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Timeline do’s and don’ts
We have Premier CS3 on an Intel Quad Core MacPro and a Kona 3 card. We have the 6.0 Kona drivers with the Adobe plugins. What are the rules for adding clips to the timeline in Premier (we are primarily a FCP shop)?
If we have a 720 x 480 DV sequence and we drag in a PhotoJPEG 720 x 486 stock clip, should we expect it to play out of the Kona card, or should we convert it to DVCPro first? What about other formats like H264? Just drag ’em all in, or convert first (we always convert first for FCP).
Also, we almost exclusively use aiff files in FCP, so can we use wave files in Premier without any issue?
Just want to be sure we get our ducks in a row with Premier CS3.
Finally, considering we have the Kona 3 and running Leopard, is CS4 a highly recommended upgrade for use with the Kona or should we wait to install it?
Thanks.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production and Post
Owner/President/Editor/Designer/Animator -
1 Reply
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Rich,
Let’s see if I can address everything:CS4 is markedly improved over CS3 in interface, ease of use and functionality. I can’t speak specific to Kona, but in general, I would recommend the upgrade.
Regarding audio: AIFF, WAV & MP3 are all accepted by Premiere CS3.
No need to convert image files. Premiere will handle any size images the same as it handles images that match the timeline’s frame aspect.
As for video clips, you can convert them if you want immediate realtime playback upon import, but if you’re going to have mixed media formats in the same timeline, add any title overlays, effects, etc., renders will need to be built for realtime playback regardless of the video file’s native format. That said, I’d say skip a step and simply bring it all in as-is.
One note on video though: If you import a clip that is whose format is not native to the type of sequence (timeline) in which you’re working, you’ll want to make sure that the clip is vertically centered with respect to its native number of scan lines. For example: Video imported and placed on a 720×480 timeline will automatically center vertically to the timeline’s native center pixel of 240. If you import and place a 720×486 clip on a 720×486 timeline, you will need to adjust the clip’s vertical center line to 243. You won’t notice any difference on your desktop monitor, but an interlaced monitor will show you why this matters.
James Brady
Senior Editor
Results Video & Animation
El Paso, Texas
http://www.resultsvideo.com
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