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Jeff Bellune
Jeff Bellune
Legend
June 19, 2012
Question

x264 Plug-in For Premiere Pro

  • June 19, 2012
  • 13 replies
  • 96838 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

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    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

    Averdahl
    Community Expert
    AverdahlCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 19, 2012

    I'm still testing, but I wanted to give some preliminary results:

    • 20-minute .m4v clip using MainConcept 2-pass VBR with a file size of 3.5 GB imports into En CS5.5 in about 30 seconds.
    • 20-minute .264 clip using x264Pro set to CQ 17 with a file size of 1.7 GB imports into En CS5.5 in about 30 seconds.

    Neither clip generates the mcvideoindex or mcaudioindex cache files that Roger mentioned.  The only cache files generated are the .xmpses files.

    • 81-minute clip using x264Pro set to 1-pass VBR with a file size of 9.6 GB imports into En CS5.5 in about 25 minutes.  Same for a similar clip generated by x264 using the MeGUI interface.  For En CS6, after 10 hours, the same clips never finished importing.  I had to force quit En CS6.  Again, no mcvideoindex or mcaudioindex cache files were ever generated.

    But there's hope: I'm investigating whether installed codecs might be conflicting with the creation and/or the import of the .264 files.  Specifically, the Matrox VFW codecs, the Edius/Grass Valley codecs and the x264 VFW codec.  I'm currently creating 40-minute and 81-minute .264 files on a system that has had all of those codecs removed.  I also want to see if CQ encoding vs. variable bit rate encoding makes a difference.

    For reference, does anyone with long import times have any of those codecs installed?  How about x264Pro encoding method (VBR vs. CQ)?

    Jeff


    "Neither clip generates the mcvideoindex or mcaudioindex cache files that Roger mentioned.  The only cache files generated are the .xmpses files."

    Look in the Media Cache Files folder.   (Edit > Preferences > Media to see where that folder are located on the HDD)

    "For reference, does anyone with long import times have any of those codecs installed?  How about x264Pro encoding method (VBR vs. CQ)?"

    No Matrox codecs installed. No x264 VFW codec installed. Yes, the free Grass Valley Codec Pack 6.5.1 installed. No, none of those codecs are installed on the other computer. I have only installed Windows 7 and Production Premium CS6 on that computer.

    Yes, the same happens with VBR or QC.

    /Roger

    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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