[Ty Wood]

There’s hope yet, though!

https://www.telestream.net/company/press/2011-03-31.htm

https://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?269583-5DtoRGB-now-does-ProRes-encoding-on-Windows!

No exporting directly to, but at least with the FlipFactory route (Server OS required) you have a transcode option for special deliveries.

[Ty Wood]

Better way of doing it.. hmmmm “Rate Stretch Tool”. Fantastic, super-useful tool that unfortunately still only Adobe has.

Here’s the hotkey sequence for anyone else who comes along this thread:

Want it slow or fast motion? Press F to match back to the clip…it will appear in the Viewer with your IN and OUT points. Now, press APPLE-J to get access to the speed change window. Adjust the speed to what you want…then cut it back into your sequence. Nothing moves.

Of course, FCP 7 is out and one of the only things new in it is the checkmark in the speed change0 window that makes it not ripple the timeline. So I guess this is for all of us on PPC or who haven’t upgraded.

– tw

[Ty Wood]

What ISN’T a real alternative to FCP that’s on windows? I mean aside from consumer targeted apps like WMM, Ulead, etc–Adobe, Edius, and Avid are all made for Windows and they all have advantages that FCP doesn’t. FCP has some pluses, and can and does work for people, but frnakly I’d be more prompt to asking for another alternative to FCP on a Mac. Luckily Avid and Adobe answer that :).

[Ty Wood]

1 word that hasn’t been mentioned here yet and should have:

Grass Velley’s Edius.

It’s the opposite of riddled with bugs. I find it’s more stable than any other professional editor, including avid and fcp, and it’s also significantly easier to use.

If you’re Premiere-d out and want to stay on PC, I highly recommend checking it out (30 day full featured trial!).

[Ty Wood]

Also note,

Working with HD footage (and especially with a format like HDV, problems of which discussed above) really needs a high end system for optimal results.

Check out the suggestions I came across recently from Adobe in regards to Premiere and After Effects:
https://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/performance/?trackingid=FBZRT

“Memory rarely an issue” at 16-32GB of RAM, and “For optimal performance, we recommend a minimum of 12GB of RAM” .

However, I do have to admit Premiere just stinks at what it’s doing. It’s core is obviously built 10 years ago for SD.

I am in a situation where I have a MacPro 8-core machine that only has 2GB of RAM. I don’t want to spend the money to upgrade the RAM because it’s an older machine, and it’s not mine–so when the computer gets given back to it’s owner, I’d be stuck with a bunch of RAM that I can’t put into anything else.

I’ve did a lot of testing w/ trial software on this machine, and with all 8 of my cores and 2 GB of RAM, Final Cut runs fine when HDV is captured to ProRes422 codecs. Avid runs fine when HDV is captured to DNxHD codecs. And on the PC side, Edius runs fine when HDV is captured to Canopus codecs. Where is Premiere’s “magic” codec? I don’t get it. It captures to some MPEG format with absolutely horrid performance.

My solution? I’ve found it helps quite a bit to actually go into my sequence settings and change the sequence codec to ProRes, or Canopus. Then, I use the other program to capture my footage. And then import the captured files into Premiere. This helps out a lot, it’s not nearly as robust as these formats are in their native editors (Avid and Edius fly, you barely have to render), but at least it runs somewhat smoothly and it actually renders with all 8 cores (with Premiere’s default, it renders with only 2 cores).

And that solution is a step down from CineForm and Matrox. With these companies you get a codec that is actually built to work well in Premiere. I haven’t had the chance to test out how well it works. Phenomenal, I’d hope!

Here’s to hoping “Mercury Playback Engine” is that “magic” that Adobe is 10 years behind on.

– tw

[Ty Wood]

I was actually looking for how to move a layer independent of the mask (actually, animate a mask independent of it’s layers movement, because both of these needed separately animated).

The track matte worked great, it was super easy and pretty simple to do.

Thanks Jeremy for answering! Another AE trick learned! I’m glad the thread wasn’t a dead end ‘post somewhere else’ or ‘look at the manual’.

t.w.

[Ty Wood]

I think you’re (or were) using CS3 and getting the problem, but I came across the thread for getting the exact same error in CS4 Premiere.

“An unknown error occurred while saving the project. Select Save As from the File menu…”

The problem seemed to have rooted from the point of doing sound design on a 45min project–lots of audio level rubber bands, and audio effects on nearly every clip.

I’m not sure what the problem is specifically related to.. memory, external drives, media not all in one folder–these all seems to be solvents that have worked for some people.

My project is too large to fit all within one drive, so I can’t be sure if it would help or not.

Practically every problem I’ve had in CS4 seems to be related to “ImporterProcessServer.exe”. Not only does this process “quit unexpectedly” while working on projects, but if I get the “An unknown error occurred while saving the project. Select Save As from the File menu…” error–I cntr-shft-esc, and End Process on “ImporterProcessServer.exe”. Premiere will lag a bit as the hard drive thinks, and then stabilize, and allow you to save without getting the error.. thus saving your changes and you aren’t screwed.

Save as soon as possible after the force quit–after the ImporterProcessServer process is gone, Premiere is bound to crash or have other problems. One I have is often the audio doesn’t work, and I have to restart Premiere. But at least all your changes got saved, which is extremely awesome in an extremely poor situation.

Hope this is of help to anyone else who comes across the thread. Times like there I wonder where the testers went. Premiere obviously isn’t a high priority on the Suite.

T.W.