Lossless

[Jriker1]

I thought I was using lossless in handbrake for a while now to generate MP4 intermediate files for Premiere only to realize one time looking at the logs that I wasn't. Even though you set CQ to 0 and it says lossless, unless you set the H.264 profile to Auto it will create some other variant that isn't lossless.

Anyway, so I figured that out and now have a lossless file. I can't play in in Windows Media Player and Premiere Pro CC craps out on it. What codec do I need to install to get this to work? Assuming some variant of X.264 but if my system can open basic X.264 files created from Handbrake why not lossless?

Note on Windows 7 64-bit system.

Thanks.

JR

[Deleted User 11865]

Lossless H.264 uses a special lossless profile (High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile). You want something that lets you use the libavcodec H.264 decoder in Windows Media Foundation based applications. Not being a Windows expert, I'm not sure what choices are available or which would be best.

[Jriker1]

Thanks Rodeo. Yeah, I'm finding it challenging finding any data on how to play this format which makes this lossless kind of unusable. Hopefully someone has an idea how to play it. Nice if Handbrake supported like MagicYUV or Lagarith even. Something that seems more compatible.

JR

[mduell]

This is not a HB question, you'll probably have more luck on video editing forums. You just want to know how to get H.264 High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile support in Premiere, which is not HB (or x264) specific.

[Jriker1]

Thanks for the reply mduell. I do not fully agree with you but don't want to start an argument. I feel if Handbrake has chosen a particular format for their lossless encoding, they should support or at least know of methods for using it. After all what good is a tool like handbrake if the resulting output is not usable. Hate to think Handbrake decided on a particular lossless format to use and didn't know what or if it was supported in other tools like Windows. I can't use it at all in Windows, not just in Premiere. I will look elsewhere for answers based on your post, but already knew that info and didn't really find anything useful in searching around.

JR

NOTE: One copy of Premiere Pro CC can open it, however everything is black and white.

[Deleted User 11865]

We didn't choose a lossless format, we chose a video encoder. If you want we can give you a build with lossless H.264 disabled.

[mduell]

I doubt support "in Windows" was even a consideration when HB selected x264 for their H.264 encoder, or when x264 implemented a lossless output. IIRC VLC for Windows supports H.264 High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile, so you could try that to view the HB output.

If your editing software doesn't readily support lossless H.264, you could try RF=1.

[Deleted User 13735]

Yeah, I'm finding it challenging finding any data on how to play this format which makes this lossless kind of unusable.

I wouldn't expect playability to be a concern for using any lossless codec. Portability and compression efficiency are what define digital intermediates, not deliverability.

[Jriker1]

Yeah, I'm finding it challenging finding any data on how to play this format which makes this lossless kind of unusable.

I wouldn't expect playability to be a concern for using any lossless codec. Portability and compression efficiency are what define digital intermediates, not deliverability.

But what good is portability if you can't do anything with it. Hey, I have this lossless video, looks just like the original. But I can't play it, modify it, edit it, convert it to anything else. Oh wait, do I actually have anything then? If there is truth in what I just said, then perhaps it doesn't make sense to leave it in there.

JR

[Deleted User 13735]

If you want to play back use a lossy delivery format.
If you want to port your video to another platform or NLE, use a lossless intermediate.
I'm surprised PP doesn't support HiP444. But RF 1 is so close youll never know a difference.