Media Encoder | Glenn Ward

Adobe Premiere Pro – Pause video in the timeline by creating a still frame

Unfortunately there is no means to simply pause a video on the first or last frame to get that still to motion effect you often see when multiple interviews are shown on screen at once.

I have found the simplest way to achieve this in Adobe Premiere Pro is to create stills by exporting a tiff then re importing it into you projects portfolio.

Begin by aligning and resizing your clips on the timeline (see how to scale video here) in the order you wish them to appear. At this stage you will see black before and after the clip. Place the playhead on the first frame of the video you would like to begin on a paused / still frame. Choose File > Export and select tiff, be sure on the next drop down to export the tiff in the aspect ratio you are working in. It will make lining the image up a lot easier later. Export as usual using Adobe Media Encoder to the correct folder in your project folder (see setting up a project here) import the file back into your project and place it on the timeline prior to your clip. Adjust the length and play through to see the effect. If you need to scale the tiff do so to complete a smooth still frame to motion effect.

Comparison DV Footage captured using Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and iMovie

I had presumed that Premiere Pro would capture video from a device in much the same way as Final Cut Pro or iMovie. After having a lot of trouble with the quality of exports using Adobe Media Encoder, I had a look into videos captured by different programs to see if this could be effecting the final output. I decided to look at the same piece of footage from the same DV tape recorded from a Sony HVRDR60. I recorded the video and placed them side by side on the desktop. Below you can see the Premiere Pro Clip (Mov) on the Left and the iMovie clip (DV) on the Right. If I’m honest, I could not see much in it to the naked eye. The contrast might possibly be slightly better on the iMovie clip but even zoomed right in. As there was no differences to see I had a look at the figures, the DV clip captured at a much higher bit rate and produced a higher file size. This would suggest that if there was more movement in the footage then the DV capture would handle this far better than the MOV, although the file size would be almost double.

I am drawing no conclusions from this test apart from, if my premiere pro captured footage are ever not up to scratch then I shall turn back to Final Cut Pro or iMovie to capture my footage. Take from this what you will!

Comparing the .Mov footage and the .Dv

Premiere Pro / iMovie

Adobe Premiere Pro Captured Footage

Format: DV, 720 x 576 (768 x 576), Millions 16-bit Integer (Little Endian), Stereo, 48.000 kHz
FPS: 24.37
Data Size: 45.4 MB
Data Rate: 30.34 Mbit/s

Ireland 09

iMovie Captured Footage

Format: DV, 720 x 576 (768 x 576), MillionsDV, Stereo, 48.000 kHz
FPS: 25
Data Size: 97.1 MB
Data Rate: 57.60 Mbit/s

Ireland 09

Understanding the difference between Interlaced and Progressive scan video

When purchasing a video camera or choosing your project settings in your editing software you may come across the dimensions followed by an i or a p for example 1080i or 1080p. This stands for interlaced and progressive scan.

The difference between the two are as follows. If you imagine you video is built like a brick wall, in layers known as fields. In an interlaced video each field is offset not dissimilar to the brick wall. You have probably noticed this during moments of fast motion where you see lines like a comb at the edge of the moving subject.

Interlaced video should be deinterlaced for your final product. In Final Cut this is done by applying a deinterlace effect, in premiere pro it can be done as your send your media to Adobe Media Encoder.

Progressive scan video already has the fields aligned resulting in a much crisper image and less things to think about at edit. Be sure if you are working with progressive video not to deinterlace your video when you export it. It will reduce the quality.

If you wish your final video to be displayed on a computer monitor then always deinterlace your video or use Progressive.

You can also De interlace video in Quicktime Pro, Window > Show Movie Properties > Video Track > Deinterlace

Understanding Resolution and Frame Dimensions – Video, Web and Print

Resolution seems to be a subject that baffles a lot of people with different platforms (TVs, monitors, mobiles) different mediums (video, print, web) and also different pixels per inch which effects the overall size and quality of your image.

Let’s start with pixels per inch and keep it basic. Pixels per inch is the amount of small dots of color per square inch. As a rule 300 pixels per inch is the bare minimum for print while 72 pixels per inch is suffice for web based output, admittedly as PC monitors resolution has increased over the past few years I often find myself producing an image with a 150 px per inch in order to produce the better results. It all depends on your intended output. For video output I did a few tests in order to confidently advise you for best results. I created two identical images in Photoshop with the same physical dimensions, I used the Film and Video presets found after hitting new. I produced one at 72px and the other at 300px and saved them out as a png, I then brought the two images into Adobe Premiere Pro in separate time lines, I exported them using the same full quality DV setting and then oped them up side by side and played them. I asked my colleagues which they thought was produced with the higher res images and they consistently couldn’t identify it. In this case it seems that the resolution of the input file does not noticeably effect output.

See (URL Coming Soon)… for more information on export settings using Adobe Media Encoder and other such programs.

Print Resolution
With print resolution as mentioned earlier, 300 px is the minimum px per inch for a decent quality. When setting up your workspace you should be concerned with the physical size of the output, for example A4 is 210 mm x 297 mm with 300 px. Photoshop has presets for most print outputs so have a look and familiarise yourself with these.

Web Resolution
When I began studying my Design for Digital Media Minor, the standard size to construct a website was around the 800 px wide. The resolution of computer now vary and this size meaning that the websites began to look very small in the browser. By analysing google analytics user traffic it soon became obvious to design you site to a greater width. Today popular website width sizes are above 1000 px wide although many more dynamic CSS driven layouts will be sized based on a percentage of the browser window for consistency. As mentioned before you graphics should have a pixel resolution of 72 px per inch and above.

Screen Dimensions
640 x 480
800 x 600
1024 x 768
1280 x 800
1280 x 960
1600 x 1000
1680 x 1050
1920 x 1080

Video Resolution and Dimensions
There are two aspects to take into account here. The production of graphics for your video projects and the resolution you wish to output your video for the intended viewing platform. The production of graphics I touched upon earlier so let’s get to know video dimensions. The landscape has changed recently with the emergence of multiple mobile platforms alongside the popularity of High Definition on the consumer market.

Television Dimensions
There are 3 main television dimensions you should be aware of, there are variations but combinations i.e. widescreen (also see …) but use these as a starting point.
DV Pal, 720 x 576
Consumer HD, 1280 x 720
Pro HD, 1920 x 1080

Blu Ray and HDTV Dimensions
720 x 576
1280 x 720
1440 x 1080
1920 x 1080

Other Device Dimensions
There are many other devices now on the market that are all geared up to display video so often we might want to output at a format suitable for these.
Mobile Phones (3GPP)
128 x 96
176 x 144
320 x 240
640 x 480

iPhone
450 x 360
600 x 480

iPod
640 x 480 Large
320 x 240 Small

Sony PSP
320 x 240
368 x 208 High Quality

Other mobile frame dimensions, 176 x 208, 176 x 220, 208 x 320, 240 x 320 and 352 x 416.

Web Video Dimensions
Youtube
SD 640 x 480
Widescreen HD 1280 x 720
Widescreen SD 640 x 360

Myspace Video
320 x 240

Yahoo Video
320 x 240

(Dimensions may vary slightly)

Aspect Ratio
At this stage I just want to distinguish between what i mean by dimensions and how it differs to aspect ratio. All the dimensions I have touched upon up until now have referred to a 4:3 aspect ratio, this means for every 4 vertical pixels there are 3 vertical pixels. Most will have come across widescreen by now in their digital lifes and this has an aspect ratio of 16:9.