Fastest intermediate codec for color correction in Premiere

S

squidman

Member
Noone looking at my previous thread, so starting a new one...sorry! What intermediate codec does premiere work best with vis-a-vis luts etc? DNxHD? Prores? Cineform? Struggling to get more than 1-2 fps in preview once I apply luts or filters...wondering which codecs Premiere accelerates regarding CUDA/Mercury etc. as far as effects go.

thanks, sorry for the (sort of) repost!
 
May I suggest a workflow alternative. Instead of grading and editing in the same sweep, separate them. Take your footage into resolve, color/grade, add LUTs and filters, then export those files to your NLE. The. You'll be able to edit without bogging down your processor.

Because of my types of jobs, I color first, then edit. But you could do the other way around as well
 
abreu-canedo said:
May I suggest a workflow alternative. Instead of grading and editing in the same sweep, separate them. Take your footage into resolve, color/grade, add LUTs and filters, then export those files to your NLE. The. You'll be able to edit without bogging down your processor.

Because of my types of jobs, I color first, then edit. But you could do the other way around as well
Click to expand...

This.

Most people who've tried different methods all seem to be landing on this one.

In my experience Premiere handles ProRes and DNxHD about the same, maybe a touch better with the DNxHD - it's more a matter of how high is the bit-rate you've chosen.

Most LUTs and LUT hosts like FilmConvert etc. really do tend to crush your processor, so if you can find a workflow that avoids applying these in your edit stage then you've just opened up a ton of speed for other less processor-intensive filters etc.

I understand that it can be advantageous to do Color Grading in the context of your actual edit because the mood is more clearly revealed, but until we get to the day of having processors that can handle all of it - we are simply going to have to make either one compromise or another. And I have found that better playback in edit is just vastly superior for supporting my creative focus as I work. Perhaps it affects you the same way.
 
I pre-convert all my footage to DNxHD with a known LUT baked in. (Meaning I know I will be applying this LUT exactly as is to every clip.) This makes editing a LOT smoother.

Having said that, I still do all my color corrections and effects work after editing those DNxHd clips. It makes little sense to work on refinement until things are set.
 
thanks for the replies guys! Appreciate it. Found that I CAN get realtime playback with lut's applied if I open up Cineform (standalone) .mov converts of my gopro files (wow speedgrade really didn't like either my DNxHD converts or Cineform .avi versions! What gives?). Unfortunately render times and lack of batch exporting in speedgrade looks like it could be a problem for lots and lots of gopro clips. Looks like I may have to learn Resolve after all. Have tried media encoder applying lut's, again pretty slow (but maybe faster with cineform or DNxHD files? tried applying straight the h.264 .mov gopro clips before). Given up on the direct linkage between premiere and speedgrade. Nice idea, but when playback stutters at 1-2 fps....

These are for home vids, not looking for too much refinement...just a way to speed up the process (gopro studio not working at all for me/import crashing, not to mention ending up with giant cineform files is not too cool), just want to be able to batch simulate the gopro studio application of lut/sharpening/contrast/denoise or in general get a usable image (laziness!).

So it looks like learning resolve after all...I hope it has a fast renderer and can batch export lots of shorter clips! (reluctant learner! As a 3d student, enough on my plate already with Maya, NukeX, Max, all the plugins etc!).

Again, thanks again guys! Bonus beer goes to the one who knows exactly which codecs are CUDA accelerated (anyone?)...(there must be an app for that..or there SHOULD be..for shouting a beer I mean)..:beer:
 
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Will give it a shot after recent mini-expedition...have around 50gb of protune files. Shame the gopro studio software won't open on my workstation, it's actually quite fast on my 5 year old laptop (no editing, just conversion to to cineform .avi and applying the protune lut), but the lack of batch export is really a deal-breaker. Have a feeling the gopro studio looks do more than apply a lut, but increase sharpening, denoise etc. As soon as I apply those filters in premiere, it absolutely kills render times, not to mention preview of 1-2 fps (with dedicated ssd cached scratch, work disks etc and plenty of ram). Would be nice to see my 32 threads at above 10% utilization too!

Edit: or maybe I will just grit my teeth and learn the basics of resolve...can't possibly be worse than NukeX and Maya...at least it allows batch exports...
 
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