Exporting video for Archiving, premiere pro

[Dave Morgan]

I have a completed video and want to export it for archiving, for the future if I need to import again to make DVDs or online compatible videos. Is exporting with quick-time animation 32bit my best bet? or would something else be better?

video is 1080p

[Rick L. Allen]

In most cases it's best to archive a video in it's original acquisition format, frame rate & size. Minimizes transcoding, upresing/downresing issues.

[Bart Walczak]

I respectfully disagree. Any Interframe codec like MPEG-2 (HDV/XDCAM) or AVCHD (h.264) will always be recompressed by Premiere on output, introducing yet another generation loss on top of the compression already applied by the camera.

Animation 32-bit might be a bit of an overkill. If your video is not transparent, then 24-bit will be enough, since additional 8-bit encoding alpha channel would be wasted anyway.

You can also try the Lagarith codec (it's free) for the highest fidelity, or download Avid's free DNxHD and use one of the higher bitrates provided there. The filesize will be a bit more manageable, and the quality loss almost undetectable, especially if it is your master.

[Leslie Wand]

'AVCHD (h.264) will always be recompressed by Premiere on output'

doesn't pro smart render?

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Leslie Wand

'AVCHD (h.264) will always be recompressed by Premiere on output'

doesn't pro smart render?

No. Premiere Pro always unpacks and recompresses AVCHD no matter what.

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Rick L. Allen

In most cases it's best to archive a video in it's original acquisition format, frame rate & size. Minimizes transcoding, upresing/downresing issues.

Usually true. However, with today's common highly-compressed formats, Premiere Pro will always transcode such material upon import no matter what. This is partly because Premiere Pro still lacks true smart rendering support for the newer codecs such as AVCHD (yes, even in CS6 6.0.1).

[Dave Morgan]

Originally Posted by Bart Walczak

I respectfully disagree. Any Interframe codec like MPEG-2 (HDV/XDCAM) or AVCHD (h.264) will always be recompressed by Premiere on output, introducing yet another generation loss on top of the compression already applied by the camera.

Animation 32-bit might be a bit of an overkill. If your video is not transparent, then 24-bit will be enough, since additional 8-bit encoding alpha channel would be wasted anyway.

You can also try the Lagarith codec (it's free) for the highest fidelity, or download Avid's free DNxHD and use one of the higher bitrates provided there. The filesize will be a bit more manageable, and the quality loss almost undetectable, especially if it is your master.

how do I use the Lagarith codec, I downloaded it, but if I export in premiere is it a setting in quicktime, or should it show up as its own thing?

[Randall Leong]

Originally Posted by Dave Morgan

how do I use the Lagarith codec, I downloaded it, but if I export in premiere is it a setting in quicktime, or should it show up as its own thing?

It is a custom setting within the AVI encoder in Premiere (when you select AVI, the default is usually DV or DV widescreen; therefore, Lagarith has to be selected manually in the codec drop-down list).