Export Quality to MPEG4 is Terrible

Hi, I'm a PC user and using Premiere pro CS4. I load my video in Mpeg4 format and do my edits (the film is only 2 mins long). I then go to export and choose MPEG4 as standard and don't change any other settings. I then play this video back (once it's been saved to my folders) and the quality is terrible.
When I export the settings come up with:
NTSC 174x144 (15fps) Progressive
Before I edit the video, it is an mp4 1920 x 1080 and 25 fps
Any suggestions please? Is CS6 better for doing this? All I want to do is, once I edit my video, is create an MPEG4 video to put onto my website (that's the format is requires).
Any help would be great (and as not that technical, easy explanations would be stunning!!)
Cheers!
Shan

Hi Bill, thanks for your reply.
My website needs MP4 and I've since found out that the H.264 is the right setting I need for Adobe Pro. This has created another wee issue as my website can only take files up to 20MB and the Adobe files are 70-90MB in various settings, so I'm using Prism to re-convert them to MP4 again which lowers thier MB and still keeps the quality BUT they appear too small in my window on my website and I have a large black border around my video. On adobe, I chose H.264 and frame size 720 at 25 FPS which comes out at 90MB I think.
I know this has nothing now to do with Adobe (I think), I'm just popping this in here in the hope that someone may know how I can still retain a large 'surface' area on screen and have a quality video file under 20MB from one that was previously 70 or 90MB.
Anyhoots, thanks again Bill, people like you are great to have on sites like these.

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Message was edited by: Jerry Hofmann

So what's the export quality like???

Hi, after the 'pain' of i-movie 8, what's the view on the export quality in 9?
Does it export high enough quality to look good when burnt to dvd and played back on tv?

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It looks the same as iMovie 08.
I did a compare one day using the same clip burned to DVD from iMovie 06 and from iMovie '08.
The iMovie 06 clip looked like it came from the DV camera directly and the iMovie 08 clip looked much worse. The difference is the single field processing used by iMovie 08/09 and the fact that it throws out every other horizontal line.
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If your primary workflow is editing DV clips and making DVDs, iMovie '06 is better suited. Your movie will arrive at iDVD in DV format, which is an ideal match for making a DVD: same resolution, same pixels aspect ratio, and original quality. If you share your movie from iMovie '08 / 09, it gets re-rendered at 640x480 or less, and then iDVD upscales it back to 720x480. The end result is obviously not as good.

Export quality grainy for TEXT / TITLE

Hello there,
Am kind of a newb, but am getting used to the basics and am happy with the video export quality. For some reason, the TITLE objects are coming out grainy, even when viewed at 100% size. I tried different output types, bitrates, changed fonts, font size, position, etc. Put black background behind, removed background, no matter what am still getting the fonts looking crappy once exported.
Some screenshots of what I see in the Premiere Pro output preview / workspace, and then a second shot showing the resulting output (same result in diff bitrates, just chose one as example)
In Pro:
http://fms.whoajack.com/textIssue01.png
Exported:
http://fms.whoajack.com/textIssue02.png
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Chose the file or files by highlighting them then choose File - Export - Version. In the center of the window that will pop up there is a "Export Preset"" tab. He told me to choose TIFF- Original Size (8-bit). He did say that any higher than 8 bit is pointless. I did this and it worked great. I had a large beautiful file that I was blowing up to 30 by 20 and it looked so bad printed before I learned this trick. I printed it again after exporting the new way and it really looked great!
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Is Your Footage Suffering from the Massive Difference in Export Quality Between FCPX

I read this article today and considering I do all my rendering through Premiere or AME it made me a little concerned. What does Adobe think of this? and has any else experienced this problem?
Cheers,
Moja.
I took this article from: Is Your Footage Suffering from the Massive Difference in Export Quality Between FCPX & Premiere?
A rational person might assume that the program from which you export your media wouldn't have a noticeable impact on the quality of the final image, especially if the export settings are identical in both programs. A recent test by filmmaker Noam Kroll might just teach us to think twice before making assumptions.
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Exported from FCPX
Exported from Premiere Pro
In the shots above, you'll notice more blocky compression artifacts in the version exported from Premiere, especially on the lower part of the woman's face, and there's a fairly significant reddish hue that's been introduced into the midtones and shadows of the Premiere export. Here's a version of the same shot that is cropped in on the woman's face by 400%. This is where the difference between the two starts to become painfully obvious. Again, FCPX is on top, and Premiere on the bottom.
Exported from FCPX
Exported from Premiere Pro
Here's the conclusion that Kroll came to in his post.
After seeing this I can confidently say that I will not be compressing to H.264 using Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder any more. [sic] The image from Premiere is so much blockier, less detailed, and muddy looking, not to mention that the colors aren’t at all accurate. In fact I even did another output test later on with Premiere Pro set to 20,000 kbps and FCP X only set to 10,000 kbps and still the FCP X image was noticeably higher quality, so clearly something is up.
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Well, I did my own little comparison with a shot from my A7s (XAVCS 50mbps) and seeing as I don't have FCP X I used FCP 7. The AME H264 looks nicer than the FCP one in this instance.
Dropbox - WALKING 444.jpg
Pro Res 444 from Premiere
Dropbox - WALKING AME.jpg
H264 from AME at these settings:
Dropbox - WALKING FCP.jpg
H264 from FCP 7 at these settings:

