“Hi, I have some footage that I took with my iPhone Pro Max 11. It’s 4K and the codec is HEVC. When I import the footage into Premiere it only recognized the the file like it’s an audio track, no video. I don’t think Premiere likes that codec. What should I be doing to make it work or do I need to recode these files before I import? If recode, which program should I use? I need something that works in a workflow and one off recoding will be a PITA!”
It’s probably Variable Frame Rate (VFR) which does not play nice with NLEs. Something like HD Video Converter can make it constant frame rate.
Learn how to fix this up via transcoding HEVC for Premiere Pro CC 2020 editable files.
How to convert HEVC x265 video for smooth editing within Premiere Pro?
Here’s what you need
HD Video Converter (simply download the proper version depending on your computer’s OS)
Step 1: Start up HD Video Converter as an HEVC H.265 to Premiere Pro Converter.
Step 2: Click ‘Add File’ to import your source media to the program.
Step 3: Select output format
* If you are on a Windows PC, from the “Profile” bar, choose ‘Avid DNxHD 1080p (*.mov)’ as output under ‘Avid Media Composer’ column. (See the screenshot above)
** If you are on a Mac computer, choose ‘Apple ProRes 422 (*.mov)’ as target under ‘Final Cut Pro’ catalogue.
*** Note that this converter program can only output Apple ProRes and DNxHD video up to 1080p, if you want to preserve 4K quality of your source files, you need to select “4K Video” > “4K H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Video (*.mp4)” as target format. To export 4K files, please make sure your computer has enough power to process 4K. If not, simply select Apple ProRes or DNxHD as output format depending on your OS.
Step 4: Custom video and audio settings (for advanced users)
Click ‘Settings’ button, the ‘Profile Settings’ panel pops up, on which you are able to modify video and audio settings like resolution, bit rate, frame rate, sample rate and audio channel.
Step 5: When ready, click ‘Convert’ to start transcoding HEVC H.265 files to Premiere Pro supported format. As soon as the conversion is complete, click ‘Open Folder’ button to locate the generated files and now you are able to open them in Premiere Pro for further editing smoothly.
Also read
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