• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Significant quality loss after exporting video

New Here ,
Apr 23, 2019 Apr 23, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hello dear forum members!

I have made my first premiere pro video so far and I somehow struggle in exporting it properly. I´ve searched through the forum and tried everything, but the quality isn´t getting any better. Maybe you guys can help me.

My Video is a mixture of Camera-Photos, Photos from my mobile phone and videos from several divices. Surprisingly the mobile phone videos are quite ok compared to the original, but also not perfect. I feel like, the better the original quality of the photo or video, the higher is the loss of quality after export.

My Camera photos are 4272x2848.

I used following export settings:

Format: h.264

Preset: Match source - high bitrate

Width/Height: 1920/1080

Frame rate: 59,94

Field order: progressive

Aspect: square pixels

Profile: Main

Level: 4,2

Bitrate encoding: VBR, 1 pass

Target bitrate: 10

Max bitrate: 12

"Render at maximum depth" and "use maximum render quality" are selected

My sequence settings are: AVCHD 1080p square pixels with 59,94 frames and 1920/1080 width/height

After some research, I tried to adjust following:

Profile: High

Level: 5,2

Width/Height: 3840/2160

Target bitrate: 20

Max bitrate: 22

-----------------> same result! Photos lack in resolution and it seems like colors and contrast are a bit different from the original

-> I also tried a new sequence with higher resolution settings, didn´t work as well.

I don´t know what I´m missing here - like I said, I´m farely new to the programm and hope you can help me. I put a lot of effort in making this video and would be very disappointed, if that is the best outcome.

I put some examples below, so you see clearly what I mean. Thank you so much!

Zoomed in footage original:

Unbenannt.PNG

After export:

Unbenannt2.PNG

Original:

Unbenannt3.PNG

Export:

Unbenannt4.PNG

Mobile phone video original screenshot:

mov_0760.mp4[2019-04-23 21-14-11.648].jpg

After export (loss of saturation)

usa ostküste urlaubsvideo 2018.mp4[2019-04-23 21-13-44.415].jpg

Views

32.5K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Contributor ,
Apr 23, 2019 Apr 23, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Alright so there are a few different things at play here, let's see if we can unpack it all...

First I'd start with your sequence settings. Make the sequence resolution match what your export resolution. Making the sequence resolution far higher than your media will mean you may have to scale that media up to fill the frame, which means a loss in quality. That shouldn't be an issue with your camera photos at 4272x2848, but it looks like that's what's happening in your second set of example pictures.

Next, I'd look at your export settings. The main thing that's probably holding you back is your bitrate. To export 1080p60 H.264 at a decent quality, you're going to want at least 12 Mbps. You were on the right track here...

After some research, I tried to adjust following:

Profile: High

Level: 5,2

Width/Height: 3840/2160

Target bitrate: 20

Max bitrate: 22

...but your downfall was upping your resolution as well as your bitrate. Also, I'm assuming those are adjustments to your export settings, not your sequence settings? Target 20, Max 22 should be fine for 1080p60, but you lose quality by trying to squeeze a 4K export out with that bitrate. Try exporting 1080p60 at Target 20, Max 22, and that should help the loss in quality you see in the first set of example pictures.

Finally, as for the color shifts in your exported videos, what program are you using to view them? Whatever media player you're using to play them back may be messing with your color, so it may be an issue there instead of with Premiere.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Contributor ,
Apr 23, 2019 Apr 23, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Ooh, one more thing I noticed from your OP...

Surprisingly the mobile phone videos are quite ok compared to the original, but also not perfect. I feel like, the better the original quality of the photo or video, the higher is the loss of quality after export.

You may also be dealing with different codecs from your different sources. If all else fails, you may want to transcode all your footage to the same codec before bringing it into Premiere.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 24, 2019 Apr 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you very much for all the information!

I followed your instructions step by step, but still have the same bad result. Furthermore I can´t set the export settings higher than 3456/2304, so I can´t adjust the export settings exactly to the image size.

So I tried something new:

I opened a completely new project, just imported the first camera image of the ship and finally just exported that image - sequence settings and export settings are the same -> 3456/2304 (as high as possible)

Surprisingly the output has the same bad quality. I really do not understand what I´m missing here. Again I started several attempts, playing a bit with the bitrate settings, but I cannot see a difference at all.

I will drop my settings below again, maybe you see something suspicious.

Again thank you very much for your time and effort!

