[Litzwire]

HEY one more thing! I’m happy to report that I realized I am wrong on both the panning issue and used footage issue. I just didn’t have the “Usage” columns up, and I used the Channel Mapping feature to fix the issue of better stereo panning. Things are looking up. Premier Rules!

[Litzwire]

Really? I don’t want to get into it with you here, but when you select an in and out point in Avid, you can select V1, V1+V2, V1-V6, or whatever, and then extract the material from all of them at the same time. You HAVE to be able to do that, because when you are working on a broadcast shoot and have 4 separate cameras and the tape goes to ESPN tomorrow, you don’t have time to go through the motions you just described with Premier to cut out 15 seconds from all of them. It most certainly does do that and has since like 1991, when I first started using it. I have only played with FCP, but I know it also does this with one or two keymoves. I also used a VelocityQ for a few years, and you can extract from 99 tracks at once if you want to simply by putting and I/O on the timeline and hitting one key. Look, I’m glad this thing works for you – I have to make it work for me somehow right now given a particular situation, and I appreciate the tips – but there is no need for anyone to play favorites and deny obvious major descrepancies with this app. It’s counterproductive in the long term. I actually like some things in Premier and quite a bit about the whole CS3 integration, but Adobe has MAJOR work to do to get this thing to a more usable level on the editing side – being able to extract/lift from numerous tracks at once, being able to reliably detect timecode changes from higer-end decks with either RS-422 or firewire, being able to tell you what footage is used in a timeline, being able to overwite/insert a clip with the hotkey no matter what panel is selected (the source panel has to be selected to do this, and that is dumb, because the “.” key doesn’t do anything in the other panel’s anyway, and often you are parked on the program panel or timeline after you have decided an in point for the source footage to be placed. I know….I know…just another Avid thing that makes too much sense to include it in Premier). Hey – I’m not a fan of Avid either – their hardware and the economic commitments they demand for every little feature are bullcrap, BUT there are some features that Avid has established that shouldn’t be reinvented, because they assure faster production. Toilet paper works best in rolls – no need to change it. I’ll not trouble you here again – every assumption I’ve made so far on what this thing can’t do has been correct, so I’m doing fine discovering those things on my own. Seriously though, thanks a bunch for trying to help.

[Litzwire]

Thanks for that. Unfortunately I was already using these techniques, but was hoping that I was just missing why I couldn’t find the very fundamental feature that every single NLE other than Premier is capable of. I think that is like number four on this list when you are creating a new NLE app.

[Litzwire]

I appreciate the suggestions. The machine did come from the dealer this way, and though I respect your ideas, I also trust both the dealer and ProAvio, the maker of the storage solution. So I will probably try to reinstall and see if some things are cleared up, but I like the storage situation the way it is. Plus, given some of the major lackings I’m finding with the capabilities of Premier, I trust its developers the least of any in this equation.

[Litzwire]

Believe me, between having to go HD for broadcast work and the 2 bulging, degenerated discs in my back, I have indeed considered suicide. I’ll try these other things and keep that last suggestion handy at all times. BUT since you guys are nice enough to help on this, I think I may know the operation that casued this – for me at least. First know that I am running a Matrox Axio and my project is 1080i HD. It’s a dual quad core machine with 4GB RAM and a projects/storage drive of 6TB (Yes, it’s one 6TB drive – freaky, huh?). I suppose two things that might be causing some weirdness in the system could be either the Matrox ultilities or the utility that allows WinXP to see the 6TB RAID-5 drive. Now, for the operation that might have caused this. Try doing this: 1) Make a 1080i project, create 5 bins, import different assets into each of them, then, without closing Premier, start a new NTSC project. What happened to me at this point was that the new project had 5 untitled bins of the exact same properties already set into the project panel. Then open the previous project again. For me, that’s when instead of having the 5 different bins as were saved before, I got 5 of the same, and there is no folder or project that can be opened that will get you back to the way it was before, which is complete BS. There has to be a fail-safe for something like that programmed into Premier, not to mention the ability to simply open ONE bin from another project, like Avid, VelocityQ/HD, and probably FCP (haven’t used that one).

