My current system running Premiere 6.02 is a Dell Optiplex PIII, 866mhz., 256K memory. The graphics is on the MB and is limited to 24bit. I have Win2000.

I'd looking at getting Premier Pro and I think I must upgrade to XP Pro to run it (?). Will my current system run them OK or must I upgrade?

Thanks!

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs.html

Looks like I'd have to get a whole new system to even launch Pro.

Actually, I'm not even sure Pro is worth the bother. I have 6.02 and it runs speedily on my little PIII, 866mhz desktop. It's native DV and has all the features one would ever want.

Heck, I still have 4.2 running on my Beta SP (Pinnacle DC50) system and it works just fine.

Unless someone out there can give me a very good reason to switch to Pro...

Still waiting for that one single client who asks "Now did you edit this on an Avid system"

If you're content with Premiere 6.x, why bother upgrading? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Right?

I was trained using Apple's Final Cut Pro HD; however, financially, a higher end PC fit the budget much better. Premiere Pro 1.5.1 looks/works almost the same as FCP, so I'm much more comfortable using PPro vs. the older versions. The only reason I see to upgrade to PPro is for the titler function and tighter integration with After Effects.

As far as clients knowing what editor you used to finish a project really shouldn't matter. I know indie filmmakers who use iMovie and you'd never be able to tell they used a low-end consumer editor. The software does not decide what cuts go where; you, the editor, makes those decision. It sometimes scares me when people call themselves 'editors' just because they have FCP (and have no clue on timing, beats, etc.).

Since my posting a friend has let me borrow a copy of Premiere 6.5. The basic features are the real time preview and the new titler from Inscriber to replace the old, simple Premiere titler they've had since P4.2.

Trouble is, real time preview relies on your system's speed since it is software
based. My PIII, 866mhz can do it but the frame rate drops way off. The other thing is the playback is on the computer screen and not via the firewire out to the NTSC monitor. Finally, it does not really render the effects to the harddrive so they are not there for NTSC playback to the monitor after or when scrubbing. You still have to do a true "render to HD" preview and to do that you need to go back to the preferrences dialog and switch "real time preview" off. This is kind of klunky.

So.. my question is... is there a card that offers real-time preview (out to your NTSC monitor or via the firewire output) for just one stream of video that will run on a system like mine? Did Pinnacle ever offer something like this?

Thanks and Happy 4th!

Just want to close out this thread I started....

Pinnacle does/did make a real time preview card called the DV500 in various versions. Checked into that but there were MB issues and you still needed a pretty decent system to make it work at normal speed.

For me and my needs (corporate videos) I can live comfortably with Premiere 6.5. I did find I can add an F11 "hot key" that will take me to the dialog where the realtime preview check box is located. All I do then is check or uncheck it and click OK. This way I can go from full render preview to realtime preview at will.

the best thing i've found about PPro IMHO is it's ability to nest sequences in a single project. for me, that alone was worth the upgrade. lots of nice things in PPro vs 6.5, like it's ability to use most after effects and vst plugins, and it's effects control palette is wonderful. of course, i didn't have to run out and buy a new system.

i was running premiere 6 and 6.5 off of a canopus dvstorm real-time dv playback and rendering card, and it was an awesome combination for a good while. the card has a hard time playing nice with PPro on many computers, so now i use it primarily with Edius, for AD-DA conversions, and output to monitor from photoshop and after effects. if you're going to stick with 6.x premiere, i would recommend this card for you. you should be able to find a decent used one somewhere.

i'm running PPro strictly through OHCI right now, and i'm loving it.

Henry:

Can you tell me what kind of a system you ran the DVstorm card on?

Did it output realtime 30fps preview to an NTSC monitor?

Thanks

i'm running PPro strictly through OHCI right now, and i'm loving it.
Henry,

Please provide system specs (CPU, RAM, HDD, etc.). I'm considering switching from Ulead MediaStudio Pro 7 to Premiere Pro 1.5. MSP 7 is too buggy for me; version 6.5 was more stable on my system, but I don't want to give up real-time previews. PPro 1.5 seems like it's just what I need, and the price is within my budget. I'm also considering Avid Xpress DV 4 and Pinnacle Liquid Edition 6.

I have an old MiniDV camcorder that I use as a capture/record deck, and I watch FireWire previews through it on a connected CRT TV.

NLE system specs:
Pentium 4 2.8c HT running @ 3.0 GHz
1GB dual-channel DDR400 RAM
Foxconn i865-based mobo w/integrated FireWire (VIA) and 5.1 RealTek AC97 audio
Nvidia FX5200 dual-head video to dual 17" CRTs
Windows XP Home, SP1a fully optimized as per videoguys.com "XP tweaks"
No Internet access -- all software is installed via CD

Tim,

I had been using MSPro 7.0 for quite some time, but you're right, there are some bugs, or in my case, oddities about it. In some ways it's an excellent product, and one you can be very productive in. I've tried using Premiere off and on over the years, but the interface always seemed a bit odd. One thing that really annoyed me about MSPro when I upgraded to it, was that it broke all my titles on projects made under previous versions. Upgrading Ulead products in general is a chore, and Ulead is lazy about defining and releasing updates, anyway.

Now that I've been forcing myself to learn PPro 1.5, with the help of some basic training software, I've really come to like it. The more I use it, the more I like it. Certainly I respect it. One thing I've already discovered is how much better it is at capture than MSPro. Both will capture, but where MSPro is rather generic when dealing with IEEE 1394 devices, PPro is specific.

PPro also has a much better support community. You may not get the precise answer you're looking for every time, but there is much less of the lone voices in the wilderness typical of MSPro users (or users of any Ulead product). That's why I got Encore to replace the Ulead DVD products.

One thing in PPro I'm still dealing with is the oddness of not having the Video-A track + transition track + Video-B track that seemed so logical in MSPro. I'll get the hang of it, eventually.

George, you'll have to upgrade your system or better, replace it. Build a no-nonsense, lean, mean, dedicated video editor. Mine works well, (2.8GHz P4, 2GB, Intel mobo, Matrox G550 Dual Head, dual monitors, 160GB RAID, XP Pro) but if anything, I'd like to double the RAM to the maximum (on this mobo) of 4GB.

One thing in PPro I'm still dealing with is the oddness of not having the Video-A track + transition track + Video-B track that seemed so logical in MSPro. I'll get the hang of it, eventually.
That was something many Premiere users weren't too happy to learn about Premiere Pro, but evidently PPro's implementation of single track editing was better than previous versions. In fact, if you select a transition in PPro you can still get a quasi A-B editing track in the transitions palette.

I, too, was used to the A-B track method from Premiere 6, but I’ve learned to use single track editing, though it still isn’t quite as convenient in some respects. But I do understand the reasons for implementing it, such as being able to use transitions on all tracks.

Upgrading Ulead products in general is a chore, and Ulead is lazy about defining and releasing updates, anyway.
This is the biggest problem I have with the MediaStudio Pro software. It's frustrating because I love the software when it works, but its performance is inconsistent. When time is money, I need reliability. Tech support is poor.