Importing into Adobe Premiere

[Arber Davidi]

Hello.

We've been using an XL2 to shoot footage and are trying to edit the video into Premiere CS3 Pro however we are having some issues. Here's the environment:

Windows XP SP3
3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 Gigs of RAM
2 SATA hd: 160 and 250 respectively

Even though I instructed him not to, my colleague accidentally changed the fps before shooting from 29.97 to 24.97 as he was navigating through the menus and did not realize that. He was away when he did this so he ended up importing the clips (DV-AVI format) into a different computer using Premiere Pro 1 and then burned them onto a dvd to send to me. Now the clips play fine using Windows Media Player. Also if imported into Sony Vegas 8, they also play fine. However, when importing them to CS3 (without going through Vegas) there are these frames that have a "greenish" character to them, that appear every few seconds or so. Also, the strange thing is if you import the clip in Vegas and then Make Movie as avi again...short clips about 8 minutes or so will then import fine in Premiere.

Longs clips, like one that is 32 minutes long, after sending them through Vegas, do not import completely in Premiere. Why in the hell does it do that? I have tried restarting the computer, saving as a new project etc and it always only imports about 7 minutes out of the 32 minute clip. The file size and length show up fine in Windows Explorer. File size shows up fine in Premiere but the length does not. If I try to adjust the clip duration it drops the playback speed accordingly. Even If unlink speed and length, the majority of the clip becomes black starting from the 7 minute cut off point.

My questions:

1. The default settings for the project in Premiere are 29.97 fps. Is there a way to import the clip with 24.97 fps setting? Basically, import the clips straight into premiere without having to go through Vegas?

2. Why is Premiere only importing part of the clip? I did some research on the web but there is very little that I could find about this issue. I have had it happen before too. Is it a bug? What is it? It is extremely frustrating of course.

What is the best way to go about this?

We are new to the editing scene so if you need more details, I will be more than happy to provide you with them.

Thanks.
Arber

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

Hello.

We've been using an XL2 to shoot footage and are trying to edit the video into Premiere CS3 Pro however we are having some issues. Here's the environment:

Windows XP SP3
3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo
4 Gigs of RAM
2 SATA hd: 160 and 250 respectively

Even though I instructed him not to, my colleague accidentally changed the fps before shooting from 29.97 to 24.97 as he was navigating through the menus and did not realize that. He was away when he did this so he ended up importing the clips (DV-AVI format) into a different computer using Premiere Pro 1 and then burned them onto a dvd to send to me. Now the clips play fine using Windows Media Player. Also if imported into Sony Vegas 8, they also play fine. However, when importing them to CS3 (without going through Vegas) there are these frames that have a "greenish" character to them, that appear every few seconds or so. Also, the strange thing is if you import the clip in Vegas and then Make Movie as avi again...short clips about 8 minutes or so will then import fine in Premiere.

Longs clips, like one that is 32 minutes long, after sending them through Vegas, do not import completely in Premiere. Why in the hell does it do that? I have tried restarting the computer, saving as a new project etc and it always only imports about 7 minutes out of the 32 minute clip. The file size and length show up fine in Windows Explorer. File size shows up fine in Premiere but the length does not. If I try to adjust the clip duration it drops the playback speed accordingly. Even If unlink speed and length, the majority of the clip becomes black starting from the 7 minute cut off point.

My questions:

1. The default settings for the project in Premiere are 29.97 fps. Is there a way to import the clip with 24.97 fps setting? Basically, import the clips straight into premiere without having to go through Vegas?

2. Why is Premiere only importing part of the clip? I did some research on the web but there is very little that I could find about this issue. I have had it happen before too. Is it a bug? What is it? It is extremely frustrating of course.

What is the best way to go about this?

We are new to the editing scene so if you need more details, I will be more than happy to provide you with them.

Thanks.
Arber

You should try interpreting the footage first. You should be able to change the frame rate from there. Right click on the footage that you have imported into Premiere in the Project Bin. Then click on interpret footage. That way you should be able import the whole file just fine without issues after that. :)

[Arber Davidi]

Hi.

Thank you for responding to my post.

I followed your instructions and tried doing that. The current setting is to use frame rate from file and it is set for 23.9670. I tried the default, then changed the frame rate manually to 24.97 but with no success. There are these green colored "negative" frames that seem to happen very often, the image switches between them and normal. Rather hard to describe so I created a screenshot. You can find it here:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3005/...bf5035.jpg?v=0

Any idea what that could be? Anything else I can try?

Thank you!

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

Hi.

Thank you for responding to my post.

I followed your instructions and tried doing that. The current setting is to use frame rate from file and it is set for 23.9670. I tried the default, then changed the frame rate manually to 24.97 but with no success. There are these green colored "negative" frames that seem to happen very often, the image switches between them and normal. Rather hard to describe so I created a screenshot. You can find it here:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3005/...bf5035.jpg?v=0

Any idea what that could be? Anything else I can try?

