If you are not ready to upgrade to CS5 but you need to edit your H.264 mov footage out of your DSLR with CS4, here's a free method to do so.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 provides native editing capability to popular DSLRs h.264 footage. With CS4, you will need to get plug-in like Cineform NeoScene ($99) to do the job. Here's a FREE workaround.
Without the native editing platform, a high quality HD codec to edit in AVI is needed. The fact is, Premiere is much happier to edit in AVI then in other format. Therefore, similar to Cineform, non-native clips need to be transcoded to AVI format with an intermediate codec. We can use the free Matrox I-Frame HD codec as the intermediate codec. We can also use Adobe Media Encoder to do the batch transcoding job.
Download Matrox VFW Driver
Matrox used to lock their Matrox I-Frame HD codec to be used with their hardware products only. Recently, they unlocked the VFW codec. You can download it here.
Setup Adobe Media Encoder (AME) for Batch Transcoding
After installing the Matrox VFW codec, open up Adobe Media Encoder. Drag and drop any video file to it, then select "Microsoft AVI" under the "Format" column and select "Edit Export Settings" under the "Preset" column.
In the AME Export Settings dialog box,
click on the "Video" tab select "Matrox MPEG-2 I-frame HD" under Video Codec Click on the button "Codec Settings" Assign a data rate. It ranges from 50mbps to 300mbps. Anything between 100mbps to 150mbps would be a good value to start. Select a frame rate that matches your clips Change Field Type to "Progressive" Change Aspect to "Square Pixel (1.0)" Now change the frame size width and height to 1920 and 1080. click on the "Audio" tab Make sure it is uncompressed, 48000 hz Sample Rate, Stereo, and 16 bit.
We are ready to go! Click on the "Disc" icon on top next to "Preset" to save this preset for future use.
Now drag and drop all the DSLR clips to Adobe Media Encoder for batch transcoding.
Setup Premiere Pro CS4 Timeline
Once all the clips are transcoded into AVI, import them to Premiere to edit.
Start Premiere Pro CS4 and create a new project When creating New Sequence, click on the "General" tab Select "Desktop" under Editing Mode Change the Timebase based on your clip timebase Set frame size to 1920 and 1080 Change Pixel Aspect Ratio to "Square Pixel (1.0)" Change Fields to "No Fields (Progressive Scan)" Under "Video Previews", select "Microsoft Video1" as the timeline codec.
Click on "Save Preset" for future use. The new preset can be found under the "Custom" folder in the "Sequence Presets" tab.
Now we can edit DSLR clips in Premiere Pro much easier. There will still be the red render line above the timeline. However, there would not be any lagging when scrubbing the timeline or stuttering during playback. If your computer is not fast enough, scale down the preview monitor, and force to "Draft Quality" mode.
Matrox I-Frame HD codec is a high quality intermediate codec to use. Best of all, it's free!
Comments
Really great guide! Now im not stuck anymore when the trial version of Neoscene has expired. This does the job really well!
I tried MPEG Streamclip but didn't like it at all. Was too messy. This is easy and works very well. And when the preset is saved you don't really need to think about it anymore. Just batch and encode!
Thank you for a great tutorial!
/Jakob
Jakob, glad you found the tutorial useful. With the popular of shooting video with DSLR, this info would be helpful to many of us. =)
This is great and I was able to get Adobe Ppro2 to edit my 550d footage. Big thanks
Glad that I can help. It's best to get CS5 so you can edit the footage natively. However, this is a good free solution if you don't have CS5 yet.
First thanks for helping us out. Its nice to see that. Unfortunately, I'm still having problems. After following everything you said above, I'm still getting stuttering with playback and I have a yellow bar above my footage that I cant get to go away. When I export it, it is still stuttering a bit in the final product. When I view the footage after converting it in AME, it looks fine. Any ideas? I shoot using my T2i with a class 6 16gb Transcend SD card. Thanks!
