Why is Published Video Quality Poor after Trimming and Adding Effects?

[scotth8015813]

I have premiere elements 11. I have produced many videos out of it without issue. However, I have rarely done a lot of messing with a video that I add in. I typically have a title screen and end screen. Then I add a video in the middle and leave it as is. Recently, I tried to experiment with effects, using the trim feature to split the video up into pieces that have the Gaussian blur effect applied. However, when I go to publish the video, the quality is much poorer than when I just leave the video untouched within the project. The video is less clear and also choppier (maybe - not an expert on how to describe the issue).

FYI, I am currently seeing a message asking if I want to fix quality problems in clips when I add a video. Maybe that is a factor. However, if I leave the clip untouched, the published video looks good.

Why is the video quality so much poorer when I trim and add effects?

[Bill Sprague]

Gaussian Blur is supposed to reduce the quality of the output! 

During the preview and editing phase, it is not uncommon for playback to be "choppy" if the computer does not have the processing power to create the real time previews.  At output, it takes time to render it more fully and the final product should play well.

Still there are a host of questions to ask.  What is the original footage and where did it come from?  What are the details of the computer?  What are the project settings?  What are the output settings?

Bill

[scotth8015813]

Thanks for responding. I appreciate your feedback.

Guassian Blur is just applied to a small section of the video, and I do understand what that part is supposed to look like.

Preview playback is choppy, but I'm not worried about that. I just want good quality when I go to publish.

The original video is an AVI that I created out of CamStudio. It was recorded at 1280x720. Windows is telling me that the frame rate is 30fps and that the bitrate is 3584kbps. Let me know if there are any additional specific details that I can try to find for you.

My computer is a core 2 duo 3ghz with 6gb of ram and an NVidia GeForce 210. I'm running Windows 10 pro 64 bit. I understand this is weak hardware, so if I need to adjust my expectations (i.e. maybe I can't expect to apply effects), then so be it.

Project settings:
frame size: 1280x720
display format: 24fps timecode
title safe area: 20% horz 20% vert
action safe area: 10% horz 10% vert
display format: audio samples
capture format: hdv
maximum bit dept: not checked
optimize stills: checked

Publish settings:
computer->avchd
presets: youtube widescreen hd

[Bill Sprague]

This is a guess at this point.  It is that CamStudio may be capturing at a variable frame rate.    Can you use the free mediainfo app and post a screen shot of the tree view?

Second guess is that your computer may not be up to the task.  Look up the CPU at this site:  PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End   What is the score?

A third guess is that there may be some output choices that will do a better job.  It may be that "rendering from 1280x720 to a YouTube default from 5 year old software is causing the problem.   I don't have version 11 so I'm blind.  Can you try to match the 1280x720 output rather than a YouTube default?

[scotth8015813]

Passmark is 2157 for my CPU. I just looked up the system requirements for Premiere Elements 11 and my system does meet or surpass all of them.

[Bill Sprague]

I see nothing wrong in the screen captures.  

If it were me, I would push the "Advanced" Button and try some other settings.   Maybe experiment with raising the bit rate.

The minimum specs are minimums for minimum quality video.   I suspect your editing is jerky and your outputs take a long time.   If video editing becomes a serious passion, you might need to be shopping for more computer.  Generally, the Passmark scored need to be about 3 times what yours is.  If you never edit complex video, don't worry about it. 

As you probably know, outputting video is a re-writing coding process where each frame is read, rendered and then written to the disk. The process is called "lossy" because a little bit of quality is always lost.  It might be that frame by frame, your computer is struggling.  I don't know how to test, prove or disprove that. 

What are the effects?  Can you leave them out?  Trims, cuts and splits should make little difference.  Effects, especially if stacked could make a lot of difference.

[Ann Bens]

In the advanced settings set the framerate the same as the footage.

Also make sure it has the same framerate for the project.

[scotth8015813]

I was able to get a good published video after following the tutorial at Blur a Face with Premiere Elements 15 - YouTube​. It seems as though my video quality started to go in the tank once I added an effects mask. Once I did this, the preview was much blurrier. I don't know if that is expected or not. The referenced video showed how to achieve my desired result without using an effects mask.

[Steve Grisetti]

Just to be clear: The preview you see in the Monitor panel as you edit is NOT an indicator of what your final output will look like. It's only a PREVIEW.

You can clean up the preview somewhat by rendering the timeline (by pressing Enter on your keyboard), but it is still just a preview of your final output.

Your final output is a combination of the quality of your original video, how closely your project settings match your original video's specs and the output settings you've chosen, as discussed above.

[Steve Grisetti]

Glad my tutorial was able to help, scott.

But, again, the preview you saw when you added your effects mask may or may not indicate what your final video will look like -- so the blurry preview is kind of a moot point. But you CAN make the preview look better by rendering it (even though it's still just a preview).