Regular problem with video playback &...

So, I am regularly having two problems (I wonder whether they are connected) that I cannot solve and am hoping someone can tell me if I am out of luck or if I need to do something or add something.



For example, because it happened again today. These are details about the file stuff:



Type:AVI

Bit Rate:133kbps

Dimensions:624x352

Audio format: LameMP3

Frame rate: 23 frames/second

Data Rate: 1131 kbps

Video Sample Size: 12 bit

Video Compression: XVID



First Problem: If I play the file - I use Media Player Classic - it plays fine. Open it in Windows Media Player and it plays fine. Try to edit it in Premiere and the file loaded into Premiere is filled with what I believe are called audio video sync problems, so I have to constantly unlink audio and video and adjust it. It loads and does not need to conform.



I have the same problem on my laptop(Windows XP Home) and desktop (XP Pro), the desktop with twice the RAM. I have the K-lite Mega codec pack installed. I would call myself a beginner when it comes to video editing. I understand generally what codecs are but I am not capable to making any tweaks to the K-lite Mega codec pack (if I should have) so it is setup as installed.



Second Problem: The video in the playback box never plays back normally. I have tried adjusting the playback settings: have changed the aspect ratio between the software and harware option and adjusted between the three desktop display options. Occasionally it is ''ok'' but most of the time not and never just normal.



Any help is much appreciated.



Thank you.
Regular problem with video playback %26...
These problems come from trying to edit XVID which is a delivery format rather than a format for editing. Your best bet is to convert the video to DV-AVI. You could try to convert using MPEG_Streamclip:

https://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc4800e
Regular problem with video playback %26...
Okay...the plot thickens



I downloaded MPEG_Streamclip, but when I loaded the lastest XviD file I mentioned, the screen was still white, nothing to see, though the title of the file was at the top of box (as though it had been opened) and the bottom right corner details showed the correct length of the video. When I pressed play, it moved along as though it was playing something but still a white screen.



I checked the details on the page you referred me to and I do have Quicktime. I have 7.5.5. Pro (my digital camera makes .MOV movies so I originally got it for that).



I didn't know if it was actually there and just that I cannot see it for some reason, so I exported it to AVI as described also in the same page you referred me to. The only option I selected other than the ones told to was frame size, where I selected 624x352.



After ages of ?encoding I now have a movie same length as my original file except that it all black instead of all white. So it has ?encoded my white MPEG Streamclip screen as a black movie.



Why isn't my video viewable in MPEG Streamclip? What am I missing? Hope that all makes sense?



Thank you for your help so far :)

It looks like MPEG_Streamclip can not or does not have access to the Xvid codec on your system and so the video is not decoded. You need an Xvid to DV-AVI converter but I am not aware of any free ones.

Converting to Divx and Xvid is pretty easy.



Converting FROM Divx and Xvid is not because the files are so highly compressed.



If it's possible at all, you may be able to do it with Super -- though, again, coming from such highly compressed files, you may not get the best quality DV-AVIs.

http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Paul:

XviD codec is contained in Mega K-Lite I understand, as it asked permission to ?uninstall the Xvid codec I had already installed separately, when I installed that codec pack. Do I have to do anything to K-Lite for MPEG Streamclip to access it, or is the fact that I installed that codec pack enough.



''Xvid to DV-AVI converter'' - If I was to buy one, is there one you would recommend?



Steve:

Okay...

Super: Output Container: ?AVI

and what video codec and audio codec would I select?

Any other options I should select for the file mentioned originally above...to try converting the file with Super.

:)

I looked at MPEG_Streamclip and it does not appear capable of working with Xvid files.

You could download this free version of the Apex conversion utility. However it installs a ''survey'' package on your computer that can be removed using Add/Remove Programs. Otherwise you can buy the enhanced non-free version that does not have the extra package:

http://www.tompegx.com/video-converter-free.html

M O'Neil,



I use DigitalMedia Converter (Deskshare, ~US$40) to do most of my file conversions. To date, it has worked almost perfectly with a lot of different CODEC's. One MUST have the CODEC properly installed on the system, as it does not come with any of its own. It handles Xvid %26amp; DivX well, though there IS the quality hit that Steve mentions. No way around that. PE has always worked perfectly with the DV-AVI Type II files from DMC. However, Premiere Pro often sees them highly truncated. I actually use PE to Import the file (plays perfectly there), and then just Export to DV-AVI Type II (same file format and exact same size), for use in Premiere Pro. Whatever it is, that P-Pro does not like about the file is fixed in PE. Go figure, as they are the same exact size and Dupe File Finder reports that they are identical. One, shows up with a tiny Duration in P-Pro, the other is perfect. Gotta be just one bit, or something that is off and messes up P-Pro. That is the only limitation I've ever found with DMC, and it affects about 1 file in 10. Still, PE handles the converted files perfectly.



I use a freeware program G-Spot (www.headbands.com/gspot) to tell me the specs of most AV files, especially the CODEC. Another thing that it does is survey the system, and will tell if you do have the necessary CODEC installed. Another freeware program for the latter is Sherlock the CODEC Detective. Be aware that it will throw false-positives for corrupt CODEC's from Adobe - it's a naming convention thing, and it will say that all Adobe MainConcept CODEC's are broken. They are not. With most other CODEC's, it's spot on, but you just need to ignore the false positives with Adobe ones.



Good luck,



Hunt

Don't forget about VirtualDub. VirtualDub will read Xvid, and then you can export to a different format, preferably DV-AVI. VirtualDub will do batch processing as well.



http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/



Download the XviD Codec (encodes and decodes):

http://www.xvid.org/

I tried this already and then we had a blackout so going to try again and hope it goes through before a second one...lol

Hello:

Thank you Robert J. Johnston, the_wine_snob, Paul_LS and SteveGrisetti for your help so far.

So this is where I am at now:

Files all seem to be of the same type, so I will just say ''the file'' for the one I am working with right now.

Loaded file into VirtualDub.聽 I like that program.聽 Well done, whoever made it.聽 Did some basic cutting of unwanted stuff.聽 Saved as AVI.聽 Saved both a Direct Stream Copy and a Full Processing Copy.

Opened the FP copy in Premiere Elements and it plays without audio sync problems that I can see. Have edited it some so far and still no problems.

Before I do any more editing work, I decided to save it (SHARE) in different formats to see what happens.

Goal: Looking for no audio sync problems.聽 Best quality I can get with a 1GB file size limit.

Saved as DV-AVI:聽 plays fine.聽 no audio sync probelms.聽 love the video quality.聽 2.95GB, so too big

Saved as Flash:聽 Do not see any audio sync problems.聽 Do NOT like the quality (flips back and forth between clear and all pixely (is that a word).聽 32 MG

Saved as Mpeg: Media Player won't play it (thought Media Player with KL Mega Codec played everything?) (It loads it but doesn't play?); Quicktime won't play it.聽 Windows Media Player just did.聽 Do not see any audio sync problems.聽 Like the video quality. 631 MB.

Saved as Windows Media: Do not ''think'' there are any audio sync problems; if there are, they are very subtle.聽 Not crazy about video quality.聽 Better than flash video option though still flickers between two types of qaulity (if that makes sense) . 52MB

Any suggestions as to what I should do at this point to meet my stated goal.聽 I assume [share]ing is what I should do?聽 Is there any exporting or any other options I do not know about.聽 Without your help I figure I will Share to MPEG?聽 Not sure why Media Player won't play it and Windows Media Player will?

Any thoughts on the best choice for me?聽 Thanks for your help.

It sounds like you're having success sharing to a number of formats.

What is the goal, M? What format do you want to save it as?

Premiere Elements 7.0 ''Conforming'' mpg...

Why does PE create all of those files in the media cache folder for every one of my projects? Is there a way to stop this? They take up tons of unnecessary space on my drive. Thanks.
Premiere Elements 7.0 ''Conforming'' mpg...
It depends on what you're using for source files and your project is set up, David.



Besides, the space they take up should be incidental, compared to the 500 meg per minute AVIs use. (And you won't save space by loading MPEGs, because Premiere Elements needs to turn them into AVIs in order to work with them.)



Generally, if you're concerned about space on your hard drive and you're editing video, it's time to get a larger hard drive. Video editing requires hundreds of gigabytes of space and sometimes almost that much more for scratch disc and temp files.
Premiere Elements 7.0 ''Conforming'' mpg...
Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear. PE dumps a bunch of template files (e.g. autumn_leaves_prv 48000.cfa) that aren't even part of my project into the cache folder of my project. I can see it doing this in the background in the lower right corner - conforming this file or that file. I don't need these files in my project and I don't want them taking up space. Most of the work I do are short videos of my son's band for YouTube (see www.youtube.com/stillpendingmusic if you are curious). I've been getting by with very little hard drive space and it has worked out fine. I am just curious about these template files that are being ''conformed'' for every project I make and dumped into the cache folder taking up unnecessary space. Thanks for all of your helpful replies.

This is discussed over on the Muvipix forum:

http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=57%26amp;t=4710%26amp;p=41099%26amp;hilit=autumn_leaves_ prv#p41099

Clip to Timeline

When adding a video clip to the Timeline in PE7, it inserts itself in the 'Video/Audio 2' lines rather than to 'Video/Audio 1'.
Clip to Timeline
Does it install in Video/Audio track 4??? If so your video's audio format does not match the audio format of the project preset. So if you add a 5.1 audio clip to a stereo project (or vice-versa) the video/audio will go to track 4.
Clip to Timeline
I just tested it again, and this time it did install to Track 4. Sorry, but can't figure out how to fix. How do I change the project preset?

When you open PE7 you get the start up screen where yuou select your project. You need to select New Project, Chnage Settings. Not all projects are stereo apart from the AVCHD presets that state ''5.1 channel''.

Thankyou very much, I appreciate the help - works fine now.

Menu Creations in Premiere Elements 7

Why can't I add a menu template? I followed the steps correctly and I still can't add a menu, what's wrong?
Menu Creations in Premiere Elements 7
What steps did you follow and what is not happening?



It's hard to tell if you're doing it right -- or if it's a problem with the program -- if we don't know what you're doing!
Menu Creations in Premiere Elements 7
I did these steps:

~Imported Video

~Clicked on Disc Menus

~Chose a menu

~Clicked Apply



No menu would appear

Sorry, Andy. This is still shorthand and really doesn't give me any details to work with.



I still have no idea if you've created a project by placing video on a timeline or where your menu isn't appearing.



Can you post a screen capture somewhere that we can look at?



Or maybe it would be best if you contacted Adobe Tech Support so that they can spend some time troubleshooting this with you.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bbe7d56

Andy Herrman



Just a few thoughts before you decide to contact Adobe T/SAt this point, I also cannot judge if you have a serious problem with Premiere Elements 7 or if you are misunderstanding how to apply a DVD Menu to your project.



Does Import Media = you have used Get Media to bring media into the Project View/Media and have dragged it from there to the Timeline, applied some scene markers there, then hit Disc Menus OR have you just left the media in Project View/Media, nothing to the Timeline, and then hit Disc Menus? However, whether or not any thing is on the Timeline, you should still be getting a DVD Menu in the Disc Menus Monitor after you select a Menu and hit Apply.



