My guess is that you are using the preset for HDV which includes 5.1 sound. Use that preset. I do. But you must change the audio to stereo instead of 5.1.

No need to use Squeeze. I am getting great results from the Adobe Media Encoder using Stereo.

You can also export to Cineform AVI and use the Microsoft encoder. But there really is no need to do so.

I am playing the WM9 files on my AVeL Linkplayer2 HD DVD player. They look great.

John: I have no idea personally, I've never heard of it being a good
encoder. That doesn't mean it isn't, just that I know about the
3 I listed above. They seem to be generally accepted as the
best encoders around (for pro-sumer work).

Clint: yeah, it's solely for encoding to all kind of formats (including
MPEG-2). Thanks for the compliment <g>

i believe that sorenson squeeze 4 uses the mainconcept encoder(?).

How to duplicate audio channels in Premiere Pro?
 

In Premiere 6.5 it was very easy: right-click on the audio track and choose "duplicate left" or "duplicate right."

In P Pro I can't find any easy way of doing this. You can separate stereo tracks into 2 mono tracks, but only from the project window -- not from within the timeline once you've started editing.

The only workaround I've come up with is to export the audio from the edited clips, then separate the stereo tracks from this version to 2 mono tracks, keep the track I want, then re-export that as its own audio track (because P Pro will only seem to let me place the split mono channels on track 4)

Any advice on making this less complicated? I don't understand why Adobe dropped something so simple, yet functional -- or was I the only person using it? This is very frustrating, as I often record audio to only one channel (or, as with the video I'm having problems with now, record a lav on one channel and a shotgun on the other).

Fill Left or Fill Right
 

Audio Effects -> Stereo -> Fill Left, Fill Right

Check the Help to make sure you're using it correctly.

Hmmm... one of the first things I tried, but it didn't seem to help... but as you said, perhaps I did not use it correctly. Thanks, I'll try it and let you know...

I use it regularly
 

I regularly use the Fill Left/Right for the same reason. I also shoot with two microphones, or I set the volume levels differently with one microphone so in case one channel gets overloaded, the other channel is still safely under.

16:9 24PA footage becomes 4:3 after effects are applied
 

Hello,

I imported my 16:9 XL2 footage into PP and it works perfectly until I apply video effects. When I render, the video plays as 4:3 footage (meaning my picture is squeed). Anyone else have any experience with this? Any help is very appreciated.

Seems to work -- I think I was doing something wrong before. Thanks for your help, David!

Fill from left
 

Glad to hear it worked and I hope you've wondered along with me why "Fill Left" means "Fill from Left" instead of "Fill the Left channel".

Heh, heh -- that's exactly why I didn't think it worked before! I dropped in "Fill Left" and said, "Hey, that's not any better at all! Must not be what I'm looking for..."

2:1 anamorphic transition problems
 

When editing projects in the 2:1 anamorphic project setting, and then importing clips and interpreting them as 2:1 anamorphic, preview and project monitors show the correct aspect ratio except for when effects are applied. Simple dissolve transitions kick back into 4x3 for the duration of the transition, and then switch back to the correct aspect ratio when they are finished. Any advice?

Problem is with Pro 1.5. Works fine in 6.5. NV

Have you tried outputting to an AVI file? Maybe the preview uses the original aspect ratio for performance reasons, but the render will be correct?

Thanks for your response Joshua,
The output rendering is fine in AVI. The visual "banging" in and out of anamorphic is very problematic in the timeline mode. A point of interest is that in 16:9, everything stays constant. It's as though they left out a calculation for the 2:1 setting. I've searched high and low for the switch but so far, no luck.

Nick