multi camera editing in Premiere Pro CS4

[Owen Wexler]

More RAM may help with the scrubbing issues — get as much as you can afford.

Aside from that, shooting anything multicam with two different cameras having mismatched settings is highly unadvisable… technical problems aside, the two angles will just look too different when cut together (especially with different framerates and PARs) and it will create a jarring effect that is not pleasing to the eye. At the very least, make sure the framerates and PARs match.

Cinematographer – Editor – Motion Graphics Artist – Colorist

https://www.owenbwexler.com

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

He’s Using CS4 so more RAM isn’t going to help. It can only use 4GB anyway.

If you have 64bit Vista, do yourself a favor and get CS5.5. It will let you actually use the RAM you just bought.

Also, if you get CS5.5, getting a supported CUDA card to replace your GTX 9800 will help a lot too.

JM

[Raymond Ahles]

That’s good advice. Thanks.

The first step I took was getting a second camera that records in the same video format. It makes sense to be able to have one sequence setting that matches both files.

The GTX 9800 card I have is CUDA with 128 cores, 512 MB, DDR3. It’s also PCI16x, if that matters much over PCIex.

What video card would you recommend it being worth
upgrading to? Would I see that much difference (as long as it’s unlocked as described in this article:
https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm )

Also, in addition to the CS5.5 upgrade, is it worth upgrading the OS to Windows 7 over the 64 bit Vista Home Premium?

R

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

Well, I’d try the card you have first. That article seems to think it will work. I suggested upgrading because I thought that a card two generations older then the oldest card it’s designed to work with would be problematic.

If it works, then stick with it! If not, get the best 500 series card you can sensibly afford.

by the way, PCI16x, PCIex, that’s just different people writing the same thing different ways. It’s all PCIe.

PCI-X is totally different and was never used for graphics cards, (and hasn’t really been used in 5 years.)

While we’re talking about upgrades, What about the one remaining limb on the tree? What storage are you using?

[Raymond Ahles]

Well, now I’m looking at everything.

The hard drive is SATA 7200rpm. But I do have the files on an external WD (My Book Studio Edition II 2 TB) connected with eSATA cable and has a Serial Bus Transfer Rate (eSATA) 3 Gb/s (Max). Probably better to edit on the hard drive directly.

The motherboard slots are labeled as follows (currently all used or covered):

PCI Express x1_1 (a very small slot)
PCIe 2.0 x16_1 (this is where the GeForce 9800GTX is and it covers the small PCI Express x1 slot below)
PCI Express x1_2 (very small same as first slot – currently covered by GeForce card)
PCIe 2.0 x16_2
PCI_1
PCI_2

So I am confused with your statement that

“by the way, PCI16x, PCIex, that’s just different people writing the same thing different ways. It’s all PCIe.”

since there are far more connections (much longer slot) on the PCIe 2.0 x16 than the PCI Express x1

Another helpful article I found suggesting software (upgrading to Windows 7 and PP CS5) can be enough with virtually the same issues I’m having:

https://www.cameralabs.com/PC_Hardware_reviews/Edit_HD_DSLR_video/Best_PC_software_for_editing_HD_DSLR_video.shtml

Anyone else share this opinion or have this experience with Windows 7 over Vista?

Thanks,
R

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

About PCIe slots… It appears that I misunderstood your question, and as a result, you misunderstood my answer.

You have two types of PCIe slots in your computer. Two 16x slots and two 1x slots.

I’d suggest you test the speed of your drives, see which one is faster, and edit on that one. If they’re the same, use the external one, since editing on the same drive your system’s running on will always be a little slow because the system’s trying to use that disk too.

AJA’s system test utility will tell you what you need to know: https://www.aja.com/ajashare/systemtest.zip

All your slots are full huh? What else have you got in your computer?

JM

[Raymond Ahles]

That was interesting:

main drive: write 96.7 MB/s; read 85.3 MB/s

external drive: write 31.3 MB/s; read 32.7 MB/s

Thanks.

Other things on the computer?

Currently 3 external drives, same configuration – 2 are on eSATA, one on usb). Only one of these drives is active, others just for access but essentially “sleeping”); printer; monitor; keyboard /mouse (usb) wireless card; some usb and firewire are open and or used for devices that don’t stay connected.

There are six extra available usb connections (these take up two slots) and there are 10 total usb connections available – wireless card is on one slot; the eSATA connections on one slot; the GeForce on one but blocks another;

Actually, the other PCI 2.0 x16 slot is open.

[Raymond Ahles]

Now I’m encoding those files to.mp4 – how does 24 hours sound? There’s only a few effects and transitions.

Are these upgrades discussed in this thread going to also improve encoding time? Is CS5.5 going to help?

Any idea if the Matrox CompressHD card would help? Or would PP CS5.5 (with Media Encoder CS5.5) plus the “unlocked” GeForce 9800GTX do the job?

Didn’t realize I was going to need so many upgrades to move into HD and ultimately H.264 for the web.

Thanks,
R

[John-michael Seng-wheeler]

Out off all the suggestions posted, upgrading to CS5.5 will have the most affect, even if you didn’t unlock the card. I nearly fainted when I saw the rendering speeds after upgrading from CS3 to CS5