Clicked on Disc Menu



Chose a MenuHit Apply

I was going to ask if you highlighted (blue rectangle) the Menu of choice, but, since you said that you clicked on Apply, I am further assuming that you did highlight the choice and therefore had an active (not grayed out) Apply Button.



After you hit Apply, did you get any message or dialogs, like:

Missing Menu Marker Dialog

Automatically Set Menu Scene Markers



At this point, in the bin below the Disc Menus Monitor, you should see a Main Menu and a Scene Menu. Which ever one of those is selected in the bin will be the one that is showing in the Monitor. So, when you say No menu would appear, are you saying that there were no menu images in the Monitor and/or the bin?



By any chance, are you looking for the DVD Menu to appear on the Timeline? You are never going to see the Main Menu or the Scene Menu on the Timeline of the program. You can edit the menu in the Disc Menus Monitor and check its button workings in the Monitor by pressing Preview.



Again, please excuse if I have asked inappropriate questions, but I was not sure what was happening or not happening in your situation.



ATR

Yes, the movie is in the timeline.



Yes I highlighted the menu I want. No I did not get any messages or dialogs, and no, I know that the meu does not appear on the timeline. It is not showing up in the Disc Menus monitor.

Andy Herrman



I just saw the following topic in this forum. Check it out to see if any of it applies to your situation.



http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b803c6/0



ATR

Andy Herrmann,



As I recall, Adobe T/S offers free installation troubleshooting to owners of the latest version of Premiere Elements, namely version 7. Otherwise, it is a paid for T/S service.



We could go onto another level of troubleshooting here, but to protect your rights under that Adobe policy, it would be to your advantage to check out the problem with Adobe T/S as soon as possible.



I will be watching for your progress.



ATR

%26lt;Andy_Herrmann@adobeforums.com%26gt; wrote in message%26lt;br /%26gt;news:59b80424.4@webcrossing.la2eafNXanI%26lt;br /%26gt;%26gt; Yes, the movie is in the timeline.%26lt;br /%26gt;%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;%26gt; Yes I highlighted the menu I want. No I did not get any%26lt;br /%26gt;%26gt; messages or dialogs, and no, I know that the meu does not%26lt;br /%26gt;%26gt; appear on the timeline.%26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;They never do. You have to add the menu markers where you want them to %26lt;br /%26gt;point to in the timeline.%26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;%26gt; It is not showing up in the Disc Menus monitor.%26lt;br /%26gt;%26lt;br /%26gt;Try adding some scene markers to the time line, first.

Hello Andy,

Did you find a solution to your problem ? I have the exact same issue and I can't find a way to sort it out.

Thx

Gunther

I've written a Steve's Tips article on adding and customizing DVD menus. It's a free download from the product's page at Muvipix.com.

http://muvipix.com/products.php?subcat_id=41

Having the exact same problem too. What's the fix?

Hello Steve,

Thanks. This is a good tutorial, however it doesn't fix the problem. It seems to be more of a technical issue from the software itself...

Hope anybody finds a solution because this is getting very frustrating.

Cheers

I'm with Steve on this. I am still not sure what is being done, and what is happening, or not happening.

Rather than a Menu ''creation'' issue, this seems to be an issue with PE7 not using a selected Menu from the Template's Library.

As we now have three users with problems that seem to be at least similar, clarification of the exact problem(s) would seem to be in order.

Can someone outlne the exact steps that they are using, give a description of their Project, and exactly what is happening, or not happening with regards to their Menu? It could be something as simple as not pressing an OK at the appropriate time, or perhaps it's a glitch with some particular Menu Template in PE7 (stranger things have been known to happen). The more detail, the better.

Wishing everyone good luck,

Hunt

FYI: I was able to solve the problem by uninstalling and re-installing PRE7. Now I can drag menu tempates in just fine.

But, I ran into yet another problem with PRE7, totally unrelated. So I uninstalled PRE7 again and this time left it uninstalled.

I'm using PowerDirector now and kicking myself for wasting my money on PRE7.

Repeating a background clip without...

I have a 5 second background clip that I want to repeat 6X into a final 30 second clip without any transition. In other words, it should look like a continuous loop before I chromakey over it. How do I accomplish this in Premier Elements 7?
Repeating a background clip without...
Just put 6 of them back-to-back on the timeline.
Repeating a background clip without...
If the last frame of the clip is the start of a new cycle, then you can cut off the first frame of each succeeding clip, so you don't have two consecutive frames that are the same.

I guess I'm looking for a stacking feature that can seamlessly create one 30 second background scene from six 5 second clips, because when you chromakey your second clip (in this case 30 seconds), it will only attach itself to one 5 second clip.



I've seen this stacking icon on the importing of similar clips done automatically.



So what I'm attempting, is taking a 5 second background clip and wanting to make it into a seamless (repeating) 30 second clip, before I chromakey my second 30 second video overtop of it.

That isn't something you can do in Premiere Elements, Thomas. Sorry.

Try exporting the 6 x 5 seconds clips as a DV-AVI, File%26gt;Export%26gt;Movie. Bring this 30 sec clip back into Premiere Elements and use the chromakey.

Well what does one do with all these short motion clips? How do they get them to repeat in the background over and over again when making a chromakey newscast or infomercial?

Paul LS:



Bingo!I exported six of the same clip as an AVI and imported it back,,,,and its a 30 second seamless (looping) scene.



Many Thanks!

NTSC

I have Premier elements 3.0 running on Vista.

I have been editing sucessfully.

I have a couple of film that were taken on an older us spec . camera and are therefor NTSC format. They play o,k on my new Sony camera but I cannot capture onto Premier.I have tried the setup at the open sceen set to NTSC but when I try to capture some footage the camera operates but all I get is a scrambled still picture on the capture screen. Am I being stupid or will Elements not accept the NTSC film. Mick
NTSC
Try having the NTSC tape playing before opening the capture window. Also the preview may not be seen in PE7 monitor.
NTSC
It could also be that, since you are in the UK, you installed a PAL version of the program.



When you say you set up NTSC in the ''open'' screen, do you mean that you started a new NTSC DV project?



Also, can you confirm that you're capturing over a FireWire cable from a miniDV camcorder?

Thank you for your input. Yes I am using a firewire from my mini dv recorder

Yes I started it as a new NTSC project

Mick

What happens if you capture using the free utility WinDV?

http://windv.mourek.cz/

Did you try with the tape playing before opening the capture window?

Hi Paul

Yes it seems to work if I get the right sequence and start the tape first. It seems a little tempremental as I have had a coouple of

Frames dropped during capture meesages. Should I do anything else

Again thank you

Mick

Frames dropped may not be a problem... do you notice any audio sync issues or and judders in the playback? If not the dropped frames are not an issue... assuming it is reporting them correctly.

Yes I have had a few judders and once I got no playback picture but could hear the sound track. I am still experimenting so have not started the project yet

Again thank you

Mick

**HELP** DVD Templates NOT WORKING PE7!

Please help. I just installed the additional content and I am trying to use the DVD templates. The templates show up in PE7, but when I drag a template to the drop spot in the Disc Menus area, nothing happens. I have tried clicking the Apply button, too, and still nothing. PE is installed on my C: drive, but I installed the templates on an external USB drive (M:). Could this be the problem? I don't really have space on my primary drive for the 4GB of templates. Thanks in advance for any help.



David
**HELP** DVD Templates NOT WORKING PE7!
I don't know what you mean by dragging the template to the drop spot, but that's not how you create a DVD menu, David.



You go to Disc Menus, select a template and click Apply.



If this is what you're describing, can you be more specific than ''nothing happens''?



And, yes, installing the templates to an external drive definitely could be at the root of your problems. These menus must be in the DVD templates folder in the Premiere Elements program files, on your C drive. Otherwise, I'm surprised you can even see them!
**HELP** DVD Templates NOT WORKING PE7!
Also, if you are running low on free hard drive space you may not be able to export/burn your project anyway. Ideally you want at least 40 or 50GB free when you start a project.

By dragging and dropping, I mean that in the Disc Menus on the left part of the screen it says, ''drag a template here...blah blah''. Either way, dragging a template or clicking apply I get an hourglass for about a half second, then nothing happens. It seems odd that the installer would let me install the templates to my external drive, even though I installed PE to my C: drive. Well, what I may try to do is uninstall it from the C: drive and actually just install PE to my external drive since I've got plenty of space there.



I'll let you know what happens. Thanks.

You won't be able to use Premiere Elements on your external drive, David. It will only work if it's installed on your C drive.



Are you lacking space on your C drive? This could be another potential problem. I recommend a minimum of 30 gigs free and defragmented on your C drive. (You definitely need at least 20 for the program to run well) -- and more if you're editing over half an hour of video.

Well, I reinstalled on my external drive (I saw the message above too late), and, lo and behold, it actually seems to work fine!



Looks like I'm off and running. Thanks.

It is because of the memory. Please shutdown and restart the machine or give some free spaces in your hardisk. I think it should work.

Out of curiosity, why do you need so much free space on the C: drive if PE is set to use a separate drive for all configurable file I/O (media cache, preview files, etc)? What does PE do on the C: drive other than perhaps bump up the page file?



Paul

I don't think you really do need the free space on your C: drive. I installed PE on my external drive, even though someone said it wouldn't work. It does work just fine. I only have 5GB free on my 60GB laptop drive (my laptop is not performing well, as you can imagine, but that's another issue). I also only have about 25GB free on my external drive. Everything is working fine, however, including the DVD templates, which are also installed on the external drive. I just completed the rendering of a 45 minute DVD at the highest quality setting. It tool a while, but rendered perfectly.

5 gig free? David, you do like to live dangerously! Even Microsoft recommends a minimum of 15% free space on your drive for basic functions -- and Premiere Elements is anything but basic!

I know. What can I say? I have a new laptop coming this week, so that will help. It's hard when your internal drive is only 60GB. I think my new one will be 160. It should take me a little longer to fill that one up!

Go for the same process after shutdown and restart. I still feels it is becuae of memory. Please check the memory size when you could not apply the template.

timing for each picture - can it be...

I have set a preference for each picture to show for 7 seconds.

I set the preference before I imported all my still pictures to the timeline. My question is - once the preferences have been set, is there any way that I can then change the timeing for different pictures.

I want some to appear longer than others. I know how to make the time shorter but not longer using the time stretch tool.
timing for each picture - can it be...
Don't use the timestretch tool. Then you can just grab the end of a clip and extend it to the right. The pictures that follow will move down to make room if you lengthen it.



It's best if you do this before you start adding clips to other tracks because the other items will get bumped down as well, which may be what you want or not.



If you wanted to use the timestretch tool to lengthen a picture, when pictures follow it, you have to move the pictures that follow it down the timeline first in order to make room.
timing for each picture - can it be...
Thanks for your answer. I will try that out on Monday morning. I also have another question - I have noticed that the length of time for each clip as set in the preferences also includes the transition time. In other words if my clip time is 7 seconds and I set my transition time to 3 seconds then my clip time becomes only 4 seconds.

I am wondering if the transition time can be changed to be independant from the clip time such as with the program Proshow Producer that I am sometimes able to use.

