Best file format for editing in Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0

[slam87]

I have a bunch of files that are a variety of different formats that I want to use to create a video from in Premiere. What video format and what audio format works best in Premiere? I want to convert them all to the same format before I import them to Premiere, so as to avoid any possible problems.

[redwudz]

Since you ask this in a editing forum, I would suggest a codec that uses low compression. There are several that may work well. HuffyUV is one, if you don't mind very large files.

I use DV because it works well for editing and the file size is reasonable, about 13GB per hour of video. Since every frame is a keyframe, frame accurate editing is easy. The compression is about 5:1, so fairly low loss. But, since I don't work with Premiere, I don't know if it accepts that format.

If it accepts only MPEG, then MPEG-2 at a high bitrate, say 10K to 15Kbps would be an option, assuming you plan to re-encode it to a DVD compatible bitrate at a later time.

For audio, I would use WAV. Large file size, but fairly universal. Re-encode to AC3 for DVD.

[Cornucopia]

Premiere has supported DV since ~v4.2 or v5, and support for Native YUV mode + SmartRendering of DV since v6, so no worries there.

It's what you should use if you're doing SD (unless you have unusual requirements). There are other codecs more appropriate for HD.

I concur that LPCM (stereo or mono) WAV is best for audio use in Premiere.

Scott

[edDV]

Native YUV (YCbCr) support started with Premiere Pro 1.0 (aka Premiere V7) but that doesn't matter. DV to RGB to DV is handled well. Only the filtered frames are converted.

The project format processing hierarchy top to bottom for Premiere Pro SD:

- Uncompressed RGB 8 to 14bit any resolution.
- Hardware SDI SMPTE 259M (uncompressed realtime 8 or 10bit 4:2:2 or 4:2:2:4)
- Uncompressed YCbCr 8 or 10 bit (available in various tape formats including advanced 24p)
- DV format (including 25i, 29.97i, 24p, 24pa )
- MPeg2 (with this plug-in http://www.mainconcept.com/site/index.php?id=7850 )



For normal civilians this reduces to uncompressed RGB or DV formats.

[TheAdMan]

Panasonic DV codec.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Panasonic_DV_Codec.htm[/url]

[slam87]

Is there any difference in quality when editing uncompressed video vs using a lossless codec such as HuffyUV?

[edDV]

Is there any difference in quality when editing uncompressed video vs using a lossless codec such as HuffyUV?

The Huffyuv is decompressed on import. Assuming your project format is uncompressed, any processing* results in huge uncompressed tmp files**. Huffyuv is just a way to keep file sizes small for storage.


* by processing I mean filters, composites, transitions or resize/crops.

** These files are placed on the "scratch disk" as set in preferences. Best to keep these files off the OS drive.