FRAPS and Premiere issue - please help

rift · 03-02-2008, 07:44 PM

I record my FRAPS clips in WoW at Half size 1680x1050, which is 840x524.

I then set up my Adobe Premiere Project to the same FPS, Pixel aspect ratio (square), and resolution as my source clips.

No matter what compression codec or setting I use, the rendered sequence always comes out blurred, with unreadable chat text and SCT text. You also cant read the player names in my unitframes, or in the Proximo window.

It even looks blurred in the preview windows before I render the project, although interestingly if I pause the preview sequence it reverts to a crystal clear image, similar to the source clip - but hit "play" and immediately the text loses all definition. I have no idea what is causing this.

Also, I have compressed the source clips using VirtualDub, Windows Media encoder 9, and WMM - the clips come out perfectly, with very clear text.

Unfortunately Premiere is the editing program Id like to use.

I have played with every single setting I can find, and surfed the net for hours trying to find an answer to this problem with no joy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

stormrager · 03-02-2008, 10:54 PM

The reason why it looks blurred in the preview window is the fact that there are 3 different quality settings for the preview window. Yours is mostly likely set on "auto quality". To change this right click on the preview window and choose Best. For the rendered quality is most likely because you recorded at half size which is not the best option to record with.

Sheril · 03-03-2008, 04:46 AM

Through my trial, I found that Premiere cannot encode a perfect video with xvid or h264. If you prefer to render a wmv video, File-export-Adobe media encoder, then select the windows media, use two-pass variable constrained bitrate.
Of course you can export a lossless avi file and then use VirtualDub or MeGUI to encode it with other codecs.

rift · 03-03-2008, 08:12 AM

Thankyou both for your responses.

Stormrager - thanks for the tip, ill try adjusting the preview quality. WRT to the recording resultion - its difficult to describe, the quality I get out of compressing via *any* other program is vastly superior to anything I get out of Premiere. I dont believe that the source clips are the problem. (Thanks for trying to help me though!)

Sheril - I have tried everything you mentioned there, unfortunately to no avail. Eventually I tried exporting lossless with no compression, but the resulting files would not play properly and generated errors.

Thanks again guys, I hope to resolve this somehow!

Sheril · 03-03-2008, 06:20 PM

Could you tell me which version did you use? Then I can paste some screenshots of export-settings for you to solve the problem

rift · 03-03-2008, 08:16 PM

Its Premiere Pro CS3

Thiras · 03-03-2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rift

Eventually I tried exporting lossless with no compression, but the resulting files would not play properly and generated errors.

What errors? You should use a lossless codec (lagarith/huffyuv) rather than uncompressed, should save you some headaches.

Sheril · 03-04-2008, 04:37 AM

WMV settings (The easiest way)

There's something wrong with my pr cs3 recently, so I use 2.0 instead.

Sheril · 03-04-2008, 04:46 AM

Uncompressed is huge of filesize, you'd better use lagarith/huffyuv codec as Thiras said.

rift · 03-04-2008, 06:23 AM

Ahh I see, will definitely try that then.

Thank you both again.

PS Sheril - I will give those settings a go, but Im not holding out hope as Im sure I have tried them already.

03-02-2008, 07:44 PM	#1
rift Initiate Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 8	FRAPS and Premiere issue - please help I record my FRAPS clips in WoW at Half size 1680x1050, which is 840x524. I then set up my Adobe Premiere Project to the same FPS, Pixel aspect ratio (square), and resolution as my source clips. No matter what compression codec or setting I use, the rendered sequence always comes out blurred, with unreadable chat text and SCT text. You also cant read the player names in my unitframes, or in the Proximo window. It even looks blurred in the preview windows before I render the project, although interestingly if I pause the preview sequence it reverts to a crystal clear image, similar to the source clip - but hit "play" and immediately the text loses all definition. I have no idea what is causing this. Also, I have compressed the source clips using VirtualDub, Windows Media encoder 9, and WMM - the clips come out perfectly, with very clear text. Unfortunately Premiere is the editing program Id like to use. I have played with every single setting I can find, and surfed the net for hours trying to find an answer to this problem with no joy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

03-03-2008, 04:46 AM	#3
Sheril Initiate Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 22	Through my trial, I found that Premiere cannot encode a perfect video with xvid or h264. If you prefer to render a wmv video, File-export-Adobe media encoder, then select the windows media, use two-pass variable constrained bitrate. Of course you can export a lossless avi file and then use VirtualDub or MeGUI to encode it with other codecs. __________________ www.zinstudio.cn ,welcome.

03-03-2008, 06:20 PM	#5
Sheril Initiate Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 22	Could you tell me which version did you use? Then I can paste some screenshots of export-settings for you to solve the problem __________________ www.zinstudio.cn ,welcome.

03-04-2008, 04:37 AM	#8
Sheril Initiate Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 22	WMV settings (The easiest way) There's something wrong with my pr cs3 recently, so I use 2.0 instead. __________________ www.zinstudio.cn ,welcome.

03-04-2008, 04:46 AM	#9
Sheril Initiate Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 22	Uncompressed is huge of filesize, you'd better use lagarith/huffyuv codec as Thiras said. __________________ www.zinstudio.cn ,welcome.

03-02-2008, 10:54 PM	#2
stormrager Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 156	The reason why it looks blurred in the preview window is the fact that there are 3 different quality settings for the preview window. Yours is mostly likely set on "auto quality". To change this right click on the preview window and choose Best. For the rendered quality is most likely because you recorded at half size which is not the best option to record with.

03-03-2008, 08:12 AM	#4
rift Initiate Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 8	Thankyou both for your responses. Stormrager - thanks for the tip, ill try adjusting the preview quality. WRT to the recording resultion - its difficult to describe, the quality I get out of compressing via any other program is vastly superior to anything I get out of Premiere. I dont believe that the source clips are the problem. (Thanks for trying to help me though!) Sheril - I have tried everything you mentioned there, unfortunately to no avail. Eventually I tried exporting lossless with no compression, but the resulting files would not play properly and generated errors. Thanks again guys, I hope to resolve this somehow!

03-03-2008, 08:16 PM	#6
rift Initiate Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 8	Its Premiere Pro CS3

03-04-2008, 06:23 AM	#10
rift Initiate Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 8	Ahh I see, will definitely try that then. Thank you both again. PS Sheril - I will give those settings a go, but Im not holding out hope as Im sure I have tried them already. Last edited by rift : 03-04-2008 at 06:25 AM.