[Tam Perl]

We do this kind of thing in our studio — I don’t have the numbers (exact pixel dimensions, bit rate etc) handy, but here’s our workflow.

We export our Camtasia screen captures at the highest resolution and largest size, to an H264 Quicktime format. We then bring that H264 into Premiere, and build a training video mixing the screen capture with live teacher shots. Invariably the Camtasia H264 gets resized down in Premiere to our final training video dimensions. Premiere does the downsizing in most instances. For higher quality, Photoshop can do it. (Yes — Photoshop, the “extended” version).

Occasionally we need to add an animation or effect, which we do in After Effects. Depending on the item — we may create the effect in AE with transparency and then overlay it in Premiere. Or we will copy/paste from Premiere timeline into AE comp, only the small portion where the effect is needed, then import via dynamic link or render and import. Aside from that, why go thru AE??

Tam

[Tam Perl]

Our studio uses Adobe Media Encoder with excellent results. (We’re on Macs so the specialized [Windows] transcoding apps are not available to us.)

Tam
https://www.tamotion.com

[Tam Perl]

And I’m a Mac

🙂
(sorry — couldn’t resist that.)
But yes, I am on a Mac

Tam

[Tam Perl]

Jon,

In my case this happened a number of times. The common threads to mention are — AVCHD (.MTS files) shot on a Panasonic AG-HMC150P at 1280x720p. using 1/60th (and sometimes 1/120) shutter. To workaround OTHER issues with Premiere and MTS files, the MTS were transcoded using Adobe Media Encoder into H.264 .mov files. Inside the timeline, the H264 clip was stretched or speeded up using either the stretch tool, or the “Duration” dialog box. A rendered preview within Premiere was fine. The final output showed a drop off of brightness when the slowed / speed portion played. The rest of the render was fine. The same clip — when not stretched or sped up — played fine.

Thanks

Tam

[Tam Perl]

Jeremy — use After Effects to do the slow-mo. Either copy paste your footage into an after effects comp, or use dynamic link — then RENDER out of After Effects and use your rendered footage. I know — that’s not how it should be, and it does seem to be a bug. It should work as advertised in Premiere. It doesn’t. That’s it.

Tam

[Tam Perl]

YouTube has a list of recommended formats. But it really doesn’t make too much difference. You should come out of Premiere with the best resolution you can, say as a H264 .mov file, then upload it to YouTube. Let the YouTube website do the conversion to Flash. It’s that simple.

[Tam Perl]

You should really do your research before making a post like this on the forum — this issue has been dealt with on the COW many times. So I’m not commenting on the Mac/PC issue.

But if you’re planning on using Premier on a Mac to process AVDHC, you should be aware that there are serious issues here. THEORETICALLY Premiere supports AVCHD. But in practice, you will be unable to export/render your sequences without issues. I don’t know whether this applies to a PC.

A successful workaround is to convert all your MTS files to MOV files. Adobe apparently makes a such a converter for the PC. Or you could use Adobe’s Media Encoder on the Mac.

[Tam Perl]

Wolfgang — I had the same problem. I suspect it’s something to do with the CS4 version of Illustrator, because I had no such problem with CS3 Illustrator files.

In any event, my workaround is this: Open the Illustrator file in Photoshop. Since it’s a vector, it’ll scale up sharp. When you first open it in PSP, make sure that your size is the same (or better) than your largest final AE usage. Then disregard Illustrator, and use the PSD image. You can always scale down in AE if necessary.

Tam

[Tam Perl]

Jeff — I noted your comment about non square pixels — so what is the fix for this?

I have exported from Premiere to a size of 1280×720 with square pixels. As far as I can tell, Encore is recognizing this size and pixel aspect ratio. Visually, the picture seems correct — in other words it is not being stretched or compressed, although I have not measured it scientifically with a square box.

How do I create a DVD without those black bars??

Thanks

Tam

[Tam Perl]

I have the same problem with a clip — it has no effect nor any color correction. The only thing that was done to it was to speed it up. When the piece was rendered, that sped up portion dropped in brightness. Anyone have any ideas here?

Thanks

Tam