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Jeff Bellune
Jeff Bellune
Legend
June 19, 2012
Question

x264 Plug-in For Premiere Pro

  • June 19, 2012
  • 13 replies
  • 96837 views

A new plug-in for Premiere Pro has been released that uses the x264 encoder to export to H.264 and H.264 Blu-ray.  I've had a chance to use it a fair bit, and the quality is excellent compared to Premiere Pro's built-in MainConcept H.264 encoder.  It's also fast -- as fast as the Premiere Pro plug-in architecture will allow.

Details here:

x264 PRO | Adobe Creative Suite H.264 Encoder

Disclaimer: As a beta tester for this plug-in, I received a license for x264 PRO as a gift.  But I wouldn't announce the plug-in here if it didn't deliver it's promised quality.

Jeff

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    13 replies

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    E
    erikvliet
    Participant
    November 11, 2012

    One observation as a long time journaist/reviewer who has copies of Episode Engine 6.3.x with the x264 codec plug-in, of Squeeze 8.5 Pro which has the x264 codec built-in and of Media Encoder and Compressor (both without x264 support): the plug-in offered by 3am Digital Studios costs 599 USD normal price and 299 USD promo price.

    That's quite a steep price, especially if you consider Telestream selling an x264 plug-in for any Episode version at 80.65 USD.

    If you have to buy this plug-in at its normal price, it's actually more expensive than the normal version of Episode with the x264 plug-in added to it (575 USD)!

    E
    excited_Genie16B8
    Legend
    November 12, 2012

    Not to mention the fact that you can get x264 encoding outside of PP for free!

    Averdahl
    Community Expert
    AverdahlCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 20, 2012

    I downloaded it and will test it. I have not yet compared the quality, ie MainConcept vs x264 Pro.

    One thing i did notice is that encore chapter markers are not exported so files i import into En has no chapter markers and imo that is a big drawback. Placing markers in Pr and then having to redo it in En is not good when one has many/long assets. Do you know why it don't work with x264, SDK limitation?

    /Roger

    Averdahl
    Community Expert
    AverdahlCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 23, 2012

    I bought the plug-in and asked if Encore Chapter Markers will be supported when exporting from the timeline, and today an update with this support was posted. Brilliant service!

    It's great to give input when the developer listen to the input and then fix it directly.

    /Roger

    P
    Paul_Mc_Bride
    Participating Frequently
    July 18, 2012

    "Have you tried importing a fairly large ( 12-16gb)  x264 blu ray encoded file into Encore using this plug in?"

    Paul, i have tried to import long/large files encoded with the x264 plug-in and can confirm that there is indeed an issue. The x264 encoded files are somewhat "offending" to Encore so the files must be indexed/validated before Encore can import them and use them. Two files are created during the import/opening files created by the x264 encoder; filename.mcaudioindex and filename.mcvideoindex. This takes very long time for each import. Those files are stored in the Media Cache, so if you for some reason clean the cache those files must be created again.

    So, the very first import takes very long time. All subsequent opening of the projetc is fast. If deleting the media cache or re-encoding the files makes opening take very long time again. I have one project that takes 25 minutes to re-open if i delete the media cache. .m4v or .264 as a container does not matter. (Media length = approx 65 minutes.)

    Files encoded by the built in MainConcept encoder imports lightning fast and no filename.mcaudioindex and filename.mcvideoindex are created.

    I have been in contact with the creator of the plug-in and know that he is working on a solution for this issue.

    I use Encore CS6.

    /Roger


    Many thanks for all the replies guys.

    Interesting that Jon doesn't seem to have any problems using CS6 yet Roger who is also using CS6

    is still having difficulties with indexing and validation etc.

    Having read Jon's comments I was almost tempted to upgrade to CS6 but now the doubts are creeping in again !

    Jon, you also say that your video files import instantly with CS6 yet Roger says that his are indexing etc.

    Could there be some slight difference in your x264 encoding parameters which is making a crucial difference or have you just got

    an IBM mainframe that you haven't told us about?

    Will follow with interest.

    Apologies if this is becoming to technical for the lounge - you can always throw me out!

    Cheers,

    Paul

    Jon Geddes
    Jon Geddes
    Participating Frequently
    June 19, 2012

    Our company has also started using x264 PRO for all of our H.264 encoding. Extremely high quality (studio quality), MPEG-LA compliant, integrates with Adobe Media Encoder (no more exporting intermediate files to our previous studio quality encoder), perfect customization options... I highly recommend it.

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