[Vincent Rosati]

Try…
Project/Project Settings/General…
Click the Playback Settings button and uncheck ‘Play Video on DV Hardware’.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

File/Export/Adobe Media Encoder – Format: Windows Media

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

You might be more satisfied with After Effects, but it’s a bit more complicated. Premiere does have titling and some animation features but you can create much nicer stuff in AE.
For creating custom stuff you might use AE or even Photoshop. You could create lead lines or arrows and text in Photoshop, you can create mattes for custom transitions as well. After Effects is like Photoshop for animation.
The ideal setup would include all of the above, maybe even Illustrator..

As to why you would be disappointed with your output from Premiere, I can’t say – not enough info in your post. It could be a pixel aspect ratio thing, or a compression thing. You can absolutely output perfect files from Premiere.

Maybe hit the Max forum, I’m sure there’s info there on how to export from Max to work in HD in Premiere…
Autodesk 3ds Max

In the end, I’ll say that Premiere is an editing and encoding app. If you need to create graphics to add to your 3D renders Premiere isn’t the tool.

If you’ve been disappointed with titles in Premiere, try applying Gaussian Blur set to ‘0’ to the title, it forces the effect to render on the underlying video before encoding.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

The size shouldn’t be a problem. Usually when your source video or audio doesn’t preview in Premiere it’s a codec issue. AVI is like a container, it’s the codecs inside that count.
Unless your editing DV or HD, it’s usually a good idea to decompress your source before import – Codec: None or Uncompressed.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

If you use a lot of random sourced video I’d recommend you get GSpot Codec Information Appliance, it’s a great tool that tells you a lot about the clips you’re working with – especially the codec.

If you digitized your old VHS stuff to DV just know that is exactly what DV was created for. It was introduced as a kind-of intermediary format to bridge the analog age to the digital.
With captured VHS material, I get the best picture by deinterlacing in After Effects with FieldsKit Deinterlacer. I’ll usually apply an S-Curve to enrich the color (not available in PP 1.5). Than, if there’s junk at the top &/or bottom of the frame I will vertically center the frame (in increments of 2-pixels) than mask the junk. I will also horizontally center if necessary.

I’m not sure why you’d get different results viewing in QT, between a Mac & a PC. What codec are you using?

As far as DVD Video, DVD quality should be pretty close to what you see while editing. You shouldn’t re-render. Your export from Premiere should be your final file. Whether you use Adobe Media Encoder or Main Concept MPEG Pro, start with the presets than boost encoding quality to maximum.
Your authoring software should never transcode your MPEG file, as long as it’s encoding meets the specifications of your authoring software.

Basically, maybe you need to do two renders. One for DVD Video, than another desktop video.

I’d keep working on making a good DVD render. It does take a bit of experimentation to find the right settings for your needs.

Regarding the use of square-pixel stills, you should resample them to match the aspect ratio of your project. Here’s a link to some template files.
Here
At the bottom of the page there are two files that will help you to correctly resample stills to 4:3 and 16:9. Also, there is a vignette file that you could use to mask the signal noise on analog captures, you would just layer the vignette on top of the captured VHS and apply the Multiply Key (I think).

Maybe take a look at this thread…
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/205/871306#871306
It covers a good bit of DVD quality issues.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

I use AVS Video Converter for batch processing. You could open your clip and insert cuts, or set it to batch at certain time intervals or also based on file size. Finally, export as uncompressed video.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe try MPEG-2 for DVD, PCM audio, VBR: 8000/6000/3825. There should also be an encoding quality setting, that should be set at it’s highest setting. Really, there are many considerations…
Interlace if the source is interlaced – Progressive if the source is progressive.

Just some ideas.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Without seeing an example, the only other thing I can think of is dropping frames. Just cutting out random frames or groups of frames, than closing the gaps by stretching the clips or compacting the runtime, to create a stuttering effect.
Maybe start a thread on the Premiere Pro or After Effects forum.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

-Open Premiere and create a project that matches your output specifications – ideally this should also match the specs of your source material.

-File/Import – Import your clip.

-Drag the clip from the project bin into the timeline sequence.

-Scrub the CTI (the blue thing at the top of the sequence, where the numbers are, it has a red line that runs vertically through the timeline) through the timeline to the point where you want to end the clip. Once you’re close to the cut-point you can use the left or right arrow key to find the exact frame.

-Press ‘C’ to activate the Razor Tool and cut the clip at the CTI.

-File/Export/Adobe Media Encoder. Pick a preset that seems right and export your movie. You may have to export many times until you find a preset that does exactly what you want. Experiment with adjusting the setings.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

That’s a complicated question..

You said:
“However MEDIA PLAYER WILL PLAY THE FILE!!! How can Media Player play the file, but Premiere can’t read it???”

It’s probably a compressed MOV file.

Premiere is ideally suited for files that utilize editing codecs such as DV, HD, or uncompressed. You can even edit MPEG files, although I don’t recommend it.
Media Player is made to handle editing and delivery codecs such as MPEG, WMV, DivX, etc.

Are you recompressing compressed files?

It would be helpful for us to know what your output specs are and what codecs you are using.
Are you making a web video, or a DVD or something?

For editing on Mac or PC, QuickTime uncompressed is usually a good bet. If you’re on a PC, editing with AVI uncompressed is also good.

Vince