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October 8, 2012
Question

Premiere Elements 11 - poor render quality?

  • October 8, 2012
  • 3 replies
  • 20135 views

I was reading a review of Premiere Elements 11, and it was noted that PE11 had limited render options which can result in poor quality output files:

"Rendering quality is limited to the original format, which is usually consumer-grade and heavily compressed, so adding an effect can degrade the video quality in the final rendered version when viewed at full size, especially in fast-moving scenes. Changing the preferences to slower/better quality helps, but does not eliminate this problem."
http://www.techhive.com/article/2010628/review-adobe-premiere-elements-11-offers-an-easy-fast-and-simple-take-on-video-editing.html

Does anyone have any feedback on this? Are the rendering options limited?

I am currently downloading the trial to test it. I tried using the "Adobe Download Assistant" but the download speed was poor, so I had to switch to a scene release on a filehosting site instead (good one Adobe).

thanks

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    3 replies

    October 9, 2012

    Another season, another review, and again far from the facts. This is only slightly better than the outright dubious ones by some weirdos in the previous releases!!

    I have just downloaded the trial version and have done "rendering" and "export" and so I have no clue what he is talking about!! I tried an AVCHD clip and changed the opacity so that it requires rendering. I also added Guassian Blur to get it to need render (It used to be a Red line till PrE10, it is Yellowish now..). What I noticed was that the rendering happened very quickly and the rendered file was 1/2 the height and 1/2 the width. I find that verrrrry convenient, because when someone does rendering, it is because they want to have a quick look at how the composition looks like with their effects, titles, transitions, PiPs etc. It is done only to get an idea of what it looks like and is in no way related to how the exported output will look like. To get a preview of that this quickly is a good feature. Then I noticed an option in the preferences where they have given the option to change the render quality and hence speed back to the Full Quality - Slower Speed. but you know what? I don't think the reviewer is even looking at this.

    What he means is the exported output. The ones under Publish/Share tab in PrE11. In my tests I find that the render quality has no impact on the exported quality. I exported it to a AVCHD-1920x1080-30p preset and I found it to be just as good as it was in PrE10. Same file size and same bit rate, just to confirm. "Rendering is limited to the original format.." What does he mean? If he meant export, I can again confidently say that you can export the same AVCHD file to NTSC DV Standard, WMV (WMV9), QuickTime (MOV wrapper) and multiple other formats. The export presets can be chosen immaterial of the input videos/timeline. If he means rendering (The one where you hit "Enter" on the timeline), the format is and has been "All-I-Frame-MPEG2" - that is Fixed.

    I can assure you that the quality of finished output has and will depend on the combination of choice of the file (it's properties), the project setting (that is automatic - again!), the export preset resolution and frame rate (choose this as close as the original for best results) and the bit rate (higher is better - mostly). And this is no different from PrE10, 9, 8, 7, ..... The very fact that PrE has been giving the user options and control and at the same time makes it easy for novices over the years, is good enough reason for me to continuously go for it.

    John T Smith
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    October 8, 2012
    Legend
    October 8, 2012

    Not in my experience.

    There are, in fact, dozens of possible output options, every one of which is customizable so that it's optimized for whatever use you select. So you can certainly get a video output that looks virtually identical to what you put in.

    Of course, a lot depends on what type of video you're using as your source. High quality hi-def videos, like HDV and AVCHD, are obviously going to produce sharper, higher def videos than video shot with an iPod.

    But the quality of the output from Premiere Elements is every bit the quality of output from Premiere Pro, Final Cut, Vegas or any other semi-pro or professional video editor.

    Legend
    October 8, 2012

    I've just read the review you linked to, and I disagree with that reviewer on a number of issues. He says, for instance: "importing digital assets into the Organizer, even from iPhoto, it makes a separate copy of each image or video to the Adobe folder" -- which isn't even remotely true.

    Although I do agree that "Rendering quality is limited to the original format." Because, well -- duh, you can't get high-def output from standard definition video.

    If you've like to know about my thoughts on the program and its features, based on my 9 years experience using it and several weeks of working with version 11, you can check out my reviews on the left side of this page:

    http://Muvipix.com/pe11.php

    Prizm4Author
    Known Participant
    October 8, 2012

    Thanks for your input Steve.

    "Although I do agree that "Rendering quality is limited to the original format." Because, well -- duh, you can't get high-def output from standard definition video."

    I wasn't sure what the author meant by "original format". I thought he was talking about file format or video format (whether interlaced or not, how many FPS, etc), though of course that's very limiting. He never mentioned anything silly like wanting to convert something to high def and expecting HD quality. But are you saying rendered files can't be upscaled?