Nope. That's not true in Premiere Elements, Elizabeth. (It is true in Sony Vegas though.)



In Premiere Elements, if you've got two 5-second still photos next to each other and you add a transition between them, each still gets longer to accommodate the transition time.

Steve, if you have two 5-second stills photos next to each other for a total duration of 10 seconds, and then drag a transition between them, the overall length is still 10 seconds. But if you use the ''Create Slideshow'' feature, then Premiere Elements trims one-half the duration of the transition from the tail and one-half from the head of the photos to make the overall length shorter.

That's right, Robert. But between each of those five-second clips, the number 1 still is adding 1/2 a second beyond that 5 seconds and the number 2 clip is adding 1/2 a second at the its head so that there can be a 1 second transition, right?



Okay, no, wait. Now I'm thinking that means each still loses then 1/2 a second too, because that would be part of the transition.



I'm too tired to do this math now. I'll need to play with it more. I guess you do lose some time because of the transition.



But, in Sony Vegas, in order to create a 1-second transition between two 5-second clips, you overlap them so that the total time of both clips and the transition is 9 seconds. THAT drove me crazy!

please forgive me, I want to understand this, if I want the clips in my slideshow to be 7 seconds each but I want the transitions all to be 3 seconds each then do I have to set the preference of the clips at 10 seconds?? I guess it would be so much easier if the transitions and the clip time could be set independant of each other rather than the transition taking up part of the time that is set for the clip.

If you are talking about manually adding centered transitions to stills already on the timeline, then you have it right. Except the first and last one would be 8.5 seconds and the ones inbetween would be 7 seconds.



If you use ''Create Slideshow'', then you have a different situation. The ''Create Sldieshow'' feature trims the clips. You would need 13 seconds for each still. That would give you 7 seconds for the stills inbetween the first and last one. The first one would be 8.5 seconds and the last one would be 11.5 seconds, which is due to the way the transitions are aligned ''end at cut'' instead of centered.



Calculations for Create Slideshow using desired 7 seconds for still and 3 for transition:



Inbetweens: 13 - 3 (trimming) = 10 - 3 (for transition) = 7.

First one: 13 - 1.5 (trimming) - 3 (for transition) = 8.5.

Last one is 13 - 1.5 (trimming) = 11.5.

Question On PE 7 Slideshow

in PE 7 - Can I ?



Grab 100-300 pics from a folder

Make a slide show with random transitions and zoom in/outs?

I don't want to spend time tweaking each image



I have version 2 and I can make a slide show with the same transition



I want to do random transitions and random zooms in just a few clicks.



Thanks
Question On PE 7 Slideshow
If you create the slideshow in Photoshop Elements 7, you can add random transitions and motion paths and then port that file over to Premiere Elements 7 for output to video or DVD.



Always make sure, though, that the photos you use are no larger than 1000x750 pixels, otherwise, with that many photos, you risk overloading the system.



You'll also need a hard drive with about 50 gigaybates of free, defragmented space for best performance.
Question On PE 7 Slideshow
I created a random transition theme and random pans and zooms theme and they are available for download at Muvipix.



http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=57%26amp;t=3890%26amp;p=33836%26amp;hilit=random+transit ions#p33836



Somewhere there's another thread on Muvipix on how to modify themes so you can add your own transitions or delete existing transitions. The part you would need to know is how to open up a theme for editing in Premiere Elements. Some of the information that applys to version 4 no longer applies in version 7. Once you get the theme open in Premiere Elements 7, you will see where to add or remove transitions on one of the video tracks.



http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38%26amp;t=1204%26amp;start=0%26amp;hilit=modify+theme

There is a slideshow theme that comes with PRE7. It is really cool. It applies effects and transitions. It even puts in music.

Check it out.

Premier Elements 7 aspect ratio...

I bought this program from a famous online store in UK and when I installed it I was unable to change the aspect ratio for my production. I got in touch with the trader who said they could not help me with this and gave me my money back, without asking for the disc back. I got in touch with Adobe and got stuck because the product key was invalid, yet I was able to register it okay. The software was sold online with the description of being used yet it came in a sealed paper disc envelope, with no box. I am not sure what to do now. Any ideas? Can this be fixed?Premier Elements 7 aspect ratio...
Charles,

As for the Aspect Ratio, this is set via Presets.

Since you are in the UK, I will assume that you will want PAL. In the opening dialog, when asked for the Project, you should only have a choice of New and Exit.

Choose New and you will be taken to a dialog box where you name and locacte your Project on your system. Look at the bottom for Settings. You will get another dialog box, with NTSC and PAL Project Presets. Choose PAL and then you can choose DV, Hard Disk, etc., and HDV. Select the appropriate one and choose Save as Default. You will then get a Project screen with the workings of PE. I do not think that it is much different for PE7 (I have PE4). Some of the names, or terms might be a bit different, but that would be all.

Good luck,

HuntPremier Elements 7 aspect ratio...
The store that sold you the used version needs to contact Adobe to transfer the license. Since the store gave you your money back, I'm sure they will not do that, and you cannot use it.

However, if that unit has never been activated, you might want to check this troubleshooting article about rejected serial numbers:

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15282%26amp;sliceId=1

make full lips look

Mirror Imaging

I would like to make a mirror image of a video clip so that I can put two copies of the same video clip side by side(one mirror imaged) on the screen. I could then, for example, have the effect of a person singing to themselves. This might be fun for Karaoke clips for example.How do I do this please.

Patricia
Mirror Imaging
In your Effects and Transitions pallette look under Video Effects.

Click Distort and you will see mirror effect.
Mirror Imaging
Thanks, there is so much in this program that it takes ages to find everything.

If only Steve Grisetti would have written a book about it...



Oh, wait. He did!



The Muvipix.com Guide to Premiere Elements 7 is available at Amazon.com and through the Muvipix store at:

http://astore.amazon.com/chuckengelsco-20/detail/0615248993/104-3709942-5611121

There is a search box with a little magnifying glass, just to the right of the ''Show All'' button, in the upper right. You can type in ''mirror,'' for example, and only the effects with ''mirror'' in the name will be displayed.

I did try to buy your book from Amazon .co.uk Steve, but they do not have it. I will order it from the above link if I can't get a copy anywhere over here.

Patricia, if you'd like and you don't mind paying for international shipping, you can write to me at steve at muvipix.com and we'll see if we can work something out.



Thanks for your interest in the book and in http://Muvipix.com!

Thanks Steve I have ordered it from Amazon.com so now all my questions should be answered!

Definitely :) !

good toner

Help with getting high quality DVDs...

Hello,



I know enough about video editing with PE7 to be dangerous, and was hoping someone could help me out.



My question is regarding getting the highest quality standard DVD from AVCHD footage. I have a Sony HDR-SR12 camcorder recording in AVCHD. I am editing footage natively in AVCHD with PE7 on a quad core system. No problem with that. However, when I export to standard DVD the quality of the video goes down drastically. (Yes, I know burning to Blu-ray would give me higher quality, but I am giving this DVD to a friend who doesn't have Blu-ray).



So far I have tried starting my project in both HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:



General

Editing mode: HDV 1080i

Timebase: 29.97 fps



Video Settings

Frame size: 1440h 1080v (1.333)

Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second

Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333)



and Full HD 1080i 30 5.1 channel:



General

Editing mode: HD 1080i

Timebase: 29.97 fps



Video Settings

Frame size: 1920h 1080v (1.000)

Frame rate: 29.97 frames/second

Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)



But I see no discernable difference in the quality of my output onto DVD.



This is where my knowledge is lacking...how can I get the best quality output from my AVCHD onto a standard DVD? Is there some format I can convert to first, and then burn to DVD? Also, I am willing to break the footage into a couple of DVDs to improve the quality, but I don't know how or what to do for that.



My footage looks REALLY great when viewing from the HDR-SR12 direct to HD TV with HDMI cable, but not very good on the DVD. My footage is of a ballet recital, and I lose definition in the faces, costumes, etc on the DVD output.



Any help is appreciated! Thanks!



Gina
Help with getting high quality DVDs...
The high definition project preset you start with will not affect the output when burnt to DVD. How long is your video... for best quality you can get about one hour on a DVD.



If your DVD is under an hour and you still have quality issues you could try bringing your AVCHD footage into a standard definition widescreen project. See if when burnt this gives a better result.
Help with getting high quality DVDs...
Paul LS -



My DVD is 1 hour 8 minutes long. To make sure I understand you correctly, your suggestion is to start a New Project and at the Setup option choose the Preset: NTSC --%26gt; DV --%26gt; Widescreen 48kHz?



Thanks!



Gina

Well, cant quarentee that the quality will be any better. But yes that is what I meant.

Some time back there was much discussion about the problem of making high quality standard definition movies, such as DVDs, from high definition source material using Premiere Elements (and Premiere Pro too for that matter). Has anything changed? People with a HDV camera were advised to convert to DV in the camera, and capture and edit in standard definition, for instance.

With AVCHD you cant down convert in the camcorder. You have to capture to your harddrive as AVCHD or generally the software that comes with the camcorder will convert to standard definition MPEG2.

So to get a higher quality DVD would I be better off converting my AVCHD footage to MPEG-2 first? My Sony camcorder comes with software (Picture Motion Browser) that will do the conversion.

One thing, when you say the quality goes down drastically what do you mean? Can you describe it? Is it pixelization or is it jerkyness during motion in the video?



Maybe it is that you are comparing your DVD to the HD footage, you are bound to loose some resolution when converting to a standard definition format.



The problem with converting to MEG2 is that MPEG2 is a compressed format, when you burn to DVD the MPEG2 will be re-rendered by PE7 and further reduce quality. If possible it is better to convert from the HD format to DVD in one step.

I would say the reduction in quality is due to pixelization. There is not jerkiness during motion of the video.



It is just that the dancers faces, costumes, scenery are less defined than on my HD footage run straight through to the HDTV. Maybe that's just the result and I can't get any better with the DVD and my camera...

A standard definition DVD will be scaled up on your HDTV and will lose a lot of quality... especially on an LCD or Plasma screen. You could try an upscaling DVD player if you had access to one.

How can I combine two separate video...

In PE 3 I have a finished video project and a separate slideshow that I want to include together on the same DVD with a common menu. I would like the slide show to be accessible from the main menu of the DVD, something like: ''Play Movie'' and ''Play Slideshow''. How do I do it?
How can I combine two separate video...
Put both projects on the timeline, but put a stop marker at the end of the first project. Add a menu in the normal way.
How can I combine two separate video...
You can download my free Steve's Tips article on DVD markers from the Muvipix.com products page.

http://muvipix.com/products.php?subcat_id=41



Http://muvipix.com is a great site for learning and mastering this program. Set up by a community of veterans from this site, it offers tutorials, tips, media and the world's most helpful forum. Many of the downloads are free with registration and, for a low annual subscription, you can have unlimited downloads from the ever-growing library of tutorials, articles, music, motion backgrounds, custom-created DVD menus and other media. If you really want to master this program, you ought to check it out!

Hello Steve and Peter, regarding this question...

is it possible to have say, 3 different projects that I have made.

one say of a roadtrip, one of a birthday, one of a day at the park.

