High bit rate problems are normally associated when the DVD player can not keep up, and thus starts to jerk or judder. Its very rare that high bit rate would cause the problems you are seeing.

However to be save 7Mbits/ sec should be pretty good.

As already mentioned you probably have a field reversal problem...

Thanks for the replies. I wondered about the interlaced/deinterlaced possibilities, but since I got a decent dupe onto the tape and had no time to do an in-depth investigation, I didn't take the time to check them out fully.

I did try one short section (transcoded and burned) after changing a setting to "deinterlaced", but it was actually worse.

Like so many things I've run into in the world of DV, there seems to be an awful lot of trial and error required. Just the simple (and correct!) advice to "Play around with interlace settings" means hours of detective work for me...just wish it would do what I want, without giving me fits.

There. I feel better now.

Rob--so the footage I shot (regular old interlaced DV) should be transcoded at the opposite field setting. Didn't know that..is that just for my situation/problem, or always?

That's always for MPEG2/DVD output. I am no user of PPro, that's
why I suggest to look into that. The other reason I encourage
people to look into it is that usually you learn more and better if
you find something yourself then if you just follow a guide that
somebody else made.

I tried finding this in my PPro 1.5 demo I have on my machine
here (I don't use Premiere) but could not find any way to export
to DVD/mpeg2 in there. So either this isn't included in my demo
or I'm not looking good. So I can't really check to see where those
export settings might be.

The only thing I can think of is export to an AVI. Start a new
project and load that up and export then. Perhaps it has troubles
with some complicated stuff you put in the project. Also make
sure you have enough space available on your output drive and
the drive that houses your temporary files.

Otherwise contact customer support from Adobe?

Hi Rob

The Export feature must be disabled in your demo--if not, you would find it under

File>Export> (either)Export to DVD or Adobe Media Encoder. Many, many settings in there.

Thanks! I'll mess about in there when I get the time.

Exporting flattened to avi then beginning a fresh sequence would be a good move. I agree with Rob. Since you are not authoring in Encore or other, Premiere is being summoned to load up the resources for your burning hardware. Has this functionality ever worked from premiere to your burner?

Does your burner have it's own authoring utility to accept your mpg to dvd output from Premiere? Will it accept the flattened avi?
This might serve as a temporary workaround until your authoring software arrives.

I don't have any of those options. Only Export -> Movie and Frame.
So can't help you there, sorry.

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Long : Rob--so the footage I shot (regular old interlaced DV) should be transcoded at the opposite field setting. Didn't know that..is that just for my situation/problem, or always? -->>>

i don't believe that is true... speaking off the top of my head, i seem to remember that you should always set the dvd/mpeg2 encoding to match the field setting of your source footage... isn't mini-dv lower field first?

mis-matched field settings will give you the exact problem that you have described here.

Let me explain a bit futher. Per default DVD's are UPPER FIELD
(even) first (like analog video [at least in the NTSC world] is as
well). However, there is a switch in an MPEG2/VOB file to indicate
which frame comes first.

*Most* standalone MPEG2 encoders have a field order select
box, this is almost ALWAYS for the SOURCE and NOT destination
(ie, the encoded file). Most encoders choose the field order for you.

So yes, this means a lower field first (odd) DV file will be usually
encoded as upper field first (even) MPEG2/VOB file. The encoder
will simply swap the fields. Therefore this will NOT be a problem.

However, in more complex systems like an NLE you can usually
set the field order in three places:

1) project settings
2) footage settings
3) output encoder settings

As said before, normally DVD uses upper field first and I would
advice to try that first. If the encoder and the NLE work good
together it will know your footage is in lower field and will change
the footage as needed. Then again, this might also be a source
setting (instead of output) and it might need to be set to lower.

In the end with interlaced DV footage you want to make sure your
project and footage settings are set to interlaced, lower field (odd)
first. Then play with the encoder interlacing and authoring settings
to see what does what.

Canopus Procoder Express - Simple to use and not so expensive.
Canopus Procoder 2 - The works! - More expensive.

Used both to convert from PAL to NTSC with very good results.
Would expect to be as good to convert NTSC to PAL.

Good luck,
Arnaldo

Tried suggestions
 

I exported a flattened avi, created a new project and imported the avi. But PPro still hung when I tried to Export to DVD. (Note: I have burned DVDs in the past directly from PPro)

I then tried importing the flattened avi into Nero, and was able to burn a DVD. Although the video quality (of the DVD) was not as good as PPro (when it works).

Lastly, I imported the avi into Encore, and was able to burn a DVD with good video quality.

