GH2 In CS5, what export method is equal to the GH2 MTS file?

[robertwerden]

Is it
h.264
HDTV 1080p 24 high quality
VBR 1 pass target 24 Mbps

I just don't know enough about exporting and codecs to know what the best one to use is to preserve the quality of the original GH2 MTS files.

Also for Vimeo I want to reduce file sizes so is there are way to preserve quality while also reducing file size? I would think the only way to do that would be to down res.

 

[hazna]

You can use the Vimeo export settings.

 

[tuprware]

If you have the sequence setup with the same atributes as the source file(s) you can check the box for match sequence settings on export. Decent filesize and fast exports.

 

[nyvz]

I just don't know enough about exporting and codecs to know what the best one to use is to preserve the quality of the original GH2 MTS files.

Also for Vimeo I want to reduce file sizes so is there are way to preserve quality while also reducing file size? I would think the only way to do that would be to down res.

I'm not exactly sure if this is what you are asking, but encoding with similar specs to the original MTS files is not the same as optimizing for preserving the quality of original footage. There really isn't necessarily much good reason for your export settings to match the format of your originals, since when you export, Premiere is basically decoding all your originals, processing and reencoding it to something else. The best way to preserve quality is to choose ideal settings for your export format, regardless of your import format.

That said, there is a vimeo export preset you can use, which will significantly recompress your footage, subjecting it to lots of additional compression artifacting etc, but that is always the balance you have to find between web upload times (file sizes) and quality. Also, vimeo will be recompressing your footage yet again, so your 2nd generational loss may be the least of your worries, since the 3rd generational loss that vimeo causes will be the worst.

Down res-ing is probably one of the least efficient ways to reduce file size when dealing with encoding to modern low-bitrate codecs. Then again, if you know vimeo is only going to be displaying in 720p so your footage will be getting downressed at a later stage anyway, it's not a bad idea, as long as you dont plan on letting people download your originally uploaded file as vimeo does allow.

h.264 is the choice for many when doing highly compressed uploads for the web, since it is quite efficient at low bitrates, so your settings are probably pretty good for just uploading to vimeo. You should get somewhat higher quality for the same file size if you do 2-pass VBR, but it will nearly double your encoding time.