Use the markers as you say, but if you choose to watch the roadtrip one from the main menu and you watch it to the end, an you make the video revert back to the main menu? such as with if you are watching deleted scenes on some dvds where you select each one and after it has finished playing it takes you back to the list of deleted scenes....



sorry for the long winded question.

Yes. That is exactly how stop markers work.



You just put all of your videos on the same timeline and add a scene marker to the beginning of each and a stop marker to the end. After each video segment, the viewer will be returned to the main menu.

Premiere Elements 4 Crashing when...

Whenever I start up Premiere Elements 4 on my Windows XP Computer, I'm always having an error that states that the program needs to close and I'm unable to open a new project file or reopen an old project file. I've already tried reinstalling and repairing the program, but I'm still experiencing the same problem. I'm not sure what I should do next or what approach I should try. This is the first time I'm having this problem.
Premiere Elements 4 Crashing when...
Guillermo,



First, has PE ever worked properly with your system? That may indicate a different tack on the troubleshooting. Sounds like it DID work at one time. Is that correct?



Also, you might want to start compiling a complete description of your system and posting that to the thread. Could be something obvious from that.



Hunt
Premiere Elements 4 Crashing when...
Also, have you gone to Windows Update, clicked the Custom button and installed all of the updates?



Have you installed the latest Quicktime, per the program's instructions?

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c057647/2



Do you keep your hard drive well maintained, clear and defragmented?

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc43f9a/0



How much RAM do you have and how much free, defragmented space is on your computer?

Yes, actually PE was working properly with my system a week ago and before this time period. I used this program, overall, for two years.



System Profile:



Microsoft Windows XP

Version 2002

Service Pack 3



Manufactured and Supported by:



HP dv6000

AMD Turion (tm) 64 X2 Mobile

Technology TL- 50

1.61 GHz, 960 MB of RAM

Physical Address Extension



C: Drive



Used Space: 42.3 GB

Free Space: 19.6 GB



If you need any other information, please let me know.

When you uninstalled Premiere Elements 4, did you also select the option to delete your preferences? Sometimes items in the Preferences folder become corrupted or just contain erroneous data because of programming mistakes. If your preferences weren't deleted, then you can see if deleting them fixes the problem. The files are in a hidden folder in the following location



C:\documents and settings\[your Windows login name]\application data\adobe\premiere elements\4.0\



Copy everything in that folder to another location. Then delete all the files in the root of the 4.0 folder, but don't delete the subfolders. After that try starting Premiere Elements. If that doesn't work, then you can copy the files back.



Sometimes items in the cache that are stored in the registry need to be refreshed. I believe just holding down the shift key (or is it CTRL-SHIFT, or CTRL-ALT-SHIFT??) while Premiere Elements is starting up will clear the cache. The key combination seems to change with each version.



Maybe running a registry cleaner will fix it.

I'd also be concerned about only having 19 gigs free -- as well as your using only a 60 gig hard drive! (This must be a laptop.)



Video files take up many, many gigabytes of space -- and even more scratch disk space, as you edit -- and there really is no substitute for a huge hard drive and lots of free disk space.



Cleaning and defragmenting may get you through the next project or so. But, with less than 20 gigs free, your odds of problems (depending on what your source files are) will continue to increase dramatically.

Will Premiere Elements 7 work with...

Hi Guys, i am a newbie in the world of Adobe. I Was thinking of buying Premiere Elements 7 but wanted to know whether it would work with Windows XP Media Centre Edition Service Pack 3?Will Premiere Elements 7 work with...
There is no reason Premiere Elements 7 shouldn't work with XP SP3, John.

Just make sure you go to Windows Update and get all of the updates (click the Custom button) as well as the latest RealTek drivers for your system and the latest version of Quicktime.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c057647/2

Nothing makes this program go buggy like outdated firmware, drivers and especially Quicktime! (Well, assuming you've got ample hardware and you're editing standard video formats, of course.)

And keep your system well maintained!
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc43f9a/0Will Premiere Elements 7 work with...
John,

I do recall some folk having a few issues with MCE and Adobe Premiere Pro at about CS2. That would have been an earlier SP version of MCE, than you probably have, and also was with P-Pro. Have not heard of any problems with any version of PE and MCE.

Make sure that you follow Steve's advice.

Hunt
If you upgrade to SP3 you can uninstall it later if you don't like it. Not something I have done, so don't know what gotchas there might be.

thick hair

Adobe Premiere Elements 4 - Rendering...

If I create small slide shows in Photoshop Elements 6 (ranging from 59 - 125 JPEG Still Shots with captions and/or added text)I can then send each slide show separately into Premiere Elements 4, make further adjustments and add title pages, I can then render and save as a project.

If I take several of these slide shows as a block and send them to Premiere Elements 4, I get a Premiere Elements window stating ''Adobe Premiere Elements is running very low on system memory, please save your project and proceed with caution''. So I click OK and save. I then go to render, after 2-4% rendering I get a video Preview Error window with various warnings including, ''Out of Memory - Unknown Error'' or ''Disc write error:- verify drive connections, available disc space and disc access privileges. Then save close and relaunch project''.

If I open a slide show project in Premiere Elements 4 and try to add a second slide show to it via the get media button - in the Add Media window I get Look in 4.0 and five folders appear (no icons for projects) I can then look in files of type and there is no listing for .prel files so tried ''all files'' and the icons for the slide shows appear. I then select a second slide show to add to the first and click open. I now get an Add Media Failure window which gives file addresses and the error reads ''File format not supported/ one of the necessary components may not have been installed''.

I have run the installation disc again to repair any installation errors but to no avail.

My computer is an Intel core 2 duo 3.16 GHz on an Asus P5Q P45M M/board with Gigabyte GF9600GT Graphics card.750GB HDD %26amp; 4GB Ram.

Hope somebody can help.

Bob Smith.
Adobe Premiere Elements 4 - Rendering...
Most likely your photos are too large. We recommend using no larger than photos no larger than 1000x750 pixels in size. (The actual file size of the JPEGs has nothing to do with this, since JPEGs can be highly compressed.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bb8822c



Resize your photos and you'll see a huge boost in performance.

Help with Premiere elements 3.0 -...

I have used 3.0 for years. I put this program on another computer that is using window xp. I got to the page to capture video- the smaller screen popps up that has at the top- CAPTURE STOP MOTION



At the bottom of the page is the GET VIDEO and i can not click on it. I have my Dv cable plugged into the camcorder and to the computer. I have uninstalled 3.0 and reinstalled 3.0 Would this problem be that maybe on the computer itself that where i plug in the Dv cable to my computer is not working?
Help with Premiere elements 3.0 -...
Could be.



Is Windows recognizing the FireWire connection with a bing-bong sound and an icon of a camcorder on the right side of your task bar?



Does a window pop open, offering to launch a program to capture your video? What programs does it offer?
Help with Premiere elements 3.0 -...
no bing bong sound

when i plus the firewire connection into the computer on my cam corder the word dv-in does appear and flashes,



The capture window appears when I click ''get media from'' and I can click capture but I can not click get video. I am not sure if it is the firewire or do i need to buy a new firewire port and install it to my computer? My lap top did not come with a 6 prong wirewire port otherwise I would try it that way

Chrissy,



''... word dv-in does appear and flashes,'' Where does this happen, the camera's monitor, or PE?



The lack of a Windows recognition of the camera, when plugged in and turned on is often a sign of a bad connection. Rather than a new FireWire card, you might want to try another cable. The larger FW cable is only necessary when you are powering the device. In your case, you will not be, so the FW connector types that are on the camera's cable should work fine - if the cable is good.



Some things to try:



Plugin your camera with out PE running. Turn on your camera (that is when the Windows' ''bing-bong'' should sound). Check the Mode of the camera. Most, though not all, will need to be in the Play Mode. Make sure that yours is in the correct Mode. Consult the camera's manual, just to be certain. Now, launch PE and then Capture.



If no results, do the same, but first launch PE (no Capture yet), then plug in/turn on the camera.



If no results, do the same, but first launch PE AND Capture, then plug in/turn on the camera.



I know it sounds odd, but some cameras/computers need things in a specific order. Trial and error is often the only way to know.



If no results, without PE running, plug in and turn on camera (proper Mode). Go to Control Panel%26gt;System%26gt;Hardware%26gt;Device Manager (for XP - do not know how Vista might differ),and look under SBP2 IEEE 1394 Devices. Does the camera show up there? Look under IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers - do you see any errors? (Camera will not be showing up there). Look up and down the list for the camera. Does it show anywhere?



Please report back, when you have tried these steps.



Hunt

If you're not hearing the bing-bong or seeing the camcorder icon on your task bar after you've plugged your camcorder into your computer, something is definitely wrong beyond Premiere Elements, Chrissy.



There shouldn't be any flashing either. Once you're connected, Windows should recognize the device, show it on the task bar and offer to launch at least MovieMaker as well as some other programs to capture the video.



I'm not sure what you mean by '' My lap top did not come with a 6 prong wirewire port'', but from a laptop to a camcorder, you generally have a 4-pin to 4-pin FireWire cable connection. (From a desktop computer, it's a 6-pin to 4-pin cable.)

good toner

PRE 4 projects cannot be loaded into...

Hi

I have upgraded from PRE4 to PRE7. Presently have both versions on my computer. I cannot load the PRE4 projects into PRE7 (though new PRE7 projects are fine). I get the message ''The project could not be loaded, it may be damaged or contain outdated elements''. Though they still load into PRE4.



I have tried all the suggestions in ''Troubleshoot damaged projects'' so assume that it is an incompatible element (some projects have migrated from PRE3 to PRE4, though all saved from PSE4.



Does anyone have any suggestions, to load them.

OR

Can any recommend a way of sorting through the PRE4 projects to find the incompatible elements. The projects are simple slideshows from PSE with JPG, audio (mp3) and PRE4 menu system, that have been burnt to CD.

many thanks - Al
PRE 4 projects cannot be loaded into...
It could be a damaged project. If there are incompatable elements, pre will say so and substitute some kind of placeholder.
PRE 4 projects cannot be loaded into...
I also would be careful about opening older version project with newer versions of the program.



Technically, it's supposed to be possible -- but each generation of this program is enough of a major rebuild of the one before than any time I've done it I've run into all kinds of bugginess.



I highly recommend you don't do it and that you finish your project in its current version before beginning a new project in the new.

I just installed Premiere 7 and was trying to figure out how to transfer my projects from Premiere 4 to Premiere 7. I couldn't figure out how to do it, so I checked this forum. Now, it sounds like it is not even a good idea to attempt this? That is a disappointment. I was hoping to uninstall version 4, but it looks like I will need to keep it on my computer if I want to access those older projects in the future. Is this correct?



Steve, I did purchase the muvipix.com Guide to Premiere Elements 7. I am looking forward to it helping me out as I had so much trouble with version 4. I am starting to get some intuition with these programs, which I lacked when I first installed version 4.

Thanks for supporting the book, Mary! I hope you'll find it very helpful.



I'm afraid it won't give you much help, in terms of opening version 4 products with version 7 since, for the most part, I don't recommend doing it. As I said, it can cause some very unpredictable behavior.



