Curiosity motivated explorations into
- How many individual video or still clips could be dragged from Premiere Elements 15's Project Assets to its project's Timeline before the Timeline would not accept any more files?
- For import into Premiere Elements 15's Project Assets, is there a size limit for media related to file size and resolution (Video) or pixel dimensions/total pixel count (for Stills, more specifically jpeg photos)?
The earlier (May 29, 2014) work PE: Max Still Image Size details how success or failure of jpeg still import into Premiere Elements 32 bit system is related to the total pixel count of the jpeg rather than the pixel dimensions of the jpeg. Further it was found that Premiere Elements 64 bit project would import successfully a jpeg still at least as great as 10000 x 7500 pixels. Also noted, no more jpeg 3264 x 2448 pixels (3 MB file size) files could be added from project media to the project's Timeline when the Timeline total media duration reached 23 to 24 hours; this was done using a Still clip model rather than a Video clip model.
ISSUE
The existence of any video size limitation as well as still size limitation was explored using Premiere Elements 15 64 bit as the model.
EXPLORATIONS
Summary of Findings
Be it video or jpeg, no further addition of clips could be made to the Premiere Elements 15 Timeline at about the 23 to 24 hours mark.
A 24 hour video was exported as 1920 x 1080p/H.264.mp4 successfully from the Timeline, and that 24 hour export was subsequently imported successfully into a new project's Timeline.The export time for the 24 hour video Timeline was about 48 hours. The import of that export did import into a new project; however, the import into Project Assets was delayed.
Details
Computer resources. Premiere Elements 15 on Windows 7 Professional SP1 64 bit. Intel Core i3 CPU 550 @3.30 GHz. 8.00 GM (7.80 GB usable, about 5 GB available). Local Drive C free space about 700 GB.
Exploration of Limit for total Timeline Duration/Clip Used
AVC Format/avc1 codec ID and .mov file extension*
1280 x 720 pixels, 19.51 MB file size, 29.97 progressive fps, duration about 14 seconds, pixel aspect ratio 1.0, bitrate variable with overall bitrate about 12 Mbps. Audio had PCM format with codec sowt.
Note: With this one, no more repeating clip additions could be made after the 23;59;56;07 Timeline time. The automatically set project preset after clip import into the project was NTSC/AVCHD/AVCHD LITE 720p30.
AVC Format/avc1 codec ID and .mov file extension*
1920 x 1080 pixels, 45.25 MB file size, 23.976 progressive fps, duration about 11 seconds, pixel aspect ration 1.0, bitrate variable with overall bitrate about 35 Mbps. Audio had PCM format with codec sowt.
Note: With this one, no more repeating clip additions could be made after the 23;59;55;17 Timeline time. The automatically set project preset for clip import into the project was
NTSC/DSLR/1080p/DSLR 1080p24.
AVC Format/avc1 codec ID and .mp4 file extension*
3840 x 2160 pixels, 725 MB file size, 29.97 progressive fps, duration about 28 seconds, pixel aspect ration = 1.0, bitrate variable with overall bitrate about 225 Mbps. Audio had AAC format with codec 40.
Note: With this one, no more repeating clip additions could be made after the 23;59;38;12 Timeline time. The automatically set project preset for import of the clip into the project's Project Assets was
NTSC/AVCHD/QFHD 16x9 29.97.
JPEG Image
3264 x 2448 pixels, about 3 MB file size, duration 5 seconds as set in Preferences.
Note: With this one, no more repeating clip additions could be made after the 23;59;56;12 Timeline time. The automatically set project preset for import of the clip into the project's Project Assets was
NTSC/AVCHD/Full HD 1080i30.
Exploration of export 24 hour Timeline and subsequent import of that export into a new project's Timeline.
The above described max'd out 1920 x 1080p 29.97 Timeline with total duration 23:59;55;55 was exported to obtain a 24 hour video clip to use to test the possibility of its import into a new Premiere Elements project. For this exploration, the export settings were: Premiere Elements 15/Export & Share/Devices/Computer/HD 1080 1920 x 1080 with settings MP4 - H.264 and frame rate 24 fps.
When the Quality setting was set at low (resulting bitrate = 5 Mbps), the file size estimate was 53.14 GB** (Destination was Local Drive C/Video with hard drive 700 GB free space). If only the first 6 hours of the 24 hour version were exported with the Quality setting at mid range (resulting bitrate = 15 Mbps), the file size was 41.16 GB. (Destination was Local C drive/Videos with hard drive with 700 GB free space.) The Timeline content was exported as the 24 hour version (export time = about 48 hours***) and later as the 6 hour version (export time = about 39 hours).
COMMENTARY
Just because you can does not mean that you should. Pushing the program performance beyond the limitations of a computer's resources can confuse the conclusions, that is, an Adobe built in "cannot do" operation versus successful operation that takes a lot of time in order to complete because of conforming and other reasons.
Work in progress to confirm or refute some curious multiplexing that took place in one variation of the explorations not described above.
________________________________________________________________________________
*Property readings were from MediaInfo software.
**If Quality setting would have been set at mid range, the resulting bitrate in this case would have been 156.1 GB file size.
***Export stopped at 98% with 5 seconds remaining. Cancel was used to get out of that situation. Yet, the completed export was found saved and stored at the hard drive location designated in the export set up.
ATR
