What format should I convert my video footage to?

[Guest]

Hello people

I hope someone can advise me. I am new to video editing and am just about to start putting together a project comprised of photos and video footage and want to know the best format for my video footage to be in prior to taking it into my Premiere Elements 11 system. The project will take many days to finish so I plan to do a lot of saving and do not want the video footage to lose its quality.

The video was taken using a Fuji hs20 camera and is 1080p Full HD 30 frames per second using H.264 compression coded (saved directly as MOV files) progresive capture. Sound - WAVE. stereo.

I have the Wondershare Ultimate Video converter which has many video formats to choose from including some in HD.

I intend to get the project out to Youtube, Vimeo and perhaps make a blu ray disc.

ANY, advise would be appreciated as I am new to editing and not technically minded.

Sincerely    Alan                                 (my photos will all be resized to match and saved as PSD's to avoid re-compression, they are J-Pegs at the moment)

[Steve Grisetti]

Do not convert your video! Assuming you've got an adequately powered system, you'll have no problems editing H.264 video in Premiere Elements 11. In fact, unless you really know what you're doing, converting your video can turn it into a format that's actually less rather than more efficient to edit.

What processor do you have? If it rates at least a 5000 on this benchmark page, you'll have no problems editing 1080p.

PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End

As for photos, in my books I recommend resizing your photos to no larger than 2500 pixels wide by 1875 pixels tall in order to have a smooth video editing workflow. Larger photos can slow down and even crash the program. But beyond the actual size,  you'll get no noticeable boost by converting the photos from JPEGs to PSDs. The compression doesn't signficantly tax the program. It's the actual measurement of the photos, in pixels, that makes the difference.

[Guest]

Steve

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question - it gives me confidence. I was on the understanding that my video and photos would have to be converted to a non-compressive lossless format so that each time I saved my work it would not loose quality.

I live on a farm in a rural area - contact like this is invaluable.

Again, thank you.              Alan

[Ann Bens · Accepted solution]

Premiere Elements is non destructive, that means every time you edit or save or export your work the original files wont be touched.

[Guest]

Ann, thank you, I did not know!

Alan.