Problem I'm having with Premiere Export Media

[J Davis]

I've just run a test.

I created a clip in a certain codec (for this example it was animation codec 720p at 29.97fps) and I dragged it to the Premiere project pane.
Once it was in the project pane I dragged the clip on the new sequence icon and this created a sequence which exactly matched my clip. Same height, width, fps and codec.

I then went to File > Export > Media, checked Match sequence settings and hit export.
I then watched Premiere render out the media.

What I would have expected to happen is for the iFrames to simply copy out to the new clip with no rendering involved. I ran the test again using prores 720p clip on a prores timeline with the same results, it rendered. Now to me this is very, very surprising. Why? First let me explain.


Now I'm originally an FCP7 user who is migrating to Premiere and for those that don't know if a clip on the FCP timeline matches the sequence setting then it does not need any rendering, it has a green bar above it. If a clip in FCP needs work from the processor for whatever reason, it has a red bar above it until it is rendered. Then rendered files are stored as temporary files. When its time to Export, FCP concatenates all the rendered files into one file.

So why am I running this test?
Because I had to be sure that this is the way Premiere works, I guess ... or maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Let me back up a bit to my real life situation that caused me to run the test.


So far I've been doing my longer form projects in FCP and as I migrate to Premiere I've been doing my shorter 'under 5 minutes' type projects in Premiere. All good so far. Until I attempted a longer 20 minute project in Premiere.

I go to export the 20 minute project and have to sit for hours while it renders out. Well no biggie ... same in Final Cut except I would render on the timeline before the export.

But when the client asks for a small change and another export ...

Well in Final Cut I would only need to render that small section on the timeline where the change was and export. But I'm finding in Premiere that I need to render/export the entire timeline again. This means waiting the whole duration of several hours wait again. This is hugely inefficient and will have an impact on the pricing / my payrate. And how I quote on my jobs - especially as most of my clients ar ad agencies who ask for many changes.

Am I doing something wrong? Or is this really the way Premiere is designed?
I really hope I'm doing something wrong as I was hoping Premiere could be my replacement for FCP7.

[tom_wise]

No. I don't think you're doing anything wrong at all. I regularly have to do the same, just for small-ish changes, whether from AE or PP: Re-render the whole of it.

[Jim Simon]

You're not doing anything wrong, but there is a way to get the same results you got from FCP.

If you have your sequence set up to use ProRes for preview files (and you'll want to check that, because the default is usually MPEG I-frame), then you can work the same way in PP as you do in FCP. Simply render the timeline first, and then export. When you do your export, make sure to check the box that says Use Preview Files.

If you need to change anything, only that section will need to be rerendered before you do another export.

[J Davis]

Thanks guys.

Hey Jim ... I've just ben reading your posts over at the adobe forum !
And I'm going to be testing this later.

For reference I also posted this question on Creative Cow and had several responses. Thread is here.

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/3/917829#917829

Adobe forum thread is here.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3945436

Wil Renczes, an adobe employee responded about this topic - they call it smart rendering.

What you're looking for is what we commonly refer to as smart rendering, and it doesn't exist in PPro. That's a Final Cut 'ism, where it splices rendered data from the preview QT files into the final render. Keep in mind that's a QuickTime centric feature, & doesn't translate automatically to all file formats.

The 'Use preview files' option in PPro is exactly that - if there's a preview file, it decodes the frame out of it, & re-encodes it into the final file. So while it'll help in (non-CUDA) effects heavy compositions, it also incurs a generation loss. Generally, we don't recommend using it (hence the default to off) unless you really are sure that's what you want.

[Kevin Monahan]

If you like, make a feature request for smart rendering here: http://www.adobe.com/go/wish

[Jim Simon]

Wil's right about the generation loss. That's why you need to set up your sequence to use something lossless for previews. On a PC, I'd say use the free and lossless Lagarith or UT codecs. But you're on a Mac, and those codecs are PC only. While ProRes isn't technically lossless, I suspect you'll find it fine for this purpose.

[Sidderke]

Unfortunately, I've noticed FCP X works the same way...
IT exports very quickly, but not as quick as FCP 7 when doing straight cuts and exporting in current settings...

I've reported my tests here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/final-cu...ompressed.html