On the other hand, if your version 4 products are pretty well edited, you can use File/Export/Movie to export them as AVIs, and then you can import those AVIs into a new version 7 project. You won't be able to do any more editing to those output files without going back to version 4 but at least you'll be able to do your final mix-down in version 7!

Thanks Steve. I am only after transferring completed projects from 4 to 7. I would have no need to edit them. Am I correct from your comments, that I can do this and won't risk ''unpredictable behavior?'' If you remember from my earlier posts with Premiere 4, I am VERY new to video editing with lots to learn. I am starting at the very beginning. I would not want to do anything that will cause further trouble. However, if I can import these project and leave them as is, and not have problems, I would like to do that. They are completed vacation slide shows that I would like to preserve. Thanks.



I am looking forward to starting your book. I just loaded the Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 7 on my computer yesterday. Now I can get going and hopefully learn lots.

Yes, using File/Export/Movie from your version 4 project will export the video that is on your timeline so that you can import it into a version 7 project.

many thanks for the assistance - Al

Pictures imported are blurry when...

Hello everyone, I am new to this this business and am trying to create a picture slide show but am running into the problem of the picture which I have imported and added to the slide show being fuzzy when I view it on my laptop. Here are the specifics and what I have already tried. Thank you all in advance.



1. Have Adobe premiere elements 3

2. Pictures originally scanned in at 200 dpi, have also placed same picture at 400 and 800 dpi scan into slide show for comparison

3. Picture in question is a 3x5 and I have not touched any settings and have left them at defaults

4. Picture is in good condition and is in jpeg format



neubs
Pictures imported are blurry when...
First how are you judging the quality? Do not trust the preview, export a short clip and view in a media player.



How large are your photos (dpi does not make sense in video) in terms of pixels? Because of video's limited reolution you do not need to have the photo resolution larger than 1000x750. This is a sufficient resolution to allow some pan and zooming around the photo without losing quality. PE does not do a good job of resizing photos, if your photos are high resolution resize them to (around) 1000x750 before bringing them into PE3.
Pictures imported are blurry when...
Also, don't judge the photos by how they actually look in Premiere Elements until you render them (by pressing Enter).



As for the output, remember that you're dealing with a video resolution medium, so your slideshows in Premiere Elements will only output the equivalent of 640x480 pixels (which is what standard TVs use anyway).

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc14b78



If you're going to show you slideshow on a computer, you may want to use a program which maintains more of the resolution of the photos, such as Pro Show Gold.

Thank you Paul, Steve.

Ok. I just checked my size in terms of pixels, at.....



200 dpi= 680 x 1010

300 dpi= 1020 x 1546



With that said, I am assuming that the higher the dpi count, the bigger the size (pixel wise). Could it be a issue of the picture being used ''being too big'' and PE is automatically converting it to what the preset optimum dimensions are? As a result, making the pictures blurry?



-In terms of resizing, how should I go about doing that? I have Photoshop Elements 5, would that be a good program to adjust the size to about 1000 x 750 pixels?



-When you say render and ''hitting enter,'' when and where do I do that: when I am doing with the slideshow and I export, or how/when do I render and what is the procedure?



-The slideshow will be shown on a projector. What is the best method with the quality of the show in mind to show it....Direct link from laptop, AVI, DVD?



Again, a big thank you to everyone in advance.

An Additional question, how can I make it so that when pictures are imputed into the slideshow are not stretched? Is there a setting which I can adjust? i.e. pictures in portrait format used in slideshow seem stretched (becomes squaresish) and landscape pictures also seem stretched when I view them?

I don't know why your pictures are being stretched. I guess that depends on how you have them set up.



You can render your project at any time in the editing process. I do it as soon as I see a significant amount of red lines above my clips. Just press Enter to do it. (We'll be posting a Steve's Tips article on rendering to the Muvipix.com products page in the next few weeks, by the way.)



You can resize a batch of photos by going to Photoshop Elements' File menu and selecting Process Multiple Files.

Regarding stretched pictures, right click on the photo in the timelime and turn off Scale to frame.

New Canon HF100...Now What?

I have been reading many message boards for the various avchd capable video editors. I reviewed a lot of the video demos for premiere 7 tonight and am really interested. However, I then went to this forum and there appear to be many problems with PE7 and avchd. I know I need to buy a new computer and am hoping I can get some of you that say you are having no problems with PE7 to share what kind of system you are using. I am thinking of getting an i7 2.66 with 6 to 8GB of RAM and a good video card. Is there a certain quad core that is working well with PE7? Several posts on this forum say that Windows 7 works great with PE7. How did you get 7 already?New Canon HF100...Now What?
The i7 2.66 would be fine, you dont need more than 4GB of RAM unless you are running a 64bit operating system. I use the old Q6600 quad core with AVCHD without issue.

Windows 7 is available as a beta download.

I think I have read some reports of issues importing the AVCHD clips from the HF100 directly into PE7 using the PE7 import function (doesn't see the camcorder). However this is no real issue as you can use the software that comes with the cam to get the clips off the cam and then import them into PE7. Or, simply drag and drop them from the camcorder into a folder and then import them.New Canon HF100...Now What?
There's also no way anyone could judge how this program works with Windows 7, because that operating system isn't finished being built yet!
I run PE7 editing AVCHD on XP Pro (x32) and Win7 (x64). I haven't done a lot of AVCHD work yet but I can say that PE works great and in fact is a lot happier on Win7 (x64). No problems installing or running on Win7.

As has been stated in other threads, editing AVCHD with PE7 will stress your PC. My 3GHz Core2Duo with 4GB RAM runs about 70% processor utilization just playing playing AVCHD clips in PE unless the clips are rendered. But the biggest challenge is resource availability. A 32 bit OS can only provide 4GB of virtual memory to an application, and by default XP splits this 50/50 between the system and the app. PE7 does support AVCHD and has no trouble working with it provided it has sufficient resources available. I am currently running some tests and the results are not really ready but I am finding that if you want to work on AVCHD clips and render to a DVD or BluRay with a menu structure, 20 minutes is about as much as a 32 bit OS can handle without resorting to workarounds. This is preliminary and YMMV etc. This improves quite a bit under Win7 (x64) although I am not sure why. I suspect that Win7 can hand out the entire 4GB a 32 bit app can address so PE has 4GB to work with instead of 2GB. Just a guess though. But I find PE is more stable and can handle larger projects under Win7.

As a general rule, it is a good idea when editing AVCHD (or h.264) to work with Task Manager open so you can watch the memory in use. In WinXP (x32), in my experience you can be in trouble if the memory in use reaches 1.5GB and I have had PE get flaky at 1.4GB. In Win7 (x64), the resource meter gadget (which reads in percent) can reach 100% before things get funky.

I have never tried importing AVCHD from my HF100 directly into PE. I simply download the actual clips (and just the clips) from the SD card and store them on my video drive using explorer. Done that way, PE works with them just like any other video file. I have not even installed the software that came with the camera.... it isn't needed if your system can already play AVCHD clips natively. Because I have also been working with h.264 clips from a Sanyo HD700, I have the required CODECs installed. And FWIW, I was surprised to see that Win7 could play them natively with no added CODECs required.

One little bug I found in Win7 (about the only one, BTW) is if you want to select a bunch of .mp4 files in Explorer and have ''All Supported Files'' showing, when you click the first file, ALL .mp4s vanish. This does not happen if you select ''All files''. Note that .mp4 IS in the list of ''supported files''.

Enjoy your HF100. I love mine although I am finding that the ''Coke can'' style camcorders are not the best ergonomic design. My camerawork sucks so far, due to the fact that it is awkward to hold the camera.... my wrist doesn't QUITE want to bend that way. This is partly because I wear progressive lens glasses and therefore tend to hold the camera lower than eye level so I can focus on the screen. I find my camerawork is much better with cameras like my Canon S5-IS (a decent SD video camera, BTW) and my Sanyo HD700 where the hands are in a more natural position.

Hope this helps. I'm still trying to work up some guidelines for PE and AVCHD that are more real world than the minimum specs on the box.

Paul
So you've got a beta Windows 7, Paul, and you're already ready to give it a ringing endorsement?
As much as it surprises me..... yes. And I would buy it if it was available for purchase. It installed flawlessly and required no additional drivers for anything including my Linksys PCI wireless card. So far, everyting I have thrown at it works perfectly except Wavelab, which will not run. But it doesn't run on Vista either.

The only issue I have discovered is that it failed to find a driver for the Linksys wireless card when I moved it to another PCI slot. It could not find a driver on the hard drive and it could not find it on the installation CD. It might have been a catch 22 though.... since it was the wireless card that was in question, that meant it could not get to the Microsoft site for the driver.

It has been rock solid every time I have used it. Since I have it on a separate removable hard drive, I can play with it to my heart's content and not jeapordize my WinXP installation.

My only real complaint is that they really REALLY need to revise User Access Control so you can allow specific known programs to run while keeping UAC active for anything malicious. It is beyond me why they have not done that. The way it is, it is so annoying that most people turn it off.

Paul
That's that same security system they added to Vista.

It works great. Very secure. But it's a nuisance having to okay every program you open.

reptiles

HD Primer - Help Me Get Started

Now that I've got a shiny new flat-panel TV, I'm interested in taking advantage of its higher resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio when doing video editing.



But I'm a bit confused as to the available options and how Premiere handles them.



*Option 1. Using 16:9 aspect ratio. My current DV-AVI Sony camcorder (DCR-HC48) can do ''widescreen''... but what does that mean? Does it just stretch the normal pixels, or do I truly get more pixels? The manual makes no reference to pixel dimensions for video. For still images, it's a bit confusing, but if I interpret correctly, 4:3 is 1152x864 and 16:9 is 1152x648 - which, if true (and if it applies to video as well), means I'm actually getting less pixels since it's basically chopping pixels off the top/bottom to get the different aspect ration rather than adding pixels to the left/right. Wouldn't I be better off recording 4:3 and playing with it in PRE to get the 16:9 ratio????



*Let's say I recorded in ''widescreen''... what are the steps to create a DVD that would play in 16:9 on my flat-screen?



*If I wanted to include both normal and widescreen video source, but output 16:9, what is the best way to do that?



*What the heck is with all the pixel aspect ratios (e.g. 0.9)



*Option 2: HD. What are my options? AVCHD seems to be problematic in PRE(?). Is there a HD format that PRE likes? Is all HD tapeless?



Regardless of input format, what are my output options for DVD? Is blue ray the only HD DVD format, or can I create a standard DVD that's HD (standard DVD is 480p, correct? So can DVD handle 720p? 1080i?). I know only blue ray does 1080p.



Sorry if this is a lot of questions, but it seems like it all needs to be answered to understand how to properly produce a 16:9 SD or HD video start to finish.



Thanks!!
HD Primer - Help Me Get Started
Have you picked up a copy of my book yet? I think it will answer most of your questions.



You get exactly the same number of pixels in a standard DV project as you do in a widescreen DV project, Ed. The pixels are just interpreted differently. In standard DV, the pixels are 90% as wide as they are tall, meaning 720x480 pixels gives you a 4:3 image. In widescreen DV, the pixels are 120% as wide as they are tall, meaning 720x480 pixels gives you 16:9 image. No difference in the resolution at all.



