Exporting Help for a newbie!

[mdslammer]

Hi Guys,

I just moved over to P.P. CS3 from Vegas Pro 8 4 wks. a go. I really like this NLE.
I've finished editing my film and am having some problems getting the best resolution after exporting.

The footage is 1440X1080 HD. I'm don't need to burn it as a Blue Ray DVD. Just a regular DVD. What can you recommend as far as the Exporting settings to get best resolution.

In P.P. is looks spectacular but when I exported the footage, it didn't look anywhere as sharp.

Can anyone please tell me the best settings I should be using to get. I will continue to read the manual and try and fig. this out but my film is due in two days and I'm running short of time.

Thanks in advance.

Regards.

Mark Dalzell

[Sacksnack]

Mark,
do you have access to After Effects? If you do, export your movie from Premiere at full size (1440x1080), and import it into AE in a 720x480 widescreen composition. Then scale your footage down to the correct size. Export your mpeg-2 for DVD from there. I use cineform as my intermediate to go from Premiere to AE, but in the past I have used Mpeg, and that looked great as well.
Premiere isn't very good at downconverting HD to SD. Vegas actually does a nice job, so if you don't have After Effects, you could do the same thing but with Vegas. Another option is to use TMPgenc to do the downconversion. Bottom line is that Premiere isn't the best option for the final downconversion.
If you only have Premiere, open a new SD widescreen project, import your HD project into that, resize and export. It won't be as good as the other methods but it's better than going directly from HD to SD. Good Luck
-Kevin

[mdslammer]

Kevin,

First off, thanks for taking time to reply. I really appreciate it.

Secondly: I have both AE and Vegas Pro 8.

Re: Exporting from Premiere Pro. Is this the correct export setting.

"Uncompressed Microsoft AVI"
Under Video: Compressor is: 10-bit YUV (4:2:2) / Colors Milliions / Frame size: 1440x1080 (which is what my original footage is)
Frame Rate: 29.97
Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1/DV NTSC (0.9)
Quality: Highest
Recompress: is checked / Maintain Data Rate
Keyframe/Audio: default for this setting

If this is correct, then I import to either AE or Vegas.
If I use AE, set the comp to 720X480 widescreen. "Scale your footage down to the correct size" Do I select the complete footage and just scale it down to fit inside the safe area?

What about Vegas Pro? Do I need to scale it down as well or will it do it automatically?

Again, I'm very grateful for your help Kevin.

Best.

Mark

[mdslammer]

Kevin,

I exported a short clip as the AVI uncompressed as I just posted. Vegas does not recognize it. File type: Unknow. No lenght for Video/Audio.

Did import fine in AE. I'm scaling down so the footage fits inside the action safe area now.
Not sure how to proceed from here.

What product from Cineform do you use?


Mark

[Sacksnack]

How long is your project? And what are your timeline settings? I'm curious if you shot 24p, or 60i. Because I can better recommend some setting based on this information.

I see right away that your pixel aspect ratio should be set for HDV widescreen (1.33), not Dv (0.9). In AE, you can right click on the file in the project window, choose interpret footage, and change the par to 1.33.

I use Cineform aspect HD, I actually only use it as an intermediate, and as an archive format. It also captures 24p from the HV20 and removes the pulldown automatically.

[Sacksnack]

Did import fine in AE. I'm scaling down so the footage fits inside the action safe area now

You'll want to scale it down until it fills the frame, click transform, then scale the footage to 45%.

[mdslammer]

Kevin,

The total length of my film is under 12 minutes. It's a student film for my Video/Film II class. It was shot in H.D. with a two Sony Z7U cameras. I didn't shoot the footage. I was given it on a flash disk and imported it into my laptop.
Files read:
29.97 fps, 1440x1080 (1.333) - Alpha

I don't think this was shot 24p. I'm guessing 60i.

Mark

[Sacksnack]

OK, so you can export an uncompressed avi from Premiere, 1440x1080, 1.33 pixel aspect ratio, upper fields first. Import into AE into a 720x480, 1.2 pixel aspect ratio composition. Set your composition length for 12 minutes or whatever. Resize your footage to 45%. Then export a 720 x480 mpeg-2, 1.2 pixel aspect ratio, lower fileds first. I like to use a constant bit rate of 8.3 mbs. Then import that file into Encore or whatever you use to author your DVD.

Before I had Cineform, I would export a 1440x1080 mpeg-2 from Premiere, using the adobe media encoder, at about 30mbs, the file size is way smaller than uncompressed. But these were hour long projects, with a 12 minute project you should be able to go uncompressed.

[mdslammer]

OK. I'm exporting a short clip from P.P. as you said. Then I'll fly it into AE and go from there.
Be back shortly.
Again.
Thanks for spending your Sunday helping out.

Mark

[Sacksnack]

Hurry up, I'm going to watch the cowboys game soon. Pizza and wings callin' my name.:)

[mdslammer]

Go for it. Check back at half time.

Enjoy the game and your wings.

Mark