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Eric Holtz
Eric Holtz
Known Participant
March 5, 2017
Question

Exporting A Video with Several Audio Formats: Premiere Pro CS6

  • March 5, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 8769 views

Hello,

I have a Premiere Pro CS6 sequence with audio and video from a VHS tape. The video (and scratch audio) was originally recorded onto DVD at 9,100 Kbps using a Panasonic DVD recorder, connected to a separate VCR for the tape's playback. I used another program to passively import the disc's VIDEO_TS files into one .mpeg file, which was then imported into Premiere. The audio was captured simultaneously from the VCR at 32-bit (float)/48kHz using Audition CS6, where a copy was edited (eq, multiband comp), and saved as a 24-bit/48kHz file. I imported that file into Premiere and aligned it with the scratch audio from the DVD.

The video looks great, needing only a slight black/white levels adjustment, and a narrow crop at the bottom, so keeping it high quality is a must. The big question is about exporting the same video with several different audio formats. Should I leave the 24-bit/48kHz file in the timeline, and let Premiere (or Media Encoder) convert it to ac3, AAC, and 16-bit, uncompressed LPCM files on export? Conversely, should I use Audition to take the 24-bit/48kHz file and "Save As" each of the aforementioned formats, which would then be imported back into Premiere sequences? Would it be more efficient for Premiere to export the H.264 (AAC), and MPEG2 (ac3, WAV) video files with their corresponding audio already encoded at the correct spec beforehand, or does it even make a difference? Should I export using Media Encoder instead? The audio is live music from some shows I played with a group some time ago. It sounded good raw, and now really sounds good after the appropriate editing, so keeping that high quality level is paramount. In my years of using Premiere, I'm not experienced enough in video editing where the audio is a mission-critical, analog tape music source, so I don't know which direction to take. I do know that It is destined for DVD, and for online viewing.

I value all input. Thank you.

Eric  

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1 reply

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
March 6, 2017

In general, I would just use the high-quality audio you've got as the sequence audio, and export via PrPro or AME. AME is handy, as it can export in the background while you're working, or you can queue exports over to it as you work, and then when done working for the day tell it to start the rendering while you get dinner and go to bed.

As always, one tests the exports to make sure you're doing things right, but with a decent setting for the audio parameters in the Export dialog box, you should be fine.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Eric Holtz
Eric HoltzAuthor
Known Participant
March 6, 2017

Thank you for the reply Mr. Haugen. I do wish to have a version of the video with the original, uncompressed 24-bit/48kHz audio for DVD-Video and Blu-ray destinations. Regarding DVD-Video and Blu-ray, can I simply send the 24-bit audio to the authoring program (Encore or NeroVision) and add it to the MPEG video, or does it need to be at 16-bit? The DVD-Video spec allows for 24-bit audio, but I've read many who recommend using 16-bit, without giving concrete answers as to why. Others have also mentioned encoding the audio as Dolby Digital 2.0 (ac3). I have used Dolby Digital for DVDs where there is mainly dialog, but not for live music audio.

The other issue is for video that is destined for the web. It appears that AAC 48kHz is required for YouTube, so will the audio quality take a major hit when converting from 24-bit to 320kbps AAC? I've used Media Encoder for numerous encoding requirements and can attest to your appraisal of the program. I was wondering if it would be more efficient and yield higher quality results for Media Encoder (or Premiere) to simply encode and export video without it having to do anything to the audio, which I would have encoded beforehand in Audition? Am I wrong in assuming that it takes away video processing resources to also process audio?

Update:

I have exported the 720x480 sequence as 1280x720 using the following Media Encoder settings:

H.264 - HD 720p 29.97

1280x720

Field Order: Upper First

Level: 3.2

Aspect: D1/DV NTSC (0.9091)

Target Bitrate: 9 Mbps / Maximum Bitrate: 15 Mbps

AAC 320 kbps 48kHz

The resulting video looks really good on YouTube, while a video exported using the "YouTube SD 480p 29.97" preset did not.

Is there anything inherently wrong with using these arguably unorthodox settings?

Eric

W
Community Expert
Warren Heaton10841144Community Expert
Community Expert
March 14, 2017

Thanks Jeff. I will export from Media Encoder using the MPEG2-DVD preset. It's nice to know I have options for the audio track.

In the past, I've used Media Encoder to export an MPEG2 file (with Dolby Digital audio), which was then imported into Nero without issue. I could not export LPCM audio while using the MPEG2 preset, but I wasn't so concerned about the compression to Dolby Digital since the audio was all dialogue.

Note: I exported using the H.264  > YouTube 720p HD preset, then uploaded to YT. I just cannot put my finger on it, but the original tests that I posted earlier in this thread seem to look better on YouTube - sharper, more clarity, slightly deeper blacks - when exporting from the SD sequence to 1280x720p using 0.9091 aspect ratio, and interlaced upper field first. There's a bass drum in the center of the video which doesn't seem stretched when using 0.9 pixels in HD, even though technically it should. Also, I've read some say that YouTube does a much better job at deinterlacing the video than much NLE software, including Media Encoder.

I will probably use Encore when I put this project, and a couple others on Blu-ray, but that's a future thread.

Thank you again,

Eric


For what its worth:

When up-converting SD footage to HD, I've always had better results creating an interim HD file that's interlaced prior to de-interlacing.

So, 480i60 source (like DV-NTSC) or 486i60 source (like DigiCAM) is exported to a stand alone 1080i60 file.  Then another pass to de-interlace the 1080i60 to 1080p30.

Also, I use AE's Detail-preserving Upscale.

-Warren

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