[Ht Davis]

You are missing the point of the “Playback” driver completely. The playback driver is the adobe system playback engine (i.e., for working in adobe). Essentially, you are using an input box for your input. It is not a hardware encoding device for rendering. Playback is the rendering engine. You set your inputs for your input, and set playback for your rendering engine. Playback doesn’t mean “play it back from this device”, it means “render it here”. Your box isn’t a rendering engine. It’s an input controller. Don’t get ahead of yourself.

If you want to have a voice over from that box, you’ll have to DIFFERENTIATE the inputs and create an audio only input with the port from the box. You can do this in the mac settings. If this is live broadcast, Premiere may not be the best way to go for it, but we’ll get to a workaround; if this is not, you can split your inputs among several tracks or several programs and play them all out. Are you sure your voice over audio equipment is compatible with the box? Audio and video out are usually handled on different machines in this instance, though, the video is passed out to several monitors, including the voice-over stars, who are listening to the audio in headphones. It sounds as if you don’t have a complete setup yet. If you don’t have the equipment, you may need to do a multi-aggregate device setup in the mac settings, and use that to do your voice over. Essentially, you create a single audio in from the port on your box where voice over is, then do the same for all inputs (splitting them). Create an aggregate device with multiple channels, and combine your voice over with one of the splits; do it again for each split input, combining each single input with your voice over to make a 2 input aggregate; take those and aggregate them. Now, use that aggregate device as your audio input in adobe. This will tie your voiceover to every single input, so no matter where you cut, your voice will come through. Playback may be choppy if your system isn’t fast enough. This will only work if the switch box supports inputting from multiple sources at once. IF not, You are SOL.

[Ht Davis]

You say you haven’t had problems in the past with this deck. Were you using the same software? The same computer? The same camera?
Is this a live feed or is this memory dump?
If this is a memory dump, use AME to store the original files as an intermediary that matches their settings (AVC or Prores are the most common).
If this is live video, remember that there is only ever one file stream created. You don’t log and transport video with premiere. You should be using prelude or AME. Raw camera footage is usually compressed, and with a manufacturer specific compression. When you use an input deck, you are attempting to use the live footage controls of Premiere. This is a single file stream only kind of deal. You’ll have to import each one individually that way, and play through each file, one at a time.

[Ht Davis]

When you are exporting, you’ll want to do a 2 step export. First clean your media cache. Render any previews. When you set the export, do not compress it (no h264, youtube, etc; don’t do that). Trying to export and compress in a single step is extremely heavy on your system. First, output an LT file. Then have that compress to your output format.
I can dump 4hrs of video with a lot of edits in about 6 hours of rendering to LT and another hour-2 hours in Compressor for 264 (I like progressive AVCHD streams for quality). I’m on a 2008 macbook pro with 2.16ghz intel core2 duo, 4gb ram, 256mb geforce, and 2hdds at 5400rpm with 1tb on each. It has a certain sentimental value… …plus it does what I need. Compressor sends batches to other machines for farming out compression. It works great. If you simply render out your edits into a full movie, you’re not compressing, you’re simply adjusting existing data.

Also, I’ve had this issue before. Repair permissions on drives. Repair drive structures. I have an EXFAT drive that occasionally has trouble, so I use a command line fix to repair it and viola, back to functional. Also, make sure you dump your system caches for all users once in a while, and empty the trash. You want to free up as much memory as possible. Restart the system. Should be fine now.

[Ht Davis]

Did you UNIQUELY NAME the Hard-drive (IE not Untitled or the like)?
There are no other drives of a similar name?
Is this drive mac formatted? (if so, bingo-there’s your problem; permissions on the drive, set systems to ignore it). This might solve your problem for your next project: Format the external as fat32 or exfat. No permissions issues. HOWEVER…
Cacheing should be unique to each system (it is not necessarily Project specific though it does have a note in the project file). The cache is the description of active memory and should be rebuilt each time. But it can hold a multitude of data from different projects. Deviating from the standard location just makes it have to search for and load the cache every time, into active memory, and that takes a lot of time to balance.

The preview files are what conform for playback. Audio conforms… …Make sure your audio input matches your sequence. If previews are intact, it should playback very quick, with the previews intact. Leave the settings for cacheing alone. You need a big enough main drive to hold the cache, but you can dump the cache at any time without hurting your project. You are better off leaving the caching on your internal drive (leave it alone).

[Ht Davis]

This should only be done when ready to output. Your videos have changed for source, so the sequence previews no longer match the source. If you are happy with your previewed work, you can render out a final file, if not, stick with your proxies. Otherwise you will have to render again.
This is not a malfunction. When you are ready for output, you export in premiere or AME, and have the option to use previews (rendered i-frames) to build the final file. If those don’t match the quality of the master video, there will be problems in the final file (skips maybe, short blurs or pixelations etc, all because the color\chroma\luma\noise may not match perfectly.

[Ht Davis]

You need to do the same thing with 1080. It’s a process.
If you want to stabilize a clip, the stabilizer needs to find the Common Pixels inside the lost edges, and it needs to find them in a larger video than the current sequence, then it alters the position and zoom using keys to make sure it is still and stable. Then you nest this into a new sequence at your desired res and interpret the footage up (will fit it exactly). I suggest you drop down to 3k then 2k then 1080, depending on how well it stabilizes, so that you can maximize quality.

A one click thing? You’re talking about an After Effects edit, not premiere. When you stabilize in after effects, it is applied to the comp, just make sure the comp is smaller size than the video (you may want to try several different sizes cropping down from your 4k), then blow it up into another comp, and export the whole thing as 4k. You will lose a little quality, but not enough to cry over. One click effect will apply to the video layer, but you use a key at the beginning and end.

