Thanks Christopher. I have tried the Sorenson codec before. I will review my settings before purchasing the pro version. Too bad an upgrade is needed...

...the sorenson codec that came with PPro still didn't look as good as my WMV files.

Did you try MPEG4?

I have no troubles with MPEG 4, but for web viewing and regular Quicktime viewing, the comression artifacts in my Quicktime was not very good and the file was 3 times the size. I thought maybe it was my settings as the WMV versions always look right and the size stay small.

I agree, only use a system that can be confirmed by users that it works. The RTX is VERY picky, and it will not work properly if you just make up a system. You basically need to build something around the RTX instead of the other way around.

I had to purchase a completely new system around around the RTX card as my other machine (also new) was deemed incompatible.

the only version of sorenson that is useable costs top $$$... you almost certainly didn't get that with premiere pro... mpeg4 is marginal at best, but there is great hope for h.264, if someone ever creates a software player that will actually play the files.

if you search the recent archives, you'll find the link for the codec zip file test i posted... you'll see that real media and wmv have the best quality, but you could also look at divx or even xvid, if you can deal with the player issues on the distribution end of things.

that said, you should be able to get smooth playback in qt even if the picture quality sucks... make sure that you are manipulating the frame rate correctly.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dave Eanton : I agree, only use a system that can be confirmed by users that it works. The RTX is VERY picky, and it will not work properly if you just make up a system. You basically need to build something around the RTX instead of the other way around.

I had to purchase a completely new system around around the RTX card as my other machine (also new) was deemed incompatible. -->>>

I so second that.. My first RTX.100 system is a pieced together system and doesn't conform to Matrox standards.. A few hangs here and there.. for very small projects it works.

My new system we bought through a certified Matrox Builder for the RTX.100 and it's a class above the other system in reliability and stability..

Thanks for you input. At least now I know that's it's not completely a result of my settings. I might invest in the Sorenson Pro sometime. My playback is smooth, it's just the compression that didn't look right.

Dan, I'll look into your Codec tests. That sounds interesting.

Thanks again.

When using Premiere Pro 1.5 and my XL1s through a firewire connection, I cannot use Premiere's capture window, and I get a message saying "Can't Activate Recorder. Try Restting Recorder". I know that my camera is connected to my computer (Windows gives me a message saying that a Canon XL1s camcorder is connected to my system), and Premiere tells me that my camera is "online" when I set up the device control. (Which, according to Premiere, means that Premiere can see and control my camera). Any suggestions?

Im running adobe premiere but dont have any plugins. Right now Im using it for cutting live concert footage together but am also shooting a fairly intensive documentary which will require alot of color correction to match cameras together when needed. I will also be using it for short films shot on the xl2 where the end effect is the "film look." Just wanted to know if you all had any suggestions on what to start with, what are the "must have" pluggins for premiere? Thanks!

Color Finesse is very good for matching cameras from what I've seen of it. About $600USD.

I'm not trying to be funny here, but did you put the XL in VCR mode? Some times it's the simple things that bite us.

Dan

Hi there

I am using Premiere 6.0. I have two simple questions....

I have two video tracks for an interview. Video track 1 is the full uninterupted video of the interviewee. Video 2 is the video of the interviewer, broken up in clips for only when he is asking questions.

I have to:
1) now add video effects to all the clips in video 2. There are a lot of clips. Is there a way to add the same video effect (just like a brightness & contract adjustment) to them all at the same time?

2) I want two add two emtpy video tracks Between video 1 and 2, so I can add an effect onto video 1. Is there a way to do this, or do I have to move all the clips in Video 2 up, manually, one at a time?

Thanks.

Hi Ronald,

1) You can copy and paste effects from 1 clip to another. Simply right click on your first clip with the effect, then choose copy. Then right click on your second clip, and choose paste attributes. Another dialog will appear asking what attributes you wish to paste. Of the top of my head I think that effects is an option, so choose that.

2) First add your 2 more video tracks. Then use the group tool, select your clips in track 2 and then click and drag them to track 4.

I don't have Premiere 6 in front of me at the moment, but from memory I think thats how to do it.

Hope this helps,

Ed's pretty much dead-on. In a situation where you have to add effects to clips, it is easier to do it to the entire clip, then cut it up, rather than cut and paste to 50 smaller chunks.

Yes, it is in VCR mode. I should also point out some other things I've noticed since yesterday. I tried it with my Dad's GL2, and I had the exact same problem. However, I downloaded a dedicated capturing program (Scenalyzer 2.1), and that works, which seems to pretty strongly imply a Premiere problem rather than a FireWire problem or a camera problem.

