Digital Video: File Conversion

Start/Open a Project

1. Launch Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.
2. The Start up screen will prompt you to start a New Project or Open (an existing) Project (Figure 1). Do one of the following:
   • Start a New Project.
     1. Click on the New Project icon
     2. Accept the default preset of DV-NTSC: Standard 48kHz.
     3. Towards the bottom of the dialog box, browse to the location where you will store your project and files. The D:\ is the recommended location, you can make your own folder if you don't have one. Remember this location when you return to continue work on your project. Click OK.
     4. Name the project something meaningful to you.
     5. Click OK and you see the Premiere software interface.
   • Open (an exisitng) Project if you already have one by clicking on the Open Project icon and navigate to where your project is stored.

Figure 1. Start up screen prompting you to choose between a New Project or Open (an existing) Project.

Add Clip(s) to the Project

1. To add a clip to your file conversion project, choose File > Import.
2. Browse to the clip or movie file you want to convert
3. Click Open. The clip appears in the Project Panel (Figure 2).
   
4. Drag the clip from the Project Panel by clicking on it's name then dragging it to the Source Panel (Figure 3).
5. Set the zoom level for the Source Panel to 100%. In/out points can also be set here in the Source Panel.

Note: it is best to work with movie clips from the hard drive vs. a network drive, CD/DVD or USB memory stick. You may copy the files you need to work with to the same location on the D:\ where you specified the location for your project.

Figure 2. Project Panel showing original movie "19_anthrax_cc.wmv" selected in the listing and as a thumbnail towards the top of the panel.

Figure 3. Source panel showing a clip with the zoom level set at 100%.

Export Movies

1. To export the clip, choose File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder from the menu commands.
2. (Figure 4) In the Export Settings dialog box, select the desired options for the following:
   1. Format: we chose to convert to QuickTime .mov file type, our College's standard movie file type
   2. Range: we chose Entire Clip
   3. Preset: left it at the default which is Custom
   4. Checkmark tracks to export: we chose both Video and Audio
3. In the bottom half of the Export Settings box, select Video tab and set the following:
   1. Video Codec: we chose Sorenson Video 3 for QuickTime movies in this example, this varies with File Format
   2. Spatial Quality: we chose 50, with 100 as the maximum quality and 0 the lowest. 50 was the lowest acceptable quality level for this particular clip. Finding the balance between file size and quality level is the most time-consuming step in this process. To decide what value to set it at start with 50 then compare the Source with the Output (Figure 5), also set at 100% zoom level, and adjust the Spatial Quality value as needed.
   3. Frame Width and Height in pixels: best to match the same dimensions of the original or go smaller.
   4. Frame Rate or fps: we chose 15, approximately half the original frame rate.
   5. Field Order: left it at the default of None (Progressive).
   6. Pixel Aspect Ratio: we chose Square pixels since we are doing a conversion. Typically you will choose D1/DV NTSC (0.9) for processing raw footage from a DV camcorder.
      
      The original frame size and frame rate of your clip(s) are available in the Project Panel under Video Info and Frame Rate, you will need to scroll to the right to see all these details.
      
      
   7. Click OK.
      
   8. You will be prompted to choose a location for the exported movie. If you forget to choose a location, it will end up in the last user's chosen location, maybe even someone else's folder if you were not the last one to use this program.

A rendering progress window will appear with an estimated "time left". When done, the Rendering window disappears and the file is available in the location you selected in step 3.

Figure 4. Export Settings - note your settings may vary.

Figure 5. Use the Source and Output tabs to compare quality as you choose your export settings. The Output tab shows what you can expect to see if you were to output with the chosen settings.

Tip - Save Preset

If you plan to convert multiple clips with the same settings, it is recommended you save your settings to use another time. This Save button is to the right of the Preset setting, designated by a floppy disk icon (Figure 6). Give the settings a name and click OK.

To import a preset, use the Import Preset folder icon to the left of the Save Preset icon. You may need to navigate to the default location of the presets which is c:\Documents and Settings\intech01\. To use the preset settings shown in Figure 4, use this preset located at c:\Documents and Settings\intech01\UserCustomPreset_Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0.vpr

Figure 6. Save Preset.

Please Note

• If you specify a Frame HxW larger than the original movie(s), the player size will increase, but the movie will still be the original size with black filling up the extra space around the edges (Figure 7).
• If you are adding already processed video to your export project, expect the file size to increase dramatically.
• Expect quality loss when movies are processed multiple times.
• File size can be reduced with the following settings in the Export Settings dialog box
  • Lower the Spatial Quality
  • Reduce the Frame Width and Height
  • Reduce the Frame Rate

Figure 7. An example of the Frame size set bigger than original movie. Black fills in the area around the original smaller sized movie.