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Export settings

Last updated on Oct 18, 2024

Detailed reference of all the export settings available in Premiere Elements.

Video

Video settings vary based on the export format you have chosen. Each format has unique requirements that determine what settings are available. For more information, see Supported file formats.

Note:

Some capture cards and plug-in software provide their own dialog boxes with specific options. If the options you see are different from the options described here, see the documentation for your capture card or plug in.

Basic Video Settings

The Match Source option lets you automatically match export settings to the source’s settings.

Formats that support Match Source:

Animated GIF
BMP
GIF
H.264

MPEG-2
PNG
QuickTime
JPEG

Note:

If the current format does not support an exact match to the source's settings, a value that best matches the source's setting will be used.

Match Source presets

Match Source presets are useful when you want to pass a few video attributes from the source, and select specific values for the other attributes. You can save the Match Source setting as a new preset and apply them to any source.

By default, Premiere Elements includes a few adaptive Match Source presets for the H.264 format in the Preset menu:

Match Source - Adaptive High Bitrate
Match Source - Adaptive Medium Bitrate
Match Source - Adaptive Low Bitrate

These presets will match most settings to the source and also adjust the bitrate based on the source's frame size. This allows for higher quality video while maintaining smaller file sizes and export times.

Match Source Rewrap presets

Certain formats like QuickTime include a Match Source (Rewrap) preset that allows video frames to "pass-through" the export pipeline without re-encoding from the source. This allows for faster exports and no loss of video quality.

Note:

Rewrap presets can only be applied to sources that match the codec of the preset.

The Frame Size menu contains a list of common video frame sizes to choose from:

4K
UHD
Quad HD
Full HD
HD
SD NTSC Wide
SD NTSC

Exact pixel dimensions are shown for each setting (width x height)

You can also choose Custom to set your own width and height for the exported file. Drag the hot-text controls to quickly adjust Width and Height settings, or click in each field to type in your own values. To constrain aspect ratio while adjusting frame size, make sure the lock icon is enabled.

Note:

Some formats and codecs only support a limited range of frame sizes.

Frame Rate dictates how many frames of video are shown per second during playback. In general, higher frame rates produce smoother motion, although choosing a frame rate that is different from the source media’s frame rate may produce unwanted motion artifacts. Keep in mind that some formats and codecs only support a specific set of frame rates.

Specifies whether the exported file has progressive frames or frames made up of interlaced fields.

Progressive is the preferred setting for digital television, online content, and film.
When exporting to interlaced formats such as NTSC or PAL, choose Upper First or Lower First to set the display order of interlaced fields.

Premiere Elements automatically sets this value to match the source's field order when set to Match Source.

The pixel aspect ratio of the video. Pixel aspect ratio (PAR) describes the ratio of width to height of a single video pixel. Digital video formats like HD, 4 K UHD, and 8 K typically have square pixels (PAR 1.0), while analog formats like NTSC and PAL have rectangular pixels. Exporting at PAR different than the source media’s PAR may distort the video image.

When enabled, Render at Maximum Depth will render effects using the highest bit depth supported by the current format (in most cases, 32-bit float processing).

Retaining more color information from the source video can help reduce banding artifacts in areas with smooth color gradients and retain more detail in areas with bright highlights and dark shadows.

In some scenarios, enabling Render at Maximum Depth may increase encoding times. Also, systems with GPU acceleration enabled will always render effects at the highest bit depth available regardless of this setting.

This option helps preserve details and avoid aliasing when scaling to a frame size different from your source media—for example, exporting from a high-resolution 4-K sequence to a lower resolution HD or SD format. It can also affect how scaling, rotation, and position transformations are rendered in sequences. Enabling this option can improve quality but keep the following in mind:

Export times can increase significantly, especially on systems without a supported GPU.
Systems with supported GPU hardware automatically use maximum render quality if Renderer is set to Metal, CUDA, or OpenCL.

This option can be used for sources that contain an alpha channel. When enabled, only the alpha channel gets rendered in the output video and a grayscale preview of the alpha channel is shown. This setting is useful when exporting to formats that don't support transparency info. You can use the alpha channel-only output to define transparent areas of your video in third-party applications.

