editing problems

K

Kyle Kearns

Active member
Hi,

I'm new to this forum and also to using HD cameras...........I traded my GL1 for a GH1


I'm having problems getting my footage to play smoothly on my Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

At first I was using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 and it wouldn't play the footage at all really, or it would play it, but the audio wouldn't match the video. Then someone told me I need to upgrade editing software, so I installed CS4.

I can get the footage to play decently smooth, but when I add more clips to the timeline/project it starts playing choppy or not at all.

Right now i've got a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 1525 with 3gb of ram, and about 110 gb of free space on the hard drive. It's got an Intel Core Duo CPU processor T5750 @ 2.00 GHz. Do you think I need a new computer or am I just not using the right project settings?

I'm shooting in AVCHD 720/60 and I've been experimenting with a few project settings, but I don't really know which one is the best.


any help would be great.... thanks!
 
Kyle Kearns said:
Hi,

I'm new to this forum and also to using HD cameras...........I traded my GL1 for a GH1


I'm having problems getting my footage to play smoothly on my Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

At first I was using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 and it wouldn't play the footage at all really, or it would play it, but the audio wouldn't match the video. Then someone told me I need to upgrade editing software, so I installed CS4.

I can get the footage to play decently smooth, but when I add more clips to the timeline/project it starts playing choppy or not at all.

Right now i've got a 3 year old Dell Inspiron 1525 with 3gb of ram, and about 110 gb of free space on the hard drive. It's got an Intel Core Duo CPU processor T5750 @ 2.00 GHz. Do you think I need a new computer or am I just not using the right project settings?

I'm shooting in AVCHD 720/60 and I've been experimenting with a few project settings, but I don't really know which one is the best.


any help would be great.... thanks!
Click to expand...

CS5 supports playing of AVCHD far better than CS4. In your case I'd suggest looking at some of the transcoding tools, to go form AVCH to something like Pro Res if on a Mac, or DNxHD, Avid's 'free' codec, for editing.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
CS5 supports playing of AVCHD far better than CS4. In your case I'd suggest looking at some of the transcoding tools, to go form AVCH to something like Pro Res if on a Mac, or DNxHD, Avid's 'free' codec, for editing.
Click to expand...

I swear by DNxHD, more info here: http://www.avid.com/US/industries/workflow/DNxHD-Codec

Either DNxHD or ProRes are good choices because they're post production codecs, designed to play back smoothly while being edited, whereas AVCHD is simply an acquisition codec. Try DNxHD or ProRes before trying to upgrade hardware or software, see if the codec helps. DNxHD is free and downloadable at the link above, ProRes comes with Final Cut, if you have that already.
 
DNxHD sounds good, but how do I use it? I downloaded and installed it........I don't have to buy a file conversion program do I?
 
By installing it you've essentially enabled your system to read and write DNxHD files, but it has to do that inside another program. So yes, you need a file conversion program, but no, you don't need to buy one. There are plenty of free options that will do just fine. Any conversion program that can do Quicktime conversion will be able to use the DNxHD LE you downloaded, since the one you downloaded is for DNxHD inside a Quicktime wrapper.
 
Is there a way that I can tell if I installed it correctly? Also do you think you could name some free conversion programs that would work with this codec?
 
Kyle Kearns said:
Is there a way that I can tell if I installed it correctly? Also do you think you could name some free conversion programs that would work with this codec?
Click to expand...

It's pretty hard to screw up that installation. As for the converter, unfortunately I haven't used many free ones, so try cnet.com and look for one with good reviews. It just has to be able to write to Quicktime movies (.mov). Sorry!
 
Do you think I need a new computer
Click to expand...
Yes. A recent model quad core at least for this kind of media, plus 12 GB or more of RAM. Also, a newer version of Premiere Pro is in order. CS5 was the first to offer broad support for DSLR media. The newest is CS5.5, which expands on that support.
 
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You should be able to do this conversion with Abode Media Encoder, which I'm guessing you have installed on your system already if you have Premiere. AME is a lot better at converting video than many of the free options out there.
 
Venn said:
You should be able to do this conversion with Abode Media Encoder, which I'm guessing you have installed on your system already if you have Premiere. AME is a lot better at converting video than many of the free options out there.
Click to expand...

Forgot about that; I use After Effects for my encoding, and Media Encoder is basically the same rendering engine as AE's. Definitely use Media Encoder.
 
Well I edit on an HP at least that old or more. Pentium D processor, 3GB of RAM. Not even 2 cores. I use Sony Vegas Pro 8.0c, and am currently editing HD footage from an EX1.

I also have Premiere 6.0 (not Pro.) Naturally I can't edit HD with that, but the playback is choppy on it as well as Vegas -- until I select a section of footage and render (for Premiere) or pre-render (Vegas) it. Then it plays smoothly. Works for me.
 
I've been getting motion jpeg HD video (720p 30fps) to work in Premiere Pro 2.0, which is nice to finally be able to work with something........I guess that'll have to do for now until I upgrade my computer or computer parts.
 
Kyle Kearns said:
I've been getting motion jpeg HD video (720p 30fps) to work in Premiere Pro 2.0, which is nice to finally be able to work with something........I guess that'll have to do for now until I upgrade my computer or computer parts.
Click to expand...

The reason MJPEG is working is because it, like DNxHD or ProRes, is an intraframe codec. Have you tried transcoding?
 
I use Avid and After Effects, which are more demanding than Premiere, and I have no problems with 8GB of RAM.
 
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