Thank you!

I think one of your fields might be going a little crazy on you. Here's a link:

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

The process is slightly confusing, but basically what I think you need to do is separate the fields and then interpret it into progressive scan footage with no fields. That way it should eliminate the strange reaction your getting from that field, possibly. Let me know if this works. :)


FYI- If it separates to the wrong field when and sets on only the weird green part. Try and start a new project and in the project settings before you even save the file, change the fields to upper first instead of lower.

[Arber Davidi]

Originally Posted by Emrys Roberts

I think one of your fields might be going a little crazy on you. Here's a link:

Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

The process is slightly confusing, but basically what I think you need to do is separate the fields and then interpret it into progressive scan footage with no fields. That way it should eliminate the strange reaction your getting from that field, possibly. Let me know if this works. :)


FYI- If it separates to the wrong field when and sets on only the weird green part. Try and start a new project and in the project settings before you even save the file, change the fields to upper first instead of lower.

Thank you for the link. I am not sure however how to go about separating fields. I did try creating a new project though, with upper instead of lower field being the first and then imported the clip. That didn't solve it. Tried doing it with Progressive Scan. That didn't do it either. I also tried following the instructions from adobe...checked Reverse Field Dominance box then Interprete Footage. No luck. Tried Reversing the Dominance and Interlacing consecutive Fields. No go. Compared the clip properties with that in Vegas and they are the same. I am supposed to Interprete the footage every time I change the clip properties, right? If I use the MainConcept DV Pro codec for editing, the green stuff disappears but playback is jerky...pause to slow motion to normal etc...Rather strange. How do you separate the fields?

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

Thank you for the link. I am not sure however how to go about separating fields. I did try creating a new project though, with upper instead of lower field being the first and then imported the clip. That didn't solve it. Tried doing it with Progressive Scan. That didn't do it either. I also tried following the instructions from adobe...checked Reverse Field Dominance box then Interprete Footage. No luck. Tried Reversing the Dominance and Interlacing consecutive Fields. No go. Compared the clip properties with that in Vegas and they are the same. I am supposed to Interprete the footage every time I change the clip properties, right? If I use the MainConcept DV Pro codec for editing, the green stuff disappears but playback is jerky...pause to slow motion to normal etc...Rather strange. How do you separate the fields?

It's possible that it may just be the preview from PPro is caching those bad frames. Does it have the green frames when u just play outside of PPro? Try rendering a sequence with just that clip and see if the render comes out bad too.

I usually separate my fields in AE actually. Gives you a little bit more control over which field to use. Its basically the same process as interpreting footage in PPro. Do you have AE by chance?

[Arber Davidi]

Yes. I do have AE CS3. The clips play fine outside Premiere using Windows Media Player for instance. But, if i render the clip the green still shows.

Update: Imported one of the clips in AE and changed separate fields to Upper Field First and it seems to play fine. I will try rendering the clip, exporting it and then importing it in CS3 and will see if that does it.

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

Yes. I do have AE CS3. The clips play fine outside Premiere using Windows Media Player for instance. But, if i render the clip the green still shows.

OK, first try pulling the footage into AE and see if interpreting in the footage in there works any better than PPro.

I just thought of something too. Do you know what codec the footage was rendered in? It's possible that its a codec issue as well.

[Arber Davidi]

Originally Posted by Emrys Roberts

OK, first try pulling the footage into AE and see if interpreting in the footage in there works any better than PPro.

I just thought of something too. Do you know what codec the footage was rendered in? It's possible that its a codec issue as well.

OK. So switching to upper field first in AE seems to work. How do you recommend I export it from AE? Also, what's the shortcut for previewing footage with sound in AE? As far as I am aware of, the codec used to capture the footage was Premiere's built in DV-Pro (microsoft's one if I am not mistaken). Why would Premiere have an issue with this though? It is odd.

Thank you Emrys for your patience and quick response. I am grateful to you for that!

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

OK. So switching to upper field first in AE seems to work. How do you recommend I export it from AE? Also, what's the shortcut for previewing footage with sound in AE? As far as I am aware of, the codec used to capture the footage was Premiere's built in DV-Pro (microsoft's one if I am not mistaken). Why would Premiere have an issue with this though? It is odd.

Thank you Emrys for your patience and quick response. I am grateful to you for that!

Oh hey its not a problem at all. I've had plenty of occasions in the past where I've needed help with a project as well, so I'm happy to return the favor. :)

As far as the export from AE, I would just use the standard video for windows setting with no compression. The file will be pretty large, but then you can import into PPro and reexport from to NTSC or PAL (which ever you need). That should reduce the file size again (only go this route however if the file becomes too large to work with.