This is why, if you mix widescreen and standard DV in the same video, one format may look stretched disportionately, in which case you'll need to interpret the clip manually.



As for AVCHD or HDV, if you're using miniDV footage, neither is within your capacity as yet. But HDV is a compressed MPEG2 file which includes 4 times as much video data as standard DV. AVCHD is an even more compressed (which is why it can be challenge to work with) video format that includes as much video data as HDV but in an MP4 file.



I hope that gets you started, Ed. You really are asking me to write whole book chapter of explanation in a single post in order to explain it all!
HD Primer - Help Me Get Started
OK, with a little research on HD, I found that there is a format called HDV, which is MPEG-2 video. All the cameras I found recorded to mini-DV tape (e.g. Canon HV30).



AVCHD is MPEG-4/h.264 format.



So for my Option #2 question, disregard the ''tapeless'' part, but does PRE handle either one of these formats better than the other? Or is there a utility to covert either of these formats to DV-AVI, and would the resultant DV-AVI still be HD?



ETA: Oops, sorry Steve, missed your post before I posted this...

HDV is a tape-based format, and pretty much any computer that can edit from a miniDV can edit from an HDV camcorder, if the project is properly set up. And, although HDV records to the same kind of tape cassette as miniDV, it is a very different video file format.



AVCHD is hi-def video format that records to a hard drive or flash drive. It is bulky and highly compressed and requires a pretty powerful computer to edit natively.

%26gt;I hope that gets you started, Ed. You really are asking me to write whole book chapter of explanation in a single post in order to explain it all!



Hee! Well, it's actually somewhat comforting to know that my confusion requires an entire chapter, i.e. if it requires that much explanation, I don't feel like such a dummy for not understanding it.



OK, fair enough. Let me pick up your book. RTFM, right? :)



%26gt;neither is within your capacity as yet



Do you mean because I don't have a HD camcorder, PRE7 won't handle it, my computer won't handle it, or something else?

You have a miniDV camcorder. Not an HDV or AVCHD camcorder. So you can't shoot hi-def TV.

OK. Yeah, I knew that.



I'm trying to figure out 2 things.



One is what I can do with my current camcorder to make the most of its widescreen capability and my HDTV.



The other is *IF* I move into HD recording, what type of camera should I be looking for - specifically what format PRE handles best.

For high definition PE handles HDV MPEG2 a lot easier then AVCHD. I have both format camcorders... HDV recording to mini-DV tape and AVCHD recording to memory card. As Steve states AVCHD needs a lot more processor power for a satisfactory editing experience if you edit the AVCHD natively (rather than converting to an intermediate codec). I would recommend a quad core processor, whereas with HDV you can edit on a dual core (or fast single core).



That said, I use my AVCHD camcorder a lot more than my HDV camcorder purely because of the ease and convience of recording to a flash memory card.

Thanks, Paul.



I might be OK with HDV, then. I have a dual-core 2.8GHz w/ 2GB memory, (2) 500GB HDs.



So do you convert the MPEG-2 to DV-AVI before editing, or do you just edit the MPEG-2 natively? I constantly see that PRE prefers DV-AVI.



I don't mind the miniDV tape. For me, the size and portability of the camera is key (e.g. can it fit in a fanny pack while at DisneyWorld?)



Is HDV always recorded to tape, and AVCHD always on DVD, HDD, or memory card?

%26gt;So do you convert the MPEG-2 to DV-AVI before editing, or do you just edit the MPEG-2 natively? I constantly see that PRE prefers DV-AVI.



Premiere Elements handles the HDV files natively, at least the m2t files from a MiniDV camcorder. No need to convert them.



%26gt;Is HDV always recorded to tape, and AVCHD always on DVD, HDD, or memory card?



The short answer is No. There are probably a half dozen formats at least for HDD and Flash camcorders, DVD is almost always VOB (not sure about HDV DVD Cams, are there any?). HDV footage on MiniDV Tape can be captured in m2t format and editing in Premiere Elements without problems. Best to capture with HDVSplit in most cases, that will save you some potential problems.



I'm sure Paul will clear up anything that isn't quite right :)

Well, let me clarify what Chuck said.



HDV is always on tape. AVCHD is always on a hard drive or flash drive.



But not all hi-def video from a hard drive camcorder is AVCHD. Make sense? Flip camcorders, for instance, don't record to tape but don't use AVCHD either.

Thanks, guys. Yes, that all makes sense.



I think HDV might be the way to go for me. That is, when I've saved up enough $$$ for a new camcorder.



In the meantime, I'm going to try out the widescreen, thanks for the clarification on that as well.

Wise man, Ed.



The Canon HV20, HV30 and HV40 are very popular on this and on the Muvipix forum as an excellent value in HDV.

It is a snake pit ;) I got a wide screen monitor last year for Christmas. That necessitated a new video card so I could set the native resolution. Then I got a HiDef camcorder. That necessitated a new motherboard/processor/memory so I could watch the video. And of course a 1TB hard drive to store the video and a BluRay R/W drive to burn video and backups to. It never ends ;)



Paul

It gets worse! Next year it will be Windows 7 and 64-bit programs!

Oh, I hope not. So far, PE7 works great on Win7 (x64) in compatibility mode. I can only hope it will be even better when it is a 64 bit application.



I am really liking Win7, actually. I have one application that does not run on it though. And it is an application I need. So I may have to dual boot when Win7 arrives for real because I like it enough to want to use it full time. But everything else I have tried on it runs perfectly. And my PC is powerful enough to run on it although my older hard drive limits my ''Windows Experience'' rating to something like 1.4.



Paul

That's definitely something to look forward to! Thanks for the report, Paul!

And just to verify, if I record to HDV and edit in PRE, the only way to watch that on TV is to burn to a Blu-Ray DVD and watch on a Blu-Ray player (or Sony PS3), correct?



There's no way to burn hi-def content to a standard DVD.

You can burn HDV content to a standard DVD (AVCHD disc) and play it back to a HDTV via a Blu-ray player or a home theatre PC (my route). AVCHD discs hold about 25 minutes of high definition content along with Menus.



I export from PE7 as H.264 high definition format, bring this into Corel DVD Moviefactory 6+ and burn to standard DVD with menu. Note the H.264 export is smart-rendered in Corel and so there is no further quality loss after export from PE7.

But then you can only play it on a BluRay player, right?



You can't play AVCHD content, even on a standard DVD, on a standard DVD player?

Correct, Blu-ray player or from a computer connected to your HDTV. For example I have a home theater PC connected to my HDTV via a HDMI connector on my graphics card that handles both the audio and video. I then play the AVCHD DVD using a software Blu-ray player, Cyberlink PowerDVD.

PE7: Video has random quality problems...

Dear all,



I just purchased Premier Elements 7 in order to edit an interview into small segments.



After trimming the file, I go to SHARE in order to export files for viewing on computer.



Now, I have tried many different file types, such as wmv, avi, quicktime, flv - and all of them have the same issues. The rendering goes smooth but once I play back the file, I notice that there are parts of the video that have errors such as at one point, the video would do a mirror effect. Or at other times, patches of green boxes would show up all over the screen.

These errors are only there for a split second, but very very noticeable.



Note: The original master file is perfectly fine however.



Can someone please help and advise?



Thanks.

Seth
PE7: Video has random quality problems...
What format is your source file? You may need to convert it to DV-AVI.
PE7: Video has random quality problems...
Hi Paul,



The source file is in some format called .mod - it was made through a brand new JVC camera.



So should I be converting it all to DV-AVI first?

OK, While waiting, I converted my source file to DV-AVI, and still no joy. Still getting the same problems.

Uh oh. A JVC Everio, right? They can be a challenge to work with.



How did you convert the MOD file? If you're not using the right program with the right settings, you are going to have problems with your output.



Have you tried using the MOD file directly into a Premiere Elements project using the Hard Drive/Flash Drive Camcorder project preset?

Hi Grisetti Steve,



Yes, it is a JVC Everio model no. MG-335H



I converted the MOD file using default settings in Premier Elements. For example, putting the file into timeline, and then going to File-Export-Movie.



I am not sure about using project presets yet, how does that work?

Using Premiere Elements to convert your file won't work, of course, unless you're using the right project settings.



Start a new project and, at the option screen where you name your project, click on the Change Settings button. This will take you to an option screen of project presets. Open the folder for Hard Disk/Flash Memory Camcorders and choose the standard 48 khz option.



Load your MOD files into that project. You can even load a test clip in and File/Export/Movie from there (don't change any output settings) and check to see if it's giving you good results.



As I've said, Everio files are a unique challenge, but this should work if anything does.



Otherwise, here's more information on Everios from David Ezzy, from the FAQs at the top of this forum.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc1265c



But before you use his advice (which was written for an earlier version of the software) see if that project preset alone solves your problem. Don't mix the two solutions.

Some people are deleting the ImporterFastMpeg.prm file that is in the Plug-ins folder. That will definitely fix problems with MOD files.



Instead of deleting the file, just add your initials or name to the end of the filename extension, such as ImporterFastMpeg.prm.seth. Don't try changing just the basename or moving the file somewhere else, because that won't work.



The path to that file on my machine is:



C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0\Plug-ins\en_US



Give it a try, if it doesn't work you can restore the name of the file.

This is a great solution, Robert! I'll tag it onto the FAQ.

I first saw this solution mentioned by Chuck who found out about it by John ''Twosheds,'' if I recall correctly.

Hi Robert,



Your advice really helped the fix my problem witht he quality issue. Thanks.



On the other hand, this Everio is still causing me problems, and now in the form of the aspect ratio of the videos.



Even tho I am recording in a 16:9 ratio, when being viewed on the computer, they have a very ''boxed'' ratio. I tried to fix the aspect ratio through Premier Elements, but instead of fixing the ratio, I am now getting black bars on the side to compensate. It's not really what a want.



Am I overlooking something?

Seth,



It's not clear how you ''fixed'' the asspect ratio problem in Premiere Elements. And I don't know what project preset you are using.



You should have started with a widescreen project preset under the ''Hard Disk and Flash Memory Camcorders'' group. Make sure you pick the correct video standard (PAL/NTSC).



After you are in the workspace and have added your clips, to fix the aspect ratio problem, select the Edit tab and then the Project tab. Then right-click on the clip in the Project bin. There should be an ''Interpret Footage'' menu item that you can select from the popup menu. Select the 16:9 ratio for your video standard (PAL/NTSC).



Don't turn off Scale to Frame Size.



What settings did you select for Share? You need to pay attention to the pixel aspect ratio. If it is square (1.0) then you can't use 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576(PAL). It would have to be a ratio of 16:9, such as 720x405.

add remove program list

I have remove adobe premiere elements 2 from my computer. But the program name still is displayed in my add/remove program list. How do i get it out of there please?



Nancy
add remove program list
You can use the Microsoft Installer Cleanup utility.



This page describes it and has a link for the download:



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301



Here is the download link for your convenience:



http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1b d/msicuu2.exe
add remove program list
Robert, thanks for the info but I must not have explained correctly.



I have already removed the program.. I want to remove the programs ''listing'' in the add/remove programs section.



