 50fps, choose Custom in the Frame Rate selector and manually enter 50.

– It might be better to use H.264/MP4 for online viewing unless you plan to post to sites like YouTube or Vimeo that re-encode the uploaded file. If the latter, consider using a higher bitrate.

– Baseline Profile and Single-Pass encoding offer greater compatibility. Main Profile and Multi-Pass encoding provide better compression.

– 1000 kbps might be too low for 50 fps. Try 1500 kbps and go up or down from there, if required.

– Set Key Frame distance to Automatic.

– Enable Streaming for online viewing.

[Ivan Myles]

Note the following:

“Shocking SATA III SSD speeds up to 635MB/s”

The 635 MB/s configuration includes two SSDs and costs $700. The transfer rate for the 1TB HDD option is listed as “up to 190MB/s.” You can get a 960GB SSD or any one of several 1TB+ HDDs that achieve similar performance for equivalent prices, but without the added complexity and risk of RAID 0.

[Ryan Hannebaum] “Everywhere I’ve read (including Adobe itself) suggests an SSD for the disk cache, but I’m not entirely sure why that is, or why my current SSD would be better than the HDD I linked.”

SSDs have lower latency and higher throughput. The figures most often quoted for HDD performance relate to sequential reads/writes of large files. HDD throughput is much slower with small files.

[Ryan Hannebaum] “I’m trying to increase the speed at which I can render projects in AE for RAM Previews, in order to finish projects much quicker.”

The most common hardware constraints during rendering are the CPU and RAM. A good quality SSD connected via SATA, eSATA or USB3 should meet your needs for a disk cache.