Codec choices for editing and exporting in Premier

[nhart1001]

Hi,

I'm using Premier Pro CS3 to edit AVI files generated by a Epiphan VGA recorder. On the VGA recorder's settings, I have the option of choosing the following codecs:

• MPEG 4 (Microsoft compatible)
• MPEG 4 (ffmpeg and DivX compatible)
• H264 (may reduce fps due to high complexity)
• MPEG 2 DVD-Video compatible NTSC
• MPEG 2 DVD-Video compatible PAL

My question is: Which of these is the best codec to use if I want to edit in Premier and export as a compressed AVI? Also: I'm assuming I need to match the source codec used by the VGA recorder with the compression codec used by Premier. I afraid of installing too many codec on the machine running Premier as they seem to conflict with one another (e.g. right now Premier won't recognize mp3 audio in my AVI b/c I've installed several add-on codecs) - so I'd like to just choose one codec to install to match up with the VGA source setting.

Thanks for your help,

Nathan

[filmboss80]

All of those options are bad if you want to do frame-accurate editing without reencoding. Nevertheless, if you only have one option to pick, go with MPEG 2 in NTSC. It is the least compressed of all the options you list. It still sucks for editing IMO, and if you have firewire, you should capture at least to DV-AVI. As for export to the final format, that depends on whether you are playing on a standalone DVD unit, PC, etc.

[nhart1001]

All of those options are bad if you want to do frame-accurate editing without reencoding. Nevertheless, if you only have one option to pick, go with MPEG 2 in NTSC. It is the least compressed of all the options you list. It still sucks for editing IMO, and if you have firewire, you should capture at least to DV-AVI. As for export to the final format, that depends on whether you are playing on a standalone DVD unit, PC, etc.

Thanks for your response.

I expect to have to reencode with Premier. So I wondering if my choice of source codec (from VGA recorder) should inform my choice of reencode codec in Premier?

[filmboss80]

I likely have gaps of knowledge here, as I don't use the Epiphan VGA recorder. (However, I have read much on it in order to try to help you, since you're not getting many responses to your post.) It would help matters to clarify what screen resolution your original recordings are, as well as what you are going to play the final, edited video on. For example, if you are starting out with an HD resolution in H.264, you'll lose a lot going down to standard definition. On the other hand, H.264 is so highly compressed (as is MPEG 4), you're limited on editing capabilities. Also, when you speak of exporting as compressed AVI, which do you mean? DV-AVI, Divx, and Xvid are all compressed; the latter 2 much more than the first.

I am guessing you want to maintain as much sharpness of the original VGA screen as possible...

[nhart1001]

My original recordings are captures of laptop monitors, and in either 1024 x 768 or 800 x 600. My final output format is Flash video, at 640 x 480. However, after I edit in Premier, I need to output to AVI first (we will transcode in bulk, Premier's Flash video encoder is too slow and too cruddy).

When I refer to compressed AVI, I think I just mean as opposed to uncompressed. The Epiphan machine creates a 90min AVI at 300MB. When I import this into Premier and cut out 45 min of it. I'd like to export the remaining 45 min at less than 1GB. Thats what I mean by compressed AVI. I'd simply like to find the right codec and the right settings to get the AVI into a manageable size at a manageable quality so that I could then transcode to FLV.

For reference, screenshot of gspot settings of AVI created by Epiphan:

Thanks again for taking the time to help me out on this!

[filmboss80]

Hey, if you can load that s-mpeg 4, version 2 file into Premiere and edit without a hitch, that's half the battle right there. You could export to DV-AVI or MPEG-2, then, open that file in something like WinFF (freeware) to convert quickly to FLV.

As for keeping the file size small, you sacrifice image quality and ease of editing the more you compress. A 90 minute video that takes up a mere 300mb is extremely compressed.

I cannot see the footage you are dealing with, so I cannot tell what will work best for you. But I suggest you take a short, 1-minute clip and try different export settings. And since WinFF is free, it does not hurt to try it for your conversions to FLV. Making short test clips will help you arrive at the solution without wasting a lot of your time.

One final question: are you dead set on Premiere as your editor? If you are doing cuts-only edits, you might consider AVIDemux or VirtualDub (both freeware).

[poisondeathray]

I'm unfamiliar with Epiphan, so I might be misunderstanding your process workflow.

Why don't you export as UNcompressed from Premiere, then feed it into your flv encoder? At minimum, use a lossless codec such as huffyuv, or lagarith

If you compress it 1st with Epiphan, and compress it again exporting from Premiere, then compress it again using some flv encoder, you needlessly lose more quality at each step

Do you need ".flv" for your end goal? Adobe Flash supports h264/aac now which is much higher quality and smaller filesize than your typical flv (ie. vp6/vp7/sorensen). You can export h264/aac directly from Premiere if you have the Mainconcept plugin, or you can export uncompressed and use freeware x264 (which actually gives better quality than Mainconcept)