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Is the youtube export quality improved in iMovie 09?
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Okay, thanks for the further input, I've made progress with it, I've discovered it's to do with the field order setting. Basically my knowledge of video editing and video standards is rather limited and the kind of work I've done in the past has mostly been to produce animations from 3ds Max which are simply shown as demonstrations to people on a PC or laptop, and so when setting up a new project in Premiere I always selected "Desktop" editing mode, changed some settings and left others as default such as Fields: Lower Field First, mainly because I didn't know what it meant.
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Everything I export is gigantic and looks terrible with FCE

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I did a DV export and that file now looks like crap. This is way harder than it should be.
Can't import the files I need into FCE (.mp4 or .mov)
Can't import from iMovie since source files won't import
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Can't use iMovie export DV cause it looks terrible.
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IMovie vs FCPX export quality

Afternoon/morning all.
Question I have is regarding the export quality of FCPX vs iMovie!!
I've been using iMovie for over a year now but only recently started to publish my work.
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I'm just thinking about upgrading to FCPX the extra editing features and functions will be great too.
I just want to know that the exporting footage in FCPX won't reduce the quality of the footage!
Can anybody help!!
Thanks

'quality' is a very complex issue.
Most consumer IMPORTS do look nice, when the cam is connected straight to a telly.
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• … and iMovie deinterlaces interlaced material = reducing vertical resolution by half
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the 'hurt' is done on import, …
and most damage, in terms of quality, is done on recording ....

Best Export Quality HD-AVI to DVD

Hello,
I'm currently working on a project and have come up with some poor results in my final iDVD disk images, namely blockly looking video.
I am using FCx 4.0.1 on 10.7.1
My HD-AVI source video has the following properties:
When starting my FCx project I selected the DV-NTSC Easy Setup and proceeded to make subclips and a voiceover successfully. My sequence has the following properties:
In FCx I used the Export->Quicktime Movie to produce my file for iDVD. In iDVD I selected Professonal Quality encoding.
Are there any ideas in this circumstance as to how to maximize export quality to DVD?
Much appreciated!

You have 1440 clips going into and SD Sequence.
This is the key problem.
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Al

Resolution View = Export Quality?

I was under the impression that Render Quality (Draft, Normal, Best) determined the export quality, and that Resolution View (Full, Half, Quarter) was for Canvas viewing purposes only. Am I wrong?
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I'm not sure if I've seen it do that before or not. There were a couple of times where the export size was inexplicably lower than the project, but I don't remember if resolution view was the cause.
You can just uncheck the "same as project settings" checkbox and settle it manually. I always export in that fashion because I'm forever turning off Motion Blur, lights, etc. and it's a good way to make sure it exports correctly.
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Export Quality ReHashed

i am pretty savvy on compression. I am not a specialist but very comfortable with the process.
I have tried :
h264 vimeohd
both prores options
mpeg4
h264 bluray (getting multiple file here)
I have yet to get an output that is at the same quality as the seq. I am on a mac so if i output to same as seq i get an unplayable file. Because i am cutting .mts which is not native to snow leopard.
I have FCS2 (fcp6) but there is no crossover other than xml. If i could output to compressor i would.
AME crashes when i come out of the TL to encode so i must use premiers encoder. I dont know why AME crashes but it always has. AME works as a stand alone but not in the export chain.
so for mts 720p24 other than same as seq. what settings will give me the highest quality master to encode other formats from.?

I have heard this Monitor argument a lot. I do agree that the monitor is the best place for CC and "most" looks for broadcast or web.
I started in SD and i was using a sorry 15" TV for external. It was not all that adjustable and nothing like a blue gun. My 1st 5 projects were reject for broadcast. Then i learned to use the scopes and understanding what the trace was telling me. I used FCP and Shake3 for color.
I could use the scoipes to stay broadcast safe but the scopes could not tell me what a look was. So i had to learn the nuances of my ragedy monitor and that monitor took me through my 1st 1yr and i could always create the look i was expecting when i saw it on any tv.
That taught me that there is a way of making due, when thats all you can do. I purchased a 800 dollar Pro JVC w/ blue gun and some other fixings after that.
Now, its HD and i as of yet have had 2500. to spend on a Flanders. So currently everything i edit is viewed on a 28" LG LED ( and that an upgrade from an insignia 26"). It only shows up to 720p. I have not been able to learn it the way i had my start-up. Its way too bright so what i see as 0 black and 100 WHT maybe darker than i intended through out the mid-range.
What i am saying is that sometimes it is the eye and not the scopes that make the adjustment. Often time that adjustment is being made through a series of considerations for equipment personalities. i.e. this screen has more yellow and that codec has a gamma shift so i will lower or raise this or that to compensate.
Still i do not at this time think that you can get a full quality export from premier. In FCP4.5 - 7 you can. I like working in premiers interface. It is my prefered interface, but it is still at least .5 - 1.0 versions from being equal to fcp 6 or 7. Monitoring included.
Meanwhile.......
I ended up nesting the seq and putting a contrast filter (+6contrast) to somewhat offset the shift in QT Animation 32bit. I am sending it Through Compressor to get h264 with a filtered gamma shift.
The version that came out of premier this time was the best of the bunch. I didnt try 10bit though cause i think it will only give me slightly better color space and i am not grading anymore at this point.

Export Quality to MPEG4 is Terrible

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