Adobe released a Help document dated October 4, 2017 and titled "Adobe Premiere Elements Does Not Export To 4K With High Bitrate". This document can be found HERE. In this document, Adobe points to the Issue as
Adobe Premiere Elements does not export a file to 4k with high bitrate (100 mbps), if you change the quality slider to high in Export & Share > Devices > Computer.and gives an issue solution related to the setting of the project's Hardware Acceleration preference. The document's "Applies to:" information = Premiere Elements.
For important background information on the Hardware Acceleration preference of Premiere Elements 13/13.1 and later, please see
PE 13/13.1: Hardware Acceleration Preference (August 23, 2015)
http://atr935.blogspot.com/2015/08/pe-13131-hardware-acceleration.html
ISSUE
The principles for the Issue and Solution given by Adobe in this October 4, 2017 "Premiere Elements" document may or may not exist, but surely there exists flaws in the details given for the Issue.
- In spite of the document's generalized "Applies to: Premiere Elements", it is not clear if the basic issue applies only to Premiere Elements 2018 or to Premiere Elements 13/13.1, 14/14.1, and 15 as well as 2018. See point 3 related to bitrate choice when Quality is set for low, mid, or high.
- For the "export a file to 4K", the Adobe document's Figure for the Export & Share/Devices/Computer/ shows HD 1080 1920 x 1080 (MP4 - H.264) selected and not the 4K Ultra HD 3840 2160 (MP4 - XAVC-S).
- The Premiere Elements 2018 4K Ultra HD 3840 2160 Quality choice offers bitrates of low = 40 Mbps, mid = 60 Mbps, and high = 100 Mbps (classically, Mbps = megabits per second). In contrast*, Premiere Elements 14/14.1, and 15 each has 4K Ultra HD 3840 2160 Quality bitrate values of low = 30 Mbps, mid = 100 Mbps, or high = 200 Mbps.
RESULTS
With the Hardware Acceleration preference active, no problems were encountered exporting the Premiere Elements 2018 Timeline full 4K video to a 4K file set for video bitrate = 100 Mbps in Export & Share/Devices/Computer/4K Ultra HD 3840 2160 settings. The successful export to 4K file included
- Export with Duration = 1 minute 21 seconds/File Size = 970 MB with burn time about 28 minutes
- Export with Duration = 2 minutes 42 seconds/File Size = 1.93 GB with burn time about 54 minutes
- Export saved to and found in the designated Documents on the Local C drive, and exported file playable with the QuickTime player v 7.7.9.
Details
Premiere Elements 2018 Expert workspace with Edit Menu/Preferences/General with a check mark next to the preference "Use Hardware Acceleration (Intel HD Graphics 2000 and newer)"
Source video file used in these preliminary tests was a Panasonic GH4 4K video/audio file with the following properties**
Video Codec = avc1 with File Extension = .mp4
Frame Size = 3640 x 2160 pixels
Frame Rate = 29.97 fps with Frame Type = Progressive
File Size = 97.26 MB
Pixel Aspect Ratio = 1.0
Bitrate = 30.0 Mbps
Duration = 27.27 seconds
Bitrate = 157 Kbps with Maximum Bitrate = 237 Kbps
Sampling Rate = 48.0KHz
Tests were run with either 3 or 6 of this file on the Premiere Elements 2018 Expert workspace Timeline. Computer was Windows 10 Home 64 bit.
COMMENTARY
My studies did not confirm the Issue reported by Adobe in its document
"Adobe Premiere Elements Does Not Export To 4K With High Bitrate". Consequently, more information from Adobe is needed to understand the conditions that caused Adobe to publish this document.
The overall impression is that this Adobe document used Premiere Elements 2018 for its model. More work needs to be done to determine if this specific Adobe Hardware Acceleration preference issue exists in versions of Premiere Elements earlier than 2018. As an aside, I have seen reports of a Hardware Acceleration preference issue involved in other problems in versions of Premiere Elements earlier than 2018. Refer to Introduction from HERE.
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*In contrast to 2018, 15, and 14/14.1, Premiere Elements 13/13.1 has Publish + Share/Computer/XAVC-S and presets (two of which are MP4 - H.264 3840 x 2160 29.97p 30 Mbps and MP4 - H.264 3840 x 2160 29.97p 200 Mbps). In 13/13.1, this 4K export bitrate can be customized to 100 Mbps or higher in the Advanced/Export Settings dialog of the XAVC-S palette.
**Properties are from MediaInfo program.
Updates on this topic will be reported immediately as they develop and are seen.
ATR
