Adobe Premiere & Premiere Pro discussions from 2004

Ed Smith · July 23rd, 2004, 04:47 AM

Hi Edmond,

Simply add a letter box matte. This will crop the image top and bottom.

Steps:

Go to file menu> new> Adobe title designer
Click on templates, navigate to the matte folder
Selct Letter box matte
save and exit title designer
Drag matte from project bin to the top most video track which is free. i.e if you have video in track 1, place it in track 2.
You might need to render.

Hay presto you should now be in widescreen...

Cheers,

Edmond Chan · July 23rd, 2004, 05:13 AM

Thanks Ed Smith,

But can i crop the image from 4:3 to 16:9 and then restructure the crop image to fit back to the 720x480 and put back to the widescreen platform...???

Am i asking too much... or is there any program outside can do the job... since this is only a hobby to me... 1k-2k program i can afford and play with... but if the program cost few thousand - i go back to my 4:3 screen...

Thanks...
Edmond

Greg Harris · July 23rd, 2004, 02:27 PM

Whats the difference in premier pro 1.5 and premier pro 1? 1.5 has 24p capturing correct. Does it make a difference on the TV? Also, Has anyone captured footy in HD and put it into pro and watched in on a HD TV? If so, how does that look? Thanks
mike

Josh Allen · July 23rd, 2004, 06:49 PM

I would lean towards Matrox as well.

Justin Boyle · July 23rd, 2004, 07:04 PM

i have adobe premiere pro and it is the best program however, i do have one fault to pick. When using the old version 6, if i deinterlaced then compressed to mpeg4 there was practically no loss and it was actually extremely difficult to spot the difference with the two clips. premiere pro renders about twice as quick and while this is great the quality is not and it isn't even worth using it. does anyone have any suggestions.

Justin

Betsy Moore · July 24th, 2004, 06:08 PM

Can you edit with Adobe Premiere Pro by its self or with Adobe plus free add-ons or do you have to use products like the Cineform line (which looks great but has a price that will make me brownbag my lunch til 2007)

Giroud Francois · July 24th, 2004, 06:32 PM

no, cineform give you real time transition, but is not necessary.
all the HD products have 2 features.
-capturing and converting or not into a workable format.
-editing and saving back to tape.

If you can transfer your video into a format readable by premiere (namely an .avi video with a supported codec) you do not need anything else.

For example, ulead provide an HD plugin for their software that allows capture and translation to a format readable by premiere.
Mainconcept has an HD plugin that capture and edit DV-HD directly into premiere pro.
both are a lot cheaper than cineform.
cineform is a great product, but at this price it is a dead end.

Graham Hickling · July 24th, 2004, 07:19 PM

I currently edit HDV using Premiere Pro 1.5 with the Mainconcept MpegPro plugin. With a Pentium4 HT2.8GHz I can capture and export directly between the camera and the Premiere timeline, which is convenient.

Editing certainly works, but is a bit "clunky" due to the decoding effort the CPU is putting in - for example, I can't smoothly scrub the timeline. Smoother workflow is what may convince me to get Aspect HD, eventually.

But meanwhile, there's another solution, that I am fairly happy with at present: 1) Capture your HDV clips using whatever software you find convenient ; 2) Make a proxy copy of each clip to a CPU-friendly avi codec (I use TMPGExpress to batch process them all to Picvideo mjpeg); 3) do all your editing using the proxy files; 4) Just before your final render, swop back in the original HDV to replace the proxies (this takes all of about 10sec to do - it's EASY! - see the PPro helpfile for details); 5) go have a cup of coffee (or two) while it renders out.

Betsy Moore · July 24th, 2004, 09:19 PM

great advice G & G:) Thanks.

Glenn Chan · July 24th, 2004, 10:28 PM

1- Premiere 6.x could export to MPEG4?!

2- What settings are you using in Premiere Pro?

codec, bitrate, frame rate, size, interlacing, etc.

3- What are you trying to do? There probably is a better codec for what you're trying to do.

Kin Kwan · July 24th, 2004, 11:08 PM

For some odd reason, I can't seem to export to Huffyuv from Premiere Pro 1.5.

Does anyone have the same problem, or better yet, a solution to this problem?

