[Jeff Pulera]

“My god, it is completely impossible to cancel my account. ”

If you think that, then you’ve never tried to cancel Sirius XM radio…..

[Jeff Pulera]

If you will be delivering as SD (DVD), then perhaps keep the production workflow as SD. For instance, if you put SD clips into an HD sequence, they get upscaled (= soft). Now if you export to DVD (SD) you are taking the SD video that was upscaled (softened already) and then converting it from HD back to SD = not pretty compared to exporting SD straight to DVD. No sense upscaling unless you must deliver HD.

If you DO need to deliver as HD, can you use 720p rather than 1080p? Even if the “other” sources are 1080p, maybe downscale those to 720p, then the SD won’t have to be blown up as far as it would require if editing as 1080. A compromise.

Meaning make a 720p Sequence in Premiere, and mix the 1080p and SD clips in it, and export as 720p. The HD clips will still be HD and look great, and the upscaled SD clips won’t look as obvious as they would in a 1080p export.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Paul,

How is the G: drive (for video) connected? Make sure it is not USB 2.0, too slow.

Regarding footage, for best results, copy ENTIRE contents of SD card to new folder on hard drive. Includes ALL FILES/FOLDERS, not just video clips. Then in Premiere, import using Media Browser. I’ve seen this import method help with choppy playback. Has other benefits as well, like joining spanned clips automatically, avoiding duplicate clip confusion in Premiere, etc.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

A color matte is a SOLID COLOR. Period. Therefore it will look artificial. Perhaps get some type of textured still image, change colors to purple range in Photoshop, and use that for the background? Or at least use a gradient rather than a solid color matte.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Apparently your system does not like all the layers in 4k. Could you perhaps break things down a bit? Meaning do a few layers, export to intermediate codec (Avid DNxHD .mxf or ProRes for example), then bring that back into Premiere timeline and add more effects?

I’ve seen many similar posts, Mac and PC, and the obscene render time is due to asking for too much at once. It’s quite possible that simply exporting to an intermediate codec might resolve the issue – rather than going straight to H.264, try ProRes or DNxHD first, then convert that new clip to H.264. That’s because H.264 takes a lot of processing power to crunch down (compress the video) and you are doing that in addition to all the layering.

Just break down the process and I bet you get much more reasonable results

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

PS – in my screen shot example I’d selected a 10-bit “resolution” but given that your source video is 8-bit, then 8-bit is likely a better choice to make smaller files. Definitely 8-bit for the Alpha Channel export since that is just black and white and would not benefit from 10-bit color fidelity!

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Well, this is a bit embarrassing, and I do apologize… but apparently Avid DNxHD does NOT support an embedded alpha channel! Not that I can see anyway, and I also Googled it and that appears to be the case.

Besides that little issue, the idea was that since FCP is so old, I didn’t know if it would support the .mxf flavor of DNxHD which is included in Premiere export settings, so I had you download the QuickTime codecs which would give you a more standard .mov file to share with the editor.

So at top of exporter under FORMAT (1), you’d choose QUICKTIME, then go down to VIDEO tab, and under VIDEO CODEC (2) select DNxHD, then under RESOLUTION (3) choose a quality level. Based on your source, 8-bit would likely be suitable rather than 10-bit.

Perhaps go back to the other plan of providing editor with source video clip, along with the Matte version, but use this codec for the matte? See (4) and there is an option to Render Alpha Channel Only. When you check that box, it changes the keyed image to a black and white matte for export.

Sorry for the error – who builds a really great codec, then doesn’t offer alpha channel support??!

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Great comments going on this thread! Xeon processors are often specified for computers used as SERVERS, or as mentioned those running dual processors, which you cannot do with an i7.

However, if you check with the Premiere “hardware experts” over at the Adobe forums, the way a Core i7 processes instructions works faster with Premiere than a similar (more expensive) Xeon would.

The combination of a Core i7 processor and GTX graphics card are just IDEAL for squeezing performance out of Premiere, versus more expensive Xeon and Quadro hardware.

Regarding RAID storage, I’d look at an external solution such as G-Tech or LaCie, using USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. When you consider the cost and hassle of creating an internal RAID (is there space in the case for all those drives, enough power, cooling??) why not just get a nice self-contained desktop RAID unit, which also has the benefit of being portable as well? And has a nice warranty?

My system is a year old now. Includes:

1050w power, Asus X99-Deluxe II motherboard, Intel Core i7-6800k 3.8GHz (6-core), 32GB RAM, 250GB SSD, GTX 1070, Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, G-Tech G-RAID and Glyph Black Box Pro storage.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

While sending a matte will work, it’s double the effort for you and the editor, with double the files and editor needing to set up the matte key composite for every clip.

I’m assuming you are on a PC, otherwise you would just export as ProRes for him.

Try this – download the Avid DNxHD codecs from Avid, which will allow you to create QuickTime .mov files with ALPHA that certainly ought to work in FCP. Editor may need to also install same codecs on his Mac. They are free.

https://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Download/en423319

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Xeon processors are not necessarily better than i7 processors for editing, nor are more-expensive Quadro cards better-suited to Premiere than GTX cards.

Find a good PC rig with multi-core Core i7 processor, minimum 32GB RAM, and GTX 1080 graphics, along with fast storage, and you will have a great editing rig.

You will get more hardware for your money with PC versus Mac systems. Plus you can do more with expansion of PC, versus closed environment of the Mac that limits possible hardware upgrades.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers