Import format: MP4 or numbered image sequence?

[johnf83075185]

I'm having 8mm cine films converted to HD digital and have been advised by the forum (thanks Steve!) that my best choice of format for importing into Premiere Elements 2019 would be MP4 h.264 1920x1080p 25 fps. (I'm in the UK).  The cine film converters also offer a numbered image sequence of jpegs, each one 1920x1080 pixels.  I'm thinking this would be useful for tidying up individual frames in Photoshop before importing them to Premiere Elements.  My question is, would a numbered image sequence be of equivalent quality to an MP4?

[Steve Grisetti]

Alpha numeric numbering will help you keep the pictures in order. Although in Premiere Elements, after you import the photos, you may find them out of order in your Project Assets panel. I show you how to re-sort your photos in this tutorial, part 2 of my 2-part tutorial on working with an Image Sequence.

Using an Image Sequence to create effects in Premiere Elements, part 2 of 2 - YouTube

[johnf83075185]

Thanks Steve but my question is, given that I have a choice, would I be best opting for the MP4 or the numbered image sequence?  Would there be any material difference in quality?  Are there any advantages of one over the other?

[Steve Grisetti]

An Image Sequence would generate every frame as a separate picture -- 30 photos for every second of video! I'd only do that if I were literally touching up my movie one frame at a time. And I had a lot of time and patience.

If this are 8mm movies, just get MP4s.

[johnf83075185]

Thanks Steve.  I would still like to know whether there would be any difference in quality between MP4 and a jpeg image sequence e.g. would jpegs suffer from greater compression for instance?  Its more of a technical question than a practical one.

[Steve Grisetti · Accepted solution]

Any compression causes a loss of data. (JPEGs themselves are compressed files.) But you will not see any discernible degradation in quality when you edit MP4s.

Meantime, remember you're editing digitized 8mm film -- a pretty low quality, low resolution medium to begin with. Even with enhancement, it's only going to look so good.

[johnf83075185]

Tanks Steve, subject closed.