Hi there,

I'm on Premiere 6.0

Is there a simple way to show the timecode of some video you are editing, burned into the video? Perhaps in the bottom of the video, where the bottom black bar is (for widescreen video)?

This would help with editing and getting our EDL for out online masters.

Premiere will just read whatever timecode is on the source video, correct and automatically put together the EDL that represents your project file?

thanks.

From memory you can paste all the effects that you've copied to multiple clips - selected using the dotted rectangle tool.

Jon

As far as I am aware Premiere does not support burnt in timecode (BITC). I remember there being a work around/ plug in that someody produced, But I don't know where it is...

Try a search for BITC or burnt in Timecode.

The only machine that I am aware that does BITC in real-time and does it extremely well is a Lightworks Touch. But then again you are looking at aboout £16,000 for one...

Sony Vegas (another NLE) can do it as well, it is kinda real-time.

Avid

I was wondering, when I run the project trimmer out of the project manager, will it render out the new avi's without audio if I do not use the audio in the sequence? Or will it render out the audio if I originaly captured the audio regardless if I use it or not? If so, is there a way to render out the new avi's without the original sound?

Perhaps this timecode frame generator (http://www.2writers.com/download.htm) would be of some use?

I hook the gl2 up to the tv... no edginess, no blurring.... just great footage.

I edit in premiere 1.5 and export to dvd... now have blurry movement and edgy lines. Set to high quality, 2 pass, 720x480, 4mb.

What in the world is the problem? I thought from an earlier post it might have been the lighting but now after plugging straight from camera to tv i know it can't be that.

It's something to do with software, but what?

Any info from anyone with the same experience and how to fix this would be great!!!

Thanks

Any time you compress video, you're going to lose quality. Try playing around with your export settings a little bit. I've had good results by doing the VBR 7mb 2-pass encoding, but try changing settings and find the results which work best for you.

Do a search on this board on:

TMPGEnc CCE ProCoder

That will yield you numerous threads on DVD encoders and their
settings. 4 MB is a pretty low bitrate. Since you mention two pass
I assume this is the VBR average bitrate. VBR also has a minimum
and maximum setting.

Do the search and take a couple of hours to read through them!

Jay,

If you are using the Adobe MPEG Encoder these are the settings that I use to obtain superior encoding results for a one hour dvd. You will have to lower the bitrate for longer than 1 hour or use variable bitrate.

1. Drag the quality slider all the way to the right (value = 50)

2. Set the max bitrate to 8120. I use constant bitrate.

3. Use audio setting MPEG layer 2 at 384, muxed for DVD.

Also, there is a chance that when you are bringing your encoded data into your DVD authoring program that it is encoding it again...very bad results may occur. Check you DVD authoring software to see if you can "turn-off" it's encoding. What I author with is DVD-Lab. It does not have an encoder.

Regards,

Mark

Well, I'll admit my ignorance with the software since I've only had it for a couple weeks. I had the encoder set to windows media 9 and not mpeg2 for dvd. It now looks great on the television. Thanks for everyone's help. There is a lot to learn about this software.

I didn't even know you could put Windows Media video on a DVD. Interesting....

There is now Adobe Premiere Elements for Dummies by Keith Underdahl (copyright 2005) available about this NLE software.
I can't comment too much on the book yet because I just checked it out at the library but maybe this can be a start for you as well.

Does anyone know if the latest version of Premiere can handle 4 channel audio records from an XL2? Can Final Cut handle it?

Import your footage to AE would also work too. It has a TC plugin. I'm also sure some cameras allows you to display the timecode during capturing. Good Luck!

You can always mimic the magic bullet looks all with in Premiere. Just takes alittle practice. Magic bullet seems to be a pretty popular plugin for the "film look". I think it retails for $300. Don't qoute me on that, I could be wrong.

Nope! I have the Tascam FW1884 and Adobe has absolutley no support drivers. I don't think Adobe has any future plans on getting these mix boards to intergrat with Premiere Pro.

Hi Kent,

I don't think the latest version supports 4 channel audio. If you have a Matrox RTx 100 card then I think it is possible...

anyone tried?

This brings me to a question. Are the DVDs that we rent at Blockbuster on Mpeg2 format? Is this the format that plays in most DVD players.

Adobe has really got to get back in the game. I really don't count the last upgrade (1.5) because the best feature (project trimming) is just a dropped feature put back in. No updates to Photoshop CS either in 14 months.

I just capture with scenalyzer and don't worry about it. Cheap, downloadabe, trial version available.

