Premiere Pro 6 to 5.5 frame grab comparison

[Dennis Radeke]

[Gary Huff] “Do we really need another codec in the mix of DNX/ProRes/Cineform, especially considering that Premiere will work with all of them? If you need an intermediate codec at this very moment in Premiere, you can install DNX and Premiere will use it, whether you’re on Win or OSX platforms.”

While this is technically true, Adobe Premiere Pro cannot read Avid’s OPa MXF file natively. We can read the quicktime wrapped DNX but then that suffers performance because QT is 32-bit whereas Premiere Pro is 64. It’s still viable but not optimal.

Dennis – Adobe

[Dennis Radeke]

[Douglas K. Dempsey] “Right, isn’t the idea to work in whatever native codec you shot, and then output according to deliverable: uncompressed, h.264 etc etc?”

Exactly. The cases where you want a DI codec are where the needs of the job vs. the performance of the codec dictate a DI workflow. For example, if you have an editor that loves to scrub around the media quickly and you’re using DSLR footage (H.264), and your system isn’t super beefy, then a DI workflow would be viable. Another example is where you need a proxy workflow because the editor is traveling to another location and you want to compact the project and then relink to the online media at a later date.

[Dennis Radeke]

[andy lewis] “Come on Adobe!
I want a timeline as good as FCP7’s and trimming as good as MC6.”

We are working as hard as possible to make both a reality – time will tell if you are satisfied.

Best,
Dennis – Adobe guy

[Liam Hall]

If nothing else, I do admire the customer focus

[Dennis Radeke] “We are working as hard as possible to make both a reality – time will tell if you are satisfied.

Best,
Dennis – Adobe guy
“

One thing no one can fault is Adobe attitude, particular when communicating with its customers.

I’m looking forward to CS6 more than any product this year.

Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net

[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Liam Hall] “I’m looking forward to CS6 more than any product this year.”

me too – if adobe land this, it solves a lot of the problems the end of FCP created outside the core Avid market.

http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Dennis Radeke] ” Adobe Premiere Pro cannot read Avid’s OPa MXF file natively. We can read the quicktime wrapped DNX but then that suffers performance because QT is 32-bit whereas Premiere Pro is 64. It’s still viable but not optimal.”

Hi Dennis, do you think this is something adobe consider a strategic issue to be addressed?

http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Gary Huff] “Do we really need another codec in the mix of DNX/ProRes/Cineform, especially considering that Premiere will work with all of them? If you need an intermediate codec at this very moment in Premiere, you can install DNX and Premiere will use it, whether you’re on Win or OSX platforms.”

While I agree the market is already fragmented, there area many reasons to have a solid codec.

Dennis touched on it a bit, already.

One is performance. A codec that is optimized for the CS suite, even though it’s rather agnostic, would help.

First is if you have higher resolution material, like red or raw, 444 Alexa, or any other camera that could use a true offline workflow. We have a San that is both Ethernet and fibre based, it’d be nice to be able to create an offline edit, a seamless workflow, right in premiere, that would allow easier laptop/Ethernet editing without having to use the full resolution files.

Second is for portability, meaning taking the project on the road with slower drives, and also being able to send media plus an EDL/XML of the used media to a colorist or motion graphics artist, without having to give them all of the full res media.

Some formats work better than others. I have found in my testing with CS (yes, I’ve been exploring other options, not just FCPX) that i-frame MXF codecs work really well almost anywhere on any machine, even non CUDA machines.

AVCHD, long GOP, or h264 codecs are slower as they require a much more extensive decompress process.

Also, as Dennis mentioned, the QT API is old and slow. It would be nice to be able to get out of that to another CS sanctioned format that has better and more direct acess to the media.

I think licensing AVC-Intra would be a decent solution. It’s 10bit, I-frame and currently has 50 and 100 mb variations, with supposedly more coming (AVC-Ultra).

Don’t get me wrong, working natively can be really great, but in today’s mixed format world (currently editing a piece that has 4 different camera formats) it’d be nice to be able to unify them all for performance and also to be able to send them to other applications for further processing. If these apps don’t understand camera native file formats, or if I have to send a 10GB wad of media when I only used 2 seconds of the clip, it can present some logistical challenges.

That being said, there’s a lot to really really like in the suite. After Effects with its powerful warp stabilize and roto tools (at least powerful in this video editors eyes, VFX master I am not) and the direct connection back to premiere is truly useful and pretty great.

I too, am looking forward to cs6 to see what’s in store as I know Adobe does a good job of listening, and trying to make things better for us content creators.

Jeremy

[Dennis Radeke]

I can’t comment other than to say it’s definitely a licensing issue between Avid and Adobe.

[Bernhard G.]

Hello Dennis,

there is one more important thing to consider.
External field recorders are very popular today.
And since Apple starts to dominate the market with ProRes
in conjunction with all the recorders it is simply true:
the availability of field recorders determines the choice of NLE;
at least for all those who want a bit of more quality than
the camera manufacturers would allow to us.

We also stuck at FCP here and are still interested in the development of FXP-X,
only because of ProRes and our KiPros…

So if Premiere would get a high-end intermediate codec,
Adobe would also need to take care that there are
enough field recorders to support it immediately;
e.g. by giving away free licenses of the codec to the HW-manifacturors
(if technically possible to implement as firmware update)

Best regards,
Bernhard

[Aindreas Gallagher]

just one more: do you think adobe consider the lack of a high quality playback and delivery codec in PPro an issue?

http://www.ogallchoir.net
promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics