best export format to copy large video files to USB

Hi Chris:

There's a general rule of thumb in multimedia production where you supply multiple playback options - usually at least two - when delivering video to users without knowing what their computers/devices will be capable of playing.  

Specific to what you're doing, I would consider providing three versions of your exported H264 movie:  2160p, 1080p. and 480p SD Wide.

If you're using Adobe Media Encoder, you can encode each of these at the same time using the following H264 presets:

• YouTube 2160p 4K Ultra HD
• YouTube 1080p Full HD
• YouTube 480p SD Wide

You'll notice that Media Encoder provides similar presets for Vimeo, Mobile Devises, and High Quality.  Those should work just as well.

Losing sync commonly indicates that the bandwidth of the storage media is too low for the movie file being played.   A 480p SD Wide H264 movie file stands the best chance of playing back smoothly and in sync at all times from a USB2 thumb drive with the trade-off being a smaller frame size.  Of course, if you're not already doing it, be sure ot use USB3 thumb drives so that if the higher bandwidth is available it can be taken advantage of.  That, and as indicated in other responses, recommend that users copy the movie file to their local hard drive.

-Warren

The more compressed your file it is, the harder it will be to decode and play back in real-time. H.264 is the most universal format to play on other machines, but your playback experience wont match others. First, as has already been said, playing a video directly off of a USB stick will always be a worse viewing experience than if you copied the file to an internal drive. It's also unclear if these USB sticks are USB 2 or 3—they could even be USB 3 sticks plugged into USB 2 ports. Not every USB stick performs the same, so even if what you are using are USB 3 and they're plugged into USB 3 ports, playing back a huge 4K video is going to have poor performance. Perhaps you can also include a 1080p version for playback directly on the stick, in addition to the 4K "archive" version.

Assuming you're exporting directly out of Premiere Pro using the H.264 High Quality preset, using Media Encoder won't help you, as the export options are identical. It will, however, allow you to export your project in the background while you continue working in Premiere, which you can't do if you're exporting directly from Premiere.

[Moderator moved from Using the Community (forums) to Adobe Media Encoder.]

The video should be copied to the computer's primary hard drive (SSD preferred) for viewing.  USB sticks are OK for transport but very slow compared to blazing fast SSD drives.

Offering digital downloads might be another option to consider.  My Internet connection can download a 2GB full feature MP4 video in no time.

Are you using Adobe Media Encoder to transcode the video?

Are you asking about Premiere Pro or Premiere Elements... or some other program?

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