Best Settings to Export Cineform from Premiere Pro

[Steve Kimmel]

I am exporting some Canon MXF files from Premiere Pro CS5 as cineform files. (by the way, doing this because I am doing noise reduction on MXF files first, then want to use as cineform files in First Light).


I have a couple of questions:

1) Is it best to use the I-frame only option or should I use the "both I and P frames" option

2) Does "render high quality previews" make enough of a difference for this workflow (it adds a lot of time to the process).

3) What's the difference between exporting MXF from Premiere as cineform file vs. using HDLink to convert MXF to cineform file (especially since the MXF files are already 4:2:2).

Thanks.

[David Newman]

1) I-frames is very slightly better quality (you can't see it), but more widely compatible. Use I-frames.

2) If you denoising is 32-bit capable and you using Filmscan-1 or 2, then you do benefit from "render high quality" which means 32-bit float processing. If anything of the filters used is 8-bit only, there is no advantage.

3) The difference is minor as the source is 4:2:2. For 4:2:0 sources HDLink is far superior (CineForm Insider: Why use an intermediate for DSLR video?) but for Canon MXF at 50Mb/s you can go either way.

[Steve Kimmel]

Thanks David! So, to make sure I understand, I-frame only is slightly better quality than I+P frames? I had thought that using all frames would improve quality, but to be honest, I'm pretty naive when it comes to this stuff!

Originally Posted by David Newman

1) I-frames is very slightly better quality (you can't see it), but more widely compatible. Use I-frames.

2) If you denoising is 32-bit capable and you using Filmscan-1 or 2, then you do benefit from "render high quality" which means 32-bit float processing. If anything of the filters used is 8-bit only, there is no advantage.

3) The difference is minor as the source is 4:2:2. For 4:2:0 sources HDLink is far superior (CineForm Insider: Why use an intermediate for DSLR video?) but for Canon MXF at 50Mb/s you can go either way.

[David Newman]

You are always using all frames. I-frame = compression only with itself. P-frame - delta compression with the previous frame. So I+P is more compression resulting in a smaller file, but that is its only advantage.

[Steve Kimmel]

Originally Posted by David Newman

You are always using all frames. I-frame = compression only with itself. P-frame - delta compression with the previous frame. So I+P is more compression resulting in a smaller file, but that is its only advantage.

Ah, thanks! Really appreciate your very clear explanation and help. This is one of the (often unmentioned) benefits of using cineform!