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!

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.

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?

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.

Pat Engh
 

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

grab frame by frame
 

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

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,

leeter box on 6.0
 

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.

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

Adobe Premiere Elements Announced!
 

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,

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

Slow motion in PPro
 

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.

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
____________________________________________________

thanks rob.

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.

Missing Still Images after Exported Video
 

I produced a video album with moving images and video. I exported the video to an avi file to use in adobe encore. When I watch the AVI file, a few pictures are missing (black screen). Also, a few others are missing and have a green screen instead. Other than these pictures being missing, everything else is fine. Any suggestions on what is causing this. Is it a possible memory problem? I have 1 GB of RAM. I can't figure it out.

Thanks

Brian

It's absolutely beautiful....

But where's the command pallette gone :(

Jon

Apply same fx to multiple clips - HOW?
 

Been working on a project that has to have a ton of work done to the color and audio and I'm getting tired of dropping the same effect over and over again on every clip.

Is there a way to highlight a set of clips and add a FILL Left or Right to the audio and do a visual effect (same to each) with 1 step and not over and over again?

Using Premier Pro 1.5

Thanks in advance,
Miguel

not sure if this will work for a number of clips, but give it a go...

1. 'Copy' the clip you want the attributes from
2. 'Paste Attributes' (right click) onto the clips you want to alter.

This function was always in premiere, but was hidden, with premiere pro, they moved it into its own setting.

There is another way you could achieve this by using the new effects save function to make your own library of droppable effects :)

Premiere pro changes "look"
 

I have now upgraded to the video collection. If you are shooting any weddings, the download for the free film looks is worth the price of everything in the package!! Just be sure to get the additional download of 5 extra "looks" and apply the black diffusion to your park shoot of the bride/groom. I have always been a strict follower of the m/o to do it at the lens but this is the best plugin I have ever worked with.

Try this: Slow the clip to 50%. Apply the proc amp filter and desaturate to your liking. Apply black diffusion. The result looks just like the misty soft effect from the soap operas. Stunning. And NO hardware support!

I only do about 3 weddings per year but this puts the finished product to a new level.

That doesn't solve the issue... you still need to go through all clips and paste the same effect on them.

Since you can not highlight multiple clips and apply the same effect to them with one click, I create a new timeline and drop the working timeline into it, then apply the effect to the whole thing. This is a work around and work for some situation but not others.

Hope it helps...

Surround Sound
 

I`m toying with the idea of giving surround sound a go to see how effective it increases my short films. Problem is I canot seem to find much documentation on the whole process. Any ideas as to idiot proof instructions on how to create some effects. One effect I need is a door closing from behind the audience and another is to pan from the front to the back to create a passing spooky thing. The final product is to be saved to DVD. Many Thnaks for any help you guys can give

Andy

theres no easy way, although some people might disagree with me.. there are short cuts, but for waht u want, to do, the surround panner in Vegas or Prem Pro ac3 plugin should work OK with keyframes

for proper surround mixing, each monitor speaker should be identical and calibrated according Dolby Labs Standards.

Info on mixing and encoding can be found at Dolby.com

Pro won't allow me to perform an insert or overlay edit
 

Just recently, Pro has decided to not allow me to perform an overlay or insert edit.

I previously used the shortcut keys. When this failed, I manually clicked on the button in the preview window. It just doesn’t seem to be working anymore.

I’m hoping that I've turned something off, or altered something inadvertently.

But now, its really annoying me.

Does anyone have any insight?

Will it work if you start a new project?

In any case, try deleting the preferences and reload the plugins by starting the app while pressing the Shift key.

Steven, It seems to work fine in a new project. I'm just wondering why it doesn’t work in this one.
Could you elaborate more on the delete preferences bit?

Problem solved, it's me being stupid.
Forgot to select the track I wanted it to insert / overlay into.

Ahh well, this can serve as a point of reference to others who have forgotten the basic principles of editing.

Thanks anyway.

Can I use both 48khz(16 bit) and 32 khz(12 bit) audio in the same Pro 1.5 project?
 

Can I use both 48khz(16 bit) and 32 khz(12 bit) audio in the same
project? And when I start a new project in Premiere Pro 1.5 to import
the files into, which preset should I use- Standard 48khz or 32khz?

I shot the first ten minutes of this video using a Canon XL-1 in the
32khz (12 bit mode), capturing both the on-camera mic in stereo and
another mono audio track with a handheld mic; and then shot the next
twenty minutes of the video onto the same mini-DV tape with a Sony
PD-170 in 48 khz (16 bit mode).

noise in black tux at wedding afterparty
 

When shooting with a GL2 at a wedding after party, even with a 35 watt fill light and ambient light, I still get some noise in the black tux. Its not that bad, but its annoying. Anyway to darken this area, or get rid of the noise, and still keep the rest of the scene the same?


John

to be safe, open the project in something like Audition and resample the footage (ie create another take cuplicating yoru audio) in teh correct bitrate.

Ive haad issues with Prem handling different bitrates from DV

when resampling, make sure its creating a new file, as u may inadvertantly end up changing the pitch due to bitrates.

Audition should have a resample feature.. i know Cool Edit used to... so it woudlnt surprise me if its held onto that.. if not, go and download a demo of Soundforge and import our avi into that and re-sample it to 48k. It wont make it sound any better than the source material, but at least u wotn hae an issue with Prem falling over..

run a softening filter to fade the blue or a black restoration (if its got this filter)

i dunno if prem has film effects either.. some of teh older kodak presets are nice using colour curves

hmm.. are all the clips of teh main source clip??

ie do u have one large avi that yoru slicing into segments?

If so (this may not work) you might be able to apply the effect on the main source clip and prem SHOULD retain that information on each slice you make from that effected source

I know Vegas does this, but i havent tried with prem

Hi Brian,

Maybe the pictures are missing in premiere? Or that there is black space between the clips?

I don't see why Premiere would only export out selected clips unless some were missing?

Does it play OK in windows media player?

Maybe export it again.

What sort of AVI file did you export out. What version of premiere are you using?

Thanks,

Ed

Hey Jimmy,

Thanks for sharing your finding with us!

I'm sure it will help many others....

The answer is yes you can. Premiere will conform all audio to the project settings. So if you have created a project which is 48Khz
and you have imported in some 32KHz, premiere will up-sample the audio to 48KHz. This will take up more space on your HD, and will slow your computer down a bit while the conversion is happening.

As peter has suggested, your best to load it into Auditions (If you have it).

Cheers,

This should work: create first a new sequence and drop then the filter to the whole sequence at once.

Peter,

I tried just about everything that I know of in prem pro but nothing has a "natural" look to it. I put the blame on the low light performance of the GL2. I hate to ask, but, is this easily fixed in vegas 5? lol

John

Try this:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32833

Hey ed, you know i tried this today and the matrox RTx100 was really struggling with it.. we ended up using the old resample method, but i threw in the 32k audio with video and it really REALLY struggled..

we were using a SBLive Audigy, so the card itself is 48k native, DV is perfect on this.. when we imported a 44.1k audio clip form cd, i noticed the matrox lag a bit.. its coz the soundcard literally upsamples the audio to 48k.
Then the 32k, really killed it.. im still exploring how far i can stretch prem when it comes to audio, at the moment its not doing what i want it to do, but theres always a workaround.. :)

without being a blasphemer here in Prem Land, LOL yes, vegas has clour curves which allow filtration and blends.
U can also run a chroma blur (or suppresion) filter.
another tricky on is to use somethign like a Median Filter and run a noise reduction on the footage