Downscaling 4K footage to 1080

fallinggirl · Jan 16, 2017

I am using Premiere CS6 and i have a ton of 4K footage that i would like to downscale to 1080p. The problem is that there is no way to change sequence settings in CS6. But even if there were i heard that downscaling is very complicated and results in artifacting.

With that being said, is there a standalone program i can use to downscale footage? I can't take the horrendous artifacting (boxy looking) that i get when i render 4K to 1080 in Premiere. It makes the footage unusable.

Also, do you recommend another NLE. I just asked this in another post in the Newbie section. I was wondering if i would get better results in Lightworks or DaVinci Resolve. What are the pros using as their NLE. I'm a VFX/3D artist and my forte is nodal animation programs and After Effects. The final editing is an entirely different animal.

BTW, i really appreciate your time in helping me with this. I joined this forum with this question in mind. I am hoping to get some good recommendations on a better NLE.

shortboy · Jan 16, 2017

Because I've never worked with 4K footage I don't know how it'll look, but have you tried just selecting all the footage in the timeline and right clicking Scale to Frame Size?

fallinggirl · Jan 16, 2017

Actually i haven't but its a good idea. The problem is that i think it will result in artifacting just like it does if i take the 4K footage alone and export it to 1080

jax_rox · Jan 16, 2017

I don't use Premiere so I'm not sure - but can you simply put 4K footage into a 1080p sequence, forcing the conform?

fallinggirl · Jan 16, 2017

What do you use because it destroys the footage in Premiere?

Sweetie · Jan 16, 2017

is there a standalone program i can use to downscale footage

Within the Adobe suite, Prelude combined with Media Encoder are your go to applications. Not sure if they're available in CS6. That package is 5 years old, a couple of years before I was working with 4k. The render engine has had at least a couple of complete rewrites since CS6.

You could use FFMPEG. It's not the easiest program to use, it's cross platform, command line based and free. It may not completely solve your problem, but it might.

when i render 4K to 1080 in Premiere. It makes the footage unusable.

It could be the settings you're using, it could be the older render engine that CS6 uses causing your issues. Posting the settings and screenshots may help with the guess of what's wrong.

If you're having troubles with that software, I'd advise you to upgrade to CC or consider Avid or Final Cut. They're the three editing options used by most pros these days.

Lightworks or DaVinci Resolve. What are the pros using as their NLE

Don't know much about Lightworks. It used to be used a tiny bit. You don't really hear people suggesting it these days.

For editing, Resolve is the new kid on the market. It's getting better with each version, but it's still well behind the market leaders. Give it two or three more years and they'll probably have mostly caught up.

It's an established Color Grading program and can definitely help you with your transcode. You probably won't need to buy an expensive license from them to go to 1080p. You'll have to check their documentation to see if the free version lets you import 4k footage.

can you simply put 4K footage into a 1080p sequence, forcing the conform?

With recent versions you can, with older versions YMMV. Whether you need to use a work around depends on what hardware you have. You'll have a few choices. Work with 4k footage and use a 1080p time line and Scale the footage. Work with 4k footage on a 4k timeline and export to 1080p. Transcode, edit, export to 1080p and let the finishing program link to original media. Transcode, link to original media, work with the transcode resolution and export to 1080p, or use the internal transcode system, so it links itself and export to 1080p. There are a lot of other options, but those are the basic options.

I am hoping to get some good recommendations on a better NLE.

Premiere Pro is now boasts one of the richest feature sets has one of the gentlest learning curves. The two biggest benefits for you is it can handle more types of footage well than any other... and it integrates with After Effects better than any other NLE.

Hope you work it out.

Perhaps if you supplied a sample, I could guess less

DeJager · Jan 16, 2017

Edit the 4k footage on a 4k timeline and export to 1080p within Encoder.

p38 · Jan 16, 2017

If you had used EDIUS 7PRO editor, you'd not have many problems like this with other NLE.
The only thing it won't do is AE plug in and some other plug in programs.

fallinggirl · Jan 16, 2017

Thanks for all the responses. This gives me a good starting point to resolve my problem. I am also trying ffmpeg. I'm converting some video right now. I'll let you know how it turns out. This forum is great!