When creating a new sequence from footage I get the wrong codec

[Kyle Kramb]

Hello,

Working for the first time in PP23 (I held out on 22.2 until now). When I drag a footage clip onto the 'New Item" icon in my bin, the sequence it creates has matching settings except for the codec. In this case, my footage clips are Prores422, and the new sequence sets to ProresLT. Any idea why this is happening and if there is a fix?

Premiere Pro 23.4

Macbook Pro 2020 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

MacOS 13.3.1

internal GPU: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 1536 MB

external GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

memory:  32 GB 3733 MHz LPDDR4X

network attached storage 

[Ann Bens]

You are looking at the Preview Codec which default to Prores 422 LT not the codec used in the clip.

[mattchristensen]

Ann is correct – this is the preview file codec which is referring to the file that is created when you render your sequence (and get the green bar above it). It need not match your footage. In previous versions of Premiere Pro the preview format was the I-Frame MPEG, recently we have changed it to QuickTime/ProRes 422 LT. If you prefer a different preview codec you can always change it and save that as a new sequence preset, and use that preset moving forward.

[Kyle Kramb]

Maybe so, but I want my sequence's settings to match the footage without having to change this manually. Before PP23, the expected behavior when I created a sequence this way was that the codec of the sequence (aka preview format) matched. Not sure why this would be an intentional update/change, so assuming it's a bug... unless there is another way to set this behavior up. I've created thousands of sequences this way and for my current project, I have hundreds of master sequences made from one or two clips, so I create each new sequence this way, and it is a major time waste to have to open the settings on each sequence and manually change the codec (aka preview format).

[mattchristensen]

@Kyle Kramb Thanks for the additional information. I'll pass this along to the team that works on this area.

I'm curious though, why do you want the preview codec to match your footage? What if you have two different ProRes flavors in your sequence, which do you expect the sequence to set to? What if you drop in RED footage, which isn't an option for a preview codec?

Again, thank you!

[Ann Bens]

[Kyle Kramb]

@Ann Bens That's just semantics... The "video preview" setting becomes the "codec" when exported, which is the goal. And the point of the comment was that the behavior wasn't what was expected or what happened in prior software versions.

[video]

[video]

[Kyle Kramb]

@mattchristensen why would you not want this?

If most or all the footage is the same source codec, then you minimize rendering needs. I typically work with footage from a single production, and thus my source files are not different codecs. If they are different and the project is large I will take time at the beginning of the project to transcode everything to match. This makes the editing experience so much smoother and faster, even on a modern/fast computer.

I like to set my sequence up at the same codec that I will eventually master my files, when I export,  I select "same as source" settings and know it will be correct.

Exporting the same as the source is faster.

For this particular project, I'll be creating nearly 300 separate videos. My master files will be the same codec as my source files. This was intentional. Between creating the first sequences, exporting the rough cuts, rendering once I start dropping in effects, and exporting the masters I'll same tons of time and 100s (maybe 1000s) of mouse clicks.

lastly, this is how Premiere has behaved for as long as I can remember. Changes like this just lead to the potential of mistakes being made... such as exporting a Prores LT file when I think I'm exporting a Prores 422 file. I could of course change my workflow but I don't like to have to do that for trivial reasons, it distracts and slows me down. 

[mattchristensen]

@Kyle Kramb Do you render you timeline as you're working? Meaning, Sequence > Render In to Out or Sequence > Render Effects In to Out or Sequence > Render Selection?

[Kyle Kramb]

Yes, but only when necessary. Another reason matching timeline settings to the source files are beneficial as it makes it necessary to render less often.

Less rendering makes for a better experience all around. I work hard setting my projects up so that when editing, I get to focus on the creative stuff with minimal distractions.

[mattchristensen]

@Kyle Kramb If you don't render your timeline using one of those commands in the Sequence menu, then it does not matter what the Video Preview settings are. You could put it to any codec, or even change the Width/Height to comical sizes.

When you render your timeline, new media is written to your scratch disk, just like an export. Those new files need a codec and a frame size, so that's why the options are there in the Sequence settings. But if you never render, they have no effect on your playback or your final export. That's why I was asking why they need to match your footage – there should be no need for them to match. The codec you choose in Video Preview settings should be optimized for your rendering needs, and ProRes 422 LT is a good tradeoff for most situations.

[Kyle Kramb]

I do think it matters for those reasons I laid out before. Also, if I am cutting mainly with footage that I am not adding effects to but then adding some effects or titles to only a part of the sequence, rendering will become necessary. If the sequence settings match the source footage, then the only parts that need to be rendered are the sections with the added effects. This is obviously a time saver. It seems like such a simple upfront setting that saves time (potentially a lot) throughout the course of a project.

[Kyle Kramb]

And also, that's how it used to work! Why change it?

If Premiere now has a default setting for this feature, is there a way to change that default?