Best format for use in Premiere Elements 2019

[johnf83075185]

Hi, I am a newbie to video editing and confused about the wide variety of containers and codecs!  I am having some 8mm cine films converted to digital and want to know what is the best format that I should ask for the output to be in, for importing into Premiere Elements 2019.  Also what project settings should I choose?  I am using Windows 10 on a PC in the UK.  After editing I want to have a high quality version (1920x1080) as the master on the computer (and for viewing on TV e.g. via a USB flash memory stick).  I also want to burn (lower resolution) DVDs for friends and family.  I would very much appreciate any advice on this subject.

[Steve Grisetti · Accepted solution]

Ask for 1920x1080 MP4s.

But remember that old 8mm movies were 4:3 rather than 16:9 widescreen, so your video will have black bars along the sides. Which I promise you only you will notice.

[johnf83075185]

Thanks Steve.  I assume that's MP4 with h.264 codec?  What project file setting would that correspond to?  MP4 does not appear on the drop down list.

[Steve Grisetti]

If you load a 1920x1080 MP4 (H.264) at 30 fps into the program, it will automatically set up the project settings to match it.

[johnf83075185]

Thanks again Steve.  How important is the frame speed?  If I am ultimately exporting to a format suitable for UK television or DVD (PAL system), which I believe is 25 fps, would I be better to work in Premiere Elements at 25 fps from the outset rather than work at 30 fps and then have to convert it on exporting to 25 fps?  Or is 30 fps better suited to Premiere Elements in some way?  Or is it immaterial???

[Steve Grisetti]

25 fps will also work.

[johnf83075185]

OK Steve, one final question!  Going back to your first answer, isn't MP4 h.264 a compressed format?  If so, wouldn't I be losing quality right from the start? Would it be feasible to start off with an uncompressed format e.g. (as I understand it) AVI, AVCHD etc?  Or are the files so huge that Premiere Elements would struggle with them and performance would be slow?  I just want to get things right before I invest a lot of time in editing.

[Ann Bens]

Uncompressed avi's are huge. Avchd is H.264.

Dv avi would be fine.

If you are in the UK keep everything 25 or 50. Dont mix with so called ntsc framerates.

If your 8mm converted footage is SD dont export to HD it will look awfull without proper upscaling tools.

You cannot make something out of nothing. SD is what it is Standard Definition.

[johnf83075185]

Hi Ann, thanks for your help.  I'm not sure what you mean by "Dv avi" - I can't find anything about this on the internet.  Could you elaborate a bit?  I may perhaps have been using the wrong terminology saying "uncompressed" when I meant "compressed with no loss or minimal loss"  I have spent hours searching the internet trying to get an understanding of this but I'm still confused.  Any further help would be appreciated.  The film conversion process scans in HD so there's no question of scaling up. 

[Peru Bob]

johnf83075185  wrote

Hi Ann, thanks for your help.  I'm not sure what you mean by "Dv avi" - I can't find anything about this on the internet. 

I'm not Ann, but see here:

Dv+avi

DV-AVI is probably the easiest file (with regard to computer resources) to edit.

[Steve Grisetti]

DV-AVIs are an old format, common back in the days when people were shooting tape-based digital video.

Trust us on this. A 1920x1080 25 fps MP4 is exactly what you need.

[Ann Bens]

Trust us on this. A 1920x1080 25 fps MP4 is exactly what you need.

SD upscaled to HD with Elements: dont think so.

[Steve Grisetti]

This is a digitized 8mm movie (not video, from what I can see). You should be able to get 1920x1080 out of it. But I won't argue with you, Ann.

The main point is that the ideal editing format (whether the video is 1920x1080 or standard definition 640x480) is a 25 fps MP4.

[Ann Bens]

My point is you have to get it right the first time with Elements.

There is no way to change project settings or copy it over to another project.

John test: editing, exporting a playing it on the tv or whatever before starting the real project.

[Shivangi_Gupta]

Hi johnf,

Thanks for reaching out. The responses that you have received are all expert advice. They all are speaking not only from their personal experiences but also what they have observed other users do. I hope you got the answer to your question.

Give us a shout if you need anything else.

Good luck with editing something great with Adobe Premiere Elements

@Ann Bens, @Peru Bob, @Steve Grisetti. A huge thank you for taking care of the community so well.

Thanks,

Shivangi

[kben3]

This is helpful. I'm also a newbie and undertaking a similar project with old 8mm home video as well as pre-digital camcorder video. The way I understand it, I'm limited to 720 x 480 SD. It seems that Premiere Elements automatically adjusts these settings to match the video you input for the project. Is this correct? So, it doesn't seem like I can ask for 1920x1080 MP4s as you suggest here. Is my understanding correct? Thank you!

[Ann Bens]

I would not ask for 1920x1080 mp4. First of all it will be upscaled and you need good soft/hardware to do a good job. Also mp4/H.264 is not a good format/codec to edit.

[kben3]

Thank you, Ann. In that case, would MPEG be a better choice for the format/codec. If not, what would you recommend?

[Ann Bens]

If its SD i would go for dv-avi.

[kben3]

Thank you so much! I will try that.