I am close to completing a project and the customer has requested that I send the final project on DVD (which is no problem) and as a QuickTime using H.264 compression. He also has requested the original video files in QuickTime using H.264 as well.

Currently I am using Premiere Pro 2 and I have never had much luck with exporting a quality video file using QuickTime. (Usually I am just working with .avi or MPEG2 HDV files.) I see all these beautiful movie trailers in HD online using H.264 and they look great! But I have never been able to replicate these pristine settings.

Thus far when I try to export via the Export function or the Adobe Media Encoder, I either end up with a really crappy video file, Premiere crashes or once compressed QuickTime player crashes. Ultimately after trying to play the video file several times ... I get a blue screen and windows crashes.

Now, understand that it's HIGHLY unusual for me to see a blue screen (I know this is contrary to what some may say) as Windows Vista and XP have been VERY stable for me.

Also, I have not been able to find much info online regarding how to adjust the settings or how to trouble shoot problems using H.264.

I have also tried exporting sequential image files and .avi files into QuickTime Pro and re-compressing that way ... but it just has the same result.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why I'm having so many problems with exporting QuickTime H.264?

Is there a little stand alone utiltiy that i can use to export H.264 files reliably and with a high quality?

I can't really tell you what settings I’m using because NOTHING works and has crashed every time I have ever tried to do anything with the codec.

Thanks,

George

George,

I'm not an H.264 expert by any stretch, but I have done some research on a variety of output codecs. Several sources, but not all, stay away from AME because it does not do as good a job as a dedicated codec tool like Sorenson.

For me, I've never had good luck using QT on a PC with anything other than the Animation codec, but I haven't spent much time on it.

Hope that helps.

Tripp

You can export an .avi from export movie and use this Video for windows h264 codec:

http://deaththesheep.uni.cc/

rename the .avi to .mp4 and quicktime will claim it. (free too!)

Or use MPEG Streamclip http://www.squared5.com and export to quicktime with h.264 compression.

You could also get quicktime pro for $30, but I am not sure if that codec will show up in premiere.

I use DebugmodeFrameserving to MeGUI - a free solution that produces great results. Video in fed frame by frame from your timeline to the encoder - no need to render HQ temp files.

http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui

There's a tutorial over at DVXuser that will get you started with MeGUI:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=90118

Also, to back what Tripp said, I have rendered out of Premiere using the Media Encoder set to the exact same settings as Sony Vegas with wmv and some other codecs and typically, Sony Vegas did a better job. The picture wasn't all blocky and nasty looking. It was also sharper.

Not dissing Adobe's products or anything, but you're better off with a dedicated media encoder like Sorenson or Cleaner - REGARDLESS of what video editing software you're using.

With that said, when I use the Animation codec in Premiere and AE all the time and that works perfectly fine.

It's not all of the formats, just certain ones.