Aronn, the yellow line is normal as well as the stuttering within Premier is normal because you do not have Matrox hardware to support the codec to play back in real time full capacity. You need to change the preview mode to draft in Premiere and size down the preview window.
If you render out to a Matrox full HD AVI file, you will have stutter playback. This is an intermediate format. You need to export to your deliverable format..i.e. MPEG-2 for DVD, BluRay, H.264 for Bluray or YouTube output. or WMV, FLV... all depends on your application.
Remember, it is a free workaround method. So there is step to "work around".
Thank you so much for taking the time to write up this tutorial...I was about to buy Neoscene...but think I might hold off now. Your method works without the stutter (Cs4)...I was having troubles with MPEG stream clip. I'ev compared the footage between Neoscene and your matrox method...very similar..Matrox slightly lighter... Size wise: Original MOV: 83.9Mb Neoscene AVI: 101 mb Matrox Codec AVI: 237Mb.
Any ideas why the Matrox is so much bigger than the Neoscene? Any way of bringing it down a little in size?
Anyway it works for free..which is great! Thank you so much.
Mattew, glad this tutorial give some good use and save you money on purchasing NeoScene. The file size (of any kind of video) is determined by the data rate. So when you export video within Premiere, you can adjust the data rate for the Matrox codec. The lower the data rate, the smaller the file size, thus less in image quality. The higher the data rate, the biiger the file size, yielding higher and better image quality.
Hi All
When you convert from a DSLR mov to AVI, is there any loss of picture quailty, and does the conversion take a lot of time as well. By the way whats the difference between encoding the mov and transcoding,
DJ,
There is generation loss of image quality on any form of transcoding or converting. Therefore, it is important to select a high quality intermediate codec or any lossless codec for this purpose.
Depends on the computer power you have, transcoding process thus takes up time.
You do not have to perform any transcoding if you computer and software is capable of editing the MOV file from your DSLR. That's the reason for this blog entry as Premiere CS4 is not capable of editing H.264 MOV file natively. Transcoding them into AVI files will make the editing faster and easier with your current computer with CS4. Adobe CS5 can handle those MOV files natively. Thus, there is no need to transcode if you are using CS5.
Hi, I tried to download and instal the Matrox codeck but it does not come out as an option in Adobe media encoder and niether in premiere (using cs4) any help? thanks Jan
Jan, you can find the Matrox codec under Microsoft AVI file option. As specified in this blog page, you won't be specifying it within Premiere, but select Desktop mode. Then in Adobe Media Encoder, select Microsoft AVI and choose the Matrox codec from there.
Hi, sorry for my bad English. What is the approx bit-rate that will match the image quality from the H.264 file? I want to edit my files that matches the quality from Native file H.264 to AVI. Thanks :)
Neil, I set it to about 50mbps. You should try different values to see which one you like.
I finally bought a t2i and moving away from my hv30. Anyway, I recalled this post here and on hv20.com about converting the files. I'm using Premiere Pro CS3 and it doesn't come with AME as a standalone application. I tried converting using mpeg streamclip and the Avid DNxHD codec but noticed (as others) that it compresses the dynamic range which you can clearly see in the waveform monitor. From comments about the Matrox codec it keeps the same dynamic range. Do you know hoe I can do this transcoding with AME? The Marox codec is not available in MPEG Streamclip -- or I can't find it.
Randy, I have never tried it with CS3. The Codec will function the same way. Now the only problem is you need a way to batch convert T2i MOV file to AVI with Matrox codec. Have you tried VirtualDub (I'm not sure if it can read .mov).
Otherwise, seems like paying for Cineform NeoScene will be a good option for you.
Thanks. I've been working on this issue since I posted this and it appears I've fixed the problem with the Avid DNxHD codec. All the instructions say to select RGB levels, as the Canons record with RGB levels. However, if you select broadcast REC709 levels, everything converts fine without crushing the dynamic range. I'm looking on my waveform monitor right now.
