Brandon,

Your machine is under the min spec required by Adobe. This might be (part of) the problem.

I recommend that you download Aspect HD from CineForm and use the capture app that is part of this app called HDLink. (HDLink works outside Premiere, although you lose batch capture capabilities). On underspec machines it is useful to do a two-pass capture with HDLink. 1) Capture the TS stream from the camcorder, and 2) in a second pass convert the stream into the CineForm avi needed by PremPro. (HDLink allows you to do the capture as a single capture/convert step or use two separate steps.) They offer a 15-day free trial.

If you decide you aren't interested in the other performance features of Aspect HD, HDLink is also part of Connect HD, but without the RT PremPro features.

David.

Adobe Audition does have mackie control support and integrates with Premiere Pro, but PPro doesnt have direct support.

Chroma key/Green Screen problem
 

We recently did our first project with green screen. We lit the screen correctly, kept the talent 8 feet in front of the screen and lit her correctly. We did the editing in Premier 6.5 using some scanned photos for background.


The video looked great and the pictures were good as well. In a couple of spots there is still a small amount of green bleeding (the edge of her hand, forearm etc.) When we tried to adjust in Premiere the video became too transparent.


We've read and looked at the "Ultra Key" program, which claims to solve this problem. Also, we've heard that keying is easier in Premiere Pro.


Does anyone have experience and know what our best solution would be?


Thanks in advance,


Bruce Yarock

IMO Premiere/PPROs keyer lacks in numerous areas. I have used many NLEs and PPRO probably has the worst keyer. If you have AE, then I would reccomend using AE for keying as it is a lot more flexible. I don't have any experience with Ultra, but from what I have seen and heard, it is great

I haven't used Premiere 6.5 in a long time, but is there any sort of Matte Choker or some kind of choke effect you can put on there? That will help reduce some of the green artifcats around your subjects. Also adjust the green hue on your subjects if there is any green reflection off the screen. Hope this helps a little.

Re: Chroma key/Green Screen problem
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Bruce S. Yarock :
We've read and looked at the "Ultra Key" program, which claims to solve this problem. -->>>

Did you go through the online tutorials for Ultra? The settings can be confusing.

We tried to use the online tutorial a while back, but had some problems.We'll try again.
Thanks for the idea.
Bruce yarock

Yup, I can capture the last few mins of the tape without any problems.
And I used Canopus' DVCapture, and was able to capture the whole tape without any problems.

Video Montage in Premeire 6.5
 

Hi, my sister is wanting me to make a video montage for her science class. She wants to have footage of various movies and such relating to vegetables. I told her that this may not be possible without After Effects, but I simply don't know. Would I be able to do this in 6.5 or will I need to upgrade to Pro and After Effects?

Video:

[ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]
[ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
[ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ]

Are you wanting to show multiple videos in a grid (each one of your numbers would be a different video) all playing at the same time? That kind of effect should be doable within Premiere.

To do so, use the motion control to resize the video to 33% (for a 3x3 grid) and move it to the proper location. Set the start and end positions to the same settings. You may have to play with the transparency settings to keep it from filling the rest of the frame with a solid color (blocking underlying tracks). Repeat with each clip, placing them onto separate video tracks.

I don't know how 6.5 fares, but save often in 6.0. Most of my crashes have occurred while doing stuff with three or more video tracks. One of these days I'll upgrade, but so far I've been able to get by.

Yeah, I'm wanting to do a grid and, yes, I'm using Premeire 6.5. Ok, I think that'll do the trick. Anybody else have any possible suggestions? Because I know how there are sometimes multiple ways to do something within Premeire.

OK, I followed all the instructions to the letter and it still isn't working. I now have full transport control while in HDV capture plus audio but can only see a green screen when HD footage is being played on the camera. Any other suggestions?

If you have the same problems with Aspect HD you can file a trouble ticket at www.cineform.com/support, otherwise you will need to contact Adobe (sorry I haven't heard of this fault.) If you download the Aspect HD trial you can also capture with HDLink.

full frames (uncompressed)
 

what are the minimun computer requirements for playing an avi uncompressed video?
I put this question because when I export to avi uncompressed (full frames) I get a "paused" playback.
Thanks for your answer.

AE Bug Fix
 

FYI to all,

There is a multi-language update to After Effects posted on the Adobe web site that is purely a bug fix. Current version is now 6.5.1.

Also, I see that a new version of Creative Suite is out: all apps in the suite, except the recently released Acrobat 7, are "CS2" now.

Not released or available. Merely "announced".

Should be shipping the new suite in May.

Quite so. It can be ordered now directly from Adobe and it will be "shipped by May 2005." Fry's Electronics in South Houston this morning is still selling the CS version...probably a few weeks before CS2 software hits retailer shelves.

