I could use some help right about now. I have this 2h concert that I edited for a client in Premiere Pro 1.5. He wanted it mastered back to MiniDV. So I said to myself, piece of cake right? I'll have this done by noon. Meh... 5 hours later I'm that close to jumping out the window.

Here's the problem. When I choose the export to tape option in PPro, it takes control of my DV camera (XL2) and starts transfering footage on it. The sound is fine, the image looks good, but at random places it freezes for a few secs (I'm seeing this in my camera's viewfinder), only to continue recording like if nothing happened. The weird thing is I have Premiere set to stop the recording if frames are dropped. Well it never stopped recording, meaning to Premiere, everything is working fine.

Where do I go from there? Could it be my firewire cable? I've captured tons of footage on this cable without ever having one single glitch. Why now that I go the other way, to tape, would the cable become a problem? Is it the camera? Again, never had problems with that camera. Is it that I need to set the timecode on the XL2 to something else than rec-run? A setting in Premiere? I'm lost.

I don't know if this is normal, but the timecode that shows up on the timeline when exporting is about 1 sec. in advance of what is recording to tape. I don't see this as being a big deal, but maybe it is. I've tried to export to tape 10 times. Every time the freezing happens at different places. It's completely random.

In case it matters, I have an AMD 1.8Mhz system with 512MB DDR*.

Any pointers or troubleshooting steps, even if fairly obvious, will be appreciated. I'm just about to dump this piece of garbage that is Premiere to try Vegas or Avid, so if I learn the problem comes from PPro, it's in the trash.

Have you tried playing the tape back to see if it is actuall dropping? Check your capture settings, I am just guessing.

Yes I did. The freezing is recorded to tape. As soon as it does this I have to start all over again (and I can't record 2 min. of clean footage, so I'm pretty much at a dead end).

I'll try rendering one big DV file and re-importing it to Premiere, then exporting this directly to tape. Hope that works, although my pinky says it won't.

There is no lower limit for exporting back to tape. It is the same 25Mbps that is originally recorded to tape. I have no idea how you would export to D-VHS though.

Last night, while trying to finish my movie for the DV challenge #2, I ran into several major problems with Premiere Pro 1.5.1.

I’ll start with the most serious error first:

While attempting to change effects settings, and playing same on some audio files in the timeline, the files sounded very weird, almost like electrical noise, and the program would quit. Seven times the program, Premiere Pro, put up an error message saying that, “Premiere Pro has committed a serious error and has to close, we will attempt to save your file.” When I would click this error message off, there would be two or three more about dealing with where it was going to try and save it to and other warnings that it may not work.

Each time I was able to open the project again. I couldn’t see any obvious errors in the saved program, but it is really hard to tell with all the tracks. I finally got the effects control window opened for the files, (Premiere Pro did not want to select the files), and I found that these four little audio files had multiple applications of the same audio effects applied to them. For example, they might have four or five pitch changers added to them and multiples of another effect also. I carefully removed them all, while saving many times and quickly finished my “unfinished movie.” But, at the end the audio was not right, I had given up changing it, so that I would not mess it up any further.

Other problems:

In addition to the problem above, I had a lot of trouble trying to select files. I would click on them in every way possible, and they would not select. I managed to drag over some and got them selected, but often could not do anything with them when they were selected.

Another problem was with the titler. I copied one title, renamed it and dropped in to the time line. But each time I edited or modified it, Premiere would modify both of the titles. A real problem when have all your credits etc., made up already and you loose it all. I thought that I was making some kind of error, so I tried starting with a new title. But, when I would try to bring up a new title through the menu or by hitting F9, it would open up with the info from my previous title already in it! And of course when I modified it, it changed the other two on the time line also! Lost all again! I finally figured out that if I closed and restarted Premiere Pro, I could then open a new title and create it without changing the ones in the timeline. Had to do this twice, after spending about two hour trying to figure it out!


Many times when I made editing cuts etc., the audio files would move, but the key frames in them would remain in their original position. At the end, I had key frames sitting all by themselves in blank parts of the audio track, past the end of my movie! This may be the way they are supposed to perform, staying with the timeline when added there and not in the individual clip, but, I could not even select and delete them! At times I would save and close the project, and then reopen it and find I could select files that I could not before!