Hey, this is great my stuff is playing back in the preview window- slightly jumpy but it wont allow me to put stuff on the timeline, infact there is no timelime !
anyway around this.
Is it to do with how I set the sequence- avchd 1080p
Do not create an AVCHD timeline since all your source footage is now being converted to AVI. Follow the steps to create sequence that can handle the AVI files.
So what sequence setting would take my newly converted files then for example. I've tried different ones but I get a yellow line above the footage, and when i render it it just turns green.
Yellow line is normal. It's for preview purpose.
Sorry to be asking so many questions, but i have done all this and after import to cs4 my footage is showing up as a pink square with sound in the background.
any Idea whats causing this
Hi this is really useful for the codec layman, thanks a lot for posting.
For some reason my AME won't allow me to import the 7d .mov H264 files - any ideas why this might be?
What's the next best option for file conversion with minimum quality loss?
Thanks again!
Have you installed the latest Quicktime to your system?
Hi, yeah i installed Quicktime last night and wasn't having any joy. But when i've opened up again today fies will import into both AME and APP CS4 fine. Must have needed the reboot to sort itself out. And can already notice the difference in the transcoding matrox file to the 264 original in previewing a single clip.
Need to play around some more but on the way!
Thanks again!
Hi there, thanks for this excellent tutorial, everything works fine ! I still have a question though - previously I could load my (Nikon D7000) HD mov files directly into CS4 and edit them without this codec. Am I missing something here .. ? Why do I need to do this ?
If Premiere can edit your mov file without problem, you do not need to use this method. Canon DSLR (5D, 7D, 60D, T2i) all creates mov files wrapper with H.264 codec. Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 can edit them natively but not CS4. Therefore, you can use this method if you are using CS4 with those H.264 mov files.
Thanks before, Can it implemented in other resolution (such as 720p)? And how about PAL system?
As far as I know, Matrox VFW codec supports 720p as well as PAL system. I myself have never tried that. However, it should work.
To make it smaller, just make the Mb/s 50 instead of the recommended 100-150. DSLRs only shoot 45Mb/s anyways
You can configure a data rate that works great with you. Your suggestion would be helpful to other users.
I'm having a slight problem after going through the transcoding and setting up a new timeline. When I bring I transcoded footage into the timeline it is still playing back with a stutter, even after I change the quality and reduce the preview monitor.
Also, if I 'render entire sequence' the footage place back with no stuttter, but for some reason the aspect ration completely compresses and the footage takes up only the bottom 1/3 of the screen.
I don't really understand what this problem is and any help would be great.
Thanks!
The timeline preview is mostly your CPU power. Not sure what kind of system you have, have you tried turned off Aero and other background services?
What format you are rendering the video into?
How would I go about turning off Aero? (sorry I don't really know what that is. I'm running CS4 on an XPS1530 laptop w/ T8300 @2.4 GHz and 3GB RAM.)
Also, how do I check what format I'm rendering it into? Every time I render the sequence (after making color corrections, adding effects, etc) that is when the aspect ratio is freaking out.
Thanks so much!
There're many information on the web on turning off Aero effect on your computer. If you are using a laptop, turning Aero off also save your battery life.
You need to know what's your target audience before you render your video out. Are you rendering for DVD, BluRay, Web Delivery? Mobile Device? There're different format for each target audience. So you must have select the wrong type when you export your video.
Great article! I'm glad that I found it in time for my new project that I am working on. The only thing I was wondering is if there is a way to make sure that the audio is correct with the mouths of the actors. When I converted, I noticed the audio didn't line up exactly, about 1ms off. I recorded my footage in 23.976 fps, but noticed that it rounded to 23.98fps in Maxtrons settings. Is this what is keeping the audio from being completely synced? Or did I do something wrong?
When I transcoded using Cineform, the audio was right on, but I don't want to pop $129 for Cineform just yet. Thanks in advance for the help.
You cannot judge the lips sync through the timeline preview. Try to export a segment to see if the sync is off or not. I do not have such issue with my projects. The frame rate round off shouldn't be of any concern at all.
hi, love your article but i don't understand.. i have the premiere pro cs4.0 on my computer without any codec addition.. BUT i still CAN open, edit and export the file (mov from dslr). can you explain to me?. thx u
You have Quicktime installed on your system that you can open those .MOV files. Just like you can double click to view them in Winddows Media Player. However, to edit them in Premiere, the performance is sluggish. It was because Premiere CS4 does not natively support H.264 codec in Quicktime MOV file wrapper.
If you are happy with the performance, you can skip this blog article and find something else in your life to worry about =)
Hi, I followed all the instructions but when I import the avi file into premiere CS4 I get a pink square instead of the actual picture. What could be the problem?
I just saw your site. I bought Canon T2i recently and I suddenly came across the compression issue. Please give me the tutorial on how to convert or transcode Canon T2i footage to make for an easy edit in my Premiere Pro. Thanks very much.
Well done on these instructions, very straight forward.
Having a slight problem. when I put footage in the time line the yellow line is above it and it plays fine in the viewer. Once rendered and it has the green line above it, the image goes all squashed, very strange.
Was considering re-installing Premiere pro.
Any advice?
Cheers
Hello all, some should help me here! i did everything the way it is explained here but to my surprise the video doesn't display anything on premiere cs4 and on window media player it brings out the sound. Please what should i do cos i need to work on some stuffs urgently. thanks in advance
Hey, thanks for the tutorial! I'm having some issues though. First, when I try and make a sequence in CS4, and follow all the directions, the mpeg codec doesn't come up as an option in the preview files, but it comes up in media encoder. I am also getting the pink square problem as mentioned above. Help would be much appreciated! Thanks, Brennan
Hi, I'm not sure what do you mean by the "Preview files". In Premiere timeline, there isn't an option for the Matrox MPEG-2 codec.
hi.Ive got something problem the same as Brennan Freed.Under "video preview" cant fount codec "mpeg2 I frames" thus can't select "I-frames only Mpeg" as preview file format.Analysing thats why the video cant playback smoothly in previews.Any suggest?
It is normal the video can't be playback all smooth in preview. you will have to make the preview window smaller, then change the settings to Draft mode if your computer can't handle full frame preview.
I've already change the preview's and quality both are 25percent and draft.within I-frame mpeg2,can't be playback well. Gladly after Ive changed the codec into microsoft video1, smoothly preview appears now.Thanks for the tutorial.Anyway have u try another method for editing dslr footage in PP CS4?How's the result?
In Step 8 of the setup in Premiere CS4, it shows select either MPEG-2 I-Frame or Microsoft AVI. I guess there is a difference on certain computer.
There is another method called "Proxy Editing". Basically use batch convert to generate a smaller version of the .MOV file for editing purpose. That will work on a laptop including netbook. I personally did it so I can edit rough draft with my 11" laptop sitting in a Starbucks.
Otherwise, you can pay $100 to Cineform for the NeoScene product to edit DSLR footage in Premiere CS4.
I was having a related problem. Hopefully this helps someone. Using Premiere Pro CS4, the MOV files from my Nikon D7000 would render previews that were squished to letterbox. Furthermore, they were scaled up (beyond the preview window) on playback. After reading this blog, I decided to try changing the Sequence>Sequence_Settings>Video_Preview to "I-Frame only..." and now it works great without needing to transcode anything! Thanks!
Will this workflow also work for .mts files being edited in PP CS4? Thanks!
You can try Adobe Media Encoder to see if it can convert the .mts to Matrox AVI.
Hello, I have the pink square issue as mentioned above, I followed your instructions exactly and all of my videos are a pink square.... Why is this?????
These import great on a windows comp, but when I try to import onto CS4 on my mac it says codec missing or unavailable. Any idea how to correct this?
The Matrox codec is a Video for Windows (VFW) codec. It won't install in Mac.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Any solution for us mac users? I am racking my brain. Don't want to have to get cineform.
Sorry Mac people =)
Any thoughts for setting up a preset with these specs for Sorenson?
Hello, does matrox I-frame converts DSLR footage from 8bit to 10bit?
This was extremely helpful. I'm totally new to DSLR's as I'm used to editing content from regular Camcorders and I found this very helpful. Thanks a bunch for sharing.
Glad we can help.
I have the same problem as kevin, when I import the footage in PP and drag to the timeline, its shows a pink screen but audio works tho. I think the computer is not finding the newly installed codec, i restarted same thing? Thanks for taking the time to share your experience... btw am new to your blog greetings from Trinidad
I'm using Premiere cs5 and some say that it will automatically upscale footage from 8-bit to 10-bit. Is this true?
Or is it better if I transcode the file into 10-bit using matrox then edit it to Premiere cs5? I want to color grade my footage by grading most of its information of the file.
will this work for a mac im having a really hard time editing in CS4 with dslr footage
Unfortunately, this method is for PC only.
I have Adobe Premiere CS4 and Cannon t3i but I have no problem bringing in the footage and editing. my problem comes from exporting. will this fix my choppy h.264 footage after export?
Premiere CS4 doesn't support native H.264 MOV editing. That's great you can edit without any issue. However, it depends on which timeline preset that you pick that will have an impact on export.
Hi Thanks for great tutorial. But I´m having problem on my computer at work. My avi files only have an bitrate of about 8000 kbps instead of 50000. I choosed 50 mbps. And I have tried this at home and it worked perfectly.
Make sure you select Matrox HD MPEG-2 I-Frame codec only.
Hi, first of all thank you for your tutorial!
I've been working on a short film project for a year now but still had problems with export format and codec. I shot it with EOS 5D Mark II and 550D in H.264 MOV. Whatever I choose, the exported file has less quality than the source, the contrast is downgraded and the blacks are more grey.
I tried to convert the native files into AVI as explained here, but once they're transcoded neither Windows Media Player nor VLC Player are able to show me a video picture anymore. I just hear the sound.
The same when I import them into Premiere CS4 and export it again.
I've already checked the settings and tried it as well with 130MB/s as with 200MB/s.
Do you have an idea?
Thank you very much for your help! I'm kinda desperate right now.
Tim
Hi!!! I just need to ask... after transcoding .mov to .avi and placed it in my timeline, there is no video appearing in the timeline just a pink color matte but with audio... would you know what's wrong with it?
I am getting pink screen as well
Tanks for posting such great tutorial, this worked for me, I was having trouble in editing dslr footage in premiere cs4 but thanks God for you guys who posted it. God Bless You All...
Moon, that's great to know! Glad we can help.
Pink sqaure as well. Fix please!!!!!!
After editing in Adobe premiere with the HD dimensions can I export the material to PAL DV,lower field first and 25 frames from 30 frames?
Of course you can do it but losing 5 frames per seconds will cause constant stuttering of the entire video.
Am abit confused finished editing on the timeline using the 1280x720 clips from 500d canon. while exporting to media to encoder what codec should I use? my main issue after you told me I will lose 5frame per seconds is ,is there a PAL setting with 30 fps? the clips are in PAL but 30 fps. or wat is the best setting to export the edited material to make a DVD and may be get avi file. The clips have audio rate of 44100 can I make it 48000 please help.
No one seems to have answered the pink issue which is what I have. Did I miss something?
LA Colour Online - you are a heaven sent buddy! Thanks for the great tutorial, and especially the preset guide! :-)
I installed the codec fine, but when I try to drop the files into AME, it still says they cant be imported...please explain to a newbie!