Tim Kolb
Forum Replies Created
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Are you running the trial version?
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
The You Tube presets, along with most web presets are all under “H264” because that’s the filetype…
AVI is a wrapper, there aren’t many presets…you can go into the video tab and change the codec, etc.
The same is true for QT…
In the “Format” list you have the parameters listed for MPEG2-BluRay…which is the HD DVD format…H264 BluRay is also there…FLV/F4V…Windows Media…each one of these has the presets that fit under that format.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
By selecting the “Format” field, all the export format options are presented, then after you pick a format, all the presets that are available under that format are available in the “Preset” field.
You can customize the settings in the “video” and “audio” tabs below the “Summary…you may have to “twirl down” some of the settings the first time.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
The “healing” function is pretty easy on one picture…if you would try something similar on a moving clip, I don’t think the results would be consistent enough to be smooth from frame to frame.
As has been offered, a zoom into the frame is likely the most efficient approach.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
[Keith Moreau] “My initial thought is to put scopes in the program monitor and then use the reference for the program”
Yes, that will put the picture on delay and the scopes will change with the sequence playback, though it won’t play back as smoothly as the video would on many systems.
However, it would advance with the material at 1/2 to 1/3 frame rate on even most systems on the basic end of the spectrum I would think…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
You set up the codec you use for preview in the sequence settings. It sounds like you’re on a Mac, so i’m not sure what codecs are available to you on that platform. Of course, only owners of Final Cut Studio can encode (or export to) ProRes…as the encode end of the codec isn’t installed on your Mac unless you own FCS.
Premiere Pro has a different operating model than Final Cut and it’s probably worth the time to note it…
Final Cut transcodes everything to the codec the timeline is based on. If the ingest format isn’t QuickTime…then everything on that timeline is the same codec and any preview rendering necessary is done back to that same codec. At the same time, any “rogue” media that may not fit the native codec/framesize/frame rate, etc. that you place on that timeline requires rendering.
In Premiere Pro, the sequence presets are largely for convenience. PPro will decode anything that you use that is compatible with a codec installed on your machine. You can mix any formats you care to on any given timeline up to the capacity of your machine to decode and buffer them, but even a modest machine seems to be able to handle same frame size/same frame rate mixing pretty well…XDcamEX, XDcamHD, XDcamHD422, DSLR H264, AVCHD, AVC Intra, and ProRes all seem to work on the same 1920×1080 23976p timeline with no real headaches when they are all the right frame size/rate…and I’ve even mixed up the rate a bit here and there.
When you mix all these formats together, obviously a transcode to a uniform codec on the front end a la ProRes and FCP, would affect each media type differently, and it creates an interim conversion that will lose some image quality, small as it may be. Premiere Pro’s design intent is to work with preview renders that are fast and as responsive as possible (I frame MPEG2, DVCProHD, etc) during editing, and since the timeline itself is not “native” to any codec, the preview codec is a setting that is user-controlled in the sequence settings, and is really not tied to any particular codec based on the sequence settings themselves.
When you choose to use the preview files to feed your Media Encoder transcode to your ultimate distribution file, you are using those preview files as the source. If you are editing a DVCProHD sequence, but have I-frame MPEG selected as the preview, you’ll be compressing your H264 or MPEG2 (or whatever) distribution file using the MPEG preview file as the source, not the DVCProHD source material.
In order to use that original source material, the effects and transitions, etc have to be re-executed in the Media Encoder. This can take some time, and this is another reason why a very robust machine is best for running PPro.
In the cases where there are effects that aren’t quite CS5 “ready” or somehow have issues being deployed in the Media Encoder (actually a second PPro is running behind the Media Encoder to frame-serve to it) when it’s accessing the sequence, checking the “use previews’ box after you’ve rendered a preview can be the only way you’ll get the output to actually use the effect as the preview already has the effect “baked in” and Media Encoder (and PPro “Headless” which is the background app that is tending the sequence for Media Encoder) doesn’t have to re-execute it…
So…obviously when you use the preview files, you bypass needing to re-execute all the effects, etc on the sequence while encoding…however your “original” is now your preview render. Not necessarily a bad thing…it’s just best to understand how it works, why it works that way, and what advantages and compromises there are to each approach.
Once you move to formats with color precision above 8 bit and you start to use “maximum bit depth” and “maximum render quality” for the sequence and/or the Media Encoder, you add another layer of decisions to your workflow.
I think many users coming from FCP may find the decisions they now have to make a little daunting as FCP really doesn’t have as many variables in its workflow portfolio.
However, as time goes on and the flexibility and capability of CS5 is understood, the ability to work with native files on the harddrive as opposed to ProRes (XDcamEX HQ= 35 Mbits/sec vs ProRes 422 at 220 Mbits/sec) freeing up harddrive space, allowing harddrives to actually deliver more streams (at least up to the ability of the installed CPUs to decode them, and being able to work with higher-end workflows with deep color precision and features like over-and under-range colors that can be stored in DPX frame sequences for use in other stages of production…will become more and more appreciated as our industry continues to become more diverse, and the demands placed on us continue to increase in complexity.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
Yes…load the PPro sequence directly in Media Encoder. You don’t even have to make a pointer file.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
I would say you would want to try a couple things…
1. Use the “render entire work area” command and render your timeline starting at the end and working your way back in small increments (maybe 2 minutes or less as defined by moving you work area bracket), and saving after each successful completion.
This may reveal the point in the timeline that is giving you thr problem, and when if the render fails in an area, you can now start to look at a more and more targeted point in time by making smaller and smaller work areas to render.
This will at least get you to a point of knowing if there is a timeline/media. problem, and where it is…
2. If you are able to get the entire timeline rendered through this process, chances are that selecting “use previews” in the export setup may get you back in business at least.
There do seem to be some effects (Magic Bullet Looks comes to mind for me) that Media Encoder doesn’t implement properly and doing a “pre- render” to create a preview file is the way to handle it at this point…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
What format are we talking about…specifically.
MPEG files vary widely and the way the audio is structured varies widely as well.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
White balance itself can be done with the eyedropper included in most PPro color correctors…
If you have some consistent ‘white’ referenced item in all the shots, you, probably get close, but you,d have to manually deploy it on every shot if the problems vary from shot to shot.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,