Hi all. I have a 24Mbps AVCHD (.mts) movie of a bike race taken with my Canon XA10 set to 60i. When I import into Premiere Pro CS5.5 it says the file is 29.97fps. When I export at 29.97 I get ghosting. When I export at 24fps the ghosting is gone and the video is very sharp but skips a frame every few frames so the video looks like it jumps.

Clearly I'm doing something wrong. Does anyone have some references or tips?

Thanks.

I may have it figured out. It looks better when I export at 59.94. This baffles me right now but I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it.

I also have a Canon XA10.
When I shoot @ 24mbs, 60i, I will open a sequence In Premiere CS 5.5 with the PPro Sequence Preset setting: AVCHD, 60i, Upper Field First,1920x1080, square pixel.
Everything previews and exports normally.
So, you might double check your sequence settings.
It's also not clear exactly what sort of "export" you are doing.
Are you transcoding to other formats?
That is a process that can create problems as well.

Thanks Robert. That does look better. I've generally exported using the presets on the export media dialog for Youtube HD (changed fps to 59.94) and Vimeo HD. What do you use to export if you're going to Youtube or Vimeo? Cheers

I usually use the PPro presets for YouTube, Vimeo, etc. as my starting point.
I have tweaked and saved these presets to be a bit customized, but as I said it is a good starting point.

I may have it figured out. It looks better when I export at 59.94. This baffles me right now but I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for it.

How did you do it ?

Im going to buy a Sony NXCAM and its a AVCHD format, I guess.

I was thinking it shoots in mov mode only, so I can simply import to Premiere Pro.

Here's what I do. I do all of my editing in Premiere. Then I open the Premiere project in After Effects. I then dump out of AE with an uncompressed Quicktime using the Animation codec which creates a gigantic file. Lastly I open Adobe Media encoder and dump to whatever format the client needs... H.264, mpeg stream, etc. This way you have the uncompressed animation codec movie as a master.

What's the advantage of taking it to after effects and exporting it to mov animation codec ?

I'm sure After Effects take hours to render, while media encoder takes few minutes to render.


What I normally do is finish my work at premiere pro , then choose QuickTime and PNG as codec right there and simply click on queue to render on media encoder

That we keep as a master .

I know all the HD formats can be confusing, but please note: when talking "60i", this is the SAME as 29.97 or 59.94 or 30i, as long as we're referring to the interlaced format. They all refer to the exact same format.

All 720p formats are Progressive, as are all the 1080p formats. So there is only ONE 1080i format, and that is the 29.97 or 59.94 or 30i or 60i, whatever name it is going by (note that the UK and some other countries use PAL video, which would be 25i (or 50i), but we're talking US right now). Interlaced video is made up of TWO fields. We have 29.97 frames per second, sometimes call "30" for convenience, and each frame is made of two fields, so that is where the 59.94 comes from. Refers to fields and not frames. And sometimes called "60".

To further confuse things, some cameras that offer 1080p24 or 30p recording will actually take those frames and insert them into a 60i stream. HDV camcorders from Sony do this a lot. But you said you were shooting in a 60i mode, so that should not be the case.

Therefore, I would look to make sure that you are using the correct SEQUENCE setting in Premiere. Maybe the frame rate is not correct? Go to "Sequence" at the top of Premiere and see what the editing mode is. Should be 1920x1080, interlaced, 29.97, upper field first for 1080i clips.

About exporting, anything destined for the web should be progressive (deinterlaced). So 1080i would become 1080p30 (which is really 29.97). Actually, most viewers don't have computer monitors that large anyway, so like for YouTube, I use the H.264 export from AME and choose the "YouTube 720p 29.97" preset. Your video is downscaled a bit, but still HD. Same frame rate as before, but deinterlaced for progressive delivery. Looks great.

Hope this helps

PS - Scott, don't see why you would want an UNCOMPRESSED master, considering most/all cameras shoot compressed to start with. ProRes on the Mac, or Lagarith or UT or Avid DNxHD codecs on PC will produce smaller files that are visually and/or mathematically lossless.

What's the advantage of taking it to after effects and exporting it to mov animation codec ?

I'm sure After Effects take hours to render, while media encoder takes few minutes to render.


What I normally do is finish my work at premiere pro , then choose QuickTime and PNG as codec right there and simply click on queue to render on media encoder

That we keep as a master .

Dumping out lossless animation codec from AE ensures a lossless master. And yes it takes a long time and yes the file is huge. Media Encoder does not have as many options for quicktime movies. I get banding in gradients dumping out of Premiere. Maybe there is something I am not aware of. I am still working in CS5, maybe CS6 has more output options. Going to H.264 from the lossless animation master seems to be of higher quality, plus I like to do all of my color grading in AE and am just used to doing it. If it is a turn and burn local spot for a car dealer I will dump out same as source from Premiere.

Hi Scott,

Totally understandable that in your case, creating new content in AE, you don't want to compress it, keep it sharp for sure! In the case of the average person though working with camcorder footage that is already highly compressed, creating an uncompressed file is not a practical workflow, and not necessarily beneficial to them either.

Thanks

Kudos to Jeff for explaining "i" & "p" in three short paragraphs! That would have taken someone wordy like me three pages.

Can you do the same thing for him with frame rate and shutter speed :)

Steve