Sequence settings:

Editing mode: custom

Timebase: 59,94 frames/second

Frame size: 3456/2304

Pixel aspect ratio: square pixels (1.0)

Fields: No fields (progressive scan)

Display format: 59,94-fps-drop-frame-timecode

I think audio and preview settings aren´t nessesary, right?

Export setting all the same

I also tried it like you suggested, Sequence settings and export settings to 1920/1080 -> also bad result.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Apr 24, 2019 Apr 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

"I can´t set the export settings higher than 3456/2304"

Nor should anyone want to! Please know that the Sequence Settings are all important to the success of what you are doing. Like the foundation of a building, get that wrong and everything else falls down (bad results).

If your end goal is to export an HD video, then start with an HD sequence, not some odd sizing to match some still photo (that is not video).

If you are using a bunch of video clips, would you say that "most" of them are a common size, like most of the clips are from a certain camera and therefore all "match" one another? Find a common denominator to the material you are working with. If most of the video clips are 1080p60, well then work in a 1080p60 Sequence. Or perhaps 1080p30. But never attempt to size a VIDEO project to somehow match a STILL image format. You are editing as video and exporting as video, and there are standard sizes and frame rates for video, can't mess with that too much and expect sharp results.

In other words, if you take your source video clip and edit it in another frame size or frame rate, that degrades the quality, then you export at perhaps another size which does more scaling/stretching of the video, quality is gone. Try to edit and export VIDEO clips at same settings as the original clips and that will maximize the end quality since no conversions have happened in the process.

If you have video clips that are common to the project (lots from same camera), right-click one of those clips in the Project Bin in Premiere and select New Sequence from Clip. That creates a New Sequence for you to work in that properly matches the source video. Any stills that you add can be scaled to fit the video frame size, don't try and do the opposite of scaling video clips to match the stills. When you export the final project, use Export Settings to match the sequence.

Also when exporting, in most cases you do not need to check the Max Quality and Max Depth buttons, use default settings.

Thanks

Jeff

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 25, 2019 Apr 25, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Ok, thank you very much! I followed your instructions and took a closer look at my video footage. I´m very glad that my videos are very fine with these settings now. I can´t see a difference between original and export now! Thank you so much.

But still, my photos loose much quality. I am aware that premiere pro is a video editing programm and not perfectly suited for still images. But this is a vacation video, wich contains more than 1200 pictures of my camera + mobile phone and "only" about 30 videos. That´s why the quality of the still images are that important to me.

Maybe my current 1080p/60 settings are the best possible settings and I just have to accept the quality loss in my pictures. But I would try your patience once more and upload some zoomed images before and after exporting. Maybe you guys have one last hint for me, I really would appreciate that, but I´m already very thankfull for all your time!

Original:

brücke2.PNG

Export

brücke1.PNG

Original

kirche2.PNG

Export

kirche 1.PNG

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Apr 25, 2019 Apr 25, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Please share a screen grab of the Export Settings panel so we can see exactly what your Source and Export settings are. There is something amiss in your workflow, as the exported video should not look coarse and jaggedy like that!

Thanks

Jeff

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 26, 2019 Apr 26, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Ok I´ll drop them below, I own the programm in german only, but the order of the parameters are the same. I hope you can understand everything. Thank you!

Sequence settings ("Benutzerdefiniert" in the first row means "custom")

sequenzeinstellungen.PNG

Export settings (Source scaling is set to "scale to fit")

exporteinstellungen.PNG

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 26, 2019 Apr 26, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Turn off max render and max depth.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Apr 26, 2019 Apr 26, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Question - the "after" photos you are posting - where/how are you viewing the exported videos? In Premiere or another app?

Thanks

Jeff

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Apr 26, 2019 Apr 26, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I use VLC media player and tried the "5k Player" as well, I can´t see a difference here.

And I turned off the max render and depth, but can´t see a difference as well.

Thank you

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
May 25, 2021 May 25, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Bit late but just in case anyone new has this issue:

Simple work around is: Make a sequence with the desired end resolution and framerate, drop the edited sequence into the new one and it should export without looking like a disaster.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Contributor ,
Apr 24, 2019 Apr 24, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Could you try uploading that image to see if we can replicate the drop in quality on another computer?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Apr 23, 2019 Apr 23, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Now wonder its bad: first you are downscaling then upscaling on export.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
May 25, 2021 May 25, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

No matter what you do to the export settings, if your sequence settings are low, the result will be low

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines