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Rendering full hi-def in PP CS5: need settings for fast render
  • Brian_SianoBrian_Siano

    I'm running into an odd problem with a project. I have several video streams that I shot using a Panasonic TM700: they're all ACHCD files, 1920 x 1080p. Since the subject was a three hour stage play, each video stream is comprised of four or five separate MTS files.

    Now, for ease of editing on my slower computer, I rendered these streams into lower-res (1280 x 720) files, and I'll use these to do my first edit. Each of these took about six hours to render. (Each file is named for the date of the performance, i.e., Feb 1, Feb 2, Feb 5, etc.)

    Thing is, eventually, after the actual edit is locked, I'll probably want to work with the full hi-def files. So I tried to render full hi-def versions of each performance. Thing is-- even though I'm using 1920x1080 29.97 files as a source, and the sequence has the same settings, each one of these will take about 10-11 hours to render. This seems strange to me, since there'd be almost no conversions, resamplings, recolorings, or anything else. (Also, the estimated final size of the file is twice as big as the combined original files.)

    So. What sequence and export settings can I use for the greatest efficiency here?

  • 8 Replies sorted by
  • MRfannyMRfanny

    I have noticed the same, time of encoding seems more dependent on actual length of the clip rather than whats been applied to it.

    what format are you exporting as?

  • Brian_SianoBrian_Siano

    @MRfanny: The length of the clip is a factor, but maybe I didn't make myself clear. I have a set of video files that are 1920x1080, 29.97 FPS, in AVHCD format. I put them into a sequence formatted at 1280x720, reduced them to fit (67%), and exported them at that size. The sequence was nearly three hours long, and took six hours to render. That makes sense to me: resizing each frame to 67% scale takes a lot of number crunching.

    But when I take the same files-- the same length-- and put them into a sequence that is also 1920x1080, and do not resize them or adjust them or do anything to them... it takes twice as long to render. Which seems wrong to me. I'm wondering if there's some Sequence or Export setting that'd provide a faster render time.

  • dbpdbp

    Rendering will always be slower, the larger the output frame size.

    If I have a 1080p source, exporting to 640x360 is always faster than 1280x720 which is faster than 1920x1080.

    Even when the source is 1080p.

  • OedipaxOedipax

    Doing the final render from Premiere is its Achilles' heel right now. I've gotten hour-long export times going to 1080p Prores422 on 3 minute edits when there's a lot of effects involved (FilmConvert, Colorista, Curves, Unsharp Mask, etc).

    I really look forward to having the option in Premiere CC to render my timeline in prores and then simply export those renders at the end (FCP7-style).

  • MRfannyMRfanny

    yep understand what you are saying, theoretcially it should just be a simple cut and paste of original files right? The question comes back to what format you are exporting to, because eventhough one thinks theres not much rendering from original file, it still needs to render and convert each frame to whatever export format still.

    Now if you were using some utility that litterally cuts and pastes original ACHCD/AVHCD together then it would be faster.

    If you post up your export settings maybe others can chime in with some tips and tweaks.

  • inqb8trinqb8tr

    When you are exporting to h.264 recompressing is something you can't avoid. Render times and file sizes are dependent on resolution, but also on level, profile and bit rate settings. Your original files are probably level 4 high profile 24mbit/s h.264 files (guessing). Without any effects, cross-fades, scales, crops, layer blending, audio edits and similar, premiere still has to encode all those files into one stream that has predefined bit rate and level. I'm not sure that it is theoretically possible to just cut and paste original files into final one, original streams have all the IP&B frames, and the final stream will have new gop structure, among other things. It has to be recompressed and it is processor intensive operation, that is just how it is.

  • Brian_SianoBrian_Siano

    Thanks, all. I think I'm probably going to put the render-into-full on hold for a while until I work out a good strategy.

  • MeierhansMeierhans

    Have you tried to copypaste clips out of timeline into After Effects and see if it renders faster? I never tried with spanned clips.. but maybe its smart enough.

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