Still, I prefer to burn directly from PPro if I don't need a menu on the DVD.

Is it possible that my PPro problems are related to my recent install of SP2?

Th e way to test the influence of a config change is to revert back in time to your last known working checkpoint.

From that point, test the functionality and add 1 thing at a time. This will slowly bring you back to your desired system settings.

The other area to investigate is whether or not premiere is being allowed to burn by the system. Try disabling the startup program launched by Nero. This way the burner will be dedicated to only one program.

A Clip Darkens with Supered Title
 

Adobe Premiere 6.0 (creak, creak).

I got some footage from my VX2100. I set exposure manually, but the raw stuff looks OK on my home TV.

I super a title over some of the clip. When the title is up, the entire clip darkens (on computer's LCD monitor & on home TV playback of rendered clip); when the title goes away, clip lightens up.

If I process the clip with the AE Broadcast Colors plug-in, the darkening effect stops.

So, limiting the IRE to 120 or less is good, yes? The manual recommends that you set the plugin to limit the IRE level to 110. Any thoughts?

And why did the title--which used the black alpha channel transparency--make the clip dark when displayed?

Michael

I think I remember something about that being a bug or something.
It should not do this ofcourse. Another way would be to make
titles in a paint program and overlay those.

I do not know too much about IRE levels and such, but I guess
you only need to worry about that if you are going to air the clip.

Re: need help for splitscreen...
 

I answered this a while back on another board... hope this helps:

Here's a step-by-step:

For the side by side I added 1 superimpose video track-
Dragged 1 video segment into video 1a and a 2nd track into video 2-
I added the Transform Tool (under Perspective in 6.x) to each clip-
I ran a scale height and width to 50% on each clip-
I used the Position on 1 clip to and set it to 180 x 240-
I used the Position on the 2nd clip and set it to 540 x 240-
Finally I set the transparency to alpha channel for the 1 clip that had that option and rendered the file.

For a quad box I did everything exactly the same except:

The screen needs to split 4 ways and you need 4 super tracks and you also have to setup all 4 clips on the alpha channel. Do this...

Set clip 1's position as 540 x 120, clip 2 as 180 x 120, clip 3 as 180 x 360 and clip 4 as 540 x 360.

Any additional, just email me ...

<<<-- Originally posted by Lukah Sighs : hi,

must sound as a rather stupid question for you die hard premiere pro users...but anyway, how can i make a splitscreen? on the left and the right side an image, seperated with black. there is no transparancy thing in pro like in 6.5.

thanx!
lukah -->>>

Creating special effects
 

Hello,

I'm Anton and together with a friend of me we're working on this endproject for his school. We are taking it very important, and are prepared to put a lot of work in it. However, we had this question about "creating special effects" in Adobe Premiere. There is this location, where one of the "bad" guys live. Some days ago I've made together with the friend some pictures, to put it into his logbook. These pictures has been simply made by a black and white setting on a digital camera. Afterwards, we've photoshopped the pictures. Now we had this question, if you can create the same effect in Adobe Premiere as in Photoshop. Now do we need to photoshop every frame in the movie, or can we set something in Adobe to make it change every frame automatic.

I'll give you 2 examples of the pictures, which have been editted.

PS: Sorry for my English, I really have a problem with it *blush*

Picture 1 ( Before editting ): http://users.skynet.be/coene/Voorlopig/BANDW_38.jpg

Picture 2 ( After editting ): http://users.skynet.be/coene/Voorlop...en_finish2.jpg


=> We've changed the contrast and the darkness of the sky and the building. Car and flags has been deleted...some other objects on the house either.


Picture 3 ( Before editting ) : http://users.skynet.be/coene/Voorlopig/BANDW_39.jpg

Picture 4 ( After editting ) : http://users.skynet.be/coene/Voorlopig/huis.jpg


==

I hope you understand my question :)


Thank you in advance!

Anton.

I don't think the bug, if it is that, is particular to the default titler in Premiere 6.0 or in Title Deko (also shipped with 6.0).

I created a title in Photoshop and used luminance keying to super it over the same footage. I got the same dimming effect while the title was up.

Perhaps exceeding broadcast levels for festivals is bad, too, since the footage will likely be displayed on a CRT or with a CRT projector, and if the IRE levels swing wildly then the image will "pop" at the transitions.

So far everything I've seen and read convinces me to use "Broadcast Colors" (IRE restricted to 110 or below) for my final product.

Michael

Well, guess I understand what you want to do. Making things blac & white is easy. Just select in Premiere Pro video effects -> Image control -> Black & white. In Image control you also find the tools to adjust contrast, gamme etc.

Removing the flags is already more challenging, and the easyness of the removal depends on whether your camera moves or stays steadily. If your camera is steady, then import one frame to Photoshop, and use what ever tools you have there to remove the flags. Then create an image (having precisely the resolution of your video) covering the flags on a blue/green/white background.

Import this image to Premiere, overlay the Photoshop image with your video and use keying. The very idea is that the image created with Photoshop covers the flags and the poles of the video but nothing else.

Does this help at all?

Thank you for your reply Lauri, it sure helped us! However I have some questions left:

If you import a frame from photoshop into Premiere, and overlay it, isn't that giving problems with an object in the movie that's moving? For example a person who is walking on the grass...Doesn't that gives as result that the object doesn't look clear, because of the overlay?

I also heard from a teacher that you can fix everything automatic, even when the camera moves...Is this correct or did he ment something else?

Thank you,
Anton.

You might want to re-set the preferences file. Ctrl+Shift while opening premiere. Or finding the prem60.prf file and renaming it.

Title deco was only supplied if you purchased a Pinnacle capture card with premiere.

Are you using a DV500 Michael?

Thanks,

Title Deko was also supplied in the U.S. with the Matrox 2000 and 2500 editing bundle that included Premiere. I never liked it much although it did have some interesting fonts. The Premiere 6.5 package had the new adobe titler that in my opinion was much better. I never had the problem descibed with any of these versions.

Regards,

Mark

Nope, just have 6.0, a Sony VAIO laptop, and the VX2100. No DV500.

(Although it's annoying to wait for rendering of effects, particularly color-correction and blur effects, I'm surprised by how functional my P3 750mhz machine can be.)

I don't have a full-blown version of TitleDeko, just the slightly crippled version shipped with Premiere 6.0. I prefer it to the regular Premiere titler for anything fancy (e.g. a credits roll).

It doesn't seem that the choice of titler makes much difference, however. I can import a static image from Photoshop, super it with luminance keying, and I'll see the dimming-down that I describe.

I don't understand how resetting my preferences would affect this behavior. What would that do for me?

Thanks all for the thoughts so far!

Michael

As I recall, there is a Sony codec on Sony PCs that cause a problem with luminence.

You have to stop using that codec and use a standard Microsoft codec.

To check this, select a DV captured clip in your project window, right-click it and select Properties. Scroll down to the section listed as Video track 1. At the bottom of this section you'll see a listing for "Compressor:". If this section says ANYTHING other than just 'dvsd' (such as 'dsvd', Angel Potion, or 'dvsd', Grand Tech, etc.) then you've got a codec you'll want to remove from your system. Search out the associated codec .dll file and delete it from your computer. There are generally Adobe tech docs or other web docs that can help you figure out what files you'll need to kill and where they usually reside. Just do a web search on the codec name.

Solution

Edit the Prem60.ini file to prevent Premiere from using the Sony DV codec, and then export video. (The Sony DV codec remains enabled for use in applications other than Premiere.)


To edit the Prem60.ini file to prevent Premiere from using the Sony DV codec:


Note: You shouldn't follow this procedure if you use a non-OHCI capture system, which typically requires an ICM codec.


1. Exit from Premiere 6.x.
2. Open the Prem60.ini file in a text editor, such as Notepad. The default location for the prem60.ini file is Program Files/Adobe/Premiere [version].
3. Add the following lines to the end of the file:


[Override]
PreferDSCodecs=1


4. Save and close the file.

There are programs out there which can do motion tracking. Basically they lock onto a certain part of the image and can:
A- make the whole shot steady
OR
B- make everything that's superimposed onto your original footage follow along with the original footage. You can use this to superimpose a logo onto a building. You can also superimpose the original background onto the iamge to remove unwanted moving objects. I suppose you can also remove unwanted static objects if you create a replacement image in Photoshop.

Pixeldust is one software that does this:
http://www.2d3.com/jsp/products/prod...duct=pixeldust
(check out the movies)

Boris Red also does this.

2- The programs above do automatic motion tracking. You tell them to lock onto a certain area of the video, and they try to figure out where that area moved to in the next area of the image. Usually you select something with a high contrast edge, like the corner of a building against the sky.

You could manually do motion tracking with keyframes. I suppose this isn't too time consuming.

Glenn made the point, and there's not much to add there.

