Importing AVIs into Adobe Premiere Pro CS3

[Jon Barrie]

Where and what was this file made in/on? PC? Mac? A Pinnacle hardware based NLE, Matrox? There is no reason a clean 8-bit Microsoft Uncompressed AVI file with 16-bit stereo audio shouldn’t come into PPro. I think there may be something else in the codec that’s having trouble bringing it in. Uncompressed is not simply uncompressed, especially if its coming from a mac. Is it 8-bit, 10-bit?
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Joe Bandy]

Here’s what I’m trying to do: We have been working on a PC Leitch Velocity Q NLE system for the past couple years and just got 2 new Matrox Axio LE NLE’s with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. We are trying to get all our old projects from the Velocity system onto our Matrox systems and not sacrifice any of the video quality. I’ve been thinking that the best way to do this is by compressing old projects to AVI format from the Velocity system and move them over to the Matrox using an external hard drive.

I was actually able to bring in an AVI from the Velocity system onto the Matrox yesterday using the same Velocity settings below, except that I changed the aspect to 720 x 480 and the audio sample rate to 48,000. When playing the video on the timeline in Premiere the video looked great on my computer monitor but on my external NTSC monitor all motion in the video looked a little jerky as if frames are missing. I tried importing the test clip into both Matrox uncompressed 8-bit and uncompressed 10-bit projects and had the same resulting jerky looking video. Even after rendering the clip the video looked the same. Then I tried exporting the clip to mpeg using the Matrox media encoder but saw no change in the jerky movement. Here are my project and export setting for both systems.

The AVI was made on a PC Leitch Velocity Q NLE system. My project settings on the Velocity system are;
29.97 drop frame
720 x 486 24 Bit
Interlaced field order B
Sub pixel off Cropping off
Audio:
16 sample
44 / samples / second
2 channel

Export settings are; (These are the settings I was trying the first time that didn’t work. All I changed the second time was the aspect ratio to 720 x 480 and the audio sampling rate to 48.)
AVI
Frame rate 29.97
720 x 486
No Compression
Color 24 Bits
Field handling interlaced field order B
Audio:
16 sample
Sampling rate 44
2 channels stereo

Do you recommend compressing the video coming out of Velocity?
There are a couple other options other than No Compression in the export dialogue such as: Microsoft H.263 video codec, Microsoft H.261 video codec. I definitely want to maintain the highest quality possible.

Matrox Axio LE project settings
Editing mode: Matrox NTSC
Timebase: 29.97 fps

Video
Frame Size: 720 x 486
Pixel Aspect Ratio: D1 / DV NTSC (0.9)
Fields: Lower field first
Display: Format 30fps Drop Frame Timecode
Audio: Sample 48,000 Hz
Display: Audio sample
Video Rendering: Maximum bit depth is Unchecked
Previews: File format Matrox uncompressed 8-bit NTSC (tried Matrox uncompressed 10-bit too.)

I think the jerky video might be due to dropping frames but I’m not sure.
Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Jon Barrie]

This might seem like a silly question, but are you absolutely certain the footage you are converting is NTSC? From the framerate issue you describe it sounds exactly like PAL trying to be NTSC. NTSC settings are default when exporting make sure the footage you start with is not PAL, check the frame size and frame rate, then export it with the same settings. If you manage to get one out, then use the same settings for the rest.
– Jon 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Joe Bandy]

Yes the footage is NTSC I haven’t tried anything different since my last test. Importing Mpegs from one system to the other works fine but I would rather use AVIs because of the higher quality.

[Joe Bandy]

Just checking in

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[William Schutz]

You may need to install the Velocuty codec in order for ppro to recognize the paticular AVI. It is just a thought.

[Joe Bandy]

I don’t know if there is such a thing. The Velocity software is all proprietary.

[William Schutz]

What file format does your Velocity use MJPEG or AVI or QT

[Joe Bandy]

The Velocity system can export:
MPEG 1 and 2,
AVI,
Quicktime and
WMV.

I have been trying to stay with AVI to keep the quality high.

[William Schutz]

What file format do you get when you capture with the Velocity.