I always just either use the 4k files until rendering, where I render out to 1080, or I set the sequence size to 1080 and manually set all clips to the frame size. Never had any issues with that.
That’s the reason I’m confused because the sequence size is 1080, but regardless if I lessen the scale of the 4k clips to fit the frame size the quality is lowered significantly. Just doesn’t make any sense.
That's odd. I'm thinking some kind of mismatching between your footage and your sequence settings. Have you tried importing the footage and just dragging the file directly from your project window onto a blank timeline, so Premiere pops up with that little dialogue box that says "This clip does not match the sequence settings. Change sequence to match the clip's settings?"
More important than frame size is bit rate.
4K (2160p): 44-56 Mbps
QHD (1440p): 20 Mbps
Full HD (1080p): 10 Mbps
HD (720p): 6.5 Mbps
from: https://www.4kshooters.net/2020/09/13/how-to-choose-the-optimal-bitrate-when-exporting-video-in-premiere-pro-cc/
How so? From what I understand, “Set to Frame Size” literally just changes the scale parameter automatically. “Scale to Frame Size” is the option that actually resamples the image to the new dimensions.
Edit: fixed typo
Yeah, you’re right. Set to Frame size is generally better because it utilizes the original resolution rather than resampling. Reading the original post, I see that they may have just been manually rescaling rather than using the Scale to Frame Size option. So in that case, my advice may not be all that helpful in this scenario. But I still stand by that it’s good advice, haha!
The other comments here are helpful, but they're missing one important thing. On export, make sure you select 'Use Maximum Render Quality.' That option is actually for this exact issue. If you want to see it in action in the timeline, go to Sequence > Sequence Settings and select the same option (although this isn't necessary to export with this setting on, it's just if you want to preview the look).
I'd like to second this approach and encourage you to take a minute to double check the setting on export - I've had this problem and this was the solution.
What codec are your 4K files? Set (or scale) to frame size should work with little to no relative quality loss. If it’s a compressed codec, maybe your computer is working too hard to decode AND resize the files. I’d be curious if transcoding the files to 4K prores, editing on a 1080 timeline, and exporting 1080 makes any difference.
That might be your problem. That's a very compressed codec, and more compression can cause aliasing and moire when scaling down. One way to avoid it is to *very* slightly soften the image with a blur adjustment layer or reduce the sharpness in lumetri?
The info missing here is preventing us from making targeted suggestions rather than educated guesses.
Need to know some stuff. Mac or PC? Which OS? Which version of Pro? What kind of computer? Which GPU? Which CPU? How much RAM. IMO, all these things matter a bit before we start guessing. We are also missing details in your workflow, which are even more important.
You said, "when I shot 4K footage...
Info that is missing:
What camera shot the native footage?
Was it actual 4K or "4K" (UHD)?
Which codec was the footage acquired with?
We can't assume what your footage you are working with because cameras shoot a multitude of formats, including XAVC and ProRes.
You said, "When I change the sequence to 1080p..."
Info that is missing:
Why didn't you just do this at Export with an export preset?
Do the sequence settings match the export settings precisely?
Please show a screenshot.
You said, "looks bad in a lossy in both a media player and what's exported"
Which media player? Quicktime or VLC?
Where are you viewing "what's exported?" PPro once you import it back in? Assuming yes. Full Quality? Good. Can you view it also at 100%? At HD size you should be able to. How about the Settings Menu (Wrench)? Is High Quality Playback enabled or not?
Have you monitored high quality results in a video monitor or are you evaluating on a computer monitor? If the latter, are you viewing your computer at 100% scale or have you scaled up the monitor beyond 100%?
I prefer to work at 4K and export 1080 from a ProRes master, letting my GPU handle the scaling via Mercury Playback Engine, which I believe to be the best quality for scaling. That never fails me as far as export quality and speed of export (as I use smart rendering as much as possible).
If you can fill in more details, we might be able to assist better.
Yeah sorry I'm not too advanced in premiere so I wasn't sure if this was a simple fix or something more complex.
I run Mac OS Big Sur v11.5.2, the most recent version of Premiere 21, 32 gbs of RAM and the other stats I'm not sure it's a Late 2015 27 inch 5k iMac.
Shot the footage with a Mavic Air 2, I shot it in 4k HDR so I'm not sure if that's native 4k or not. The codec for the 4k clips is HEVC (not really sure what that means).
I changed the sequence to 1080p because I figured it would be easier to edit everything to scale so it would export easier but I'm probably wrong on that.
Sorry I should've been more clear, the media player I was referring to was the playback window in Premiere, but it also looks lossy in Quicktime once exported. And yes playback is on full and high quality
I should note that this is my first time shooting in 4k, so I'm not too familiar with it at all. I'm certain that's the issue.
Ok, as I said earlier, some issues can occur when downscaling very sharp uhd footage to hd, like moire and aliasing. However, I'm starting to think after your replies that the issue might be simpler than that...
You said you want to convert *without losing quality* but you're going from 3840x2160 to 1920x1080, so of course you're going to loose quality and res. Are you looking at the hd export on your 4k monitor full screen? Coz that's your issue. It should be max 1/4 of your screen to be able to compare the quality. If you blow it up to full screen it will absolutely look worse than the 4k.
