[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Tim,

Most HDV cameras by default will downconvert HDV to DV on the 1394 output. Check the camera menu for “DV convt” and make sure it is OFF, and also, if there is a “VCR > HDV, DV, AUTO” setting, set it to HDV.

After getting camcorder set up correctly, it is best to turn off camera AND close Premiere. Next, power up camera, wait for Windows to recognize it (beep and/or message), then open Premiere last. Following this sequence will ensure that Premiere properly sees the HDV device.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
https://www.sharbor.com

[Jeff Pulera]

Any time to “blow up” an image, you are then looking at less pixels than you started with, so it’s going to look blurry/pixelated to some degree.

We all get spoiled watching the cop/spy shows on TV where they take the surveillance video and zoom waaaayyyyy in and run some filters on it and it then looks crystal clear. It just doesn’t work that way.

There is one trick that can help – if working in an SD project, use HD source video, right-click the clip on the timeline and make sure that “Scale to Frame” is NOT checked, and this will show the HD clip in full res on the SD timeline, and then you will have the extra pixels available to zoom in and maintain a clear image, this works for stills as well.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Ron,

It looks like “Charles Bronson” is coming out from behind the building, is that what you’re after?

Put your video clip on V1, title on V2 and add animation. Put copy of video clip on V3 and apply CROP filter, this would allow you to have the title be partially obscured to “come out from behind” an object by adjusting the cropping of the overlay video.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Ron,

Use the Adobe Motion effect to scale and move the titles, in other words start out small and expand from the wall or person, in the direction you want.

Use Opacity to start out transparent and fade in as the motion starts.

These effects will need to be keyframed. Check the HELP file to learn more

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

It sounds like you are only previewing this on a computer. Do yourself a favor and burn a quick (short) sample to disc and go watch it in your living room using a set-top DVD player, computers are not reliable for proofing projects. See what it REALLY looks like to the end user.

Jeff Pulera

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi John,

I don’t have access to Premiere at the moment to look up the exact terminology, but if you right-click the keyframe in the Effect Control window, in the drop down, make sure it is set to LINEAR (I think that’s what they call it). BEZIER adds curves between the points (keyframes)for a smoother path of travel and this is likely what you are experiencing.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi John,

I didn’t know you were on a Mac, so I don’t know if your DVD software will accept .m2v and .wav files or not. Do you have Encore DVD? On the PC, you can simply use File > Export > Encore and go straight out to DVD from the Premiere timeline.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Donna,

I’ve not use Elements myself, but what is the content of your video? If there is perhaps a gigantic, high-resolution still image in the project, maybe something like that could cause an issue.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi John,

Try using the YouTube preset, but increase the data rate (not the quality slider, but the actual data rate). Also, after uploading to YouTube, you must wait for YouTube to re-process the video; it will initially look very bad if you try to watch it immediately after upload.

For the DVD issue, are you previewing the MPEG-2 file on the PC? I wouldn’t worry too much about that, burn an actual DVD and play it on a set-top player to judge quality and playback issues. I like to always use CBR rather than VBR encoding, unless the project is very long, so try CBR also.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Marcus,

CS5 is just around the corner, so you’ll want to choose a supported display card to get the benefits of the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine.

Currently, these NVIDIA cards are supported:

GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac)
Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac)
Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)
Quadro CX

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers