[Angelo Lorenzo]

In the bin, right click your video file, go to Modify > Interpret Footage, make sure they’re both set to square pixel. Even if you bring them into a widescreen sequence, Premiere will keep the viewable aspect ratio and counter-squeeze them to be encoded as widescreen.

Also, if you have a 16:9(1.2121) sequence make sure you export it as that aspect ratio as well. If you export it as normal DV(0.9) then it may be stretched weird.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Do you have Adobe Bridge installed? Its output panel can create pdf proof sheets of thumbnails with filenames that are printer ready.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Plural Eyes, in my experience, is still a bit cumbersome. Because of it, I think you may be approaching your workflow wrong. I originally just exported a project I was working on, ran Plural Eyes, imported and hoped for the best… and this creates a mess. Because of your first question, no, there is no way as far as I know to export individual sequences to XML.

Here is what I do for existing projects:
-Create a new project
-File > Import and select your existing project. This will allow you to import just one sequence if you need
-Prepare/line up/add markers, whatever you need to prepare it for Plural Eyes based on the few ways it likes its timeline
-Export to XML and run Plural Eyes
-Import the XML into your original project

This is far easier to manage than trying to deal with duplicate sequences etc.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

PPro CS5 is designed to edit many camera formats directly because of the new playback engine. Where long GOP files may become an issue is later down your post-production pipeline if you have to take them outside of the Adobe family of products.

If you need an intermediate codec there is:
Apple ProRes (The encoder is available on Mac only and I think you need Final Cut installed, but there is a decoder for Windows)
Avid DNxHD (MOV wrapped, free https://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=263545)
Cineform’s NeoHD or other intermediate codecs.

All three are designed as editing friendly codecs. My studio bounces between ProRes and DNxHD depending on what our third party vendor prefers.

In-house we edit all footage directly from camera. We have Cuda enabled cards to ease the performance burden.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

#2 will look more normal once it’s played on an interlaced display (TV). It’s transcoded to that on the disc whether or not it’s brought into Encore to begin with.

#1 is a bit more tricky. Try playing it in a few different DVD payers if you can. Some consumer DVD players (the older/cheaper ones) really don’t behave well with DVD-R or DVD+R media. Also, if memory serves, DVD-R is more compatible overall. You could also try burning at a slower speed.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

1) What version of Premiere do you have?

2) What are your system specs including processor, ram, and graphics card?

3) What is the pixel size and framerate of your sequence?

It’s not unheard of to get a 4:1 ratio for encoding DV material if you have an underpowered system, if your system is doing a ton of conforming to match a mix of footage. Regardless of the size of the assets on the disk, you have to understand that each frame is getting decoded, analyzed, and reencoded during the export process.

Concerning what you should encode out to, if it’s just to Youtube or a flash-based player I suggest the following for a 640×480 video:

-15fps or 15.15fps (if you’re mixing it with camera video at 29.97fps, it’s best to match it to the slower framerate, especially since the difference is so drastic. This might take some experimentation to get the best look as I don’t know exactly what you’re mixing in)

-MOV Container
-H.264 codec at 70% quality, limit datarate to 2000kbps or more
-AAC audio, 4800kHz

Should get you decently acceptable results.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

I don’t know Final Cut enough to say, it does look promising. Even if it doesn’t work, rewrapping doesn’t take long as it’s not recompressing the footage, just sticking the video and audio streams into the MOV container. You should be able to do that with FCP’s log and transfer function.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

Premiere will take full advantage of any multicore processors. I currently run a quadcore AMD Phenom (Comparable to an Intel i5) and while it does the job, the most pressing improvement in performance was the installation of a Cuda enabled card on Premiere’s approved list.

Cuda cards accelerate preview video and most preview effects, and also the export from a few codecs including h.264. Encoding from Adobe Media Encoder or After Effects don’t seem to take advantage of this feature though.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

So you’ve brought the XML file from Premiere TO Final Cut, and the timeline opens, etc. from what I understand. How is the footage having an issue? Is it not linking period? Are the sequences loading but not playing?

If the sequences are loading but not playing, you may need to transcode your footage for Final Cut. XDCAM footage needs to be rewrapped into a Quicktime file… this means you’ll need the copies of the rewrapped files and you’ll need to re-link your assets in Premiere eventually.

I’ve found two weaknesses in the Premiere/FCP workflow: They don’t like each others effects and transitions, and you always have to baby your footage for FCP to work.

[Angelo Lorenzo]

It’s not so much a lack of memory as possibly a few other things.

What do you have along the lines of specialty hardware? Do you have any programs running in the background? It sounds like some kind of software/driver conflict.