[Ivan Myles]

[Chybu Meee] “Should I set the working environment to 32 bpc or 16 is enought ?”

There are pros and cons for each, but 16-bpc is sufficient. Are all of the applied effects 32-bit?

[Chybu Meee] “After i send the comp to render que, in output module there is tab color ( premultiplied / straight ) which sould i choose ?”

Are you using an Alpha channel? If so, please refer to the following information:

Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight

There will be a “Settings mismatch…” warning when trying to select Straight (Unmatted) if you are not using an Alpha channel.

[Chybu Meee] “Than in cineon setings there is again bpc (8/16/decimal) i should choose 16 bpc right ?”

I recommend the default 16-bpc, but defer to other posters for a definitive answer.

[Ivan Myles]

Enable “Maximum Bit Depth” in the Sequence Settings for the main timeline and all nested sequences, if applicable:

Enable “Render at Maximum Depth” and “Logarithmic Conversion” in the Export Panel:

Perhaps other posters can comment on the best way to handle overbrights. I prefer to adjust the black and white point settings using Fast Color Corrector to keep Y-values within the legal range. Check with the colorist.

[Ivan Myles]

[Rune Jacobsen] “The only thing I worry about is choppiness in some parts of the animation where there is quite a bit of horizontal motion – is there any reason beyond file size/bitrate why 50fps is not a good idea? I imagine I will at least create a 1024×768 50fps test file to play side by side with a 25fps one if I get a moment to test with the actual projector that will be used.”

The media player or the projector might skip frames when playing files with high bitrates and high frame rates. You are taking the right approach by testing with both 25fps and 50fps (preferably within PowerPoint as per the presentation setup).

[Rune Jacobsen] “When you say keyframe distance – we are talking about the compression concept of keyframe, right? This has nothing to do with the keyframes I use for my animation in After Effects?”

Yes, I am referring to the distance between consecutive I-frames. The parameter called Key Frame Distance appears under the Advanced section of the Video settings tab in the Adobe Media Encoder export panel. You might need to scroll down to see it. The units are frames. I tend to use ~10 for recorded video. Animations and screen captures can be much greater (50-75+) if there isn’t much change from frame to frame.

Side note: If you are rendering an After Effects composition, use Adobe Media Encoder instead of the AE render queue. Open AME, insert the AE composition into the queue, and click on the orange text under Format to open the export panel. This is the same panel used by Premiere Pro.

[Rune Jacobsen] “I am fortunate enough to only have to deal with local playback (no streaming, everything is coming from local SSD), so I have few restrictions on file size/bitrate. I will experiment, but sounds like a bitrate of around 15Mbps will give me what I need. I’ll test different encodes of the high/baseline profiles you mention to see what looks best.”

You should be fine at 8-10 Mbps for the 25fps file, especially when displaying through an overhead projector. If desired, here are some higher quality settings to try, but they will likely be overkill. In each case start with the Level setting.

L4.1, High Profile, 25fps, 1024×768, PAL, 2-Pass VBR, ABR=62.5, MaxBR=62.5, KFD=10

L4.1, Baseline, 25fps, 1024×768, PAL, 2-Pass VBR, ABR=50, MaxBR=50, KFD=10

L5.0, HiP, 50fps, 1024×768, PAL, 2-Pass VBR, ABR=168.75, MaxBR=168.75, KFD=10

L5.0, Base, 50fps, 1024×768, PAL, 2-Pass VBR, ABR=135, MaxBR-135, KFD=10

Also, under the Multiplexer tab set Stream Compatibility to Standard. It defaults to iPod.

These settings should produce excellent quality video with the 25fps and 50fps bitrates around 17Mbps and 35Mbps, respectively. Perform the encoding, calculate the actual average bitrates for your exported files, divide by two, use this as a new average bitrate target, and re-encode. Increase the keyframe distance, too, if desired. The files at 1/2 bitrate target should look very good. When compared at high magnification you will see some loss of detail, but when viewed at 100% the files will look practically the same. I use the “excellent” bitrates when upscaling during playback — like playing SD material on HD monitors, for example.

[Ivan Myles]

Please clarify the question. Are you asking whether Premiere Pro CS6 can export DPX (A: yes), or what are the best DPX export settings?

[Ivan Myles]

Is this happening with all clips, or just clips from specific files? Here are some things to try:

– Open the file in the Source Monitor to be sure the clip is not encoded with the borders.

– Click on the clip in the timeline and check the scaling parameter under Motion settings.

– Right-click on the clip and check whether Scale to Frame Size is enabled. Toggle it back and forth to see if it makes a difference.

[Ivan Myles]

I was suggesting that you export the audio from Premiere without the video, then export the video without the audio, import the intermediate files, and encode the final file from the intermediates instead of the edited timeline. Will the audio export properly without the video? If not, can you export the audio as individual tracks or groups of tracks? The idea is to simplify the rendering by encoding only a portion of the job, and then integrate the rendered files in a separate timeline. A similar approach would be to render high quality preview files, and then encode from the previews.

