Andy Prada
Forum Replies Created
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Mmm! I think I’ve misinterpreted your post a little…sorry!
But I might be able to add a few more pence. I recently had a problem a little like this with a background psd still (c/w text) in a menu in Encore. It felt soft but I couldn’t think why as I presumed Encore would look at the still as a full frame rather than a field. In the end I couldn’t get a good resolution so I created a moving m2v background (PAL SD 16:9 lower field) in PPro using the same image and it improved resolution considerably.
This is probably not helpful but if it is let me know.
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Ah!!! to scale or not to scale?
Ann is quite right in that stills in Premiere will always appear better if the software doesn’t have to rescale them. Unfortunately, for all of us (including Ann) we all wish to track and zoom within stills to add value to them and therein lies the problem. We are all limited to our formats – in our case PAL SD requires 720×576 (square or rectangular) so we have to put up with that end resolution. HD is better of course but only blue-ray can facilitate that properly in DVD form.
I think you’ll find that the end result for DVD will be better than you think when played on an SD CRT. Unfortunately we’ve all been hoodwinked by HD Ready technology so upscaling on to a 1080p LCD makes SD look a bit soft. Ce la Vie!
One tip that might help…when you zoom in on a still add a small amount of PPro SHARPEN incrementally (say 15%). Alternatively, use an upscaler filter from BCC or Magic Bullets.
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James, your questions have been answered several times already in this Premiere forum.
Adobe have certified certain GFX cards to take advantage of the nVidia CUDA technology. (emphasis on nVidia CUDA technology) Search around this forum and you will find the list on many posts or, alternatively, simply go to Adobe’s website.
ATI cards do not qualify.
However, all is not lost. I do not have a qualifying GFX card myself at the moment but I can vouch for the fact that CS5 is MUCH quicker and smoother and capable of more real-time layers even without the CUDA based cards. (I suppose it does help that I have an iCore PC – but the benefits are there nonetheless.)
My advice is, spend some time browsing the forum for the answers you seek. Cow is a fantastic knowledge base with many talented users contributing frequently and in an expert capacity.
But you need to do a little spade work of your own too.
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I have the same package working on a 64bit W7 system using Premiere pro CS4. However, CS5 is 64bit native and I think only 64bit plug-ins are compatible (which Pixelan 3D may not yet be).
Boris now has 64bit BCC7 but they did tell me that neither BCC6 nor Graffiti 5.3 (32bit) will work in CS5.
I think the whole community is waiting for the plug-in vendors to play catch up – it will happen eventually, but a little frustrating in the short term.
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How about a new update to lock UP the Adobe CEO for not getting a grip on his releases?
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this thread by Walter Biscardi covers the subject:
https://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/70/internal-vs-external-raid
Blackmagic recommendations are based on their own tests but it doesn’t mean that other alternatives won’t work. A colleague of mine has had more than one LaCie drive fail on him in the past so you pays your money and takes your chance.
best
andy
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A single SATA drive alone cannot facilitate sustained HD playback.
Blackmagic recommend 2 x HDDs (La Cie) striped as raid0 for SD/HD 4:2:2 and 4 x HHDs for HD 4:4:4 or 2K.
As you have a BM Extreme card this should be doing most of the grunt work (as opposed to the GFX card) so your HDDs are the most likely suspects in their current guise.
best
andy
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[Why on earth do you want mpeg1?]
Answer: Because the client might have a need for it? (Or even if they don’t need it they might just want it because they feel they need it. It doesn’t really matter.)
My MO is to try to service my customer’s immediate requirement where possible and then quietly set about re-educating thereafter – perhaps giving them an alternative solution alongside their initial requirement so they can see why it may be better for them.
In your case perhaps a reversion back to an earlier version of Adobe software might suffice – running alongside CS5.
TMPEG or Canopus Procoder also provide excellent MPG1 output but if you haven’t got either of these there are a host of sub $50 packages available on the net that will do a similar job.
BTW I’m not surprised Adobe have dropped it – there isn’t much point in paying for a license very few people will take advantage of.
best
andy
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I’ve stopped using CS5 but for other reasons apropos my recent problems with Boris Graffiti (in another thread)
I got the same initial problem as yourself but fixed by showing both fields. More worryingly however, using my 1080p monitor as an HDMI output I get very fine, almost imperceptible vertical lining on all my output (never had this on CS4, another reason for my reversion back)
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This is such a difficult issue to deal with because there are so many variations as to possible cause and effect. Quite frankly, given the fragility of the magnetic recording medium and the way a lot of it is stored I’m amazed most of it lasts as long as it does.
I too had similar problems (CS4) with an old VHS tape that I needed to capture, edit and encode for DVD.
One thing you do need is time because you may have to capture the material in lots of little chunks and stitch it together – bit like a quilt.
The lines you talk of may be damaged tape due to accident, or partial erasure of the RF signal. We used to talk of signal to noise ratio back in the old days. A high signal to noise ration meant good pictures or signal strength recorded to the magnetic medium (more video – less speckles or snow!) You get the same result on an analogue TV when your aerial isn’t plugged in properly.
VHS media will degrade over time – especially when it is not stored optimally. I have VHS tapes of programmes I have made that are simply not as clear as when I first made them.
Back to partial erasure this could be caused by say: storage next to electrical devices, acute variations of temperature over a long period – there are all sorts of potential causes. A TBC will stabilise but will not cure poor signal to noise on a tape. Most TBCs will sharpen or soften the core but I don’t think this is your problem
Presuming that you have tried it on a few VHS players (so it’s not your own machine causing the problem) Boris BCC6 has a DV fixer software filter that can remove jaggies from video and a range of stuff that can clean up a picture. I’m sure other companies have similar stuff.
You could try deinterlacing and choosing to play only one of the two fields on offer. Because VHS is helically scanned video – recorded at an acute angle onto the tape field by field – you might have some luck with this. If the tape was recorded on a damaged machine this sometimes solves the problem.
If none of this works you may have to resort to adding a caption DAMAGED VIDEO to ensure people don’t think it’s you fault.
Perhaps if you could post a few jpegs as an example I could offer other thoughts.
best
andy