Time Interpolation comes into play when the frame rate of your exported media is different from your source media. For example, if your source sequence is at 30 fps but you want to export it at 60 fps. Time Interpolation generates or removes frames by the following methods:

Frame Sampling – Duplicates or removes frames to achieve the desired frame rate. This option may produce stuttered or jittery playback on some footage.
Frame Blending – Adds or removes frames by blending them with adjacent frames, which can result in smoother playback.
Optical Flow – Adds or removes frames by interpolating the motion of pixels from surrounding frames. This option produces the smoothest playback usually, although artifacts may be introduced if there is significant difference between frames. Try using one of the other time interpolation settings if this error occurs.

Encoding Settings

You can prepare the video for output by specifying preferred formats.

(H.264 only) – Hardware Accelerated is the default choice, which tells Premiere Elements to use available hardware on your system to speed up encoding times.

Hardware acceleration depends on your system’s configuration.
If your system does not support certain export settings, the Performance menu switches automatically to Software Only.

Common h.264 profiles include:

Baseline – The simplest profile used by video conferencing and similar devices that require fast decoding speeds.
Main – A common profile used primarily in SD broadcasting.
High – A widely supported profile used by most HD devices.
High10 – An extension of the High profile that supports 10 bit decoding.

Limits the range of choices available for Frame Size, Frame Rate, Field Order, Aspect, bit rate, chroma, and other compression settings. Generally speaking, higher-level settings support larger video resolutions.

Note:

If you’re unsure which Profile and Level to use, enable Match Source to have Premiere Elements choose the best setting based on the properties of your source media.

The color space used for the exported file. Defaults to Rec. 709 for most presets.

Note: For some formats, you’ll need to enable other export controls to access additional Export Color Space choices:

H.264: Set Profile to High 10
QuickTime - Apple ProRes: Enable Render at Maximum Depth checkbox

HDR Graphics White describes the target luminance for the appearance of a solid white color in an HDR scene. Since HDR can be much brighter than SDR, recommendations on luminance have been established based on viewer comfort.

HDR Graphics White is also sometimes referred to as Diffuse White. For camera exposure in HLG production, ITU recommends exposing cameras so that a white card hits the 75% IRE mark on the waveform. This leaves room for specular highlights to go above that and yields an image that is not too bright to look at comfortably.

Solid white graphics elements, like text, should be set to 75% of the HLG signal as well: this is where the setting gets its name, Graphics White. If you set white text at 100% luminance (1,000 nits for HLG or 10,000 nits for PQ), this may result in uncomfortable brightness levels for the viewer.

HDR10 uses the PQ transfer function and adds five pieces of metadata. These are user-entered values; no content analysis is performed. The purpose of this metadata is to provide the HDR playback device with details about your content so that it can be displayed properly and look its best.

This is the color gamut of the HDR monitor used while grading your content. Obtain this value by reading the technical specifications for your monitor. It has a drop-down list with three options. The possible values are: Rec.709, P3D65 (default), Rec. 2020.

This is the minimum capable luminance of the HDR monitor used while grading your content. Obtain this number by reading the technical specifications for your monitor. This is a numerical input with scrubbable hot-text. The default value is 0.0050. The range is 0.0005 - 0.05.

This is the maximum capable luminance of the HDR monitor used while grading your content. Obtain this number by reading the technical specifications for your monitor. This is a numerical input with scrubbable hot-text. The default value is 1000. The range is 100 - 4000.

This is the maximum luminance of the content in your program. Enter the luminance of the brightest part of your program. While the HDR10 standard accounts for luminance ranges all the way up to 10,000 nits, there are no consumer panels that can deliver this brightness. It is generally recommended to keep the luminance for HDR10 content at or below 4000 nits. The HDR display will use this value to tone map your program into the range of the display so no highlights are clipped. It is the maximum level of light. It is similar to Luminance Max.

