WHOAH... how do I wrangle in Premiere Elements 2025

[terrabotic]

My video handling is mainly light-weight for social media, and doesn't include complicated editing.  Most of my content is from a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.  Picture looks great on the phone, and looks great if I upload directly to YouTube (so it's not just on phone display).  I've used Premiere Elements 2018 for years.  The output never looked as great as the original file, but it worked.  I just upgraded to Elements 2025, and WHOAH.  Nothing looks correct at all... even previous Elements 2018 files.  Imported media or opened Elements files are contrasty and lack the proper tonal range, and have blown highlights beyond any usability.  Additionally, even if I can get the edit screen version to look decent, the export preview is a whole new world.  It's unusably blown out, and looks nothing like the edit screen.  I've searched for settings regarding encoding, profiles, etc., but have yet to get a handle on why everything is so drastically different... (even within the program between edit screen and export preview).  Can anyone break it down like I'm a second-grader and point me in a direction of getting things synced up to where there's at least some consistency within the program, but ideally so the imported media can somewhat be consistant as well?

[Steve Grisetti]

Most likely Premiere Elements is struggling with some aspect of your video. 

Open your Samsung video in the free download MediaInfo. In MediaInfo, set View to Text and then copy the text of this entire report and paste it to this forum. With this detailed report we'll better be able to figure out what's causing the problems.

[terrabotic]

Hey there, Steve   

Thanks for the reply.  I just recently saw some of your YT videos - great stuff!  Here's the output of that MediaInfo report:  

General
Complete name                            : 20250716_131213.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media / Version 2
File size                                : 1.81 GiB
Duration                                 : 21 min 4 s
Overall bit rate                         : 12.3 Mb/s
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS
Encoded date                             : 2025-07-16 18:37:57 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-07-16 18:37:57 UTC
Recorded location                        : +35.8247 -086.7298  
Writing operating system                 : Google Android 15
Writing hardware                         : Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra (SM-S938U)
com_android_video_temporal_layers_count  : Unknown kind of value!
com_samsung_android_utc_offset           : -0500

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10
Format level                             : 4
Format tier                              : Main
Codec ID                                 : hvc1
Duration                                 : 21 min 4 s
Source duration                          : 21 min 4 s
Bit rate                                 : 12.0 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Variable
Frame rate                               : 30.000 FPS
Minimum frame rate                       : 14.995 FPS
Maximum frame rate                       : 192.308 FPS
Real frame rate                          : 30.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.193
Stream size                              : 1.77 GiB (98%)
Source stream size                       : 1.77 GiB (98%)
Title                                    : VideoHandle
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : 2025-07-16 18:37:57 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-07-16 18:37:57 UTC
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : HLG
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
mdhd_Duration                            : 1264791
Codec configuration box                  : hvcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 21 min 4 s
Source duration                          : 21 min 4 s
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 256 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 38.6 MiB (2%)
Source stream size                       : 38.6 MiB (2%)
Title                                    : SoundHandle
Language                                 : English
Encoded date                             : 2025-07-16 18:37:57 UTC
Tagged date                              : 2025-07-16 18:37:57 UTC
mdhd_Duration                            : 1264966

[terrabotic]

Here are also a few pics showing what I'm describing:

Original video on Samsung S25 Ultra

Unaltered and simply put on the timeline

Unaltered and going to export

[Ann Bens]

Yes its HDR.

And there is variable framerate which can cause issues.

[terrabotic]

Any pointers on how that's translating into why Elements can't handle it, and why there are inconsistencies even within the program (why the edit screen differs from the export screen)?  It seems like the softward would at least be consistent within itself (from edit screen to export preview).  No?

[Ann Bens]

Best is to contact support over this.

[Ann Bens]

If you are shooting HDR then there is no way to override color settings as you can in Premiere Pro if Elements does not interpret the footage correctly.

Might need to convert to SDR first.

Best is to shoot in SDR.

[terrabotic]

Thanks so much for the insight, Ann.  I'm trying to determine why there's so much change and inconsistency though - even without having changed anything.

[Steve Grisetti]

I agree with Ann. The program is struggling with your file specs.

As an experiment, trying setting your phone's camera to shoot Non-HEVC video (use standard H.264 settings instead) and see if you get different results.