If you're mastering to DV then the color will be brought back down to 4:1:1 again. So that would defeat the point of upsampling it and capturing uncompressed.

Other formats like betaSP, digibeta, DVCPRO50, and computer formats can benefit from more color information. So capturing uncompressed can be an advantage in those cases. If you have a choice between mastering to DV and betaSP, DV should be better quality as it would have less generation loss (however, there's a possibility that the people you're giving the DV tape to can screw it up, whereas they may know how to handle betaSP properly).

Dual Xeon 2.66Ghz system
 

I am using a home-built dual Xeon 2.66Ghz HT system with a Matrox RT.X100 since last summer with no problems. What persuaded me to go this route was a Tom's Hardware Guide article, Two Xeon CPUS are better than one Intel P4 Extreme Platform, which is a bit dated now, but still informative.

As I type this, I am watching my Windows Task Manager's Performance tab display 4 CPU Usage History graphs, all equal at about 60% utilization as I use Premiere's Adobe Media Encoder to create an MPEG-2 file with higher than normal bitrates. I occasionally check these graphs and I've never seen lopsided ones.

I also have a Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop 32.GHz HT and in flat out exports, the Dell beats my home-built system. My informal experience tells me that the dual Xeons are better when it comes to running several things at once, such as Premiere, Audition, Virtualdub and Windows Media Encoder.

Note that system builder Tantus Computers bundles the Matrox RT.X100 with their dual processor systems.

my last system i built a dual amd 1800 mp with the rtx.100. compared with my new p4 platform i can't say there was really any difference, RAM helps tons. the only thing that sucked was when one of the processors went out i couldn't find a replacement for it and had to build a completely new system. i'd save the money on your dual board and just buy a hopped up P4 (with hyperthreading) with a fancy cooling system and more RAM.

Res for HDV and PPro
 

I'm having major difficulty getting the correct resolution for my movies. I'm capturing my HDV from my HDR-FX1 cam using PPro 1.5.1 and it comes in looking great!. I do my edits and such, and when I export, the export settings seem to look correct, but no matter what option I choose I still get a squished image.

I also tried this with my camera filming just DV not HDV. Same thing happened both times. All of my movies that I export are squished.

I think it has something to do with the camera not using square pixels and using 1:1.333 ratio pixel.

Anyone know how I can get the correct res out of PPro?

Here's a link to what one of the settings I tried using (I'm trying a lot of them).

http://www.neolinkcomputers.com/stuff/mov_settings.jpg

http://www.neolinkcomputers.com/stuff/mov_res.jpg

dual cpus wont be utilised to their full extent. the RTx100 is over 2 yrs old and back then it had issues with compatible main boards.. these days with PCIx its getin to a point where the RTx is feeling rather dated.

On top of that, with the push of CPU and RAM, FSB speeds and HDD raid configs almost matching scsi speeds, soon enough there wont be a need for this type of HW

dont get me wrong, the RTx does what it does quite well.. but only when its built with compatible HW..

Mackie Control Surface with PPro?
 

Hi all,

Anyone heard anything on the possibility of support for the Mackie Control Universal within Premiere Pro? Are there any plugins available that provide this functionality?

Thom

Just a quick update on the update. Folks are reporting in the Adobe forum that problems with WinXP SP2 have been resolved, but otherwise no indications of any enhancements outside the limited HDV support that the 1.5.1 update was advertised as.

I haven't had time to do any editing lately (I'm miniDV only with XL2), but will comment if I find any changes. Y'all do the same!

Thanks guys. I'll try to see if I can get some footage for the comparison later- and check my oftalmologist.

Pete, thanks so much for you help! I have been trying to work out the problem to no avail :( That and I have been heaped at work. Here is a quick couple seconds sample of the problem. It is pretty simple I am hoping!

www.chasebrammer.com/files/Videos/tester.avi

Thanks for all your help

Have to be rushed and brief again -- sorry.

I downloaded your file; I guess what you're describing is the apparent jump forward by a split second (maybe 2 or 3 frames, it seems like) every couple of seconds? I am pretty sure the problem stems from a hiccup in ripping the vob from the DVD, or PPro's handling of the resulting MPEG file. I think so because I imported your file into PPro and looked at the file properties; every 15th frame has a sample size and data rate that is off the chart...I'll bet it is no coincidence that DVD MPEG2 uses 15 frame GOPs!

Try ripping the DVD again using different software and/or settings from whatever you used originally. Unfortunately, PPro doesn't handle imported MPEG very well -- although I wonder if the 1.5.1 update might be of some help here -- so if you can get a clean AVI or QT file by using a different program, that might do the trick. I don't have a recommendation, but I've seen a number of threads on DVD ripping software that you could search for.

If all else fails, do an analog transfer...hook the DVD player up to your miniDV camcorder using Svideo and audio RCA jacks. Not elegant, but I've done similar before with acceptable results.

Pete -

Wow, thanks for the fast reply! I am really impressed! What software would you recommend for best ripping?

Photo's in Premiere
 

Hello all,

Does Premiere Pro have the ability to drop pictures (Photo's) directly into the timeline, and to play around with them (ie - pan across, and zoom in on them etc).


Many Thanks,
Richard.

Hi Richard,
Yes, that is all very easily done. The default duration is 5 seconds and is entirely customizable. As far as effects and so forth go, a still frame is treated the same as a clip wherever it is possible to do.
Cheers,

Brilliant,

Cheers Pete - sorry it was such a basic question (I figured that your response would be the answer), but, sometimes, you never know.

Thanks Again,
Richard.