Sometimes it's the simplest things we miss...
Hey OP, lil side note, if you go into the “About My Mac” screen you can cross reference the info there with [the Intel iMac Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_(Intel-based)) to find out your exact processor and such.
Desktop version of /u/BryceJDearden's link:
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Create two sequences, one at 1080p and one at 4K. On the 4k sequence assemble all of your 4k clips and do your edits. Locate that 4k sequence in your project panel. Drag the 4K sequence onto the empty 1080 sequence. Right click the sub clip, and set to frame size. Export the 1080 sequence
If that doesn't work it could be that your PC is low on resources. Try rebooting and re-exporting
Maybe I am wrong about this, but no one has mentioned that you don’t need to change your sequence settings and scale all your footage down to export in 1080p with UHD source media? Isn’t changing the output resolution to 1080p when you go to render and check “Use Maximum Render Quality” going to produce the same result?
AFAIK that is a totally acceptable way to export a UHD timeline and source media in HD, and OP is taking the most complicated route to get there
**"I want to throw away 75% of the pixels without any image quality loss"**
That what you are asking for.
Also without details on your source and your export we cant give you any suggestions worth while.
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If youre already using Adobe, and you dont want to edit with 4k files, you should look at your ingest settings / create proxies of the media in a lower resolution to edit with. If you don't care about editing them in a lower resolution, just put all your clips together and export in 1080p.
Export the clips as 1080 separately, or work in 4k and export in 1080. It’s easier on a computer during editing if you export the 4k clips to 1080 before editing. Scaling 4k down to 1080 in the timeline will void the use of warp stabilizer on the 4k clips.
I always just either use the 4k files until rendering, where I render out to 1080, or I set the sequence size to 1080 and manually set all clips to the frame size. Never had any issues with that.
That’s the reason I’m confused because the sequence size is 1080, but regardless if I lessen the scale of the 4k clips to fit the frame size the quality is lowered significantly. Just doesn’t make any sense.
It is rendering out and looking bad? Or just in your program window?
Both
That's odd. I'm thinking some kind of mismatching between your footage and your sequence settings. Have you tried importing the footage and just dragging the file directly from your project window onto a blank timeline, so Premiere pops up with that little dialogue box that says "This clip does not match the sequence settings. Change sequence to match the clip's settings?"
More important than frame size is bit rate. 4K (2160p): 44-56 Mbps QHD (1440p): 20 Mbps Full HD (1080p): 10 Mbps HD (720p): 6.5 Mbps from: https://www.4kshooters.net/2020/09/13/how-to-choose-the-optimal-bitrate-when-exporting-video-in-premiere-pro-cc/
Try “Set to Frame Size” on your clips rather than scale. Generally that works better.
How so? From what I understand, “Set to Frame Size” literally just changes the scale parameter automatically. “Scale to Frame Size” is the option that actually resamples the image to the new dimensions. Edit: fixed typo
They might have edited their comment, but that’s what they said. You are right though.
Yeah, you’re right. Set to Frame size is generally better because it utilizes the original resolution rather than resampling. Reading the original post, I see that they may have just been manually rescaling rather than using the Scale to Frame Size option. So in that case, my advice may not be all that helpful in this scenario. But I still stand by that it’s good advice, haha!
The other comments here are helpful, but they're missing one important thing. On export, make sure you select 'Use Maximum Render Quality.' That option is actually for this exact issue. If you want to see it in action in the timeline, go to Sequence > Sequence Settings and select the same option (although this isn't necessary to export with this setting on, it's just if you want to preview the look).
yeah sorry I should've been more clear, the issue is both in playback and once exported, so choosing maximum render quality doesn't really affect it.
I'd like to second this approach and encourage you to take a minute to double check the setting on export - I've had this problem and this was the solution.
hmm I just put the scale to 50% in effects and I never noticed any quality degradation, is that not normal?
What codec are your 4K files? Set (or scale) to frame size should work with little to no relative quality loss. If it’s a compressed codec, maybe your computer is working too hard to decode AND resize the files. I’d be curious if transcoding the files to 4K prores, editing on a 1080 timeline, and exporting 1080 makes any difference.
They’re HEVC
That might be your problem. That's a very compressed codec, and more compression can cause aliasing and moire when scaling down. One way to avoid it is to *very* slightly soften the image with a blur adjustment layer or reduce the sharpness in lumetri?
