Need to export absolutely lossless from Premiere Pro

[Dirty Harry]

Hello!

So my friend did his 30' documentary in Premiere Pro and asks me to do its Color Correction. I am using Avid Media Composer/Symphony.

After searching how to convert projects from Premiere to Avid and finding it's a nightmare we decided the simplest straightforward way would be exporting an uncompressed full quality file.

I don´t mind large files, but I need absolutely lossless quality. From Premiere I tried uncompressed RGB 32 bits, then uncompressed YUV 10 bits, wich I thought would be the highest quality options. For some reason, with both files I find degradation on the image compared to the original DSLR .h264 footage used in Premiere.

So… how can I make sure I am exporting "same as source", not further processing, and getting exactly what I am viewing on Premiere's timeline?

Thanks

 

[Zwhaler]

if you want absolutely LOSSLESS then try ProRes, the higher the better. Realistically unless it's a 1D or something crazy like that you should be fine with ProRes 422 HQ, but since you asked you ought to go with ProRes 4444XQ (overkill IMO) or ProRes 4444.

 

[LethalWolfe]

For some reason, with both files I find degradation on the image compared to the original DSLR .h264 footage used in Premiere.

So… how can I make sure I am exporting "same as source", not further processing, and getting exactly what I am viewing on Premiere's timeline?

H.264 is lossy as hell so the last thing you want to do is export same as source and recompress H.264 footage as H.264. Trying to go lossless is completely over the top because of how lossy the source footage is (pouring a 12oz can of Coke into an empty 2 liter bottle will not yield you 2 liters of Coke).

If you both are using Macs (and you are using MC 7 or 8) then just export a ProRes 422 file and you should be able to bring it into Avid natively. If one, or both of you, is on a PC then you could export it out as a DNxHD MXF (assuming Adobe Media Encoder can do that).

 

[Dirty Harry]

Thanks for your help!!

After trying different codecs and comparing the look of the same frame side by side I found the better solution was exporting a Tiff Sequence from Premiere and importing it in Avid using the better DNxHD resolution available.

Yes, big folder and thousands of files, but I found it to be nearly identical to the original source.

Then back to Premiere we installed the DNxHD codec in my friend's computer and he is using my Avid "same as source".

 

[LethalWolfe]

Thanks for updating us w/your solution.

 

[Policar]

Thanks for your help!!

After trying different codecs and comparing the look of the same frame side by side I found the better solution was exporting a Tiff Sequence from Premiere and importing it in Avid using the better DNxHD resolution available.

Yes, big folder and thousands of files, but I found it to be nearly identical to the original source.

Then back to Premiere we installed the DNxHD codec in my friend's computer and he is using my Avid "same as source".

Be careful, you can lose superwhites converting from RGB to YUV.

Unlike prores, DNxHD does not support superwhites very well (if at all). Otherwise, this is a good solution, just be careful! I had to do the same thing (only working in Color instead), but ended up going with prores rather than DNXHD for this reason.