The shortcut for previewing with audio in AE is "0" - for video and audio preview, and "." for just audio (Also this is on the keypad on the right of the keyboard)

As far as codecs and premiere go, I've had issues in the past where premiere sometimes has issues recognizing a few codecs. Cineform, for example, won't play in PPro if the codec is not installed on the computer. PPro CS3 however has been pretty good about having most of the codecs, but a few can pop-up from time to time. :)

[Arber Davidi]

Originally Posted by Emrys Roberts

Oh hey its not a problem at all. I've had plenty of occasions in the past where I've needed help with a project as well, so I'm happy to return the favor. :)

As far as the export from AE, I would just use the standard video for windows setting with no compression. The file will be pretty large, but then you can import into PPro and reexport from to NTSC or PAL (which ever you need). That should reduce the file size again (only go this route however if the file becomes too large to work with.

The shortcut for previewing with audio in AE is "0" - for video and audio preview, and "." for just audio (Also this is on the keypad on the right of the keyboard)

As far as codecs and premiere go, I've had issues in the past where premiere sometimes has issues recognizing a few codecs. Cineform, for example, won't play in PPro if the codec is not installed on the computer. PPro CS3 however has been pretty good about having most of the codecs, but a few can pop-up from time to time. :)

Thank you! That is helpful. I tried exporting the clip using the Cinepak settings (is that different from Cineform?) and when I import the clip into Premiere it plays it at twice the speed and the clip is half in length (which makes sense). I tried using the DV/DVC Pro NTSC settings but same thing happens. Any idea why this might be happening? I am also trying exporting to avi from within AE, the process is taking way longer than before and the file is much smaller. When you say standard settings, are you referring to the Cinepak ones? Also, what's the difference between Export and Make Movie in AE?

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

Thank you! That is helpful. I tried exporting the clip using the Cinepak settings (is that different from Cineform?) and when I import the clip into Premiere it plays it at twice the speed and the clip is half in length (which makes sense). I tried using the DV/DVC Pro NTSC settings but same thing happens. Any idea why this might be happening? I am also trying exporting to avi from within AE, the process is taking way longer than before and the file is much smaller. When you say standard settings, are you referring to the Cinepak ones? Also, what's the difference between Export and Make Movie in AE?

Export and Make movie in AE are the same thing. I'm just used to always saying export. :) CInepak is actually another codec that I think is horrible. Sorry if confused you with the cineform reference. I just wanted you to render an avi with no compression from AE. Let me know if that render you started to avi is complete and if it worked. :)

[Arber Davidi]

Yes. I thought you were referring to Make Movie. That's when I noticed more options and realized what you meant by BIG files. I can't believe how a 7.5 GB file becomes 32 GB afterwards. Now they seem to work fine in Premiere. What I am doing though is merging a couple of avi files from AE at a time, importing them into premiere and then exporting them as avi again. (I am trying to not run out of space :-)) It's the latter AVIs that I plan on editing. The odd thing is that one of the files worked fine with no tweaking and by just being exported in AE. No idea what happened there. Is it typical for editing to involve multiple conversions like this?

I will make sure one more time that files are ok now as soon as all these conversions are done and will let you know how it goes. Thanks again for your help !

[Arber Davidi]

Now the playback seems fine on Premiere. For an instance there it seemed like the Premiere exported AVI became widescreen but then I tried playing it again and it didn't. Also there seems to be a bit more motion blur after sending the clips through it. I used Microsoft Avi for a file type. Should I maybe stick with Uncompressed Microsoft AVI? Any idea why the motion blur has increased? Does frame dropping make the footage any sharper? Is that something I should be paying attention to when exporting? This is starting to get rather frustrating. I haven't even started editing at this point. Should I just do this in Vegas since it can read the original clips fine?

[Emrys Roberts]

Originally Posted by Arber Davidi

Now the playback seems fine on Premiere. For an instance there it seemed like the Premiere exported AVI became widescreen but then I tried playing it again and it didn't. Also there seems to be a bit more motion blur after sending the clips through it. I used Microsoft Avi for a file type. Should I maybe stick with Uncompressed Microsoft AVI? Any idea why the motion blur has increased? Does frame dropping make the footage any sharper? Is that something I should be paying attention to when exporting? This is starting to get rather frustrating. I haven't even started editing at this point. Should I just do this in Vegas since it can read the original clips fine?

The motion blur should be coming from the having to re-export the clips and adjusting for the corrupt frames. Unfortunately there isn't too much you can do about that at this point because the only way to get rid of the blur would be to keep the footage as is. Basically AE has to fake those missing frames in order to make the footage match. That is the blending your seeing. Frame dropping doesn't make the footage any sharper no. Basically your losing information so the detail goes away too. Think of how HD footage for a basket ball game is shot usually at 60i. The level of detail is quite different from a short film shot in 24fps. As far as going to vegas, I'd hate for you to have to go outside of PPro, but for quality of your final piece, it might be best to stick with that since it keeps your footage intact. Another possiblity might be to bring the footage into vegas and export it out from there again, so that you can get in into PPro with no issue. Hope this helps. :)