[Jeff Brown]

[Jon Barrie] “You can’t save project over a network tho. That has to be saved on the HDD directly connected to the workstation”

I save PPro project files to a shared network drive (on a fileserver) almost daily. You may have reasons for saying otherwise…
I do keep media files local.

The only way to get reliable media playback in a networked situation would be with a SAN of some sort. Not for the faint of heart or faint of wallet.

[Jeff Brown]

I only edit sporadically (I do mostly anim & vfx), but I’ve found the ShuttlePro a pretty handy controller for Premiere and Combustion. Not a lot of $$ for a decent feeling jog/shuttle wheel, plus 15 programmable buttons.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

I had to deal with some XDCam files in Premier for a job. I purchased the MainConcept HD 3 package, which includes an XDCam codec. As I only was doing VFX on clips, I did not check to see how metadata (timecode, etc.) was handled. They do have a free demo.

[Jeff Brown]

[Guy Kingston] “I also captured a sample clip into PPro and this looked identical (far too dark) to the original captured in Vegas.

I still don’t understand the cause and how to avoid this happening again…”

Guy, I implore you to FIND OUT IMMEDIATELY why this is happening. Something in your production chain is wrong! It might be your editing monitor. You did not mention what that was. It might be your viewfinder and playback monitors.

Learn how to calibrate a monitor. Learn how to calibrate your viewfinder. Calibrate ALL your playback monitors; without also having ‘scopes, it is your only chance of producing video with correct levels.

Here’s how to set upwith PAL bars.
And, with NTSC bars.

Apologies if you’re already aware of this, but it is essential.
Hope it helps,
Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

I rarely use AE, so this is just my opinion–
It sounds like AE will support OpenGL. I use a Quadro 4500 with Combustion. The card will support some OpenGL blend modes and lights, shadows, etc. in Combustion. BUT: this is only for the workspace (previewing). It is really necessary to render all effects for the final output. And, OpenGL does not really help with footage or sequences– the images still have to come from disc into RAM.
Some video I/O (not display) cards will accelerate transitions and effects in Premiere. But again, even the biggest baddest systems need to render some things.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Here’s your best source for answers:

https://www.aja.com/html/support_contact.html

[Jeff Brown]

No, a new video card will not accelerate rendering in Premiere. Sorry. Even systems like Discreet Flame have to render Sapphire Effects!

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

As far as I know, there is no hardware that will make DVD rendering in Premiere real-time. You can get real-time playback for many things while editing, but DVD files will require compression (rendering).

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

This may seem obvious, but AJA has them. I needed a replacement for my Xena card a few months back… I think they keep them in stock.
-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

I rarely use Premiere for encoding; when I do, I do not use noise reduction. It takes too long…

I use Cleaner (Autodesk) for compressing, which seems to do slightly better compression than other systems, although I have not tried the most recent incarnation of Squeeze.

-jeff