Justin Boyle · July 25th, 2004, 06:46 AM

thanks for ur reply glen. premiere 6 dfinately could export to mpeg4 i have done it. i had three codecs to use and there was also divx to choose from which is the same as mpeg4 and these were perfect codecs in terms of quality and it was hard to find any differences. In premiere pro i have also tried the quicktime format and chose to compress mpeg4 through there and the render times doubled but the quality was equally as good as what i did with premiere 6. If you can suggest any free codecs that are better than mpeg4 then that would be appreciated but fact is i have seen mpeg4 do some great stuff with pleasing results so premiere pro should be able to do that also.

Thanks again
Justin

Glenn Chan · July 25th, 2004, 02:04 PM

As a workaround you can export using the animation codec. It's also lossless, and I believe it allows an alpha channel.

Don't have PPro in front of me to see if it can export huffyuv.

Glenn Chan · July 25th, 2004, 02:27 PM

1- What are you trying to do?
What kind of footage
What the target destination/audience is
How big should the encoded version be
Length
etc....

If you're just looking for the best quality compression (compatibility and editability be damned), then your best choices would be:

lossless:
huffyuv, animation are free.
There are some commercial codecs out there like microcosm that provide slightly better lossless compression. Windows Media I believe also does lossless, although I haven't tried.

Lossy:
Windows Media 9 (download Windows Media Encoder for free) *Reasonably easy to use, and FREE.
VP6 - http://www.on2.com/vp6.php3
???Xvid (don't know if it's very good)
Real Player

divX I tried and doesn't look very good at low bitrates compared to Windows Media.

MPEG4 generally isn't as good as the options above. The MPEG4 format is limited to a certain set of compression tricks so that not-so-powerful devices can decode MPEG4 streams.

If you can't easily tell the difference between frames, then in practical terms all codecs are the same.

Peter Robert · July 25th, 2004, 08:15 PM

Hi Graham,

I am very eager to learn your method that convert m2t to mjpeg. But I don't know much about computer. Can you give an example of how to make a proxy file and then how to swop back the original to replace the proxy file?

Thanks a lot.

July 23rd, 2004, 04:47 AM	#766
Ed Smith Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Hampshire, England Posts: 1,545	Hi Edmond, Simply add a letter box matte. This will crop the image top and bottom. Steps: Go to file menu> new> Adobe title designer Click on templates, navigate to the matte folder Selct Letter box matte save and exit title designer Drag matte from project bin to the top most video track which is free. i.e if you have video in track 1, place it in track 2. You might need to render. Hay presto you should now be in widescreen... Cheers, __________________ Ed Smith Hampshire, UK Good things come to those who wait My Skiing web www.Frostytour.co.uk For quick answers Search dvinfo.net \| The best in the business: dvinfo.net Sponsors

July 23rd, 2004, 02:27 PM	#768
Greg Harris Major Player Join Date: May 2004 Location: Fairfax, VA Posts: 356	24p in Premier Pro Whats the difference in premier pro 1.5 and premier pro 1? 1.5 has 24p capturing correct. Does it make a difference on the TV? Also, Has anyone captured footy in HD and put it into pro and watched in on a HD TV? If so, how does that look? Thanks mike

July 23rd, 2004, 07:04 PM	#770
Justin Boyle Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 207	premiere pro compresion problems i have adobe premiere pro and it is the best program however, i do have one fault to pick. When using the old version 6, if i deinterlaced then compressed to mpeg4 there was practically no loss and it was actually extremely difficult to spot the difference with the two clips. premiere pro renders about twice as quick and while this is great the quality is not and it isn't even worth using it. does anyone have any suggestions. Justin __________________ jlboyle

July 24th, 2004, 06:08 PM	#771
Betsy Moore Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 444	Adobe Premiere Pro Can you edit with Adobe Premiere Pro by its self or with Adobe plus free add-ons or do you have to use products like the Cineform line (which looks great but has a price that will make me brownbag my lunch til 2007)

July 24th, 2004, 11:08 PM	#776
Kin Kwan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 120	Huffyuv and Premiere Pro 1.5 problem For some odd reason, I can't seem to export to Huffyuv from Premiere Pro 1.5. Does anyone have the same problem, or better yet, a solution to this problem? __________________ Kin Kwan

July 23rd, 2004, 05:13 AM	#767
Edmond Chan New Boot Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: ho chi minh city, vietnam Posts: 22	Thanks Ed Smith, But can i crop the image from 4:3 to 16:9 and then restructure the crop image to fit back to the 720x480 and put back to the widescreen platform...??? Am i asking too much... or is there any program outside can do the job... since this is only a hobby to me... 1k-2k program i can afford and play with... but if the program cost few thousand - i go back to my 4:3 screen... Thanks... Edmond

July 23rd, 2004, 06:49 PM	#769
Josh Allen Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Wildomar, CA Posts: 89	I would lean towards Matrox as well.