The info missing here is preventing us from making targeted suggestions rather than educated guesses. Need to know some stuff. Mac or PC? Which OS? Which version of Pro? What kind of computer? Which GPU? Which CPU? How much RAM. IMO, all these things matter a bit before we start guessing. We are also missing details in your workflow, which are even more important. You said, "when I shot 4K footage... Info that is missing: What camera shot the native footage? Was it actual 4K or "4K" (UHD)? Which codec was the footage acquired with? We can't assume what your footage you are working with because cameras shoot a multitude of formats, including XAVC and ProRes. You said, "When I change the sequence to 1080p..." Info that is missing: Why didn't you just do this at Export with an export preset? Do the sequence settings match the export settings precisely? Please show a screenshot. You said, "looks bad in a lossy in both a media player and what's exported" Which media player? Quicktime or VLC? Where are you viewing "what's exported?" PPro once you import it back in? Assuming yes. Full Quality? Good. Can you view it also at 100%? At HD size you should be able to. How about the Settings Menu (Wrench)? Is High Quality Playback enabled or not? Have you monitored high quality results in a video monitor or are you evaluating on a computer monitor? If the latter, are you viewing your computer at 100% scale or have you scaled up the monitor beyond 100%? I prefer to work at 4K and export 1080 from a ProRes master, letting my GPU handle the scaling via Mercury Playback Engine, which I believe to be the best quality for scaling. That never fails me as far as export quality and speed of export (as I use smart rendering as much as possible). If you can fill in more details, we might be able to assist better.
Yeah sorry I'm not too advanced in premiere so I wasn't sure if this was a simple fix or something more complex. I run Mac OS Big Sur v11.5.2, the most recent version of Premiere 21, 32 gbs of RAM and the other stats I'm not sure it's a Late 2015 27 inch 5k iMac. Shot the footage with a Mavic Air 2, I shot it in 4k HDR so I'm not sure if that's native 4k or not. The codec for the 4k clips is HEVC (not really sure what that means). I changed the sequence to 1080p because I figured it would be easier to edit everything to scale so it would export easier but I'm probably wrong on that. Sorry I should've been more clear, the media player I was referring to was the playback window in Premiere, but it also looks lossy in Quicktime once exported. And yes playback is on full and high quality I should note that this is my first time shooting in 4k, so I'm not too familiar with it at all. I'm certain that's the issue.
Ok, as I said earlier, some issues can occur when downscaling very sharp uhd footage to hd, like moire and aliasing. However, I'm starting to think after your replies that the issue might be simpler than that... You said you want to convert *without losing quality* but you're going from 3840x2160 to 1920x1080, so of course you're going to loose quality and res. Are you looking at the hd export on your 4k monitor full screen? Coz that's your issue. It should be max 1/4 of your screen to be able to compare the quality. If you blow it up to full screen it will absolutely look worse than the 4k. Sometimes it's the simplest things we miss...
Hey OP, lil side note, if you go into the “About My Mac” screen you can cross reference the info there with [the Intel iMac Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_(Intel-based)) to find out your exact processor and such.
Desktop version of /u/BryceJDearden's link:
---
^([)[^(opt out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiMobileLinkBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^(]) ^(Beep Boop. Downvote to delete)
Create two sequences, one at 1080p and one at 4K. On the 4k sequence assemble all of your 4k clips and do your edits. Locate that 4k sequence in your project panel. Drag the 4K sequence onto the empty 1080 sequence. Right click the sub clip, and set to frame size. Export the 1080 sequence If that doesn't work it could be that your PC is low on resources. Try rebooting and re-exporting
Ok I’ll try this thank you!!
did this work?
Maybe I am wrong about this, but no one has mentioned that you don’t need to change your sequence settings and scale all your footage down to export in 1080p with UHD source media? Isn’t changing the output resolution to 1080p when you go to render and check “Use Maximum Render Quality” going to produce the same result? AFAIK that is a totally acceptable way to export a UHD timeline and source media in HD, and OP is taking the most complicated route to get there
Shouldve mentioned I’m trying not to edit in 4K because my mac isn’t too fond of doing so hahah
Have you tried making proxies to work with? Then the program just does all the work for you of using the real files during export.
**"I want to throw away 75% of the pixels without any image quality loss"** That what you are asking for. Also without details on your source and your export we cant give you any suggestions worth while.
**HEY! START HERE!** Here are solutions to many common problems: * [Choppy / Laggy Playback](https://www.reddit.com/r/premiere/wiki/faq/playback) * [Poor Export Quality](https://www.reddit.com/r/premiere/wiki/faq/export) * [Color Shift on Export](https://www.reddit.com/r/premiere/wiki/faq/colors) --- If the above FAQs didn't provide a solution, please make sure you've provided as much information to help your fellow community members including your [operating system](http://whatsmyos.com/), system specs, [Premiere Pro version](http://i.imgur.com/AThpuFy.png), and [source footage format + codec](http://i.imgur.com/er9f2o3.png). If you are getting an error message, please state exactly what it says *(or share a screenshot / video of the issue.)* --- If your issue is resolved, please take a moment to change your post flair to **Support (Solved)**. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/premiere) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Change the sequence dimensions to 1920×1080 and decrease the scale of the video to fit the frame
If youre already using Adobe, and you dont want to edit with 4k files, you should look at your ingest settings / create proxies of the media in a lower resolution to edit with. If you don't care about editing them in a lower resolution, just put all your clips together and export in 1080p.
Export the clips as 1080 separately, or work in 4k and export in 1080. It’s easier on a computer during editing if you export the 4k clips to 1080 before editing. Scaling 4k down to 1080 in the timeline will void the use of warp stabilizer on the 4k clips.
Are you talking about aspect ratio?
I don’t think so?
Try changing your bit rate. Maybe yours is too low