Exported mp4 file does not match rendered timeline (and output preview)

[davearlington]

This has not happened to me previously in all the time I've been using Premiere Elements 14.

With my current project, although I have matched the project and export settings (both 720 x 480), the mp4 file I end up with has all the crops in the wrong place. The project renders correctly in the monitor...and the output preview looks perfect. But the crops in the finished product are very far off. Can anyone troubleshoot this for me?

While I expect the problem is some setting, I worry that it could be an Adobe flaw similar to what affected me some months back in Photoshop Elements. That program was suddenly not working correctly - but the reason turned out to be the release of a new version of the software...which automatically screwed up the version I had! Adobe tech support fixed the problem by having me change the name of a file deep in the program!!! How was I supposed to figure that out? So now I'm wondering whether, now that there is an Elements 15, the same kind of thing has happened in Premiere.

Please tell me it's a setting.

[Steve Grisetti]

What model of camcorder is your original footage coming from and how did you get this footage from this camcorder to your computer?

Are you saying that the video from the camcorder is a 720x480 MP4 -- or is it another video format?

If you look under the Edit menu and select Project Settings, what settings are listed on the General page?

This issue is most often the result of using video footage that is non-standard or uses non-standard specs like variable frame rates.

When you add the first clip to your timeline, is there a yellow orange "render" line along the top of the timeline, above the clip? This is an indication that the program is not able to match its project settings to your video's specs.

[davearlington]

I neglected to say - quite important, actually - that the footage involved only consists of still photos (in full Ken Burns mode, here). ​I am having them move, change size and be cropped. It is the cropping that is the biggest culprit. I will, for example, crop both sides of a photo to just have the person in the middle show - and that will indeed be how it is rendered. But when exported as an mp4, the crop will instead produce a a rectangle that's to the left of the person.

[Steve Grisetti]

Are your photos resized to no larger than 1000 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall (since you're working in standard definition)?

Have you turned off the Scale to Frame Size preference, either in the program's Preferences prior to importing your photos into your project or individually by right-clicking on each photo on your timeline and unchecking the option?