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1. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Harm Millaard Jun 15, 2009 8:17 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)Why don't you tell your sound man to get a PC? End of all troubles and cheaper too, with more expansion options.
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2. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 15, 2009 8:40 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)It wouldn't be of much use since Premiere's CS4 h264 I export don't playback on either Mac or PC in QT.
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3. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Harm Millaard Jun 15, 2009 8:43 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)In that case, if you persist in using Quicktime, why don't you ask Apple to improve their software?
PC users often have serious trouble with QuiRktime as it is called.
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4. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 15, 2009 8:59 AM (in response to Harm Millaard)I didn't start this thread for Mac/PC comparison.
Premiere's exporting something that doesn't work, and this thread is about this.
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5. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Harm Millaard Jun 15, 2009 9:13 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)This thread is about the shortcomings of QUIRCKTIME. Nobody here can do anything about Apple deficiencies. You need to contact them. EOS.
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6. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
JSS1138 Jun 15, 2009 11:27 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)I can play file back in Premiere and Windows Media Player, but not Quicktime.
Like Harm says, that does suggest the issue is with Quicktime.
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7. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 15, 2009 1:50 PM (in response to JSS1138)It would suggest an issue is with QT, if it wasn't for the fact that QT playback other h264 encoding that aren't from Premiere (ADOBE), like the export of another project my soundman can playback perfectly that is in h264 with same spec as mine, except that it wasn't encoded by Premiere, but by Sorenson 3.
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8. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
JSS1138 Jun 15, 2009 5:19 PM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)The fact that some files play and some don't is still a good indication that the problem lies with the Quicktime player, especially since two other players work fine.
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9. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 17, 2009 6:16 AM (in response to JSS1138)found this interesting thread on creativecow about QT problem with Premiere h264 encoding.
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10. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Harm Millaard Jun 17, 2009 6:39 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)Yes, it confirms QuiRckTime's problems.
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11. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Colin Brougham Jun 17, 2009 7:00 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)Frederic,
I've tried 16 ways from Sunday to try to replicate what you're seeing (or rather, not seeing). No matter what settings I choose in AME to encode to H.264, I always get playback in QT Player. What I find curious is that you're able to playback an H.264 file in Windows Media Player--right out of the box, this can't happen, as WMP doesn't come with an H.264 decoding component. If you're playing back on your Adobe box, then WMP will utilize the MainConcept AVC and AAC decoders... as I just discovered
Anyway, back to the matter at hand, can you describe or post a screenshot of what your settings look like in AME when you setup an encode for H.264? Might give some hints...
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12. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 17, 2009 11:25 AM (in response to Colin Brougham)Thank you Colin for your interest.
Which version of QT are you using ?
If I understand the link I posted correctly version above 7.4.5 of QT do not interact well with encoding used by Premiere.
Here's the info QT movie inspector gives me:
H264, 360x240, Millions
Movie fps: 29.97
Playing fps: 29.97
Data size: -1878167542 bytes
Data rate: 2.93 mbits/sec
AME summary is this:
format h.264
preset custom
NTSC
360x240
29.97, lower, standard 4:3
main profile
level 3.1
VBR 1 Pass, Target 3,00, Max 6,00 (Mbps)
no audio exported, just video
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13. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Colin Brougham Jun 17, 2009 12:11 PM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)Frederic,
I'm running 7.6.2 with no major issues that I'm aware of. It's possible that 7.4.5 is the cause of your issues.
I just tried encoding using the very same settings that you're using (which are a little bizarre, I might add, but we can address that later), and it worked just fine for me:
Of course, it could be the source footage that is the issue, but I intentionally tried to throw something weird (widescreen MPEG-2 ripped from a DVD with AC3 audio) at AME to get it to trip up, and it worked just fine.The major thing that jumps out at me based on what you reported is the "Data Size" entry--that's just messed up. Data Size is the file size of the video. The fact that QT is reporting a very large negative number indicates that something is wrong with the file. Using Explorer, what is the file size actually reported as?
Now to address your settings: in my view, you've got a mismatch of settings that are somewhat overkill. I need to ask: what are you doing with this H.264 file? Is this a final version you're posting somewhere on the web, or is it a review copy you're sending to someone? First of all, the bit rate is much too high for the frame size of the video you're exporting. Next, the PAR (pixel aspect ratio) really should be set to square for anything that doesn't match NTSC/PAL/HD frame sizes. Finally, encoding as an LFF/UFF file and not as a progressive file may be causing some headache, especially at the non-video-standard frame size.
I'm happy to suggest some alternate settings, but let me know first what you plan to do with this file, ie. what kind of quality do you need?
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14. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 17, 2009 1:11 PM (in response to Colin Brougham)Ok this file is for my sound editors which work in Logic Pro on a Mac; this setting is taken directly of a TV spot clip from a sound post facility that one of them was given to work on sound for.
I follow these setting cause Logic wouldn't load my FLV I exported at first.
The timeline is 1h50 minutes, exporting a normal sized clip is way to big to allow good workflow for them, and use less since they minimize it to about 360x240 size anyway...
I'd be happy to know about setting you'd be willing to suggest, since those obviously don't work.
Here's a pic of my QT settings:
The file size in Windows Explorer is :
2 364 786 KB
BTW my QT is 7.6.2 (515), I was refering to forum link above that said that Premiere seems to have trouble with QT version above 7.4.5.
Thank you.
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15. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Colin Brougham Jun 17, 2009 1:12 PM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)First things first: have you tried exporting a portion of your timeline (only a couple of seconds) using the same settings to see if that works? I'm wondering if you've just reached/breached some sort of practical file size limit that QT player just can't handle. Try a 5-second chunk of your timeline, and see what happens.
Practically speaking, you could lower your bit rate to something like 500-750kbps vs 3000kbps and see very little difference in the two files, especially if they are only for reference. The frame size of an encoded video has no direct bearing on its file size, whereas bit rate is the single most relevant factor.
You could also set the encoding to progressive instead of lower field first, unless there is some technical reason for sound cueing that I'm overlooking. Likewise, changing the PAR to square and setting your frame size to 320x240 will result in a somewhat easier-to-decode file, and will help to optimize the H.264 encoding. Again, unless there is some technical reason not to do this (seems to me that frame rate would be the only key factor here), you'll get decent/better results.
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16. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 17, 2009 2:45 PM (in response to Colin Brougham)I'll test that and post back answer.
About file cap size, I'm not sure, since I've exported QT DV of 25 GB (tI also made an h264 from that export which didn't work either) of same timeline and was able to play them back in QT; feels ludicrous that the HD format could handle less file size...
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17. Re: Premiere's H264 plays with no image in Quicktime
Frédéric Leclair Jun 25, 2009 7:19 AM (in response to Frédéric Leclair)I've tried your setting.
I've exported a QT DV NTSC for my sound editor, it's 23 GB but it playsback well on his MAc, he'll be able to use compressor to encode it in an h264 that works on his computer.
Maybe Apple with release something that fixes QT.
Are you on a Mac ? Maybe been on Mac or PC has an impact somehow on the type of encoding QT uses to export h264s... or does Premiere use same regardless of the computer it's on...





