Quick question.

I

irvineimages

Member
I recently started putting my movie together, I've loaded at least 50 clips now and Adobe Premiere has really started to slow down, and is freezing a lot now.
It's almost unworkable.
My computer should not be an issue, it's pretty top of the line.
I have a hunch it's the avchd files making it operate so sluggishly.
I did buy a book on Adobe premiere but not exactly sure what to look for, so maybe one of you guys can help me.

Is there a way to cut my clips, and then export them without converting them to another filetype?
I need a way to have all my media clips available, but not stored in premiere itself.
If this is a problem with premiere, should I look into getting a different editing program?
I've heard some good things about other programs, they don't seem to have the same problems.

I hope I made my problem/question clear, but if you don't understand what I mean, I can try to elaborate further.

Thanks for any help!
:cheesy:
 
Which version of Premiere are you using? Older versions (CS3 and CS4) do not work very well with AVCHD footage. The newly released CS5 handles AVCHD much better. You might also want to look into EDIUS 5.5, which can edit many layers of AVCHD in realtime with no special hardware required.
 
Xian's comment above is good. Also, try transcoding it to P2. I believe that eases the stress of your computer so that it isn't constantly trying to decompress the AVCHD footage.
 
Pretty sure it's updated, I'll find out next time I'm at that computer.

I'm leaning towards using Cineform or Canopus HQ, or something like that since so much time has been invested already, I apologize for my lack of knowledge, and I couldn't think of what to search for exactly through the search function.

How does Cineform and Canopus work, are they like standalone self executable programs? Or can you take an already cut and modified video file that's in Adobe Premiere and convert/encode whatever?
Sorry, I apologize again for my lack of understanding in the terminology and everything, I should know all this already.
 
There is a lot of hype about what will and will not work with AVCHD footage. The fact is that when you start loading lots of clips, especially overlayed clips and effects, most computers will start to struggle to deal with this in real time.

You really need to transcode the AVCHD to a better codec for editing.

Many people moan about FCP transcoding on import and not being able to edit AVCHD natively, but in the end it needs doing for larger projects any way.

Try transcoding some clips (use Cineform on Windows) and you should see things improve a lot.
 
modus said:
Xian's comment above is good. Also, try transcoding it to P2. I believe that eases the stress of your computer so that it isn't constantly trying to decompress the AVCHD footage.
Click to expand...

P2 is a storage medium not a codec.
 
Thank you exact, good information.
The only question I have left is if I can transcode through Adobe premiere, since I already have over 50 files cut and at least a week of time invested in that.
When transcoding to Cineform will I have to start all over using an external program?
Or is there a way to do it inside the Premiere program with my files that are already cut.
Sorry if it's a stupid question, I'm really new to this.
 
Cineform and canopus hq codecs both have small standalone application, and are very simple to use.
If you chose cineform you can download their "Neoscene" application that has 7 days trial period. Canopus has "avchd2hq converter" also standalone app - free to use if you already have Edius or Procoder installed.

Both are very similar in resulting image quality and file sizes (make sure that you have enough hard disc space, cineform and canopus files are significantly larger than heavily compressed avchd). You'll get large .avi wrapped files that are much easier to cut than avchd.

I am on mac now and I use FCP but I struggled with avchd in Windows/Premiere for a while and ended up transcoding to canopus hq.
As for your Premiere workflow I am not 100 percent sure but think that you can relink items that are in your existing project - bin to new trancoded files, and that premiere will just replace everything in the timeline so that you can just continue editing from where you are at now. You will just have to create new sequence with appropriate settings for new transcoded files.
Premiere does not have presets neither for cineform nor canopus HQ, you'll have to create custom settings sequence/project (also very simple).

To sum it up - mentioned codecs are intermediate - Premiere works great with these codecs, but you have to use standalone app to transcode.
 
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