[Litzwire]

Thanks for trying this out and replying. Before I try these things – and forgive my newbie-ness, as I am coming from Avid and VelocityQ – is there a way to save bins or import them into another project? There seems to be no record of them separate from the project on my harddrive (If this is true, then I will have to suggest to Adobe that they add that to a future version – one needs to be able to retrieve bins from another project). I am primarily worried that if these bins keep disappearing, one of the missing bins will contain a sequence that I need, and I will not be able to recall it, even from a new project.

[Litzwire]

I did check the deck and all settings, and made sure my captures were not crossing breaks, and still some clips are 1 frame off, some 2 frames, and some 4 frames off. I’m still early with using Premier though, so I’m sure I will make some discoveries that iron things out. I have to, now.

Actually, I agree with most or all of your points, and appreciate your optimism on the development of Premier, and on the tired debate concerning a tapeless world, I myself have been involved in shoots where P2 is used and to a larger extent XDCam. And I agree that the day will come for tapeless delivery. But, for example, when I asked ESPN if they considered allowing for hard-drive delivery, since the D5-HD delivery is so costly, their EXACT response was, “the engineers say no way in hell….not for a long time.” The same goes for VS and FOX Sports. Additionally, on shoots that I do for all of those networks, where there are up to 10 cameramen shooting 10 hours a day STRAIGHT, the ONLY options are TAPE and potentially XDCam….because it’s like a TAPE. Hell, FOX Sports is still accepting Beta for a master, good grief. So I do not subscribe to the excuse that accurate export to tape functions are not necessary because the world is moving away from that. That is bogus, IMO. Many will move that way, but almost EVERY major house that I work with or am aquainted with is dumping their broadcast masters to a tape of some sort. I personally am not averse to the rising tide of better technology – I’m delivering Blu-Rays, sharing with Clip Notes, composing nationally-televised music with absolutely NO outboard gear, and in about one month will be shooting with my own RED camera – but I do understand that the move away from tape is not moving as fast as some think in many circles (some national news cameramen still look at you funny if you don’t have a BetaCam….blugh), and the move away from timecode WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Timecode is the common language for ALL of us in the business, and it will always be. So it should ALWAYS be used correctly by all of us, including software makers. Hehe….I’m going to be like the Lou Dobbs of timecode.

[Litzwire]

“When I see the capability of the other products Adobe offers, I am totally bewildered why Premiere is not on top of the NLE pack”

Yes, this is the point I think I’ve tried to make either here or in the Matrox forum. High-level professionals use all the other stuff – Flame users, Avid MC users, Braodcast graphic artists – it seems that Adobe would have picked some of those users’ brains on the timecode implementation in Premier. They have the programmers, which is obvious from some of the very good features in the app, now just get the other stuff done.

I won’t complain about audio because audio handling in almost all of the NLEs suck. You have to dip out for real mix, but I would like to see the ability to open up the premier audio tracks in audition with a left-click.

[Litzwire]

Hey thanks! I was actually looking for that earlier but got sidetracked with actual work. 😉

Thanks again.

[Litzwire]

WOW. Now THAT’s what I’m talking about, and exactly what I mentioned to Matrox. If you can make third party effects (mainly useless ones) that work inside premmier, there HAS to be a way to come up with a program that will take over Premier’s timecode management and make things right. From my searches, only a couple of people have even tried to do this with Premier (ProVTR is one, and it looks like its capabilities were limited, not to mention it looks like development may be coming to a stop). So there is certainly room for someone to do this. I EAGERLY await news of this program of which you speak. PLEASE PLEASE notify me if possible when I’m able to try this out. Now, there’s the issue of timeecode visibility on the timeline; why couldn’t someone make a thrid-party app that monitors clip timecodes and info as the timeline plays?