TIA

Nancy

No, I understood you. That is what it does. It will remove the entry from the Add/Remove list, even if you already uninstalled it.

Adobe Premier Elements 2.0 does not show up upon running the Window Installer program.



Any other ideas to get it out of my add/remove program list?



Thanks

nancy

I've pretty much run out of ideas, except for two other ideas. One is to install Premiere Elements 2 again, and then uninstall it. Hopefully what ever interupted the uninstall the last time won't interupt it this time. The other idea is to use Advanced System Care, mentioned a few times in this forum and on Muvipix. It has a utility to remove programs. Also it has a registry cleaner that may make it possible to uninstall it after it has finished cleaning the registry. I had one program I couldn't get out of the list until after running the registry cleaner. Then when I tried a regular uninstall from Add/Remove Programs, it said that it couldn't find the program and if I wanted the item removed from the add/remove list. Then when I said yes, it removed it. Before running the registry cleaner, that question didn't come up.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314481

good toner

Beginner Frustration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a total beginner to APE7 and editing altogether. I can't find a simple, free beginning tutorial anywhere! I've located a couple of books that I'll order, one by Steve Grisetti, but I'd like to get productive with something NOW! I've spent nearly a whole day searching the Web. What's the deal? Isn't there something somewhere that shows the newbie how to edit some video???



Frustrated )%26amp;(^*%%26amp;$()^*%*^%26amp;%
Beginner Frustration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frank,



Head over to www.muvipix.com. There are a lot of articles and tutorials on most things in PE7. For general info, do not miss looking at other versions' tutorials, and articles, as well. There is a lot of info, that is not version-specific.



Also, read through the FAQ's (all versions) at the top of the main page here. That will get you off on the right foot.



Steve's two books are well worth the price. Even the PE2 ''In A Snap'' book will get you up and editing, with great info and background.



Good luck,



Hunt
Beginner Frustration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks, Hunt. I did finally find some free stuff for teachers from Lynda.com under one of the FAQ's. Didn't realize the earlier versions would be beneficial, but I'll check it all out.



Thanks, again.



ftc

Here's a page of Chuck's free Premiere Elements tutorials at Muvipix.com

http://muvipix.com/products.php?subcat_id=44

Frank,



Just like with the FAQ's at the top of the main page, work with any NLE (Non Linear Editor) will involve about 70% of the same ''stuff.'' After that, it gets down to how Premiere does it, how AVID does it, etc. Same for different versions of the same program. Most of the operations will be the same. The button to invoke those operations might have moved, or even changed names, but the operations will be the same.



Any good book on digital video editing will have a great deal of useful info on general topics. This is all very useful to satisfaction with your end result. What does get different is how you apply that knowledge from within a particular NLE program. Just like all software, versions will bring changes. These are usually what will be covered in version-specific articles, tutorials and FAQ's.



Steve's first book has a lot of great insight into creating and editing digital video. It happens to have been written with PE2 as the base, but most of it will still apply to PE7 - you just have to poke around a bit, to see where Adobe moved the ___ button to, and what it's called now. Many decades ago, I bought the complete Nikon System book from Amphoto. It was 2 very large ring binders and covered cameras from the SP-105 up to the Nikon F. Each quarter, or so, I'd get a package, that contained new pages for new lenses, strobe units, and then new bodies, when they were available. Eighty percent of the books stayed the same, and I only added the sections on the new gear. I maintained that subscription for about twenty years (up to the Nikon F3), only replacing pages with errors, and adding the new pages, as they were published. I wish that Adobe had similar for the Premiere products. Still, working with an NLE is kinda' like that - the base stays pretty much the same, and you only add pages when a feature is added, deleted, or has moved.



Enjoy,



Hunt

Thanks, very much, gentlemen. Since following up on your posts I've put aside the recipe for cyanide kool-aid. I ordered the Steve's Muvipix book, and The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage. They should be here within a few days. I'll go back and see if I can't pick up a copy of Steve's earlier book, too. Again, thanks for the (virtual) CPR!



Frank

Meantime, I'm always here or at our ''sister'' site http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/



Muvipix has some of the world's most knowledgeable, helpful Premiere Elements people, so chances are you'll get an answer to any how-to question there within an hour!



And, hey, Thanks for ordering my book!! :)

%26gt;Steve's first book has a lot of great insight into creating and editing digital video. It happens to have been written with PE2 as the base, but most of it will still apply to PE7 - you just have to poke around a bit, to see where Adobe moved the ___ button to, and what it's called now.



That would be Steve and Chuck's first book ;)

Or Chuck and Steve's.

Chuck,



But of course. I did manage to give full and proper attribution in another post, but just missed it here - sorry.



In the other article, I listed it as ''Chuck and Steve's,'' and expected to catch flak for that. However, I was ready with, ''hey, it's in alphabetical order... ''



I will make it up to you somehow. Maybe an autographed copy of Steve's PE7 book. No wait, I only have one of those, and will not part with it.



Hunt

No problem Hunt, just having a little fun B)

SPLIT SCREENING - 4.0

Does anyone know how to get the video to do spilt screen so 2 images are both on the screen at one time? It's for Premiere Elements 4.0.
Thanks!
KellySPLIT SCREENING - 4.0
Lots of ways, depending on the effect you're trying to achieve, Kelly.

To start with, try out some of the video effect Presets for PiP (Picture in Picture).

Beyond that, you can resize your clips so that they both fit on the screen at the same time or you can make one fit inside another or you can crop them, etc.

Depends on what you're trying to do.SPLIT SCREENING - 4.0
Kelly,

After you have looked at PiP, per Steve's suggestion, you should have a rough idea of what is possible (just the tip of the ''iceburg''), and if that does not get what you specifically need, then you can describe how what you got differed from what you want to do, if it does. Someone here can take you to the next step, and then the next. Chances are good that anything, that you can imagine, can be done in PE, or with some 3rd party plug-ins, or add-ons.

What you're asking for can be very basic, or very involved. Let's start with the basics and work our way up.

Hunt
Hi Kelly,

There are some tutorials that will help you at http://muvipix.com many are free, just register for the forum (free) and you can view all of the free tutorials located on the Products page Complimentary section. Be sure to check the Learning Series and Tutorials ;)

Two comforters in the duvet

DVD video gets cut off, but preview...

Having a problem getting my video to output from dvd burning without getting cut off.



Computer is Win xp pro, 3gb ram, 2.33ghz cpu, 40gb free hd space



Using Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0.2.



I have video which I've recorded from my Sanyo xacti 720p avc camera, which records in mpeg4 format. I've converted the video(s) to mpeg 1,2 for dvd using my ''Need4 Video Converter 5.9''. At first I tried putting several mpeg1's into my premeire project, then I also merged all the video files into one, but still had the same problem.



I put the video(s) into my premiere project, added some titles on the other video track. Also added some music on another audio track. So, the total size of the videos is about 3.5gb. I preview my project it looks great, I added some dvd scenes and used a nice template with scene selection and captions..the works. Now I try to burn it several ways, to a dvd, to a file folder on high or low settings, but everytime I only end up with about 1.5gb of data, and 25 mins of video, so it is cut off. My original video is an hour and 50 mins.



The encoding takes about 3 hrs after I hit burn. No errors or anything.



So, I cannot understand what I need to do. I don't want to convert to a smaller or lower format, bcz I dont' want to lose quality. I'm at a loss bcz I've tried so many different formats and combinations, let this stuff run for so many hours this past weekend, and still can't get it to work. Is there some kind of setting I'm missing? Something in premiere?



I've read some best practices on the forum, and I understand to use bit rate of 7mbs or less, and to burn on slow speed. Is it at all bcz I'm burning it to my hard drive? but i don't think this is my issue. is it the old software? it came with my Sanyo camera, so I would think its good enough.



Please help if you can. I was thinking my next shot might be to convert it down to a much smaller size, and maybe it will fit(but quality may be an issue). Thanks in advance. -Ron
DVD video gets cut off, but preview...
Unfortunately, you can't edit AVCHD video in version 3, Ron. That capability wasn't added until version 7.



One of our regulars posted this link to the FAQs at the top of this forum though. It's software for converting AVCHD to more traditional HD.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b78d01?50@@



But it's also likely you'll need to upgrade your computer also to do so. A Pentium 4 processor running at 2.3 ghz and 40 gigs of free space really isn't enough to handle files that contain 4x the video data of standard DV. Sorry.
DVD video gets cut off, but preview...
Ron,



That 1.5GB limit makes me wonder if your hard drives are formatted to FAT-32, or NTFS. If the former, you can Convert (from the DOS Prompt in Windows) to NTFS.



That *might* help. Go to My Computer, and Rt-click on your hard drive, most probably C:\. Look in Properties, and tell us what format the HDD is. Also, how much free space is available (see Steve's comments above). Even if you have adequate free space, you will still benefit from defragging your HDD. Premiere needs much more space, than just the physical size of your Export file.



Also, tell us about your Project's Preset. What are the settings? Since you are outputting to DVD, you do not want your footage to be much larger. Not sure if you're working in one of the HD Presets, and then getting PE to scale it all down to SD, or if your conversion is to SD sizes. More info there might help too.



Good luck,



Hunt

Thanks Steve,

I'm not editing the mpeg4's, I'm converting them to mpeg1/2 for a DVD, as per my video converter software. So, it's just a normal .mpg.

A hi-def MPEG or a standard def MPEG?

Thanks Bill,

It's NTSF and there is 32gb free. Also, sorry, I should've said that I'm new to video editing and adobe PE, so I'm not sure what the preset is? I just started a new project and imported video and such. I found in project settings it is 'DV NTSC', timebase 29/97 fps, frame is 720x480, display format=30fps dropframe timecode, audio sample rate 48,000hz.



I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the mass of information about video editing, but I just want to edit my videos, as I don't work in this field...yet.



Please let me know if you have any suggestions for fixing.



I also think I need to start over with a fresh project, as I am learning as I stumble into this one, like I said, I first had about 6 different videos, but then merged them all together into one bcz i thought that might've been the problem. Any recommendations or start up guides you would suggest. I can handle the editing part in gui, but the technical aspects are overwhelming. A simpler guide would help.

I have it set to ''mpeg1,2 (DVD, SVCD, VCD)''.



Set for ''Best Quality''. There are other options for DVD, VCD, SVCD, HD 1440x1088 and HD 1280x720. So, I think it is SD.



Also, it will create the video with titles and such included, but only up to 25 minutes. And I successfully burned this video to a dvd and it played.

Ron,



We have established that the format of your HDD should not be a problem. The amount of free space (unfragmented) could, but 32GB *ought* to get you by. I would make sure to defrag that HDD, however, without PE running.



As for your Project Preset, it sounds good with DV-NTSC for SD material, which you state your Assets are, after conversion.



One thing to look at would be to convert your original footage to DV-AVI, instead of any flavor of MPEG. That will usually speed things up a bit, and can eliminate problems, though not necessarily the problem that you are having.



Steve has published a couple of books on Premiere Elements. I recommend them both. The first was written for PE2, but most of the general info carries forward to later versions. The second is for PE7, but again, much of the info (some names have changed, and are placed differently in the program's Panels) carries backward to previous versions.



