Adobe Premiere & Premiere Pro discussions from 2004

[Richard Maloney]

If your offline, you want to make your machine (OS) as lean as possible so no anti virus, no spyware (theres no connection so...???), no nothing! Disable all erroneous services (if your unsure do it one by one). Defrag your HD every so often, (getting that raptor drive is good advice you could get the smaller one if fine). Check what is loading at startup- task manager? There are lots of good sites about tweaking your computer for speed. XP lite is a nice little program for windows XP that gets rid of Messenger and things like that.
Do a search/look at the help files for optimal setup of each application.
Have fun with your new machine! 2.8 Zeons? Nice!

[Glenn Chan]

I've tried the disabling services thing and it doesn't make a measurable difference on render times. Disabling unnecessary programs does help (i.e. whatever unnecessary non-XP software Dell puts on their systems).

Disabling services may improve your amount of free RAM a little bit, but usually you have an overkill of RAM.


IMO you should focus on tweaks/improvements that do make a difference.

overclocking - Overclocking will definitely speed up your computer (measurable and noticeable difference in render times), but I don't necessarily recommend it. You can't do this on a Dell.

Big hard drives- Saves time since you can leave old projects lying around for temporary archival. It can also save you if you run out of space.

Dual monitors

for Premiere, I'd look into hardware acceleration cards.

[Miguel Lombana]

I run a very similar configuration (my tag line describes my setup) ... and i just reformatted about 3 weeks ago to keep my system fresh as well I upgraded to 1.5.

First and foremost, the machine is not connected to the net <period!>, I just re-installed XP - PRO and all my Canopus drivers along with Adobe and the warez necessary. However, no upgrades or updates from the web for XP and if any driver updates are needed for my Canopus product I picked them up on my other machine and burne them to CD, again this machine is virgin, no chance of Spyware, no chance of viruses (unless induced by the Adobe product) no chance for failure from an outside influence.

Now for drive setups... the way the machine shipped may not be the 'truly best' config for your use. I always opt to reformat my drives and install the bare minimum services, software and max memory (2 gigs), heavily partitioned hard drives to keep video and software seperate. My setup is as follows:

Drive 1 partition 1 = Drive C (XP 15 gigs)
Drive 2 partition 1 = SWAP DRIVE (8 gigs / 4 used XP Limit)
Drive 1 partition 2 = Reserved for video STORAGE (MPG etc.)
Drive 2 partition 2 = All video editing and projects

Also config your Premier to setup for the correct drives and directories, if you delete the prefs file this will revert back to default which is drive c and the My Documents folder.

I also agree with the suggestion of Dual monitors, I run a Radeon 9800 Pro which not only supports dual mons, but also Canopus real time effects so no rendering.

Finally or back to the services issue, log on to www.blackviper.com and see his suggestions to disable services that weigh down your machine. Do you really need Zero Wireless config on a desktop that is not 802.11b equipped and not online with the web, NO, turn it off!

Now one question, aren't the Xeon pro's 64bit/ do they run Premier?

[Jim Gunn]

I started with Premiere 6.5 early last year, and I just upgraded to Pro 1.5 from Pro 1.0 and I like it and use it every day. I'm surprsed so many of you are using capture cards like Matrox. I just use firewire from my dv deck with great results.

[Jun Tang]

Hey Pat,
Since matrox didn't work with your system. What kind of system do you have. I was thinking of getting it too, but would have to purchase it and not be compatible.

I have a
Tyan 2462 dual 1.2 Ghz athlon mp

[Andrew Paul]

I use premire pro and now and again, for really quick edits I might use studio 9. In the grab footage section of studio 9 you can grab a single frame from the live camera and save it a picture file, you can then move something abit and take another picture and so on until I have enough frames for a short animation. Is it possible to grab a single frame from a live camera in premiere. I`m using a Canon XL1s which does not have single frame mode.

Just in case I don`t make sense, when I say live camera, I mean one that is on an pointing at something but no film in it.

Thanks Guys

[Ed Smith]

Hi Andrew,

As far as I am aware of, the feature does not exist in Premiere Pro. If you have an old version (6.5 or earlier) then it is possible.

You can capture in, say a 5 sec clip and then export from it a single frame. You can not do it from live capture.

Thanks,

[Jason Leonard]

okay, and now for the stupid question of the day:
i'm about to shoot a project and i'm thinking that rather than shoot in actual 16:9 to achieve the letterbox i might just shoot in 4:3 and put in the black mattes in post.
my question is how do i do that. does premiere have a preset for that, like a black bars mask, or do i have to make one myslef in photoshop or something? i'm confused and frustrated. thanks in advance.

[Rob Lohman]

I'm not sure, but you can get some masks from my calculator
if you want to: www.visuar.com/letterbox/calc.htm

[Ed Smith]

I just went to Adobes website and found out that they are selling a cut down version of Premiere - Premiere Elements. The good thing about it is that for £100 you get Photoshop Elements as well!!!

http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/prem.../overview.html

Should also mention that it should be released at the end of October...

Cheers,

[Richard Lewis]

Sony has been including Premiere Elements on their VAIO laptops for a few months now. (Which we sell at work)

Anyway, I had a little play...

No ability to create a second timeline, but alot of the features are still there.

I don't think that there are as many transitions or effect controls.

Some of the menus look a bit simplified.

However, for basic stuff, I don't think you can go far wrong for £100

[Eric Chan]

Just wondering how many of you PPro users out there satisfy with its slow motion performance in terms of picture quality/smoothness... Do I need any special plug-in to achieve a quality slow motion effect other than the one embedded in PPro?

I have tried using Vegas to compare the same slow motion attribute and I found that Vegas has a much better looking slow motion footage.

[Christopher Velasco]

I regret posting my question in the "general" section of NLE.
Sorry for the re-post, but perhaps this is a better home for it.

____________________________________________________
I did a search on "Slow Motion" and "Smoother Slow Motion" and read a bit on it...
But I'm not quite "getting it" I guess....
I shot some footage using an XL-1 in 60i with the intent on editing in Premeire 6.5 (because I remember reading that shooting it interlaced will later help with slowmo).
I've also read a bit about some plug-ins, including Twixtor...
(which are some major $$$).
With 60i footage, and Premiere at my side, can you recommend some procedures to produce "smoother" slow motion? The footage has no sound... Some of it is rather slow at full speed (People walking) and some of it is faster, (water falling from a rag being squeezed).

Thanks in advance...
CMV
____________________________________________________

[Jason Leonard]

thanks rob.

[Christopher Velasco]

Just as another comment...
while filming the slow motion sequences, I was trying to still get a good DOF... so I used the onboard NDFilter... opened the Iris up as much as possible and lowered the shutter speed until I got a nice exposure. I've also read that a low shutterspeed is better for eventually slowing down...
Thanks for your help.