FCP > Premiere users…should I wait for CS 6?

[Thomas Pohl]

I’ve been to an Adobe presentation last week and the trainer said that Adobe plans to bring out major updates every year now. Probably this information helps you for your decisions.

Cheers
Thomas.

https://www.footage-online.de – RED footage and more available in HD, SD and RED RAW R3D

[Chris Borjis]

Monitoring via Kona is a key feature I have to have.

Looks like I’ll wait for the next version.

Thanks!

[Chris Tompkins]

APP does work with AJA Products.
Buying CS5.5 now for 1/2 off is wise, as you’ll get CS6 or CS6.5 for the upgrade price.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Tom Daigon]

And be forewarned, the time you save not transcoding at the front end of the process can be lost by the time it takes to export your project at the end of the process. Unlike FCP, which stitches together all the rendering done while you edit, Premiere renders the enter timeline when it exports. This can be humongous (hours) for large projects or projects with lots of dynamic links to AE or large format projects like Red.
An Adobe technician explained it to me this way when I asked him why PrP rendering on export seemed to take more time than FCP.

“What you’re looking for is what we commonly refer to as smart rendering, and it doesn’t exist in PPro. That’s a Final Cut ‘ism, where it splices rendered data from the preview QT files into the final render. Keep in mind that’s a QuickTime centric feature, & doesn’t translate automatically to all file formats.”

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Michael Hancock]

I believe you can check “Use Preview Renders” or something like that and it will use the renders you’ve already done while working. It speeds up exports enormously if you’ve done some rendering as you go (when you take a coffee break, grab lunch, etc…).

—————-
Michael Hancock
Editor

[David Cherniack]

You can use preview renders. It really speeds up the output process if you’re rendering to the same codec, bit depth, and bit rate that you rendered your previews at. This is my standard NO.

David
AllinOneFilms.com

[Tom Daigon]

I did extensive testing on this process…

https://forums.adobe.com/message/3945436#3945436

And here is an explanation from an Adobe technician why using previews is discouraged.

” The ‘Use preview files’ option in PPro is exactly that – if there’s a preview file, it decodes the frame out of it, & re-encodes it into the final file. So while it’ll help in (non-CUDA) effects heavy compositions, it also incurs a generation loss. Generally, we don’t recommend using it (hence the default to off) unless you really are sure that’s what you want.”

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[David Cherniack]

[Tom Daigon] “if there’s a preview file, it decodes the frame out of it, & re-encodes it into the final file. So while it’ll help in (non-CUDA) effects heavy compositions, it also incurs a generation loss. Generally, we don’t recommend using it (hence the default to off) unless you really are sure that’s what you want.””

I’m not at all sure that this is true in all cases.

I usually render my previews to a Matrox codec @ 200mbps. Exports to the same codec and bit depth go extremely fast and I’ve noticed no quality loss. However, I must admit I haven’t put the two side by side under a microscope. If I’m working with heavy effects renders that have lots of gradients I render previews at 10 bit uncompressed which will avoid any potential generation loss rendering with previews to final outout. If my output needs to take up less space than a 10 bit uncompressed file I’ll go to a less storage intensive codec (AVCIntra @100mbps or Matrox iframe @200mbps) and see minimum quality loss.

David
AllinOneFilms.com

[Philipp Hampl]

And watch out for the most unbelievable “feature” of those that need to be improved: there is no way, that you export a clean feed (audio unmixed) version of your program! There is just: a single mono, stereo or 5.1. That’s it! Response from adobe: for the web there’s no need to export other. Ok, so pros (tv e.g.) were not been asked?
The only workaround: export every single track (including video) to: final cut! And that was where I just came from. And now have returned to.
Don’t get me wrong: I like premiere pro, and surely hope cs 6 will solve the problems (e.g no external monitoring when working with codecs other than those which are cuda-supported! That means: whether monitoring or mercury engine – and as prp is a resource eating monster you need the extra speed -at least on a Mac!!); but untill that: not “pro” enough.

[Gus Evangelista]

Just out of curiousity, what is the need for the ‘clean feed’ export rather than OMF?