All in all, it was a nightmare trying to do pretty basic editing on a movie that was only three minutes long!

If you are wondering about the computer, it was not the problem. It had no trouble keeping up with anything. It is a P4, 3.4GHz, two 250GB hard drives, hyperthreading, multiple processing, with one meg of ram, dual monitors, etc… Anytime I needed to render or encode, it was fast and no problems.

Has anyone else encountered these types of problems? I am going to call Adobe and attempt to find an answer to this, so will post their reply.

Thanks---Mike

While you clearly have tons of processing power, most of the symptoms you describe are consistent with an overloaded CPU. Whether that is being caused by something in Premiere Pro, I don't know. But next time you're running it, as soon as you have trouble selecting an item, immediately go into Windows Task Manager (Cntl-Alt-Del if using XP) and look at Processes and Performance and see if something is using excessive memory or CPU percentage.

That's not the case. And if fact I can open other applications like Audition ect., on the other monitor and run all at once. Does not change anything.

It is not the computer, and if it was, it would totally freek when rendering and encoding, and it does not.

Thank--Mike

The point was, to check CPU and memory usage, which I guess you had already done. By the way, the fact that you can run a bunch of programs and render with no problem would not necessarily rule out a memory usage problem caused by Premiere.
Just trying to help.

I have been checking the computer, as it's a differant one and I running some tests on it right now. I'm thinking part or all of it may have been those bad audio files, at least on the error message part. I hate to do it but I'm thinking I will load one of the copies where they are still messed up and see what they do. I'll let you know. Just rendered a movie, and it was at 52% useage.

Thanks

Mike,

You might want to check the FAQ over on the Adobe forums called "Audio Tracks Play with Static and Low Quality in Premiere": http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?14@590.kfYJeCESH59.2@.2cd0628f. It may have some information that could help.

hi all,

Captured about 30mins of footage into premiere. Cut it down to approx 5 mins. Theres about 15 cuts on the timeline. On some of the cuts whenever I put a cross dissolve in there, there is a problem with the dissolve. Basically during the dissolve, there is a frame from another part of the timeline which magically appears in the dissolve! In other words, it dissolves from A to B but just before the centre of the dissolve there is this frame from another part of the timeline.... wierd...

Anyone have any ideas?

Is this Premiere Pro 1.0 or 1.5? Did you update the version to the latest patch?
From what I understand (I'm not using Premiere, however) is that 1.5 solved
a lot of problems with 1.0 (I could be wrong on that).

...there is a frame from another part of the timeline which magically appears in the dissolve!
You must have enough of handels of a clip to avoid this problem. Read more about About clip handles and transitions in PPro help.

/Roger

Christopher,

Thanks Christopher. I checked it out and it is not the same. I continued on into the support section for awhile, and nothing yet. Will continue on into it later.

thanks-Mike

I currently monitor premiere with my XL1s trhough the firewire and thought maybe I should get a dedicated card. I read posts on this site that I should get a card with an analogue out that works with premiere pro 1.5. Is there somewhere a list of all the cards that work, or will any graphics card with an analogue out work. All cards suggested such as matrox canopus etc seem to be capture cards, does the card need to have capture ability for premiere to recognise it. Maybe we could set up a list of what everyone uses to get our own compatability list going

Thanks in advance

Andy

Hi Andrew,

I would not use a Graphis card for out put to TV.

There are only 2 ways to do it.

1. Buy a capture card like the Matrox RTx series or Canopus line of products. (there are other manufacturers as well). Also remember that these cards are also Hardware accelerator cards. They will speed up the time of rendering and exporting, but are picky about other hardware in your PC (Will be expensive)

2. Use your firewire port and use the analogue pass-thru on your camcorder (not so expensive).

Hope this helps a little,

I bought a Canopus ADV110 for video capture from my VHS/VCR and got a bonus of being able to run video out my computer firewire into my TV. I think that that is money well spent. (wife is still thinking about it.) The nice thing about the ADV110 is it requires no power if you have a 6 pin firewire connection.

So when I'm doing title placement and such, I just plug it into my tele. It works for that purpose fine.

Hope this helps.

