[David Dobson]

But no ‘remove matchframe edit’ equivalent, sorry.

[David Dobson]

Consider using the AAF to export the whole project. AAF is Avid’s invention and FCP systems can take them in (depending on the version you may need Automatic Duck.)

[David Dobson]

So what’s wrong with the HDV workflow? I’ve done a bunch of HDV projects and the only part that was difficult was the output to tape process – otherwise it worked just fine…

not the question you asked, sorry.

[David Dobson]

Nope – but you can request it….

[David Dobson]

And my answer from Adobe confirms it:

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/PremierePro/4.0/WSF6B71209-8599-4f99-BE77-0F44B85B1066.html

[David Dobson]

Well, you said it worked before, so what’s changed since the last time it worked? Add any new software or updates? A quicktime update maybe?

I do AVCHD to H.264 on a regular basis for Sony and I’ve never had a problem. But I am on a PC.

Not sure FCP does ACVHD at all – or if it does it has to be converted to quicktime first – same with P2 and just about everything.

[David Dobson]

Do you need to export m2v (hdv) or could you use something else?
H.264 is much better codec and a lot more stable.

Have you tried deleting all the preview files?

[David Dobson]

How will you play back your HD version?
Are you going to burn it to Blu-Ray disk or play if off a computer? If off a computer, do you mean over the internet or off a local hard drive?

You can check all the file sizes and aspect ratios by choosing to make a new sequence and then just looking at the Presets.

I don’t have a PS3, didn’t know you could load Mpeg files to it and play them back, but I’d guess the PS3 is not reading the aspect ratio correctly from the file or the settings on the PS3 need to be changed. If the mpeg file is loaded back into PremirePro, does it look alright? Check it’s properties?

[David Dobson]

That is the problem with all PCs and PC based software. There are infinite combinations of hardware that can totally screw up especially delicate software. I assure you that if Final Cut Pro were written for Vista or XP, it would be just as unstable on the wrong system.

[David Dobson]

CS4.1 was a big improvement. I am running it on two systems that have been very stable.

System 1: Built in January (using year old tech)
VisataHomeBasic 64 – Service Pack 2
AMD Athalon64 X2 Dual Core 3.8G
8 Gig RAM
Asus M3N78 Pro Motherboard (nVidia Chipset)
Geforce 8600 Video card + onboard Geforce 8300
400W Power Supply

System 2: this one has been unchanged for years and has been very stable since CS4 (CS3 wasn’t too good, but it worked enough to use it for real jobs paying real money.)
XP Pro Service Pack 3
AMD Athalon64 X2 Dual Core 3.4G
4 Gig RAM
Not sure what MB this is – Abit I think – also used nVidia Chipset.
Video Card is also nVidia based – probably an earlier Geforce.
350W Power Supply

Before the upgrade on System 1 I had an ATI based chipset Mother board and video card and it was awful. Also, until last night, I still had the ATI video card in this nVidia based board and it blocked the onboard geforce video card. When i put the Geforce card in the onboard came on – amazing. Now I have 3 monitors – one being the HDTV I use for clients (editing on 3 screens now).

For all video I am using exterior SATA Drives. On the Asus MB system they are true 300Gb SATA drives and I can do compressed HD at high quality with no lag plus they are hot swapable. On the XP system, the SATA drives are treated as IDE’s (though still hot swapable) and for some compressed HD (AVCHD and XDCAM) I need to edit in draft mode, but the finals are full quality when rendered out for to disk for layback elsewhere. DV and HDV playback in High quality fine. All this without an additional $1K Kona or Blackmagic or Matrox Video card.

I also work a lot in Final Cut Pro on OSX and it’s quite good. I can crash FCP occasionally; just like in the PC world it’s possible to download updates that screw the whole system, though it happens less often. I would say that for all the money you pay for the Mac hardware, you get stability. My Vista System cost about $400 (just the box: mb, cpu, gfx, case and power supply) to build. An equivalent Mac runs about $2K.

In conclusion: I believe the Mother Board and Graphics Card chipsets matter a lot – both which kind and which version. The HP systems – I have read – updated all their motherboards for Vista and that’s why they work better than many Intel based Systems. I am sticking with Asus motherboards using nVidia chipsets and Nvidia based graphics cards. I buy last years version rather then the latest stuff for cost and because you can catch bad cards in the reviews rather than be the idiot who gets the lemmon ann writes about it (been there, done that.) I am a fan of AMD CPUs as well, but I haven’t had an Intel CPU in ages.

I also prefer Premiere Pro over Final Cut. I learned both interfaces simultaneously and PPro makes more sense to me. And I do like being able to do real audio mixes in the timeline and I really like the new Media Encoder and am learning to love the Dynamic Link capability to add After Effects Graphics to PPro timelines – it makes making changes so easy. Still have to render – but then just once. Also really like Dynamic Link in Encore for making DVDs – client changes to video are automatically updated in the DVD – so you can build the DVD before the videos are even done. Just be sure to revert to originals if you’ve already encoded.