Change project preset after having started a project / Import / Transfer

[Carsten-Ingo]

Dear all, I started a new project and have imported the movie clips. Even though all of the imported clips have the format AVCHD PAL 1080p, 50fps the presetting were set automatically to NTSC 1080i, 30fps. I have no idea why. Unfortunately I have noticed that after I already had finished half of the 90min movie. I can't start from the beginning now as I have spent already more than 20 hours on the movie. How can I import or transfer the cut and edited more than 500 clips into a new project?  How can I proceed without loosing quality?  I am using Adobe Premiere Elements 13. Many thanks for your support. Answers in German are also appreciated.

Greetings

Carsten

[Ann Bens]

That is one of the downsides of Elements: you cannot change project settings nor copy over to a new project.

[moverton]

I've had the same issue many times.  I have not found a solution.  I wish they would allow two instances to be active and copy paste between them. Or at least leave the clipboard valid between closing and opening projects.

But I have a followup question which may be relevant.

Do the project settings for resolution and frame rate cause any limitation on the output?  Or does it just effect the editing preview?

For example, if I set it to 1080i 29.97 frame rate, I can still import video at 1080p 60fps.  And I can still export to 1080p 30fps or 60fps.

So other than the editing issue, why should I care what the project settings are?

I'm sure I'm missing something.

Now I generally try to set the resolution and frame rate to the source video and it seems to make editing faster.  But I'm not sure if there is any other reason to worry about the project setting.

[Ann Bens]

General rule when using mixed resolution/framerate is either use settings for the footage which is most used or the same as the output settings.

If you are only using 1080p60 then you set up a project that matches the footage. You can export to whatever setting you want.

Progressive footage can give issues in an interlaced timeline and v.v. (the i vs the p)

[Bill Sprague]

I've never found a deep source that could confirm it.  But, my experience suggests that when exporting, the source files are read "from scratch" and rendered to the output settings.  It is part of why it takes so long!

That said, I'm sure the best practice is to set up the project to match your most important footage.  If that can't be done, second best would be to set up the project to match the intended final output and force PrE to do real time preview rendering the best it can.

Bill

[moverton]

whsprague​  That's what I interpret from the documentation.  It makes me wonder why I'm struggling with high resolution and frame rate during editing (it takes forever to render with effects, etc).  Why not just set it high enough to get a decent preview so it is much more responsive?  Then export a sample here and there to test.

[Carsten-Ingo]

Many thanks for you answers so far.

Moverton, I also wondered about the same questions. Should I just proceed with the wrong project settings? Will it influence the quality of my output. True, I have some issues with editing like flittering and a slightly vibrating picture. But I could live with it as long as the output is fine. But that is difficult to check. I don't know whether the clips will be rendered down from 1080p 50 fps to 1080i 30fps when I import them and then back to 1080p 25fps (my target output) when I export them. If so, the quality will surely suffer.

[Bill Sprague]

Carsten-Ingo  wrote

...But I could live with it as long as the output is fine. But that is difficult to check.

No it is not difficult.  Set the "work area bars" over any questionable or other test portion of your work.  Set up an "Export and Share" like you plan to use at the end of your work.  Then on the output screen look for the "share work area bar" only check box.  You'll get short previews of what the results will be.