[Jeff Pulera]

Please explain your workflow/intentions. If you want 320×240 for Export purposes (web video for instance), that is done during the final export process, just edit the video at native resolution in Premiere and resizing is done at the end.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Rainer,

The DSLR clips use H.264 compression, which takes a lot of power to decode for playback. A few helpful tips to improve editing –

1) Always use a dedicated hard drive for video editing, do not put video clips on the C: drive. Add a second SATA drive and keep video clips and projects there.

2) Move to a 64-bit OS, like Windows 7, to improve system performance. The 64-bit OS will also allow you to add more RAM.

3) Using an intermediate codec will lessen the demands on the system, providing smoother playback. Check out the Cineform NeoScene codec for under $100, there is a free trial version. This converts the hard-to-edit Canon clips to a much more edit-friendly codec (without visual quality loss).

4) Adobe CS5 offers better performance for the Canon clips, but does require the 64-bit OS first and loves extra memory also. If you just add a hard drive and NeoScene, this may suit your needs for now.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

I recently tried CS5 and found that my AVCHD footage looked terrible in the Preview monitor, all sorts of compression blocks. Now one would think that reducing the monitor resolution would make it easier for the computer to play back the video, but in reality, I had to right-click the monitor and change the resolution to FULL quality and it resolved the issue, so check the resolution

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

From the Adobe site:

https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/systemreqs/

Supported NVIDIA graphics cards for GPU acceleration
Quadro CX (Windows)
Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac OS)
Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)

I don’t know where the GTX 285 went, as it was always promoted before the CS5 release, but in any event, it looks like only the FX 4800 is supported on the Mac.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jack,

What is the length of your video?

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jack,

I don’t have an answer to your issue, but it would be helpful to post the platform and software being used, then someone familiar with your setup may be able to assist

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

I often put 2+ hours on a single 4.7GB DVD, no problem. If you need to figure the encoding bitrate, use 560/minutes and round down a bit, in this case 560/105=5.33, so just encode at CBR 5.2 and use Dolby AC-3 audio and it should all fit just fine and look good as well. I don’t know what platform or software you are using, but the above specs will apply to all.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Scott,

Older versions of Premiere have an issue creating DVD material from HD sources. The conversion just doesn’t come out very well. There are workarounds to improve the quality. Keep in mind that DVD resolution is 720×480 – the 1280×720 resolution you mentioned is for 720p HD. CS4 has a “High Quality” checkbox in the encoder which provides better results at the expense of (lots of) time, but no such button in CS3.

Perhaps the tips in this blog post will help you out –

https://www.precomposed.com/blog/2009/07/hd-to-sd-dvd-best-methods/

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Bobby,

Keep in mind that if you want to reframe (pan/zoom) the HD video in an SD sequence, right-click the clip on the timeline and uncheck “scale to frame”. That way, the “raw” HD clip will be displayed, so that you are only seeing the center of the HD clip in your SD view. Now if you use Motion to change the scale to see more of the clip, it will utilize the extra data from the HD image. If the image is already “scaled to frame” to fit the SD frame, THEN you zoom in, you’ve lost that extra quality and it’s as if you are zooming into an SD clip, with the resulting quality loss.

Hope that makes sense.

Regarding the 1080p vs. 1080i – another option would be to just shoot it all 1080i, then apply “Deinterlace” in the Export dialog to get the right look for the web, rather than mixing interlaced and progressive footage during editing.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Kevin,

First things first – are you trying to insert the “fixed” footage on the original tape? That would be flirting with disaster, as you could overwrite part of the following interview if so. Might be better to capture all the footage, then lay all footage back to tape at once using a new tape, keeping the original for safety.

As for not recording anything, I know that with the older DSR-30 deck, there was a trick to get the deck to record DV, and this might be your issue with the DSR-11 as well.

Turn the deck OFF, then power ON while holding REC and PAUSE. The deck will beep, and will then accept DV recording via Firewire. DV uses unlocked audio, while DVCAM uses locked audio, a slight difference.

Cycling the power will return deck to DVCAM mode.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers