Best Output Settings for Adobe Premier Elements 2.0 with a Sony DCR-DVD 203 Video Cam

Raj O Mac · #1 (**permalink**) 11-08-2006, 11:24 AM

I am currently working on a project for a film class I am taking and not that it is entirely necessary but I would like it to look as good as reasonably possible. Premier Elements' (2.0) general setting in regards to frame size is 320 x 240 but this is quite small. I later learned that you can create your own "rules" and I exported my movie at 600 x 520 but this is now causing problems with some dark scenes which are suddenly and rapidly hit with light (it's a lightsaber battle), it causes them to create a large number of artifcats (completely blurring out any real facial detail) that take on the color of the "light" that pass into frame. Is this just some mess up during exporting the film or is it a cause of the way I shot the film. I am thinking the latter but that does not explain why it was not doing it on the lower resolution video file. Does anyone know how, if possible, I can fix this problem and also what are just some general tips about the output settings for Adobe Premier E. with my camera DCR-DVD 203, if there is some kind of specialized settings, or just some tips in general.

Thank you,
Raj

P.S. I am hardly an editing expert, I just know how to do what I need to do, so feel free to assume I have not done minor/obvious fixes for video quality issues. Most of that is far too techincal for me so I don't mess with it at all.

(I apologise for this being in the incorrect sub-heading

. I didn't see that one when I posted this at like 4 in the morning.)

miwhel · #2 (**permalink**) 11-08-2006, 08:26 PM

check your cam manual and find out the res that the camera records at and use that res to set up your project in PE. becaus you are exporting at a size larger than the project settings this will cause artifacts and also the camera records in mpeg which can also cause artifacts if it runs out of data on fast movie scenes like lightsaber fights.

Check that the camera is set on high quality and if it has a shutter speed adjustment, raise this to about 1/250 for fast moving scenes. this will help to keep the picture sharp and reduce blurring and artifacts.

Raj O Mac · #3 (**permalink**) 11-09-2006, 08:02 AM

Thank you so much for the quick reply. Maybe you or someone else can help me a little further, I am reading through my manual (the end specifications part) but I am having trouble decipering any useful information and the manuel does not seem to talk about resoultution or frame size anywhere. The specifications could be where the information is but I can't pick out what I need. A picture of the specs page is below.

miwhel · #4 (**permalink**) 11-09-2006, 04:46 PM

You are in NTSC land so the res that the camera uses will be 720x480. when you setup the new project in pe choose NTSC DV this will give you the correct res for the video your shooting. The editing could be a bit jerky as pe is a DV editor, but should handle DVD files ok.