Brad

I've got a couple of event DV tapes with bad frames here and there. (Camera misaligned). Some blocks of pixels occasionally shifted left. Since the problem tends to be on single frames, all I'd have to do is lift the frame and insert one that's an interpolation of the two on each side to fix the video without an apparent pause or jump.

Anyone know how to do that in Ppro or maybe of a pulg-in?

Thanks,

Brad

I've tried cutting the frame out and using various Ppro transitions. Looks worse.

The twixtor plugin will do interpolation, but I'm unsure if it will do what you want in PPro or whether you'll need AfterFX...their website it a bit ambiguous about the capability in different hosts.

http://www.revisionfx.com/rstwixtorfeatmat.html

I believe all DVD-Video are encoded in MPEG2.

I think what happened to Jay is that his DVD player is able to play video files encoded with WM9 burned on CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. It should also be able to play MP3 files and photos.
Maybe Jay could have a look to his DVD player user's manual and tell us ?

I'm not sure where the manual is. It just played the format though... that is, unless I confused myself as to the format recorded in. I know that when encoded mpeg2 it looks great. I am pretty sure the first time setting was windows media.

Yeah, I know with a title like that some of you will think illegal, but no! Hah! Acutally I just want to ask a simple questions. I have a project that a former employer did that is now dumped on me :( It is a slideshow with music and what not put onto a DVD, but he doenst have the source files and I need to edit it. What would be the best software to pull that into Premier and edit it? Cool, thanks

I'm having a problem mixing video clips and still photos in Premiere 1.5. The problem is easier to see than to describe, so I put the pictures and problem up on a web page here: http://www.sierratel.com/iisaw/temp/problem.htm

I'd appreciate any advice!

Hi Eric,

Gotta go to work soon, so the tests I just did are very quick and incomplete...may not be quite right. But it looks like it depends on how you export.

Export>>Movie... using standard narrow or widescreen setting will preserve the aspect ratio of the actual moving image that you want to export and automatically letterbox or pillarbox.

Export>>Movie... to other aspect ratios such as square (or) Export>>Adobe Media Encoder... to WMV (didn't have time to try *.mpg) will pre-squish or pre-stretch your pixels so they don't fit into a different aspect ratio nicely. IMHO, Adobe Media Encoder is incredibly NOT intuitive to use. Buried within the PRE-ENCODING area are options for scaling and cropping, and in the AUDIENCES area are options for setting aspect ratio and pixel dimensions. In the time I had, I could not make those work to get the result you want; doesn't necessarily mean it can't be done, though. Don't know yet.

I'm also very curious about this and will fiddle with it more over the weekend. Aspect ratios are a common source of questions, and I for one didn't realize that staying with AVI export (Export>>Movie...) would automatically letterbox or pillarbox for you...if that actually is true. Seemed to work this morning.

The short answer if you are on a deadline is to do all your work in a 16:9 project, then import the project into a 4:3 project and it will be automatically letterboxed. That'll definitely work, but if you have the time to mess with this over the weekend, let us know what your export settings were and we'll pick this up when the Beer Light is lit for the weekend! ;-)

Hi Eric,

I don't understand why you want to letterbox for your DVD. You can burn a 16:9 DVD and the DVD players can letterbox by themselves to fit in 4:3. Furthermore, for those who have a 16:9 TV, they will have a real 16:9 with good resolution.

Thanks for the comments guys,

Pete,

I will try importing the 16:9 project into a 4:3 project. I'm not on a tight deadline right now, so I'd eventually like to find a way to do this in one pass.

Ben,

I'm trying to letterbox it because when I export it as a widescreen AVI it plays back squashed into 4:3. It may be a problem with both Realplayer and my DVD burner... but the only solution I found was to force it to letterbox myself. I have not yet tried to burn a DVD directly from Premiere but that's my next step.

Burning a DVD directly from Premiere works fine but I still can't export the movie as a DV AVI and get the proper aspect ratio... or maybe it <I>is</I> the proper aspect ratio and Realplayer squeezes it to 4:3... but I used Realplayer to play back the DVD and that was fine.

Is there any way to set up a menu system when burning a DVD? Or is it one clip, one disc?

Thanks.

No, you can not put a menu if you create the DVD from Premiere. You would have to use a soft like Encore.

If you export your movie as an AVI, chances are that the aspect ratio will not be guessed right by Realplayer or even Windows Media Player.
But you don't care because for a DVD you export to MPEG2 and there the DVD player will guess right.
I guess you'll see it when you burn a DVD from Premiere.

For your information Sony Vegas 5 does support external control
surfaces, however I don't recall from memory if it supports your
exact device (or standard), but that shouldn't be too hard to find
out at http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com