Basic Video Settings

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.

Match Source

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

Formats that support Match Source: 

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 Pro 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 MXF OP1a, QuickTime, and DNxHR/DNxHD MXF OP1a 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.

Frame Size

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.

Frame Rate

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.

Field Order

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.

For more information, see

• Interlaced versus non-interlaced video
• Interlaced video, non-interlaced video, and progressive scanning

When set to Match Source, Premiere Pro automatically sets this value to match the field order of the source. For more information, see Interlaced versus non-interlaced video.

Aspect

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.

For more info on aspect ratios, see these pages:

• Pixel aspect ratio 
• Working with aspect ratios

Render at Maximum Depth

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.

Transparency

This option enables you to export GIFs with transparency. You have three transparency options to choose from:

• None: No transparency.
• Dithered: This creates a pattern of transparent pixels to simulate the full range of alpha values.
• Hard Edges: This creates transparency based on a 50% alpha threshold.

Use Maximum Render Quality

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.

Render Alpha Channel Only

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 like MXF 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

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.