[Ht Davis]

It depends on the length of your transition. The longer time the transition takes, the more space it occupies in the timeline. You zoom in to the timeline to see the seconds and frames, or zoom out to see minutes and hours. A 3s transition will be small in a 2 hour video where you are zoomed out to see the whole video (in fact it should be invisible). IF you want an efficient way of noting the start and end of it, use a marker (simple marker), stretch the marker across the transition, name it for the transition and now you can zoom until you see the marker nice an big when you want to select the transition.

The default for transitions is 1 or 3s unless you create your own the old skool way.

Steps:
blade-edit mark the clippings. Leave clipping A where it is, move clipping b up to a new video track (unlink from audio if necessary), drag the edit marker of clip b to overlap onto clip A, apply your transition in for clip b, your transition out for clip A, and do the same for the end of clip b (if it ends before the end of the whole video).
Pre-built transitions take these steps out for you and give you something to grab onto so you can change it quickly.

[Ht Davis]

Yeah, interpret the footage to fit in your sequence. What are you going for in your output resolution?
4k? 1080?
Did you transcode the camera footage to a new filetype? Prores or AVC intra? This will make it easier on the playback engine, and you can export both a full quality and proxy quality. Start by creating a sequence with full quality version.
Tip:
If you create a 4k sequence from your main video, then unlink and relink to your proxy file and interpret the footage to fit, you won’t have so much trouble with this, and your proxy can be 720 for all the editor cares. Just remember to unlink and relink to the full format when you are ready to output your movie. If you aren’t fast, go to full format first (prores or avc full format) then compress that file (takes a lot less time than applying edits while compressing).

The reason the file dances around is that you need to place a KeyMark in the effect controls at the beginning and at the end of your resizing. Set both to be at your desired zoom, then render the work area. Your video should play just fine after that, and for every 3-5 small effects, drag the work area bar around them only and render effects in work area (shorter than rendering the whole thing and same effect on playback–speeds it right up so you can see the true effect). I always have my previews set to iframe only mpeg.

[Ht Davis]

Off hand, not much difference that I can tell. Pro res is similar to the old lossless hufyuv. DNxHD is more like a low-loss (almost none) x264. The chroma and luma are the factors that affect the green screen quality. Avid is more for Broadcast quality, which blends interlaced fields and blurs them together, which, in turn gives a more “analog” feel to the green screen and motion (it looks like normal Television rather than real life action sharp edges). If you are working in interlaced broadcasts, you won’t go wrong with DNxHD. If you archive and create highlight reels and such, render another in prores, and render an output in prores when you’ve got time.

I keep everything on disc images, which I rat-split and burn to discs for archival. That way I can rebuild any project at any time, and continue working. I use proresLT for most of my non-broadcast work as a full format, and proxy it. I’ve used DNxHD once or twice because it was already in that format when I got the project.

PS
Avid does not prefer DNxHD. DNxHD is a format that was designed to work better with Avid, though AVID will work with almost any installed codec on your system. IF they are on PC and you are on MAC, stick with DNxHD. It is fully compatible and all stages are relatively the same for quality. Pro-res will play back great on both, edit okay on PC, but quality isn’t the best in output.

[Ht Davis]

I would start with a transcode to a lossless codec and a proxy in AME (using same file, with multiple simultaneous jobs). Using this, I start with 4 outputs to test.
the first one is a 1080 at LT prores (slight compression, but excellent quality and small files). Second is a proxy at 1080. Third is an LT prores at 720 and a proxy.

Start both in the project (both LT prores) and substitute the proxies. Take your 720 sequence and blow it up by dropping in a 1080 and upscaling it…
Then adjust your 1080. Mark up both and export the zoom areas. Notice anything?

Are you zooming\panning in Premiere or in camera?

If you do this in premiere, you will notice quality drops either way. Since you’ve already scaled the video to 720 (you will never see the original quality again), you are not blowing up to original quality. However, you shouldn’t see too much drop if you start with a lossless file format, as all of the quality is retained. Export to a lossless, and it will be faster on the export. Then compress that (which will be faster and better quality compression with smaller files). I fire off 1080p at 60fps files 2 to 3 times a week on a 2008 macbook pro with 4gb ram and 256mb graphics, and 5400rpm hdd’s. I’ve moved to Compressor and I fire off more than that now, by sending the batches to other machines when I rent some studio for use in the project.

If you work on compressed file formats straight from cameras, they are transport streams with buffering. When outputting, you have to wait for that buffering both when reading the original, and when compressing, and in between you have to wait for it to rebuild the frames from the original so it can recalculate and compress a new set. If you use a PROXY version of the file format, it will be a middle-area between the two extremes, allowing for less choppy playback in edits.

Typically, when zooming in, I don’t just use the zoom keying in premiere. I’ll use After Effects to actually upscale the entire clip to a larger resolution, clean it up (Photoshop style cleanup) and denoise it, then place the comp into my sequence. Then I start the clip with a key ZOOMED OUT, instead of IN, and let the zoom pass inward from there. Better quality.
Depending on how you shoot, you can limit the zooming you have to do in POST. For me, I use cameras and remotes, but I use HDMI wireless transmitters like the MYWIRELESSTV2 to send the remote infrareds. I only need one transmitter for each camera, and I can set up a viewing post where I can view the input, zoom, pan etc. It’s a great way to set up a small, low cost studio environment. Just make sure you have the proper automatic PANHEAD for your camera, and that it responds to the remote. You can tie the infrared sensor to a small dowel just far enough in front of the cam so it can react. I’ve done this several times. It works great, and takes the zooming out of post. Plan the zooms, and start in while you are on another camera. Return to normal afterward or do a slow zoom out. I also place two cameras in almost the same position, one for zoom one for full shots to change to. You can then use input cards (straight into the computer) or just the camera memory cards and edit the video without losing quality in zooms.