What's the best way to retain the film's grain when exporting on Adobe Premiere? All my exports have the picture looking kind of soft comparing to the original file. I'm exporting using H264 codec. And if possible I'd like to avoid ultra gigantic files.

(2021-10-28, 05:50 PM)JackForrester Wrote: What's the best way to retain the film's grain when exporting on Adobe Premiere? All my exports have the picture looking kind of soft comparing to the original file. I'm exporting using H264 codec. And if possible I'd like to avoid ultra gigantic files.

You have to increase the bitrate - the bigger the more grain retained.
I'd say around at least 15/20mbps for HD 1920x1080, less for letterboxed.

(2021-10-28, 05:56 PM)spoRv Wrote: You have to increase the bitrate - the bigger the more grain retained.
I'd say around at least 15/20mbps for HD 1920x1080, less for letterboxed.

It's letterboxed (1920x816). I'll try 20mbps as target and 40 as maximum. 
Will it make a huge difference if I use the 2 pass option?

Add Voukoder plug-in encoder as Premiere's built-in H264 encoder is rubbish (as you mention you don't want to export using gigantic pro-res or similar lossless) and export to X264 mp4 (to avoid skipped frames) at CRF-16 (or at worst CRF 18, no need for double pass) using either very slow or slow and changing the remaining parameters of X264 to best/perfect ones listed here in encoding forum. If film is especially grainy you could use Tune:Grain to preserve as much as possible.

(2021-10-28, 05:50 PM)JackForrester Wrote: What's the best way to retain the film's grain when exporting on Adobe Premiere? All my exports have the picture looking kind of soft comparing to the original file. I'm exporting using H264 codec. And if possible I'd like to avoid ultra gigantic files.

Personally I always export from Premiere as prores (usually 422 HQ) and then encode to H264 using ripbot, just depends if you have the space to temporarily store the prores file.

A little info in regards to Prores

Prores 422 HQ is in most cases absolute overkill. It should only be used when you need to color grade. If you need to do extensive color grading and/or vfx work, go with Prores 4444. If you just edit, then Prores 422 is the best option in regards of space and quality for anything like HD or 4K. You can go with Prores 422 LT on SD sources.

(2021-10-28, 09:00 PM)bendermac Wrote: A little info in regards to Prores

Prores 422 HQ is in most cases absolute overkill. It should only be used when you need to color grade. If you need to do extensive color grading and/or vfx work, go with Prores 4444. If you just edit, then Prores 422 is the best option in regards of space and quality for anything like HD or 4K. You can go with Prores 422 LT on SD sources.

Yeah I imagine that's the case, but I've got the space and it was always only a temporary file between Premiere and Ripbot, so was it never really an issue for me.

Told him to go with Voukoder as he already mentioned he doesn't want gigantic files, so its his best option.

(2021-10-28, 08:54 PM)alleycat Wrote: Personally I always export from Premiere as prores (usually 422 HQ) and then encode to H264 using ripbot, just depends if you have the space to temporarily store the prores file.

Prores makes files way too big for my HDD

(2021-10-28, 07:56 PM)X5gb Wrote: Add Voukoder plug-in encoder as Premiere's built-in H264 encoder is rubbish (as you mention you don't want to export using gigantic pro-res or similar lossless) and export to X264 mp4 (to avoid skipped frames) at CRF-16 (or at worst CRF 18, no need for double pass) using either very slow or slow and changing the remaining parameters of X264 to best/perfect ones listed here in encoding forum. If film is especially grainy you could use Tune:Grain to preserve as much as possible.

Thanks I'll try that