Steven Davis.

i'm trying to export a file from premiere and eventhough i have a lot of space on the external HD that is the source of the file and is being outputed to, after 9 min of export i get a disk full error!
i tried exporting to the c:\ drive same error
what is going on?

what file system are you using

10 bucks says fat32`

what file system are you using

10 bucks says fat32`


uhu
i have a new external HD that i can probably format to ntfs would that solve the damn prob
it is really frostrading and b/c of one file i haven't even start editing the proj that is due tom night

I've heard about a patch that increses the max filesize for fat32

Yeah go up to NTFS on your external, really shouldn't take to long.

If you have a lot of space and a program like partition magic you could just make your freespace into a ntfs drive.

You can convert FAT32 to NTFS without having to format. Google search for "FAT32 to NTFS conversion".
http://www.ntfs.com/quest3.htm

You may have to run "chkdsk /f" on your external drive first.

Your problem may also be something else.

Has to be a file size limitation due to FAT32. 2nd hardware remove and replace diagnosis would be to quickly dump in a secondary slave HDrive on your ide cable that currently feeds your cd rom ... this will get your project rendered for tomorrow... you can do without your second dvd/cd-rom for one night...

Also, since nobody mentioned it I suppose I will: When you attempt a second export to a location and file that are the same as the previous attempt, old versions of premiere would not allow this unless you shut down Premiere and re-started ...

This is a known bug in Premiere Pro. If you do a search on the Adobe web site for "green screen stills" you will see several discussions. It appears to be some sort of memory leak. Adobe is well aware of the problem, but to the best of my knowledge has not made a patch available.

In addition to the previous suggestions, some solutions that I have found that work:
1. Import the photos at a lower resolution. I have only encountered the problem when using high resolution photos. I usually batch reformat the photos in Photoshop, then import them at no more than ~1200 x 1000.
2. Place a black matte as video above the photos, then set the matte opacity to 0%
3. Change the photo slightly using the effects control window. Something as simple as changing the opacity from 100% to 99%, changing the position from 360 to 359, etc. will force the editor to re-render the sequence.
4. Use short sequences of photos/transitions/effects and export them to AVI. Then combine the short sequences into one long sequence.

Good luck,
Barry Oppenheim

i want the highest quality. but i also want others to be able to download it in a timely fashion....

any suggestions?

btw. 7.0

Hi Patrick,

That is a very ambiguous question, since there is no one answer, and it depends on a lot of other factors (How long your video is, what you consider to be good quality, what format etc...)

This thread will give you some tips:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=47545

You might also wish to search the web delivery/ DVD forum.

Hope this helps,

Andy,

Have you thought about just getting a second monitor and run two monitors right off your computer?? I went to the dual monitor and will never go back.


dale guthormsen

on my effects box in premiere pro 1.5 (not effects controls), the arrows that used to be there to scroll up and down in the box arent there anymore. they magically dissapeared one day (the arrows on the right of the box).

now im having to stretch the window down till i can see the effects i want, sometimes thats not even enough.

how can i get it back to normal??

thanks

how can i get it back to normal??
Since the arrows are gone it seems like a un-install followed by a re-install of PPro will do the trick. :)

/Roger

theres got to be a setting somewhere that got tinkered with... i will have to make a screen grab of what im talking about.

This happened to me once also. Try saving a new workspace, and give it a different name. Do this with the effcts window closed. Restart Premiere and select the new workspace. Then open the effects window and the scroll should return. Be sure your premiere window is stretched completely across both monitors so none of the windows overlap; Timeline, monitor, effects, info etc.

thanks alot! it worked! boo yah!

I'm builing my PC around PP1.5. I'm starting with software and working downward. First I choose the software (Premier Pro 1.5); then find the graphics card that works best with PP1.5 (in the PC world). The graphics card determines which processor(s), and the processors determine which motherboard. So...,

Which graphics card(s) work well with PP1.5? Remember, I'm doing uncompressed editing, MiniDV and (ideally) HDV.

Also, does Adobe have a users group web site where I can post such questions?

Tks!

Just curious...are you able to capture into the HD Capture utility that came with the cam? I do not yet own Premiere (with or without the Aspect plugin!), but can't even get this to work. See my post just now on this topic, but I wonder if we have the same problem.

I'm trying to export a sequence to quicktime mov format. But the final output video gets messed up while the audio is fine. It starts out ok at first but then the video "fast forwards" quickly, totally out of sync w/ the audio. Has anyone seen this?

I'm using premiere pro and exported using the adobe media encoder. I tried several of the quicktime presets such as 256 streaming NTSC, 384 streaming NTSC, and alternate NTSC download. I get the same result or it stops due to an error. Is there a proper preset I should use or should they all work (I'm using NTSC)?

Thanks.
Donald

hi i have just got premiere pro and want to install it, thing is i have one 160 gig c drive, and a second hard drive...which is about 80 gig.

where should i install premiere, on the c drive? should i use the second drive as a scratch disk? where should i capture all the video too..

thanxs

I would install the program on C:, have the scratch disk and capture on the new drive.

but would 80 gig be enough for all the video?

How much video do you have? What are you doing? If you don't feel 80 gig will be enough, either transfer everything to the 80 and use the 160 for capture, or get more drives and set up a raid.

just short films, home movies....how much video can i fit on 80 gig? whats a raid. thanxs for your reply's

could i have premiere and captured video on c and other drive as scratch disk?

A Raid array is several hard drives that are set up to work as one large drive. There are several types of raid setups, the best being a mirrored raid, where you have copies of your data in case one drive goes bad.

Dylan,

Figure on appx 13 gigs per hour of standard DV. So 80 gigs will hold about six hours of footage.

Obviously, swapping the drives would give you more storage for your media. Use the 80 gig for the C drive, the 160 for media.

If you do not feel tech savvy enough, to swap drives and reboot systems, you've probably got enough to get you started. You can simply buy additional 'external' drives as you need them and hook them up by firewire.

Hi Donald,

That is a bit strange.

I take it if you were to export out as an AVI or WMV file it would play back OK?

Have you tried playing the QT file on a separate PC?

Does it always do it at the same point? If so is there anything major happening in the video at the point (effects etc)?

Just a few things to try...

Hi Monty,

As per Adobes min spec:

1,280x1,024 32-bit color video display adapter (OpenGL card recommended)

This basically emplys any modern video card whether it be AGP or PCI-express.

The things that are most important to Premiere (in terms of hardware) is the processor and how much RAM you put in the machine. Premiere does not really use the GPU to increase its performance.

Take a look at adobes sepc:
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs.html

Yes Adobe do have a user forum. Just search the support page on there website. You can also use this forum!

Cheers,

Yes, I'm able to export avi and mpeg. When I tried the different QT presets the problem happened at different points. I'll still play around w/ it.

ok, i shot a wedding in 16x9...and i opened up a project in premier set for 16x9 video. i want to use one of the standard wedding templates but i dont want it to be in 16x9. do i have to open a template up in a 4x3 project, export as a frame, then import back in as a still...or what? if i did that then i wouldnt get any animation on the graphic...so im confused.

I can't seem to get Alpha Glow in Premiere 6.5 to work.
Could any kind soul take me through using Alpha Glow step by step. For the life of me I can't seem to get it to work. Premiere's on-line help is not very specific. And I've tried another Forum with zero response.
I just want to give an overall soft whitening to the image with a bit of a glow to it...I can get the soft whitening OK but not the glow...

I have Premiere 6.5 with CanopusRT2 on a P4 with plenty of everything.

Hi Mike,

You might find this previous thread of interest.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=40231&highlight=alpha+glow

Although this is mentioned for PP, it should be the same for P6.5

Hope this helps,

I have a Canon Gl2, I want to shoot in 4:3 to have the best quality image and then somehow convert the image to 16:9. I am aware that in Adobe Premier I can goto "add titles" and place black bars at the bottom and top to create quasi 16:9. What I really want to do is reformat the image so that it will play as 16:9 on a widescreen TV, I don't want a stretched image (adding bar in titles still will stretch the image).

So, ideally I want to make this conversion so that my DVD authoring program will accept my footage as genuine 16:9. What program can do this 4:3 to 16:9 conversion for the PC? Thanks a bunch!

Thanks Ed. I'll give Pete Bauer's suggestions a go. Nice to kow I'm not alone in finding Alpha Glow difficult.

Cheers

Mike