HDV Output settings for CS3
 

Hi all!

I am using Premiere CS3 to edit HDV footage shot at 30P (1280 X 720) on my JVC HD100.

I am completely baffled as to how to export the final timeline. I have no idea what settings I am supposed to be using and I find it rather confusing to be honest.

My clips are captured to a Firestore drive (made for the JVC) and they look great (.m2t which is just mpeg files) but I don't seem to be able to find a decent export setting that would allow me to keep the filetype/settings the same and encode to other devices at different resolutions etc. externally.

Basically I just want to output in the highest quality possible and worry about converting to DVD or other (including Hi Def) formats outside of the program.

I have tried encoding to quicktime, avi and mpeg at the moment and none of the results are very good.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I can't afford cineform right now so I will have to pass on that suggestion :)

Regards and thanks in advance!

P.S. I am using a new Quad core PC that is smoking fast at editing!

Julian

I hope someone with more experience offers some info but in my trials over the last couple weeks the best results have been from wmv9. I selected one of the hd presets and then changed the frame rate to what I used in my project. The 5 minute video came in around 350mb and looks excellent. I highly recommend using the export work area option to test the various options because the whole 5 minute project takes about a half hour to export.

HuffyUV or another lossless codec. Frameserver is a faster and more efficient method, however.

I just added a timeline to Encore-- the video was exported with the WMV9 codec and looked superb- almost no quality loss compared to the original hd footage... sadly it doesn't play smoothly in Encore. Back to the drawing board.

Were you playing encore from within encore or did you export a BD folder or disk and tried it?

On the computer I have noticed that encore often plays unevenly, but the finished project is fine.

Using windows media player if the file is interlaced it seems to have more trouble than if it is deinterlaced.

So can you tell us which you were doing? thru encore or thru BD or DVD folder.

Bill in Ohio

Playing from within Encore (exported file looks and plays perfectly in WMP). My workflow so far: import footage [Canon XH-A1], edit in Premiere CS3, export with these settings:
WMV9, 2 pass, variable constrained bitrate (average=8mbps, peak 10mbps), hd anamorphic pixels. I just found out about bitrate calculators- will be trying them out next time.
Open Encore project, import as timeline the video file I just created. Design menu/buttons and build.

Hi Greg and the others. So your able to import these into encore and burn a dvd with the imported WMV files/clips? I am just like countless others(and yourself) still trying to get that "hd" look that comes from the camera onto my and others that I produce the video for onto dvd's. So this setting is turning out good results for you then? Please do share. I will play with it also to see if I can do that also and see how it looks.. And to be honest, the thing I am wondering is if you burnded a RW yet from this workflow, if so, how does that play back and look? Thanks for the tip, but more input if you don't mind...

D

I also am trying it out to see how it looks as I type this. It is taking a little while to export, but if it looks great, who cares! He He He I am psyched.

I'm rendering the finished sequence one more time (made a few changes to the timeline) as we speak. When it's done I'll plug that new timeline into Encore and see if it will play on a DVD. Right now though the best looking results have come via WMV9, 2 pass, variable bit constrained br, hd anamorphic pixels and 1440x1080. The resulting 5 minute/320mb wmv file looks stunning. Like I said before- it plays perfectly in WMP and not too smoothly in Encore, but I've yet to burn it to DVD. Should have something to play on my hdtv this afternoon though.
You'd think with the advent of hd video this sort of thing would be priority number one for a huge number of people but it's still trial and error for us newbs. Jillions of tutorials on how to make a 320x240 video or sd video but hd... feels like we're on our own.

Hi Greg, I agree. And I transcoded my test two minute file. Mine also stuttered after you stated yours did before and during the transcoding. Once that was done, and I played it back, it was as smooth as normal. So I am buring the file to see how it looks. The one thing I am really concerned about is with the encore transcoding, how it will ultimately look. I am wondering if it would look just like another encore/premiere transcode.. Oops! Its done! Be back in a few...

I hate to be the voice of reason here, guys, but uncompressed is much, much better than WMV. Doubly so when WMV is just your intermediate file.

Let me repeat my advice from earlier: use an uncompressed or lossless codec, such as HuffyUV, if you absolutely must export a separate file.

However, it's (again) more efficient to skip the export step entirely and use DebugMode FrameServer to stream uncompressed video into whatever program you use for the final encoding.

Daniel, I have a question for you because I have Cinemacraft Basic and they mentioned something about AviSynth. They mentioned scripts and it scared me off.. Is it complicated or something I am being intimidated by for no reason?

Ok, I downloaded a sample script, and I sort of get how you change the directory. For example, here is the sample that I downloaded, but my question is how does the encoder read the file or import that text file? That is what I am having a hard time with? And don't I need to export at some point to have a reference file that avisynth links to? Basically, how do I for example say I want it to link to a certain timeline if I do not export the timeline first of all from premiere?

Damon

You don't need any scripts. There are so few options that anyone can learn the entirety of its usage in a single day. I've trained editors on it in just a few minutes (face-to-face).

1. Install FrameServer
2. If the installation doesn't automatically install your plugin, you may have to manually copy the file. Just copy the frameserver plugin file into the Premier Pro folder (usually C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premier Pro CS3\Plug-ins\en_US\).
3. Start FrameServer from within Premier Pro.
4. Click the audio checkbox and YUV setting, and choose where you save your faux AVI file.
5. While that is running, open the program you want to encode with.
6. Open the AVI file.

Some programs (like Cinema Craft Encoder) require a VDR file instead of an AVI file. Others may only work with RGB instead of YUV. Try it out.

Ok, I installed AviSynth, so you said to start the frameserver from within premiere, so is it on the File, Export menu? I really want to try this, but I am completely green on this. Once I installed AviSynth, I do see how it will import the file into Cinemacraft, but for a plugin, I am dying now to see how to do this. Or do I need to install something else instead of AviSynth?

Yes. You'll find it listed in the options after you click File->Export->Movie. (After, of course, you install it.)

AviSynth is different from DebugMode FrameServer.