Should I use Transcoded media within Premier?

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
February 4, 2017
5 replies
2568 views

Hi all!

After years of FCP 7/FCPx, I'm finally on Premier due to client demand. It is what it is, but please have patience...

Should I transcode media before editing in Adobe Premier?

In Final Cut, one thing I enjoyed was that regardless of whether the original media was referenced and left in its original location or copied to the Final Cut's library, it automatically (provided it was checked) created "optimized" (transcoded) media in the form of Pro Res 422. I would think that in addition to having a descent machine, this is why editing was usually flawless - Final Cut didn't have to decode all of the proprietary codecs from, say, Go Pro, Canon, Nikon, Sony etc.

So far, three acquaintances have told me they do not transcode media in Adobe Media encoder.

I'm just rather surprised by this! I'm up-and-coming, and had the notion that working in ProRes was professional (no pun, and not because it has "pro" in the word) but because it is universally worked with.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Richard van den Boogaard

Community Expert

The choice of whether or not to transcode largely depends on your hardware, much less the software (Premiere Pro).

PPro is known for being quite agnostic to various media formats.

However, the quality and speed of your hardware may not be on par with this. Especially when editing delivery codecs (h.264 and h.265) puts a much bigger strain on your hardware resources than editing with codecs intended for that purpose (ProRes, DNxHD, MXF or Cineform).

My advice is to have:

- a fast processor (e.g. i7)

- a CUDA supported GPU (i.e. nVidia)

- 3 separate SSD's (programs / data / temp)

- 32 GB of RAM when doing a lot of dynamic linking with After Effects (64 is better)

Hope this helps.

S

sBirch

Known Participant

I tried it a few times, converting to DNxHD which is the closest you can get to ProRes on Windows I think. And suitable for both macOS and Windows. But I found that it was not worth the bother, especially after I drowned my system in massive video files. So I stick to AVCHD, as it is smaller, ingested as it is, and while I do detect a little slugishness now and then, it is not bothering me so much.

I almost always shoot with three cameras, and even with three tracks of 1080p footage I do no find it a problem. Have no idea how I would fare if we were to shoot that in 4k :^)

For the record I run a Core i7 8 core cpu with 32 GB of ram and a quite fast SSD array.

vicfirth1Author

Participating Frequently

Ok, so... what is the most common industry-standard practice?

If I'm learning from the ground up, I want to start right with a firm foundation to build on.

Should I (correct my understanding if needed so far)

1) "import" - leave the original files in place, and work by using them from the project library.

2) ingest and create a proxy

E

excited_Genie16B8

Legend

what is the most common industry-standard practice?

Not sure there is one. Different programs offer different options, and different editors have different preferences and system capabilities.

E

excited_Genie16B8

Legend

You certainly don't need to. Premiere Pro offers very wide compatibility with standardized media.

However, I'd wager that the bulk of today's editing media is H.264, which offers certain...challenges...to an edit system. There's a good chance you'll find the performance of your system, and hence your overall editing experience, improved if you do transcode to a more editing-friendly format. This is especially noticeable when you start applying effects.

My personal choice is the Cineform codec. This stuff edits smooth as butter, and is very high quality. (Comparable to ProRes, if you're a FCP user.)

There are two ways to proceed here. You can either use Cineform Proxies, or Cineform Transcodes. I like the Proxy option myself. Premiere Pro is smart about it and always defaults to the original media for export, even if you forget to turn the proxies off.