Premiere elements 7 and project presets

Question

Hi,
I have a question regarding quality of edited video and project presets. I use a Panasonic HDS-9 AVCHD camcorder which is set to record at the XA 1920 x 1080 full HD mode. Once the mt2 files are in Premiere I have tried two of the project presets. Full HD 1920 x 1080 5.1 Channel (PAL) and HD 1440 x 1080 5.1 Channel (PAL). I have burnt to folder and then used DVD shrink (no compression settings used) to package it into an iso file so I can use the file with menus on my Freecom media player which attaches to my Panasonic HD ready TV using component jacks. What I have found is that the HD 1440 x 1080 preset appears to produce very slightly better quality. I was not able to explain what the exact difference was until my 7 year old son described the difference as being 'one of them looks more shiny'. What I think is happening is that anything that has movement, however slight, is creating very marginal screen smear which makes that part of the screen seem less clear. It is not bad and had I not tried the 1440 setting I would probably have accepted it. The trouble is I am fussy, and now that I have seen the difference I need to find out what other problems I may run into if I use the lower preset as the information in Premiere seems to suggests that I should be using the Full HD preset if the footage was shot in full HD. Anybody have any thoughts on this or experienced this?
Thanks
Lou

Answer 1

"What I have found is that the HD 1440 x 1080 preset appears to produce very slightly better quality" is what you say.
I have sought out your camcorder and checked its specifications and found:
From what I have read and what you have said, it sounds like your Panasonic HDC-HS9 is recording AVCHD (video MPEG-4 AVC/H.264; audio Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound) 1920 x 1080i50 (if you have a PAL version of the camcorder = 25 frames per second or 50 fields per second). At this point, I am not sure if you are recording to the camcorder’s hard drive or to a memory card.
So, I find it appropriate that you select your Premiere Elements project preset (New Project dialog) = PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 5.1 channel sound. Typically it is suggested that the project preset be as close as possible to the properties of the imported video to give you the appropriate frame work for editing. This does not prohibit you from making other export choices and downsizing as in this case. Although how well Premiere Elements 7 can downsize is another question. And, I suspect that your imported video has Fields = upper fields first.
If you tell me that you are burning to folder, that means to me that you are creating DVD-VIDEO files (presumed PAL 720 x 576 25 frames per second, with 16:9). And these DVD-VIDEO files would have Fields = lower fields first. And you are going from 1920 x 1080 with square pixels to 720 x 576 with a 16:9 flag. I am thinking Fields issue or 16:9 flag issue. But, then the question comes up, why not for both choices of project preset.
Here comes my questions.
1. How repeatable and consistant is this slight difference that you are seeing and relating to the project preset (New Project dialog)?
2. Are you taking the same video, doing the same edits for the comparison of the project presets of PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 5.1 channel and PAL AVCHD HD1080i25 5.1 channel?
3. I may be overlooking something tonight, but I cannot invoke a scenario to target the project presets unless you are doing something grossly different in the edits or using different videos in the comparison.
Since there is a lot going on after the DVD video files are generated, is there any chance you could do a mini comparison creating menus and burning to DVD in Premiere Elements 7 and determine if this difference exists then?
I need to think on this some more to include some aspects that I did not include here now.
ATR