[Angelo Lorenzo]

As far as I know, the only big looming problem are compatibility with video boxes like Matrox, Aja, and Kona all acting a little flaky or slowing down your system. It sounds like the issue is mostly with the manufacturer’s drivers though. I expect over the next few months that’ll be patched from one side or the other. I use PPro almost daily and it’s solid for me.

Be pragmatic though, if you are making money and you find a Premiere saves you time and work because you aren’t transcoding, it’s a 64-bit app, and so on. then get it now.

Noone knows when the Iridas merger will bear fruit, but Adobe is on a yearly cycle. If you don’t see it in CS6 next year, you’ll probably see it in CS6.5 the following. If you think it’s that beneficial to hold off for 7+ months for CS6 just to find out… I’d only do that if I were working at a hobbyist level.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

If you haven’t shot yet, then shoot with chorma-key blue.

I know that’s kind of a “duh” thing but it’s totally an option.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/features.html#categorylens_c972_featureset_797a

This is for Premiere CS5.5

What version of Premiere Pro are you running? If it’s CS5 and above, are you using compatible nVidia cards? The hardware accelerated playback engine seems to work best with MPEG based camera codecs (h.264,AVCHD, XDCAM, etc). They all seem to work equally well.

Have you also tried looking at playback performance with resolution turned down? I usually set playback resolution for 1080 footage to 1/2 or 1/4 if I have other programs open.

What are the specs on your editing station? Perhaps there is a deficiency we can solve there as well.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

It all depends on your workflow. First, however, there should be no reason to transcode to h.264 as your working format. MTS/AVCHD is already based on h.264 so you aren’t really saving any additional storage space (unless you convert to a lower res or really compress it) and your editing program will have nearly the same performance level using both.

You’ll want to work in your native format and spit out whatever your deliverable is.

One thing to consider is if you’re shooting a greenscreen is to up-res your files to something like ProRes 422 or 444 as an intermediate format and then pull your key from that as it can sometimes produce a cleaner effect.

That’s my general opinion, what are you doing in post? Simple edits or more advanced compositing and effects?

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Rob,

I don’t have any MTS files to test personally. I would assume they play straight, but the folder structure does contain additional info.

P2 is slightly different, so take my advice with a grain of salt. The P2 structure splits Video from Audio and holds them in separate folders. https://www.hdvisionstudio.com/blog/assets/images/p2-structure.jpg

I think Sony keeps the audio and video muxed in one file. File structure usually looks like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AVCHD_actual_file_structure.svg where everything else is basically metadata

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Personally, I don’t mind the Red One. I haven’t got my hands on the Epic yet, but I feel cozy with it.
I like the workflow and my production partner and I have worked out a DIT scheme that works for us.

At the end of the workflow there are the editing software choices you make. We use Premiere Pro which has native support for R3D, as does Avid. I’ve seen people try to use the Red with FCP but, in general, the workflow becomes a s-storm really quickly.

I’m interested to see Canon’s possible cinema level offering. I’ve used the Arri Alexa and it’s nice, but the price point puts it a notch above the RED, even for rentals.

Panasonic AG-AF100 is a really attractive low budget choice, but I’ve not used it so I can’t speak on it’s behalf other than my partner and I put some thought into purchasing it.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I’m a bit confused. MTS files are encoded as AVCHD, MTS is just a container.

Are you having issues importing them directly to Premiere? Premiere should import them, but if I recall you need to copy the whole file structure of your memory card and then use Premiere’s media browser/import function to properly import them; you can’t drag and drop. Very similar to importing video off P2 cards.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Keith,

I apologize for the late reply. Again, this is all based on broadcast grading as I’ve stated in all my previous replies and I’m willing to move aside if anyone with more experience has a better argument.

I use a pair of matched $200 Acer monitors connected with DVI through a nVidia GTX card and calibrate with a Spyder 2 system.

There are a few things to consider:

1. Oddly enough it seems like the iDisplay doesn’t play well with your monitor. ZDNET did a calibration comparison and gray scores are better with a Spyder 3 (The first run of these monitors were also packaged with a Spyder 3 so it seems like Asus favors the combo for a reason). https://www.zdnet.com.au/asus-pa246-339316728.htm

2. If your calibration software has it, I’d turn off ambient light compensation.

3. Concerning ambient light, your eye is imperfect. What I mean by that is that is it’s easily influenced by ambient light. I don’t know what colors are invading your grays but I use to have issues with seeing what I thought was too warm grays. I ended up changing my lights to D65 bulbs and it neutralized screen perception.

4. Are you calibrating to 2.2 gamma? I think it was Snow Leopard that switched Mac to 2.2 from the previous 1.8. sRGB and, in conjunction, Rec 709 both have a 2.2 reference gamma.

5. Of course color correction comes with knowledge as well. I come from a deep background of photography and retouching (some of my clients include major US magazines and the marketing department of a German car company who I’ll leave ambiguous).

Sometimes you may need to put a little more reliance on your scope measurements and stick to fundamental adjustments. The Color Correction Handbook by Alexis Van Hurkman is a pretty amazing resource.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

[Lucas Way] “But when I import a basic PP sequence into AE (just 3 clips, some basic motion, nothing special) and I add it to a new comp it shows up as one long clip”

This makes me think you’re nesting your converted Premiere Pro comp into another comp. When you do File > Import, it creates a new set of media bin folders that mimic how your media bin looked in Premiere, dig through it and click on the comp. It should open straight up with the layers, no reason to nest it.

If you look at the icon next to the timeline you imported, is it a little filmstrip with some geometric shapes? This is what you want. If it looks like a timeline with a hard to make out icon of a yellow chain, this is a dynamic link and you don’t want that.

– Angelo Lorenzo
– Steve Job’s Spirit Inside The iPhone 4S
– https://FilmsFor.Us Sell your film and connect with your audience

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

There are two ways to import a sequence into After Effects:

1. Drag the sequence from the media bin of Premiere to the media bin of After Effects while both programs are open. This is a ‘dynamic link’ and imports the sequence as one block.

2. In After Effects, go to File > Import > Premiere Pro Project. This will import the files and sequences from a project. Each sequence will be converted to an AE sequence with each cut as discrete layers.

Going back to #1 just like when you dynamically link in an AE comp into Premiere, you don’t see the comp layers, you see it as one chunk — when you dynamically link a PPro sequence into AE, you don’t see the cuts, you see one chunk.

It looks like #2 is more your route, but since you can’t really reverse the process, it’s more for finishing that for back-and-forth.

– Angelo Lorenzo
– Steve Job’s Spirit Inside The iPhone 4S
– https://FilmsFor.Us Sell your film and connect with your audience

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.