Purchase Premiere Pro 1.5 or Premiere Pro 2.0

[Aanarav Sareen]

What are you planning to do with your system? Are you primarily editing DV or HDV?

Also, the training material for 2.0 will start rolling out very soon.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Also remember that much of the Premiere Pro 1.5 training material will still work for 2.0. A lot has changed, and you’re better off with 2.0-specific material, but at least 90% of the basics will still apply.

[Shariyf]

Thanks Guys. This forum is Awesome! Ok it seems like both of you guys are recommending that I get Premiere Pro 2.0. I was just worried that the trainings wouldnt be relevant. I will be using the Total Training series as my platform for learning, that….and Steven Gotz training. And I also wouldnt be using HDV.

Side question:
how can you see High Def Video on a regular DVD? I thought the whole reason the industry is arguing over “Blu-Ray” vs “HD-DVD”? and since these formats aren’t widely known or used yet does it make sense to edit in High Def? Even if a person has a high def Tv and not a high def dvd player, they still wont see a big difference will they? and can you even burn on to “Blu-Ray” or “HD-DVD” yet?

[Tim Kurkoski]

The problem with HD and DVD is not that you can’t put HD material on a current generation DVD, it’s that the players out there wouldn’t know what to do with it.

You could, for example, put an HD WMV file on a standard DVD. There are a VERY limited number of players that will recognize that file type and output it as an HD signal (through the appropriate connections) to an HDTV. You could also put the disc in a computer and Windows Media Player could play the file, but few people use a PC connected to a TV to watch their videos. (Though that number is growing.) But that’s it. The DVD players in 99% of homes can not process HD video.

When the DVD spec was formalized in the 90’s, SD was all that was considered. Regardless of who wins the format war, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, you still won’t be able to put one of those discs in your 3-year old Sony player and expect HD.

To my knowledge Blu-Ray burners have been available from Sony for a while. I haven’t heard of HD-DVD burners being on the market yet, but they’re probably close. But you’ll also need an authoring program that knows how to write data to the discs so a set-top player will read it. There’s one that I know of for sure (Sonic Scenerist, for which you’ll need to take out a second mortgage), though I’ve heard rumors that some of the low-end applications like Nero can do it in a simple fashion as well.

[Joesvideo]

I was one of the lucky ones who opted to wait through pro, pro1.5 to get 2.0. Reason? simple. Adobe screwed alot of multible camera project users like Weddings, Dance Recitals, Play, Theater event folks like myself….etc. where you set up 2 to 4 cameras to shoot an event. You can’t edit them very well in Pro, Pro 1.5. You could in the old 6.5 because it had A/B roll editing capabilities. It was simple. You brought in your 1st 2 cameras on A and B, sync them up, edit them with short or long dissolves in the transition line, finish and render them out to AVI Movie. Clear the timeline and bring in your next 2 cameras and do the same, bring in your two editied AVI’s, sync them up and edit for final production. You can’t do this in pro or pro 1.5. But……In the new 2.0, you can edit all 4 on one timeline. Adobe listened and developed multicamera editing. Pro and pro 1.5 is strictly single camera editing. You can edit 2 or more cams together but it’s so much work. Kind of like planning a trip from Baltimore to Tampa and going through Chicago to get there. For us Multible camera event Videographers, this was stupid and useless for Adobe to mimick editing software programs like Final Cut pro and (Hard to Understand) Avid…..Absolutley Usless! Glad I waited.

[Joesvideo]

Want some better advise on HD, Blueray and the like? LET-EM BE!
How many folks do you know have HD or Blueray home entertainment systems? Maybe 1 in 900 if that. I’ve been shooting Weddings on Mini-Dv since the format was introduced and to this day, I haven’t had one bride ask me whether I shoot in HD. About 90% of them don’t even know what HD is let alone owning a system to play it on.
Facts: the avearge Tv in this country is 7 years old. The amount of folks with surround sound systems is about 60% and the average amount of DvD player owners with models without progressive scan and 2 to 3 years of age is 55%. Sure, Hd is great and all that but why fork out the bucks on new equipment where it can only be delivered to corporate industries or commercial TV. Last time I checked, I haven’t had a corporate exec or TV Production manager call me for a job in over 25 years. I myself will opt to wait another 5 years before I even think about HDTV. By that time, this new fangled technology will have all the bugs removed and the prices will drop by 70%. Man, Imagine that new 7,000.00 HDV Camcorder you just wasted your money on now will go on ebay in the next 2 years for 1200.00. Isn’t technology amazing? But of course you’ll get the right to bragg in your ads that you shoot in HDV. Kinda like a speeder on the road who can’t wait to catch the next red light on a lane with 26 traffic signals. Get the picture?