Mike Velte
Forum Replies Created
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[Michael Ducey] “do not work in my low-end DVD player”
That is not unusual…try a different media brand/type/plus/minus.
[Michael Ducey] “but is giving me rather dark”
Comparing what to what? Does it look darker in Windows Media Player than Premier’s Program window? Is a TV involved? I dont know of any encoding process that changes luminance.
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Their web site is pretty confusing.
It appears the new strategy is to not include the much needed Vp6 codec in the suite. You will need the Power Pack for that.
Does you Flash Encoder include the VP6 codec? -
PSE has layers, but no masks or channels or layer comps.
APE has 2 project settings if you will, NTSC DV and PAL DV. It will import a lot of formats that Pro cant. -
Download a demo of each and try.
Premiere Elements 4 bears little resemblance to Pro in workflow and features. It is really SIMPLE…tooo simple for you. It has none of its own magic features like Photoshop Elements. Very little one learns from Premiere Elements can be applied to Pro, unlike Photoshop Elements.
While Photoshop Elements is a cut down version of Photoshop, it is still quite powerful. It has many undocumented features of the full version kinda hidden, like holding the Alt key down while adjusting levels to see what is being crushed. Most of what one learns in the Full Edit mode can be applied to the full version of Photoshop.
I teach both on occasion at a local Career Tech school. I run out of things to teach in PE after about 8-10 hours, but PSE class runs 24 hours and leaves students overwhelmed and awed at the possibilities.
Premiere Elements 4 is quite similar to Movie Maker in worlflow.
Photoshop Elements 6 is quite similar to Photoshop plus a lot of extras. -
Color correction and brightness adjustments are two different processes, although on occasion both are needed.
Color correction assumes that there is an unnatural color cast to the image/frame. Things in the frame that should be a shade of gray (0,0,0 – 255,255,255) actually have some color. The color correction process fixes this.
Brightness (luminance) adjustments is not so much a correction process as it is enhancement. The Levels and RGB curves effects are often used for this.My favorite place for tutorials is Lynda.com
Chad Perkins has a “Beyond the Basics” training for Pro with a section on these subjects.
Photoshop tutorials can also be helpful getting your head around the world of colors and luminance. -
What are coasters? Can you explore the coaster?
My workflow does not involve Premiere or Encore doing the burning, primarily because I may need more copies later and partly due to what you are experiencing.
Try exporting the Folder option and then burn with a CD/DVD burning app. -
One of my computers I use for testing all sorts of crap. When it gets too wobbly I kick it in the head and reinstall Windows. Premiere Elements 4 will edit Xvid, but I have an app called K-Lite Codec Pack installed and one of its components (ffdshow) launches when Elements plays an Xvid clip.
Working with video that was not captured via firewire into Premiere is a crap shoot. -
Not sure what that means. If the file is about an hour long, it is probably DV. Here is my DV container;
File Length Correct
DV Type 2 AVI
AVI v1.0
DV Audio/Video: 396 MB (96.54%)
AVI Copy of DV Audio: 14.1 MB (3.44%)
AVI Overhead: 86.8 KB (0.02%)I suspect that you will need to convert your clips into Microsoft’s DirectShow Type 2 because Premiere’s API module cant handle that codec well. It should be a fast process and all that will be changed is the wrapper. Check with NewTek web site about a conversion utility.
Also check my post above about GSpot!
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As most effects that are labeled “Auto”, they are typically a compromise between the best results possible and the limitations of time or skill that it takes to it right.
Applying the Levels command to a clip, one can copy/paste those attributes and values to one or the rest of the clips in the sequence. Although it would be most unusual to want to do much of that for your home movies. You will end up either crushing shadows or highlights indiscriminately. At least the Auto Levels function would try moderate the changes, albeit with annoying flickering.
Having said all that I often make a moderate adjustment to both shadows and highlights on home movies and apply the same value to the whole mess. To do this requires at least a fair understanding of Levels. -
Auto levels, even with a lot of temporal smoothing is almost useless for video…IMHO. I use Levels, but razor up a clip with lighting changes and tweek each section manually.
Levels is not so much about colors as it contrast in luminance.