FWIW, it looks like there are some nice enhancements from the quick look I took at the web site this morning, but didn't really see anything revolutionary, either.

PremPro Capture in quicktime (.mov)
 

I'm using a PC with PremPro1.5
In college I remember being able to capture in .mov format vs .avi--but now I dont see the option to capture dv footage in anything other than .avi

I prefer using quicktime over any windows based file stuff...

Is there any major difference between .mov and .avi (other than obvious platform relations)...?

Should I feel comfortable capturing in .avi? I intend switching to mac somewhere down the line....

Is it possible to capture .mov ?

any tips/pointers/clarifications are appreciated
~jeff
www.j-geissler.com

If you can capture it good with other tools it sounds like a PPro
problem. Again, make sure you are running the latest 1.5 update.
If that doesn't help it sounds like you are stuck capturing with
an external tool....

The main strain is on your harddisk, you can easily calculate the
rate yourself, like this:

resolution x 3 (bytes per pixel) x framerate

So:

(720 x 480) x 3 x 30 = 31104000 bytes per second

31104000 / 1024 = 30375 kilobytes (KB) per second

30375 / 1024 = 29.66 megabytes (MB) per second.

So for NTSC @ 30 fps you are looking at 30 MB/s. Not a lot of
harddisks can really sustain such rates etc. You will probably
need a RAID (striped) array to get this playing normally.

However, mostly this is just used to go from one program to
another etc. Not playback.

I don't think its possible to capture to .mov with PP1.5.

In terms of quality between mov and AVI there should not be any! Everybody on a PC platform will generally capture to AVI.

You can always export your movie to MOV if you need to view it on a mac.

cheers,

There are also lots of DV conversion tools out there that can
convert between one DV format and the other. From AVI DV,
to QuickTime DV, or just plain .DV etc. etc.

Capturing to AVI DV or MOV DV would be the same thing, they
are both just container formats encapsulating the DV stream.

You should also be able to output to a .MOV DV file with Premiere.

Multi-Camera using DVCAM & Premiere
 

hi all,

my next wedding is my first wedding i'll be doing using 2 cameras simultaneously (2 angles)

i'll be using 2 x PD150's in DVCAM mode using continuous timecode (the one that keeps running even when the camera stops recording or is switched off) obviously matching the 2 cameras timecode precisely before we shoot.

can premiere read the DVCAM continuous timecode when editing? also is there a way of capturing the footage in the NLE then having it lay it out for you automatically on the 2 tracks on the timeline? (because one camera will be start-stopping doing close-ups etc) so basically the gaps in the 2nd camera will be shown in the 2nd track also (i hope this makes sense)

also can premiere view both camera tracks in 2 monitor windows simultaneously so you can see both cameras at the same time?

obviously i'll be only using the main cameras audio & the 2nd camera's audio will not be used when editing.

any advice on doing this would be appreciated & if there are any better ways on doing this please do let me know....

thanks....

thanks guys. I knew I could export to .mov from avi...

I'm sure this question has been asked before- but if you rerender DV footage, lets say 3 times, does it recompress 3 times or does it just change anything you've done to the footage?

Thanks for the clarifications.

and another quick question:

Is .avi readable from most macs?

I think in this day and age a Mac (OS X?) can indeed read the DV
AVI files, or you can install something easily to get that supported.

A good NLE should only re-compress frames that have actually
changed, when you have straight cuts it should just put the
compressed frames back to back in the new file.

I'm not sure if Premiere actually does this when going from AVI to
MOV, however, most 3rd party tools who allow such conversions
do this without re-compression.

Premiere or AE updates???
 

Anyone heard anything/rumours about updates to the Video Collection anytime soon?

hi kent,
i'd like to know of any updates too as i'm considering buying the collection too in the next month or two...

I use uncompressed AVI almost exclusively. I was using a P3 733Mhz with 512MB SDRAM, and ATA/100 drives. I had my computer highly optimized (booted up Win2K using only 50MB RAM, or so. I was getting slightly choppy playback. However, if I did a clean boot and wasn't running anything but Premiere, it would play smooth.

Now I have a P4 2.8Ghz with 1GB of DDR2 memory, with a SATA drive. Also optimized running XP now with very little else going on. Very smooth, can even get away with some real time effects. Working in 24p instead of 30 or 60i means fewer frames to load off the disk, too.

Adobe released its creative suite 6 months before the video collection and estimating from their current release of the creative suite, looks like we might be seeing an upgraded version within 6-8 months

You know you're probably right on that. That stinks. Why would they put back to back marketing announcements out. Oh well, I guess I'll be waiting another 6 months. Encore really needs to be updated and Premiere is lacking in a number of places.

I'm not sure about DVCAM in continuous timcode, as I've never worked with it.

But assume the situation where you have scenes where timecodes between the two cameras aren't synced. Say you have

one scene that is 15 minutes long on two cameras. The workflow I suggest (without using additional software like

United Media's multicam) is from Jacob Rosenberg's Total Training DVDs (http://www.totaltraining.com). The workflow

may be in his book, Adobe Premiere Pro Studio Techniques

(http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?cid=54554&PAGE=PRODUCT&PROD_ID=893611&fp=F&siteID=oP5Nuw5q6fc-cgw.td696ytuj

ow9RntvZw&cid=60488&fp=F).

Put both 15 minute scenes in a sequence's timeline, one in video 1 track, other in video 2 track. Make sure they

are synced from the start, either using visual or audio cues. Also make sure the clips begin where you want them in

the timeline (set their in point to start in the beginning of the sequence.)

Select the Video 1 track (1st angle) by clicking on the Video 1 track box that precedes the actual track. From the

timeline, move the current-time indicator (CTI) to, say 8:00 in the timeline. Press T (or double click on the clip)

to *Match Frame*, where the source monitor matches the timeline monitor. Then go to File, Timecode, and type 8:00

and select "current time/frame". Now in the source monitor, the source footage timecode(1st angle) will match the

timeline timecode.

Select the Video 2 track (2nd angle), and repeat the same process (you can start at 8:00 or whatever). You have to

perform the match frame process, then change the timecode in your premiere project.

To double check, scrub to random spots on the timeline, using both video tracks. Press T, and make sure the source

footage's timecode maches the timeline's timecode. So 5:00 on both v1/v2 match the timeline, 10:35, 14:00, etc...

This way, you can use 3 point editing to set in/out points on the timeline monitor (say you set the in point on the

timeline for 6:30, and the out point for 6:45.) You can select either the 1st or 2nd angle (or n angles) in the

source monitor, and set the in point for 6:30. Overlay the source footage by pressing comma (period does insert),

and it appears on the timeline.

Match frame (in premiere pro) and 3 point editing (I think common to most NLEs) are hard concepts to explain here,

so I can imagine you easily confused :) There is also multicam software by United Media, although I've never used

it.

http://www.unitedmediainc.com/products/

I'm not sure about DVCAM in continuous timcode, as I've never worked with it.

But assume the situation where you have scenes where timecodes between the two cameras aren't synced. Say you have one scene that is 15 minutes long on two cameras. The workflow I suggest (without using additional software like United Media's multicam) is from Jacob Rosenberg's Total Training DVDs (http://www.totaltraining.com). The workflow may be in his book, Adobe Premiere Pro Studio Techniques (http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?cid=54554&PAGE=PRODUCT&PROD_ID=893611&fp=F&siteID=oP5Nuw5q6fc-cgw.td696ytujow9RntvZw&cid=60488&fp=F).

Put both 15 minute scenes in a sequence's timeline, one in video 1 track, other in video 2 track. Make sure they are synced from the start, either using visual or audio cues. Also make sure the clips begin where you want them in the timeline (set their in point to start in the beginning of the sequence.)

Select the Video 1 track (1st angle) by clicking on the Video 1 track box that precedes the actual track. From the timeline, move the current-time indicator (CTI) to, say 8:00 in the timeline. Press T (or double click on the clip) to *Match Frame*, where the source monitor matches the timeline monitor. Then go to File, Timecode, and type 8:00 and select "current time/frame". Now in the source monitor, the source footage timecode(1st angle) will match the timeline timecode.

Select the Video 2 track (2nd angle), and repeat the same process (you can start at 8:00 or whatever). You have to perform the match frame process, then change the timecode in your premiere project.

To double check, scrub to random spots on the timeline, using both video tracks. Press T, and make sure the source footage's timecode maches the timeline's timecode. So 5:00 on both v1/v2 match the timeline, 10:35, 14:00, etc...

This way, you can use 3 point editing to set in/out points on the timeline monitor (say you set the in point on the timeline for 6:30, and the out point for 6:45.) You can select either the 1st or 2nd angle (or n angles) in the source monitor, and set the in point for 6:30. Overlay the source footage by pressing comma (period does insert), and it appears on the timeline.

Match frame (in premiere pro) and 3 point editing (I think common to most NLEs) are hard concepts to explain here, so I can imagine you easily confused :) There is also multicam software by United Media, although I've never used it.

http://www.unitedmediainc.com/products/

Submit feature requests while you still have a chance.

thanks ed
 

the video card has one 10-pin video-out port, not a video/l-audio/r-audio. what cable attaches this to the tv? do you need a scart/whatever convertor?

Adobe Video Collection Software Questions
 

Hi all,

I'm thinking of buying the Adobe Video Collection Academic (as i'm a student) & have a few burning questions.

1: What is the quality like of the DVD encoder built into Premiere Pro 1.5? Does the collection have a better encoder?

2: Is there any difference between the AVID & Premiere encoders, both for DV & DVD? I ask this as the editor at my station said the old Premiere 6.5 software had problems with artifacts, blockiness, etc but AVID generally did not. But he wasn't sure if the Premiere Pro 1.5 software was better now.

3: Does Premiere 1.5 support HDV like the Sony Z1? Can it capture direct or does it need a plug in?

4: When editing in Premiere, do you have to render the project if you dont use any filters, titles, etc? Say if you're just cutting & re-arranging clips.

5: If i wanted to use a DVD encoder like Canopus Procoder, do I have to create an .avi file & then load it into Procoder or can I just load a project file into it?

6: Is the Adobe Video Collection missing anything or are there any issues to know about? The things i'm using it for are weddings & documentaries.

Thank you!..

1. Premiere Pro/Encore DVD both use the MainConcept MPEG-2 codec, which is the same one used in Discreet cleaner XL, Sorenson Squeeze, Sonic DVD Producer, and Ulead DVD Workshop. There's no other MPEG-2 codec included in the Video Collection that I know of. Personally, I can't tell you how the MainConcept encoder stacks up against other MPEG-2 encoders, as I haven't compared them. But from the products it is included in it looks to be among one of the better ones. (See http://www.mainconcept.com/company.shtml.)

2. I can't answer this, as I don't know what MPEG-2 encoder Avid uses. It may depend on which Avid application, as well. Which Avid program were you looking at?

I haven't noticed any artifacts/blockiness in the little bit of encoding I've done so far. I would imagine the encoding technology would have improved in the years since Premiere 6.5. Again, look at the list that use the MainConcept codec now.

3. Adobe just released a free update that adds HDV support. It can capture direct into Premiere.

4. No, you shouldn't have to render.

5. You would have to create an .avi file.
EDIT: Just discovered that Canopus says ProCoder has an export plug-in for Premiere Pro, so it looks like you could export from within Premiere using ProCoder.

6. I'm not sure what exactly you mean. The only thing I can think of is that if you want full use of the Dolby Digital 5.1 encoder you would have to pay $300 to unlock it. But you probably don't need to mix surround sound for the weddings and documentaries you'll be doing, and would find the included Dolby Digital stereo encoding sufficient.

The only thing I would add is make sure you have a beefy system (check the recommended system specs). Premiere Pro uses all the speed you can throw at it.

Hi Jon,

I never heard of a 10 pin video out port???

You do NOT use your computers graphics card to display the picture on your TV.

Normally you either go though your camcorder or you use a hardware accelerator card, as explained in my previous post.

Can you give us details on your setup, i.e. computer hardware specifications, with details about manufacturer and model for each PC component.

Hope this helps a bit.

The Avid Xpress Pro Features page (http://www.avid.com/products/xpresspro/features.shtml) lists the "Full version of Sorenson Squeeze Compression Suite for Flash output, DVD compression and more." So it looks like you'd get the same MainConcept MPEG-2 codec regardless of whether you get the Adobe suite or Avid. Note that if you buy the educational version of the Avid software you don't get the third party software (Sorenson Squeeze, Sonic ReelDVD LE, etc) that is normally included. See http://www.avid.com/products/xpresspro/faq.shtml.

I just wanted to compliment Christopher on his detailed and accurate response. I can't fault the tiniest part of an answer. Very well done.

And then he follows up. Very cool.

I spend a lot of time on forums, this and others, and I answer a lot of questions. Christopher might just inspire me to answer more completely than I have been lately.

No audio in mono clips.
 

I am editing in Premiere Pro like I always do after I have just moved into my new office.

My setup, audio one: left channel is a lapel mic, right channel is a handheld mic, audio two is my camcorder mic.

Audio two is a WAV file, audio one is attached to the video.

When I import the video into PP I can hear both channels no problem, but when I try and break out the left and right audio channels into mono clips the audio becomes silent

And by silent I mean I didnt know there was even audio left untill I turned the gain up to 40db then i could hear a terrible muffled voice from the original sound, which was perfectly audible as a stereo clip.

This only happens when I try to turn the stereo track into two mono tracks, by 'filling right' and 'filling left' respectively; If i turn off the effect the problem is solved. Similarly, if I "breakout to mono clips" the audio also becomes silenced.

The tracks are enabled, the audio works on stereo clips, and the track levels show up in the audio mixer as if it were playing audio you could hear, I just cant hear it.

Any ideas? Troubleshooting? I'm against a wall, and my editing is sort of at a standstill today.