[Tim Kurkoski]

Premiere Elements uses the same basic engine as Premiere Pro 1.5. It’s optimized for DV, but you can put other formats in the timeline, they’ll just need rendering. That does mean a generation loss going to DV, but it shouldn’t be a significant quality hit.

People on the Adobe PrEl forum have seen a variety of results when using non-DV codecs, so it can be hit or miss depending on what you’re trying. In general, I’ve never had a problem that wasn’t solved by rendering the timeline, so my guess is that results are dependent on what format you’re using and the condition of your system. If you have a lot of weird codecs installed or drivers and startup apps that are weighing the system down, you’ll get worse results.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Edit > Color Settings. Try setting this back to one of the default presets, like US Web Prepress Defaults (wording may be different depending on version).

For best results, you should really calibrate your monitor. Calibration spiders aren’t exactly cheap, but you can fake it by creating a profile with the Adobe Gamma control panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel). Then set Photoshop to use the monitor profile.

[Tim Kurkoski]

The 100 is what I have at my desk now, yes. Looking at the Canopus site…
https://www.canopus.com/products/videoconversion.php

Looks like they’ve discontinued the 100 in favor of the 110, which has no external power syupply (relies on the FireWire cable for power). The 55 is also an economical choice, though it only converts from analog to DV- you can’t go back out the other way. They used to have an internal card as well, but I guess that’s gone.

The ADS Tech products really seemed to be aimed more towards consumers, but they’ll still do the trick for your purpose. I’ve heard of a few problems with Pyro converters needing to go back for repair or replacement, but in general I think they’re fine. It looks like the newest version of the Pyro A/V Link supports component input, which the cheaper Canopus boxes don’t.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Premiere Elements and Bridge don’t have any kind of interactivity that I know of.

Bridge is basically a file browsing utility. It has features for metadata, and some interaction with other Adobe programs (it can initiate some automated process for Photoshop CS2, for example), but it’s not any sort of Swiss army knife type of program. What exactly are you thinking that it would do?

[Tim Kurkoski]

This is a well known issue. You can search this forum and find lots of variations on the question.

The core of the problem is that Encore does not define what the DVD player should do when you hit “next chapter”, but you’re on the last chapter of a timeline (no next chapter exists). I’m not even sure whether or not this behavior is clearly defined by the DVD spec. Some DVD players, lacking any instruction, will seek the next timeline. Some will execute the end action. Most that I’ve tried will simply do nothing, which is most logical in my mind.

[Tim Kurkoski]

The problem you’re running into is that chapter markers can only be placed at I-frames. (See the FAQ at DVDDemystified.com if you want more techncial detail.)

What application are you encoding your MPEG file in? If you use Premiere Pro, you can add unnumbered timeline markers where the chapters should be. Then when you export to MPEG, Premiere Pro will not only place I-frames at those frames, it will include a .XMPSES file that Encore will pick up on and place the chapter points automatically in its timeline.

Note- the unnumbered markers must have information entered in the Chapter field in order for this procedure to work.

[Tim Kurkoski]

You can create your own pattern by:

1. Open the file you want to use as a pattern, or make a selection around the area you want to use as a pattern.

2. Choose Edit > Define Pattern.

To fill text or any other layer with your pattern, go to the Layer Styles button at the bottom of the Layer palette and choose Pattern Overlay. Choose your custom pattern in the Pattern box.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Well, Illustrator has an actual graph tool that can import data from Excel or other simple types of spreadsheets.

But if it’s just a very simple bar graph you need, I’d say just draw it. Or take a screenshot of your graph in Word and paste that into Photoshop to save it as an FCP-compatible file format.

[Tim Kurkoski]

No. Sorry. Generally I’d advise starting your subtitles as a text script (have the video open in one window, write the script in another) or use a subtitle script generator. There are a couple such programs available, but I can’t remember the titles. Suggest you Google “Encore subtitle script program” or a similar string.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Make sure the picture is on it’s own layer. Select the layer and choose Edit > Transform > Scale, then reduce the image to fit in the area you want.