The principle is: a video footage is a two dimensional projection of the three dimensiona space onto a plane. This means, without any information of how the camera has moved, of the focal length etc., it is not possible to automatically to overlay anything above the original footage matching properly with the image. Some additional information is a necessity.

Now, what you can do is, pick frames say once every two or three seconds and make them to match properly. Then interpolate between these frames, which is to say, make the overlaying object to transform automatically between your chosen (key) frames. Premiere has all the tools for this; you will probably need to scale, rotate, and/or skew.

Hope this helps you Anton.

Thank you both for the very usefull replies. We're planning to make some test-shoots of the area. With the received tips we should try to edit everything we want in Premiere so we have an idea what to do when the shooting of the "real" movie is finished :)

Thank you.
Anton.

Increasing resolution of a footage
 

Genuine fractal is a tool to increase the resolution of still photos. Are there any similar tools available for video footages? Has anybody tried whether it is possible to export a footage from Premiere to Photoshop, increase the resolution, and then import ithe footage back to Premiere.

I'm stucken for a while with my old archieve material and need to mix old 4:3 and new 16:9 footages together. Scaling within Premiere is not a good idea, for that's simple linear interpolation.

Hi Lauri,

I'm assuming you want to crop the archived 4:3 footage (that is, chop off top and/or bottom) to create a 16:9 aspect? If you have a lot of material archived, using Photoshop would probably be impractical. Of course, nothing will create image detail when it didn't exist in the original, but I have an idea that I hope will help.

Although extra compression-decompression cycles are generally frowned upon, compared to simple scaling within Premiere perhaps this might actually do better:

Try exporting your archived 4:3 footage to a new 720p or 1080i WM9 file or (gasp) mpeg at the highest quality settings, thus substantially up-sampling it. Then import the new footage to your main 16:9 project, to then be positioned, cropped, sharpened, scaled DOWN, whatever.

I suggest this NOT from deep knowledge of the programs, but on the presumption that the encoding for export is probably more sophisticated than the scaling function within Premiere; presumably it would therefore give a smoother look to the footage that will then tolerate further manipulation in the 16:9 timeline better.

By way of example...yesterday, I created a small project to play with the XL2's 24p mode. I exported the 720x480 16:9 DV from the timeline using the built-in Adobe Media Encoder to both WM9 and MPEG 720p and I must say that at least on my computer monitor, I couldn't tell the difference between the raw footage and the exports. So despite transcoding and compression, the up-sampling looked GREAT.

I'll be curious to know if this does what you are looking for!

Prem 6.5
 

Using prem 6.5 with a Canopus Raptor rt2 card
Have a problem exporting to a mp2 format that will render into a readable DVD with Prem Pro 1.5
Have a plugin for 6.5 that works great and find though there are a few more steps I need to take in 6.5, the final product is fine

Format of .pbl files
 

Premiere (6.0) doesn't print out their Batch Capture lists very satisfactorily. So I'm writing a tool (in Perl) to convert the .PBL file to a .RTF that Microsoft Word can print out for me. (Then I can sit down in front of a better monitor and check off the scenes that I've logged.)

(1) does anyone know the format of the .pbl files? I've figured out where the reel name, the in point, outpoint, file name, and comments show up; but I haven't decoded the other elements of the [BREC] record. Plus I wouldn't mind knowing what the elements in the [WSTA] and [HFSZ] records mean.

(2) has anyone tried converting absolute frames to the MINUTES;SECONDS;FRAMES format that we humans like to read? I seem to have an error in my arithmetic, because 29.97 frames/second and 60 seconds/minute are giving me not just off-by-one errors, but off-by-two (!) errors. I'm sure it's just a case of sloppiness, but if someone else has done the work already, I wouldn't mind cribbing from them.

Thanks!

Michael

One thing to add, do you really need a hardware card? Basically
there are two reasons to use such a card:

1. analog in and out (sometimes you can do this with a firewire camera with analog in/out as well, or a dv deck or a analog <-> firewire converter)

2. "real-time" performance

I especially quoted the word real-time because a lot of stuff on
the new NLE's on a high-end PC are real-time or near real-time.

The last question to also answer is do you really need any of that.

If you just have a DV camera and want to capture that and don't
do a lot of post work a simple firewire card (if the machine doesn't
have one) will work just as good with a lot less money spend.

But then again this seems to be the way you where going in the
end. I just wanted to clarify it a bit.

I couldn't find anything on the net so I think your on your own
when reversing this format. Didn't Premiere also support EDL
export? That is an "open" format.

Tried a websearch for frames to timecode conversion algorithm?
Can't imagine there isn't one available.

