Simple workaround for Premiere’s restrictive project settings?

[Jon Barrie]

You can setup and save your own custom presets when you open PPro. If you edit something in one format and then want to render in a different format create a new project with the actual settings you want to use/render (custom one?) And then import the project. Open it in this new project with say uncompressed rendering codec and bob’s your uncle. It’s not that PPro is restrictive it’s just the way your are used to working. I’m certain you come from a FCP background. If you know what you want from the beginning you can’t go wrong with PPro. If you work on something and someone else changes your setup settings to another format PAL/NTSC that’s different from your own, the next time you make a new sequence you have no idea it’s running in the other format. Pro’s and Cons to anything really.
– Jon

[Mike Velte]

Unless I am missing something, rendered preview files are not used in any export options. Switching to a Custom project eliminates any firewire out preview for SD.

[Sebastian Alvarez]

Fine, but if you import that project which used the Microsoft DV codec, and your current project uses the Desktop setting with let’s say, Huffyuv, or just totally uncompressed, and you either export the imported sequence to an avi file, or to MPEG-2 for DVD output, doesn’t Premiere render things like overlay titles and color correction in the MS DV codec regardless of what you set as the current codec?

It seems to me such a waste of time to have to setup another project just to be able to render in another codec. In FCP you can do that with a few clicks and you don’t even need to go out of the project, in fact up to Premiere 6.5 you used to be able to do it in Premiere too, along with the possibility of setting up sequences that had different aspect ratios, even different frame sizes, all in the same project. What if, for example, you’re editing a project that consists of both a 16:9 sequence and and a 4:3? In Premiere you have to setup one individual project for each video. It’s so ridiculous.

[Tim Kolb]

[Sebastian] “What if, for example, you’re editing a project that consists of both a 16:9 sequence and and a 4:3? In Premiere you have to setup one individual project for each video. It’s so ridiculous.”

I think that Premiere’s former capability to do this was a particular source of confusion and tech support frustration so it was eliminated and to the great joy of most of us who are long time users.

We have a FCP system in house and I find it maddening that the sequence that I get when I create a new sequence isn’t necessarily the same video settings that I have set up for the project. It is handy for mixed format edits of course…particularly for HD/SD projects, but on the other hand I see more miscues using FCP through placing media on a sequence with the wrong settings than anything else when I work with/talk with everyday FCP users. It’s a choice, both ways of working have their advantages and disadvantages.

PPro tries to optimize it’s editing “engine” to handle the media on the timeline in the most efficient way possible. The same way that FCP works fastest with DV/DVCPro25/50/100 and ProRes, PPro has it’s optimized settings as well.

What sort of I/O card do you have? AJA’s cards are particularly flexible with various output formats from a single setting project.

…if all this seems too restrictive, is returning to FCP an option for you? PPro has been this way since v1 (the version right after Premiere 6.5) so it’s not like it’s an ambush or anything…

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Sebastian Alvarez]

I don’t have a card, as I don’t use it profesionally. I just use the firewire port in my motherboard. I used FCP when I used to work for a small editing house, but when it was time to renew my personal equipment I found Macs too expensive and restrictive for my taste, and while I don’t manufacture the components, there’s a certain sense of pride in assembling my own computer with all the components and brands that I choose. I wish FCP was available for Windows though, while I like Premiere I find it too lacking in certain features. I see your points, as well as Jon’s, but to me it’s still a lot of steps for something that I should be able to do in a few.

In synthesis, I do find FCP better than Premiere, but if you want FCP you have to shell out over $2400 in a desktop Mac (no iMacs for me, puh-lease), while I assembled a pretty fast PC with top brand components for about $1200.

[Tim Kolb]

[Sebastian] “In synthesis, I do find FCP better than Premiere,”

Each to his own certainly…synthesis can be assessed with each person throwing the web as wide as they want. For the money, the Adobe Production Studio bundle is a significant value.

I personally find the exact features you wish were in PPro to be the exact things I find “not very synthesized” for my own personal preferences in FCP as having asset windows open from multiple projects, multiple sequences within those projects…with multiple video settings on each sequence, while certainly flexible, makes asset management (among other things) a handful.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Steven L. gotz]

[Sebastian] “Fine, but if you import that project which used the Microsoft DV codec, and your current project uses the Desktop setting with let’s say, Huffyuv, or just totally uncompressed, and you either export the imported sequence to an avi file, or to MPEG-2 for DVD output, doesn’t Premiere render things like overlay titles and color correction in the MS DV codec regardless of what you set as the current codec?”

No. It renders with the currently selected codec, if at all. And the export does not use Preview files anyway, except when everything is DV.

Steven

https://www.stevengotz.com