[Solved] Quality Loss When Exporting 4K Videos from Premiere
Being familiar with Adobe software, I understand the challenges you face when editing 4K resolution videos. It can be frustrating to invest time and effort into editing, only to end up with exported videos that have noticeably degraded quality.
In related forums, many users often highlight issues such as reduced resolution, diminished saturation, contrast, and sharpness, as well as jerky playback. These are the aspects that users find most intolerable. Therefore, it’s essential to delve into this matter and examine it closely.
Possible Reasons for Quality Loss after Exporting the 4K Video
Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional video editor, and there are plenty of parameters and settings you need to pay attention to. If the output quality is different from what you expected, there must be something wrong with editing presets or exporting settings.
1. Sequence resolution is different from exporting resolution.
Premiere Pro allows users to set a specific sequence resolution, which determines the quality and dimensions of the footage within the editing timeline. However, if the exporting resolution is different from the sequence resolution, it can lead to quality degradation during the export process.
For example, imagine you have a 4K video sequence with a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. However, when you go to export the video, you mistakenly select a lower resolution, such as 1080p (1920x1080 pixels). In this case, Premiere Pro will have to downscale the video to match the exporting resolution, resulting in a loss of overall image quality.
Look into these settings such as the width x height, frame rate, and bitrates. Make sure they are the same as the sequence settings. Avoid the settings to downscale the 4K video to 1080p, 720p, or other lower resolutions.
2. The bitrate settings are not proper.
Bitrate refers to the amount of data processed per second and is usually measured in kilobits per second (Kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps).
Higher bitrates generally result in better video quality as they allocate more data to each frame, preserving more detail, color accuracy, and overall visual fidelity. This is particularly important for 4K videos, which have a higher resolution and require more data to accurately represent the fine details.
Rendering a high-resolution video needs a higher bitrate to keep up with the information stored in the video frame. So quality loss occurs when you have a low bitrate to compress 4K videos.
Solution 1: Preset in Sequence Settings
Follow the instructions to match the sequence resolution to the output resolution:
Step 1. File> New> Sequence> Sequence Presets>Digital SLR>1080p 24
Step 2. Switch to Settings from Sequence Presets, and set Frame Size as 3840x2160.
Step 3. Hit OK to save the sequence preset.
This method is to check and fix quality loss caused by sequence settings. If it doesn’t help you out, please turn to the next solution.
Solution 2: Set Exporting Options
Step1. After editing, open File > Export > Media >Basic Video Settings. Set the width and height of the video to 3840 and 2160, and change the Frame Rate to 60.
You can refer to the summary info in the upper place if you are not sure about the source frame size and frame rate.
Step 2. Choose VBR 2 pass in Bitrate Settings, and set the target bitrate to 40, and maximum to 60.
If you are uploading a 4K video to YouTube, you have to set it much higher, because online video platforms will compress your video again.
Tips: If you mix videos of different resolutions, like 4K, 1080p, 720p, and others together, please select Use Maximum Render Quality to avoid quality degrading, saturation, and contrast loss.
Solution 3: Keep 4K Resolution Throughout the Process
Adobe Premiere Pro is a powerful and comprehensive video editor. However, when editing 4K videos, it only supports Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (CUDA).
If you need to simply cut, trim, and edit 4K videos, you can use VideoProc Converter instead. It supports level-3 full Hardware acceleration, for NVidia, AMD, and Intel. Making it one of the best 4K video editors.
Download and install VideoProc to export flawless 4K videos in a few clicks.
VideoProc Converter — A Powerful and Fuss-free 4K Video Processor
- Editing large 4K files smoothly with full GPU acceleration.
- Export 4K videos without compromising quality.
- A one-click video editor that can cut, trim, crop, denoise, and stabilize 4K videos.
- A powerful video converter that can convert DVDs, videos, audio files, and more.
Step 1. Download VideoProc Converter and launch this program and import 4K videos.
Visit the official site: https://www.videoproc.com/
Step 2. Follow your ideas to edit 4K videos: cut, merge, crop, rotate, add effects, and so forth.
Step 3. Double-click the desired output format listed in the lower Video box, and get to the Format settings. Choose 3840x2160 (4K) or keep the original resolution of 4K videos in Video Codec Options.
Step 4. Click RUN to export the video.
Final Words
VideoProc was specifically developed to cater to the editing needs of 4K videos captured by a range of devices such as iPhones, GoPros, DJI drones, DSLRs, and more.
It offers a comprehensive set of features, including the ability to convert videos to numerous formats, create backups of DVDs, record screens, and download videos from various online video platforms.
That’s all for troubleshooting problems of 4K quality loss after exporting from Premiere Pro. You can now confidently create and export your 4K videos while maintaining their intended clarity, sharpness, and overall visual excellence.