Pete, I'll find out what the up-sampling does precisely, and then check the idea.

In the mean time, basically the problem is a "psyco-visual" one. I mean, our eyes are very good in recognizing any kind of "order" in visual images. This is to say, when a 4:3 footage is cropped and up-sampled to 16:9, the result is not pleasing for our visual perception recognizes (subconsciously) the artificial flavour in the image which is due to (bilinear or bicubic) interpolation.

Tools, such a Genuine fractal, do also create, I think, artificial data into the image, but the result is pleasing for there is "no visible artificial order". In simple words, Genuine fractal creates new information out from nowhere, but in a clever way which pleases our visual perception. It does not matter that the new information is made from nothing; the only guiding line is that the new information should embed into the image such that it is not visible.

What you seem to suggest (this is the point I need to check) is a trick the professionals in printing houses used in the past. When they had create a copy twice the side of the original image, they first zoomed an image four times larger the original one, and only then came downwards zooming the large copy to the size matching twice the size of the original image.

Now, why that same idea should work with digital images is something I've occasionally thought about, but have not yet found a satisfactory answer. But that's basically what you are suggesting, and it would be interesting to fully understand this issue.

Just Ordered New CPU for Premeire Pro 1.5
 

My new Dell WS670 dual processor will arrive here in a couple of days. This computer will be a video editing PC only(may be one computer game NHL 2005). Is there any way I should set it so I can acheive the best performance out of it as possible? I already have software (PPro 1.5, Audition 1.5, Encore 1.5, Photohop 6.5, and After Effects 5.5.) that I will using.

My Specs:
dual xeon 2.8ghz processors H
Hard Drives 40 & 160
ATI FireGL PCIe 128mb
1 gig of ram
dvd+r writer
IEEE 1934 Port
17" Flat panel montior (hopefully a second one for Christmas)

IMO you only need to do the following:

Take steps to keep your computer safe from spyware and viruses. If you do not know what spyware is, I *highly* recommend you do either of the following.

A- Keep your computer off the internet completely and only connect it when you need to download things like updates (i.e. the latest version of your music software).

OR

B- Take some spyware and virus prevention steps.

Spyware prevention:

Use Spyware Guard.

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Block unwanted sites with a HOSTS file:

http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Virus protection:

The best thing to do is to not check email on your computer. If you do check email, you may wish to use antivirus software. If you do use antivirus software, configure it to turn off real-time scanning features as it can cause problems.

Firewall (protects against viruses):
If you computer is behind a router, it is already firewalled.
If not, one option is to use software firewall software. I recommend you use the firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

2- Check that your IDE hard drives are in DMA mode.

Go to start --> settings --> control panel --> system --> hardware --> device manager --> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers

right click the hard drive controller.
In the second tab, check that the drives are using ultra DMA. For your situation, it should be 4 or 5 unless you're using SATA drives.

3- Did you get a hardware acceleration card for Premiere Pro? I don't use PPro but it might give you better performance than getting an overpriced dual processor machine.

That's a nice computer. If you're spending that much on dual processor Xeons, consider upping your main hard drive to the fastest available : Western Digital SATA 74 GByte drive that runs at 10,000 RPM .

Originally posted by Glenn Chan :

IMO you only need to do the following:

Firewall (protects against viruses):
If you computer is behind a router, it is already firewalled.
If not, one option is to use software firewall software. I recommend you use the firewall in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

I prefer ZoneAlarm. They offer a free version; that's what I use and have been fairly pleased with it, and Zone Labs keep the free version up to date.

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/conten...ku_list_za.jsp


Unlike ZoneAlarm the Win XP SP 2 firewall doesn't restrict outgoing traffic. Restricting outgoing traffic (at least, being able to restrict it) is an important part of keeping your machine secure.

Michael

If you are importing a photoshop psd into your project, the transparency key is either alpha matte or black alpha matte.
Your post indicates that you are using the luminence key. 0 or 255 bang on might work, but anything I have ever read or used has always been the alpha channel trans. key in premiere.

As for TitleDeko, I agree. This is an awful program that has no respect whatsoever for any standard keyboarding conventions.

I'm actually quite glad that you asked the question. I have a large number of old family 8mm films and Hi8 tapes so may try similar tricks to get the most out of those archives. If I have time today, I'll try this with one of the Hi8 clips and let you know what happens.

Thank You
 

I have seen some security problems at work. Securing my computer will be prority #1. Thank you all for the input it has helped me get a little more focused through the excitment of getting a new PC.