July 24th, 2004, 06:32 PM	#772
Giroud Francois Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: switzerland Posts: 2,133	no, cineform give you real time transition, but is not necessary. all the HD products have 2 features. -capturing and converting or not into a workable format. -editing and saving back to tape. If you can transfer your video into a format readable by premiere (namely an .avi video with a supported codec) you do not need anything else. For example, ulead provide an HD plugin for their software that allows capture and translation to a format readable by premiere. Mainconcept has an HD plugin that capture and edit DV-HD directly into premiere pro. both are a lot cheaper than cineform. cineform is a great product, but at this price it is a dead end.

July 24th, 2004, 07:19 PM	#773
Graham Hickling Trustee Join Date: May 2004 Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Posts: 1,669	I currently edit HDV using Premiere Pro 1.5 with the Mainconcept MpegPro plugin. With a Pentium4 HT2.8GHz I can capture and export directly between the camera and the Premiere timeline, which is convenient. Editing certainly works, but is a bit "clunky" due to the decoding effort the CPU is putting in - for example, I can't smoothly scrub the timeline. Smoother workflow is what may convince me to get Aspect HD, eventually. But meanwhile, there's another solution, that I am fairly happy with at present: 1) Capture your HDV clips using whatever software you find convenient ; 2) Make a proxy copy of each clip to a CPU-friendly avi codec (I use TMPGExpress to batch process them all to Picvideo mjpeg); 3) do all your editing using the proxy files; 4) Just before your final render, swop back in the original HDV to replace the proxies (this takes all of about 10sec to do - it's EASY! - see the PPro helpfile for details); 5) go have a cup of coffee (or two) while it renders out.

July 24th, 2004, 09:19 PM	#774
Betsy Moore Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 444	great advice G & G:) Thanks.

July 24th, 2004, 10:28 PM	#775
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	1- Premiere 6.x could export to MPEG4?! 2- What settings are you using in Premiere Pro? codec, bitrate, frame rate, size, interlacing, etc. 3- What are you trying to do? There probably is a better codec for what you're trying to do.

July 25th, 2004, 06:46 AM	#777
Justin Boyle Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 207	thanks for ur reply glen. premiere 6 dfinately could export to mpeg4 i have done it. i had three codecs to use and there was also divx to choose from which is the same as mpeg4 and these were perfect codecs in terms of quality and it was hard to find any differences. In premiere pro i have also tried the quicktime format and chose to compress mpeg4 through there and the render times doubled but the quality was equally as good as what i did with premiere 6. If you can suggest any free codecs that are better than mpeg4 then that would be appreciated but fact is i have seen mpeg4 do some great stuff with pleasing results so premiere pro should be able to do that also. Thanks again Justin __________________ jlboyle

July 25th, 2004, 02:04 PM	#778
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	As a workaround you can export using the animation codec. It's also lossless, and I believe it allows an alpha channel. Don't have PPro in front of me to see if it can export huffyuv.

July 25th, 2004, 02:27 PM	#779
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	1- What are you trying to do? What kind of footage What the target destination/audience is How big should the encoded version be Length etc.... If you're just looking for the best quality compression (compatibility and editability be damned), then your best choices would be: lossless: huffyuv, animation are free. There are some commercial codecs out there like microcosm that provide slightly better lossless compression. Windows Media I believe also does lossless, although I haven't tried. Lossy: Windows Media 9 (download Windows Media Encoder for free) *Reasonably easy to use, and FREE. VP6 - http://www.on2.com/vp6.php3 ???Xvid (don't know if it's very good) Real Player divX I tried and doesn't look very good at low bitrates compared to Windows Media. MPEG4 generally isn't as good as the options above. The MPEG4 format is limited to a certain set of compression tricks so that not-so-powerful devices can decode MPEG4 streams. If you can't easily tell the difference between frames, then in practical terms all codecs are the same.

July 25th, 2004, 08:15 PM	#780
Peter Robert Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Singapore Posts: 70	Hi Graham, I am very eager to learn your method that convert m2t to mjpeg. But I don't know much about computer. Can you give an example of how to make a proxy file and then how to swop back the original to replace the proxy file? Thanks a lot.