Both are available from www.muvipix.com. I also highly recommend that one looks around that site. The ''Communities'' are forums, just like this one, but there are probably more folk using PE there, and hence one can get a lot of diverse info. There are tutorials, and articles suggesting excellent workflows and tons of ''tips-n-tricks'' to get the most enjoyment out of the editing experience.



I'll keep thinking about your specific problem, but am kinda' out of ideas, at the moment. The answer is probably staring me right in the face.



Good luck,



Hunt

Thanks again,

A friend suggested that Premiere 'Elements' is like an abbreviated version of premiere, and it may only produce certain size videos. Does that make sense at all?



I will try defrag, and convert to another format. Will I lose quality going to avi? I'm not that concerned as its' not like I have a great eye, but on large televisions you know small differences can start to make digital video look bad.



Also, maybe I will try instead of converting to ''Best Quality'' (as I was talking about with Steve above), I will try 'DVD - NTSC'.

Thanks again for your help.

Ron,



Yes, PE is a scaled down version of P-Pro, but also has some additional features, plus an easier way of doing many things, that its ''big brother'' does not. As to the ability to Export/Share frame sizes, I think that most are included in PE (would have to open each and explore precisely to tell you if it's all there). I do not think that this is your issue.



As to the conversion, I'd step back to your original footage, Sanyo MP4, right? Unless Sanyo is using a proprietary CODEC to create the MP4's, you *should* be able to Open these files in QuickTime and play them. If you have QuickTime Pro (costs about US$30 to upgrade to ''Pro), you *should* be able to Export and choose DV-AVI as your Export setting. Note: the term ''.AVI'' can mean so very many things. What you want is DV-AVI. This is the ''native'' format for PE - what it converts all other file formats to, to edit. The quality loss going with this format can be measured in a lab, but is almost totally impossible to see on any TV with the human eye. Doing this will likely enhance your entire editing experience.



As for quality and conversions and compression, your camera has already done one conversion, when it wrote to MP4. You cannot get around that. Conversion to DV-AVI will be ''virtually'' lossless, though the file size WILL increase. The reason is that with MP4, not all ''frames'' exist with full content - part of its compression. With DV-AVI each ''frame'' will exist with full content. Be prepared for LARGE files, but files with all of the info.



Then, when you Burn to DVD, you WILL recompress your data to MPEG-2 format, the DVD standard. You will loose some quality there, but it cannot be avoided. It is how DVD's hold their Audio %26amp; Video data.



I still do not have any ideas that would directly affect your movie not burning completely. If the Duration of your movie has exceeded the capacity of a DVD-5, you would/should get an error message to that effect. You do not.



One thing to go back and look for in your original Project's Timeline would be ''gaps'' in the Video. These can cause problems (or sometimes not). I zoom my Timeline way up, and use the PageUp %26amp; PageDn keys to ''step'' through the various Clips. The CTI (Current Time Indicator - that little doobie that marks where you are on the Timeline) should move in a linear fashion from Clip to Clip. If you see it pause, or hiccup, then zoom WAY in to the max and study the Timeline there. Are all Clips butted up to each other? Now, you can have Clips on Video Tracks above #1, that would allow you to have ''gaps'' in the Video on VT 1. That is OK, but if you have any spots on the Timeline, where there is NO Video, you'll likely want to fix these. You can close up the gaps by moving the Clips, so that they do butt up, or if you want ''black'' there, just go to the New icon and choose Black Video. Size it to fit the gap, and you will be fine. You can also extend the Clip before the gap, or after the gap, if that does not mess up your editing. Several choices and each should be based on what you want to have happen. If you find a bunch of gaps (even one can be deadly) try to Export/Burn again. Note: I've seen one 1-frame gap cause problems, but just had to re-edit a Project where I fixed 900+ gaps, and that Project had already Burned 4 DVD's. Go figure.



Last thing to look at would be to hit the ''\'' key in Timeline mode. This will zoom out to show the full Timeline. Do you have anything stuck out by itself, past where you thought the end was? This should yield other problems, but not the one you are experiencing. Still, who knows? It's also a good thing to do, when you believe you are done, just to check that something didn't get ''orphaned'' out beyond where one normally looks on the Timeline.



Good luck,



Hunt



[Edit] 01:50 is longish for a DVD-5. You will not be able to set a very high bit-rate (Quality slider), but you should still get the full Timeline, or an error message.

Thanks Bill,

This is very educational.



I did what you said, defraged my drive, converted my video to avi, but the type in my converter was ''Mpeg4 - compatible''. anyway, I started with a fresh project too, and now I got it to create the movie correctly...I think.



Now I'm having burning problems. Before I blow through too many of these $2 Verbatim DL dvds, I'd like to get some info. I had created the dvd to my hard drive. Then i used Sonic RecordNow to burn it to dvd. I had an error, don't remember exactly what it was, but it was cryptic. The size of my file is 6.5gb, bcz of several files I describe in next paragraph.



In the VIDEO_TS there are several files, also several of what seem to be the same .vob file. 5 exactly. same size, and all seem to play the same thing in WMP. only difference is the name has _2, _3, _4, etc. Why are there so many of these? I was thinking to use just one, and try burning. Will that cause a problem?



Should I try letting PE do the whole encoding and burn straight to dvd instead?



Should I do the video conversion with PE? I didn't really look at that functionality, as I had bought this converter program(Need4 video converter).



Man, I'm so frustrated with this. I will cherish the day I get this to work. Thanks so much for your help. -Ron

Ron,



It would be common to have .VOB's with the same size (right a 1GB, I'll bet). Depending on the breakdown of your Project, if you have 5 .VOB's four will be very, very similar in size, and one a bit smaller than the other four. The size limit on a .VOB (by the DVD-specs) is 1GB.



Now, you have a VIDEO_TS folder with a couple of .BUP, IFO and .VOB files. Do you have a DVD software player, like Nero Vison, CyberVision, or similar? If so, you can point it to your hard drive and locate your VIDEO_TS folder. Does it play fine? Note: when using software players on the computer, some Menu navigation might behave in a different manner, than with a set-top player's remote. Not a lot, but some things, like auto-activating Buttons, just do not translate to software players.



If it plays, as it should, then I'd go download ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/). Watch out for Google Ads, as you only want the ImgBurn program. It's a freeware program that just flat works. Install it, and let it survey your system for all CD/DVD burners. Then, use it to Burn your DVD. Provided that your Burner supports DL (DVD-9) media, all you'll have to do is point it to your VIDEO_TS folder (same as above), name your disc, and Burn. Note: if you make any mistakes, be sure to read the error messages fully. They are seriously humorous. I sometimes do things that I know are wrong, just to see what sort of message the programers put in - just flat funny, and a bit less cryptic than most other buring software. While we are on the subject of error messages, pay special attention to each and every one. Write them down word for word and even make sure to get the capitalization correct. These can tell us a lot about what might be wrong - maybe.



Good luck,



Hunt

I'm trying to get nero vision to test what you're saying. one other thing, beside the video_ts, it creates an 'open dvd' folder, which I think contains the dvd menus and stuff. Maybe I'm mistaken. This folder and the video_ts was on my first attempt where my video got cut off, and at that time my dvd player didn't load any menus, it just played the movie. But that was the somewhat messed up project.

Not familiar with the Open_DVD folder, though I do recall hearing of it. Is this a Nero thing? Usually, the first VOB has most of the Menu detail/Render.



Let us know how your tests go. Maybe someone else knows about the Open_DVD folder.



Hunt

The Open_DVD folder is a left over from the original software that the DVD authoring software was based on. It was used for re-authoring burnt DVDs. You can ignore it.

Thanks guys,

Oh, i just opened the vob's with wmp and realized I can hit that DVD button and it takes me to the main menu. Ok, so I only need to burn the video_ts folder. I guess I just need to try again. i will try with imgburn as you suggested Bill. Thanks again!

Paul LS,



Thanks. I just could not recall the details on that, but knew that someone would know and could furnish details.



Ron,



Good luck, and please report back - with your success!



Hunt

Ok, so I tried burning to the dual layer dvd's, and at some point it got an error:

I/O Error!

Device: D:dvdrom...blah

Scsi: Status: 0x02

Interpret: Check Condition

CDB 2A 00 00 18 6C A0 00 00 20 00

Interpret: Write(10) - Sectors: 1600672-1600703

Sense Area: 70 00 04 00 00 00 10 35 00 04 3E 44 90 00

Interpret: Unknown(internal target failure)(0x44, 0x90)



But it copied most of the stuff to the dvd. I had specified a break when it asked me, at 50 minutes I think, as it gave me about 4 options, or that I could ignore it. I guess that means where it breaks on the layers.



So, the dvd played, and the menu comes up and stuff, but there is a problem at minute 42:30, and it freezes, so none of the dvd menu scenes after that will load. It won't play through.



So, I tried removing some of those vob's, specifically, the middle 4, VTS_01_2.VOB through VTS_01_5.VOB. This way it all fit on one layer. I burned it, no errors, but it has the same problem, it's on there, but freezes at 17 minutes this time.



Thanks for your help. I'm on vaca next week and am getting a new hard drive put in this laptop, so maybe that will help. I guess I'll have to try again after that, and maybe it will work. -Ron

The first burn seemed to be the right size, the disc had 6.5x gb of data on it, despite that error.



Also, right before I did the last burn(where i deleted vob's), imgburn tells me the specs for what it is doing. Please let me know if you think I should change any of this:



9 files, 2 folders

FS ISO9660, UDF(1.02)

IFO/BUP 32K Padding: Enabled

size 2.8gb

Sectors: 1,347,415

Imagesize: 2.8gb

Sectors: 1,347,415



Thanks.

Ron,



That looks good, as far as the specs of the Project. I'd be concerned with the error on your SCSI chain. It sounds like your burner is loosing contact with your I/O system. What controller are you using for your SCSI chain? How is termination set? Have you had any other I/O errors? Can you borrow either a USB, or better yet, FireWire multi-drive to try? It could be that the SCSI controller and your SCSI burner are having a problem at the Layer Break.



It also could be that you are getting hung at the Layer Break in you playback drive. Are you playing back on the computer, using the same drive used to burn, or are you looking on a set-top player hooked to a TV. Normally the Layer Break is set to a Chapter, so the pause for the laser to refocus to the other Layer is not noticable. The exact specs. and desired placement of the Layer Break can also change, depending on whether one is using a DVD-9 +R, or -R.



I use Encore to burn all of my DVD-9's and the Auto Layer Break has always worked perfectly for me. I use ImgBurn for doing DVD-5 dupes, primarily from ISO images, but will poke around it a bit, looking for some DVD-9 settings that might help you.



Sounds like you are almost there, with perhaps one hurdle to get over. As soon as I have my workstation back up, later today, if things go well with a new PS, I'll see what I can find for you.



Good luck,



Hunt

By chance do you have a STOP marker anywhere on your timeline? It looks like a tiny red house and would be just below the time scale. If you have one, PE will play through it when you are editing but a DVD player will actually stop playing. If you happen to have one at 25 minutes into your project that could explain it.



Also, I would suggest getting a few DVD-RW's - you can practice burning them over and over.



Good luck!



Bob