What are the best settings to export a 4K master from a 4k/720p proxy timeline?

[MartinSunderland]

Hi,

I am running PPCC 2015.3 on a 2009 Mac Pro with SSD's, RAID's and a GTX680.

My first foray into 4k is with media from a Sony FS5 and a Phantom 4 drone (along with some from my old FS700 and an EX1)

I start with a copy of all media on a RAID 0, and ingest into PP using a 720p ProRes proxy preset (proxy files also stored on RAID).

When I "Select New Sequence From Clip", PP creates a sequence based on "Red Cinema" with video properties of 3840x2160 and video previews of "I-frame Only MPEG" at 1920x1080.

The timeline edits well and plays back smoothly (even in 4k with proxy toggle), although AE modified clips take a while to render.

But, when I come to export a master file at the highest resolution of source i.e. 4k, what settings should I use?

If I select "Match Sequence Setting" I of course only get 1080p.

If I select "Quick Time > Match Source" it bombs out with a preset error "The source file's video stream is not compatible with this preset"! What!

So, is there a preset that I can use to easily produce a 4k master file that can be used for any future purpose?

Regards

Martin

[excited_Genie16B8]

Premiere Pro will automatically use the original media for export, so for general purpose use, the H.264, High bitrate preset would do nicely.

[MartinSunderland]

But Jim, when I select "H.264, High bitrate" preset the max encoding bitrate would be 12 Mb/s, (whereas the H264 Blu-ray preset uses 30 Mb/s).

I have been assuming that I would want a setting nearer the 60 or 100 Mb/s of the original.

[excited_Genie16B8]

So change it.  The presets are a starting point, not law.

[MartinSunderland]

Oh. Ok.....

I thought that that it would have been a so often used setting that Adobe would have created a preset.

Maybe be that is what "Quick Time > match source" is supposed to achieve. Maybe the next step is to determine why this option bombs..

Thanks for your help Jim.

Martin

[R Neil Haugen]

A lot of figuring these things out is done by just "poking the box". Look through a preset list, select one, and go down the Export dialog box ... you've got a lot of places to change things, including down on the lower tabs of Audio, Video, and such. See what you can get.

And try different wrapper families from the top 'Codec' list. Picking say H.264 versus DNxHD/R will get a very different set of options in some places. Which work better for you? You need to check them out. Export short clips in various settings, bring them back into PrPro, put them on a full-screen playback monitor, and see how they look.

Neil

[excited_Genie16B8]

I thought that that it would have been a so often used setting that Adobe would have created a preset.

They did, the one I listed.  It's a very good, general purpose export preset.

You just have to realize that there is no one export format that will be good for everything.  If you want a Master for archiving, you'll want something lossless, or nearly so.  The free UT codec is good, as are Cineform and DNx.

If you want Blu-ray, then that preset is good.

If you want something for YouTube, I recommend DNxHD using the HQX preset.

If you want DVD...well, I recommend explaining to your clients that DVD needs to die already and you can only deliver Blu-ray.

[MartinSunderland]

"They did, the one I listed.  It's a very good, general purpose export preset."

Jim, what is "the one listed"?

I am OK with export settings for Blu-ray, Vimeo etc but what I want is a master file of the final timeline whose quality is that of the source media.

In the past I have transcoded all media into ProRes with a ProRes timeline and exported "match sequence settings" to a ProRes master to be archived. The project is then deleted.

Now I have 4k media and am assuming that the best workflow is to create a 720p ProRes proxy file for smooth editing, having the original 4k media available to export to my master file.

I know that I can export to ProRes but that will take an age and I guess that DNX or Cineform will also.

BTW, what is "the free UT codec"

[excited_Genie16B8 · Accepted solution]

I think I misread your original post.

For a Master file, you definitely want something better than H.264.  I normally create UT files for this, because they're lossless and play nice with just about any software on my system.

Ut Video Codec Suite 16.1.1 - Download

[MartinSunderland]

Thanks Jim

I must have something missing from my life....I am investigating UT now.....

Martin

[xaci_68]

Hi there.

I feel stupid, but after downloading the lates UT Video codec, I don't know how to install the .component file.

I've followed the instructions for the manually copu-paste code in the text file, but that's it.

Where am I supposed to put this file? I've put in the Quicktime folder but it's not working.

I'm on MAC.

Thanks,

Alessandro.