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T
Technovation
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015
Question

Video NOISE in exported H.264 file only, original footage is clean

  • November 18, 2015
  • 8 replies
  • 17510 views

Hi,

Filmed using a brand new Sony FS7, in 4k. Original footage is clean and great.

Edited for several months to find at the end that every exported file in different formats has horrible video noise that is simply not in the original footage.

How come premiere is adding noise?

We have made sure that in the the export settings for the H.264 we have ticked "Render at maximum depth" and "Use maximum render quality".


Do we pay for Adobe Premiere to make our beautiful original footage look horrible?


I came across this article:

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/09/massive-difference-export-quality-fcpx-and-premiere-pro

So is Adobe Premiere H.264 export quality meant for amateurs and home videos?

Does anybody have a clue what is going on with the bad quality H.264 export of premiere?

Thank you

This topic has been closed for replies.

8 replies

bobbym29011574
bobbym29011574
Participant
February 8, 2018

I don't know if this ever got solved, but I was having the same problem with banding in my exports and tried many of the same steps as the original poster. I'll leave this solution here for anyone it might help:

I had FS7 footage that had been graded using a LUT and then some light curves and basic adjustments applied on top. Looked fine in my preview window, but when I exported in AME it had horrific banding.

***After tearing my hair out, the simple solution was to export directly from Premiere (with maximum depth checked). ***

Clearly there's some bug in AME at the time of posting (CC 2018 version 12.0).

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
February 8, 2018

There's a couple things that can go blitzy between PrPro & ME ... for some things, you need to go into ME's preferences and uncheck "Import sequences natively", then all is well. For others, sometimes ME doesn't seem to pick up on the settings properly in PrPro, so going through and seeing that the options in Preferences and in the presets in ME are doing what you expect them to do, same as in PrPro becomes necessary.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
shooternz
shooternz
Legend
November 18, 2015

he issue you have is called "banding".

Not sure what to suggest in your instance.  The data rate should be fine.

Some might suggest adding a touch of Grain (Noise) before exporting.

Its a very flat image and that tone is prone to banding.  I would try a little more contrast and punch.

I haven't done any legalisation stuff (do I need to? it's for theatrical release for film festivals)


No.

T
TechnovationAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015

Is it a matter of colour correction? not problem with export setting?

What do I need to change?

Actually the noise is in all exported versions, before and after applying colour correction in adobe speedgrade

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 18, 2015

If you could post a screengrab of the clip in PrPro's program viewer with the scopes right beside it ... maybe both before & 'after' any work you've done ... that would be great. Seeing the scopes would give shooter & I a wealth of info ...

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
T
TechnovationAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015

Am I doing something wrong in the export settings?

I have read elsewhere that I should have VBR, 2 pass. What else should I do? or not do?

Thank you

T
TechnovationAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015

I'm adding one more comparison:

Exported noisy:

vs original footage:

T
TechnovationAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015

Original footage

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 18, 2015

Btw ... shooter is one of the better ones on here for handling projects through to deliverables. Use his brain/experience, he's good at this ...

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 18, 2015

Apparently you didn't read down through the comments?

There are some settings in the PrPro/AME export dialog he didn't mention that make huge differences in the output, so depending on how those were set you could easily have that as the issue. He doesn't say ... so basically, his 'test' is worthless.

Now ... as to your issues, there are some folks that 'hang' around here that are pretty hot & experienced at pro level encoding of deliverables, having done that for years. How about working this through? Post a few screen grabs of your original footage, on the sequence, and exported including screengrabs of the export settings. Also ... include shots of the scopes especially RGB parade & waveform, as that can tell a lot about how the media was shot & also how it's been graded.

Let's see if "we" can help you ...

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
T
TechnovationAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015

Here are the export settings:

exported H.264

I will add the original in a moment

shooternz
shooternz
Legend
November 18, 2015

What did you do to it to wreck it.?

PPro does not add noise to my exports. FWIW

I just posted some in another recent thread. about same issue  Lumetri color adjustment causes red break-up

T
TechnovationAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 18, 2015

Shooternz, I'm trying to answer the questions you have asked in the post you referred to:

Source file is an MXF from Sony FS7

I haven't done any legalisation stuff (do I need to? it's for theatrical release for film festivals)

We haven't transcoded anything before bringing it to the timeline, unless Adobe premiere is doing it.

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
November 18, 2015

Hope this doesn't "doublepost" as I just responded but it isn't showing ...

The exported clip is a lot darker (which could easily be a gamma change) and has major banding issues ... across that wall area you circled. That's caused by spreading out 8-bit values too far so the 'edge' of the changes show.

All of which leads me to ask ... did you view and screen-grab the exports from having re-imported them into PrPro, or from a media player on your computer such as Quicktime?

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
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