[Ivan Myles]

[Denez McAdoo] “I also tried MPEG-2, though if I remember correctly the results seemed close enough to the DV25 NTSC, that I didn’t bother. Also wouldn’t re-encoding MPEG-2 (as VOB) into MPEG-2 again just be double compression (ie, loosing even more info), or would it be like putting a .zip file into another .zip file, where it’s already done it’s job and won’t compress anymore.”

Files are compressed using encoders, but encoding does not always compress a file. It is not a ratio where the file shrinks every time. Think of encoding as trying to fit a set of data into an envelope. The size and shape of the envelope will be determined by the encoder settings. When the source footage is highly compressed (i.e. a small envelope), intermediate copies should be made using a larger envelope in order to reduce generational losses in quality. The MPEG-2 settings listed in the previous post create a bigger envelope than standard DVD settings. This does not improve the quality of the source material, it just minimizes the risk of degradation.

Premiere Pro does not have pass-through functionality; the footage is expanded and then re-compressed. I think you are more likely to see generational losses using DV than a low compression MPEG-2 copy. YMMV. The best approach is to test different codecs at multiple settings.

Personally, my first choice would be to edit using the VOB files. Otherwise, I would convert the SD footage to uncompressed YUV or DPX. High bitrate 4:2:2 MPEG-2 is a viable option for YCC SD material when file size is a consideration.

[Jeff Pulera] “Regarding the upscale option, I would recommend against that. You lose quality in the upscale, then downscaling again finishes it off. Two unnecessary conversions.”

I agree; there is no need to upscale the intermediate file if there is no plan to rescale the final output. If the final output is going to be upscaled, though, I prefer to create the intermediate file at the final output resolution rather than upscale an SD copy later.

[Ivan Myles]

[Cory Pennington] “With all the talk of GPU within Adobe I would think it’d be a more obvious thing to monitor.”

Nvidia System Monitor provides real time monitoring of the GPU and other components.

[Ivan Myles]

Three things: test, test, test. Do you have access to the hardware prior to the presentation?

Here are my thoughts regarding your questions, but YMMV:

1) If refresh rate can be manually adjusted on the projector, set it to match the local input power frequency: 60Hz in US and Canada, or 50Hz in Europe. Use a frame rate that is a fraction of the refresh rate (i.e. 30fps or 25fps).

2) For clarification, it sounds like the video will be embedded in PowerPoint and then the presentation will be played with PowerPoint Viewer. Correct? H.264/MP4 or VC-1/WMV should meet your needs.

The projector’s native resolution should work best.

Encoder settings will largely depend on your constraints for file size and picture quality. If you have a maximum file size requirement, calculate bitrate using the following formula:

Bitrate (Mbps) = File Size (MB) * 8 (bits/Byte) / Runtime (seconds)

For example, a 100MB file playing for 6 minutes has an average bitrate of 2.22Mbps.

Picture quality will probably be constrained by the projector, so try a few different bitrates to find the hardware limits. Here are some general guidelines for viewing 1024×768 H.264 on a monitor:

1.5 Mbps is OK
2-3 Mbps is good
5-8 Mbps is very good
~15 Mbps is excellent

For best H.264 quality I recommend High Profile @ Level 3.2 or 4.1. Use Baseline Profile @ Level 4.1 and a high bitrate for nearly the same quality and smoother playback.

Set Maximum Bitrate to the max setting for playback from a computer disk. When streaming online set Maximum Bitrate to 1.5x average bitrate.

Keyframe distance equal to frame rate will yield good results. Increase the distance for static slides that don’t change very often. Decrease the distance if there is a lot of motion.

If this is a one-time event (as opposed to an ongoing display) it would be in your best interest to have two or three versions of the videos available in case there are playback problems. For example: High Profile H.264, Baseline Profile H.264, and maybe a WMV version, too.

[Ivan Myles]

[Denez McAdoo] “Why doesn’t Adobe have something like ProRes?”

Other supported codecs similar to ProRes include AVC-Intra, DNxHD, and Cineform.

[Denez McAdoo] “So now I have a new problem. What codec to used to use to export the .vob files to work best in PP and look just as good as the source… I’ve heard AVI is the solution, but uncompressed AVI turns my 1GB files into massive 36GB files.”

Here are some intermediate codecs to consider if you are unable to get Premiere to display the VOB files properly:

– MPEG-2 might be the best option given that the source material is VOB. Export using High Profile, High Level, 2-Pass VBR, maximum average bitrate, GOP structure of M=1 and N=1, and 11-bit Intra DC Precision. Keeping the native aspect ratio is OK if you plan to edit and export using rectangular pixels. Square pixels are a good choice, too, but use the 4:2:2 Profile to retain more color information when remapping the pixels.

– PNG or JPEG2000 image sequences offer lossless quality and moderate file sizes. There might be a slight color shift going from 8bpc YCC to 8bpc RGB.

– AVC-Intra and DNxHD only support HD resolutions. You could upscale the source image to 1280×720, or save an 854×480 image in a 1280×720 file. Upscaling to 1280×720 at a high bitrate is a good option only if you plan to rescale during editing.