It is the maximum average level of light per frame. The HDR display will use this value to tone map your program into the range of the display so your program looks the same as when you were mastering it. This value can significantly alter the appearance of your content and it is recommended to test playback on the intended display to be sure everything looks as you intend.

Bitrate Settings

Bitrate is the amount of data in a video or audio signal measured in bits per second. Generally speaking, higher bitrates produce better quality video and audio, while lower bitrates create media that is easier to play back over slow Internet connections.

Specifies the encoding method used to compress the video/audio signal.

CBR (Constant Bit Rate) - Sets a constant value for the data rate. This option can shorten export times but may impact the quality for more complex frames.
VBR (Variable Bit Rate) - Dynamically adjusts the data rate based on the complexity of the video/audio signal. This option produces higher overall quality at smaller file sizes but may increase export times.
- VBR 1 Pass versus 2 Pass – 1 Pass encoding analyses the entire media file from beginning to end to calculate a variable bit rate. 2 Pass encoding makes two passes through the file, from beginning to end and then from end to beginning. The second pass lengthens encoding times but ensures greater encoding efficiency and often produces higher-quality output.

Note:

When comparing CBR and VBR encoding for a given media file, you can make the following generalizations: A CBR file can play back more reliably over a wider range of systems because a fixed data rate is less demanding on media players and computer processors. However, a VBR file tends to have a higher image quality because VBR tailors the amount of compression to the image content.

Sets the overall bitrate for the encoded file. Video is measured in megabits per second [Mbps] while audio is measured in kilobits per second [kbps].

Advanced Settings

Key Frame Distance: Enable this option to specify how often keyframes (aka I-frames) are inserted in your exported video. A lower keyframe value generally results in a higher-quality video but may increase file size. When disabled, Premiere Elements chooses the appropriate keyframe distance based on the export format and frame rate.

Audio

Audio Format Settings

Formats like H.264, and MPEG2-DVD support multiple audio formats. For these formats, a menu appears, allowing you to export to different audio formats.

Basic Audio Settings

Specifies the audio compression codec. Some audio formats support only uncompressed audio, which has the highest quality but uses more disk space. Some formats provide only one codec while others allow you to choose from a list of multiple codecs.

The frequency at which audio is converted into discrete digital values, is measured in Hertz (Hz). Audio recorded at higher sample rates produces better quality but requires larger file sizes. For best results, you should export audio at the same sample rate it was recorded with. Exporting at a higher sample rate does not improve quality and requires resampling which can increase export times.

Specifies the number of audio channels included in the exported file. If you choose fewer channels than are in the Mix track of your sequence or media file, Premiere Elements down-mixes the audio. Common channel settings include Mono (one channel), Stereo (two channels), and 5.1 (six-channel surround sound).

Down mixing only works for specific channelization combinations, such as 5.1 to stereo, or stereo to mono. It does not work for N-Channel to stereo or mono.

Bitrate Settings

The Bitrate [kbps] is the output bit rate of the audio. Generally, higher bit rates increase both quality and file size.

Multiplexer

Formats like H.264 and MPEG include a Multiplexer section that controls how video and audio data are merged into a single stream (aka “muxing”). When Multiplexing is set to None, video and audio streams are exported as separate files.

For more information about MPEG options, see the relevant MPEG specifications for MPEG-4 (ISO/IEC 14496) and MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818) and the Wikipedia website.

The standard to which video and audio streams are multiplexed. Choices vary according to the format chosen. Some MPEG2 formats let you adjust bitrate, packet size and buffer size as well.

Specifies the type of device the media will be played back on (H.264 format only). Standard is the default setting.

These options determine how XMP metadata is saved with your exported file.

General

When this option is enabled, Premiere Elements exports using the preview files already generated for your Premiere sequence instead of rendering new media. This option can help speed up export times but may impact quality depending on your chosen preview format.

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Export settings

Video

Basic Video Settings

Match Source presets

Match Source Rewrap presets

Encoding Settings

Bitrate Settings

Advanced Settings

Audio

Audio Format Settings

Basic Audio Settings

Bitrate Settings

Multiplexer

General

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