Premiere Pro and P2 support

for Intel Mac OSX and Windows XP/Vista

 (version 3.1)

What’s New?

With the new Premiere Pro CS3 and the 3.1 update, you can now natively Ingest, Edit, and Export the Panasonic P2 format. All you need to do is to shoot your video and simply drag ,drop , and edit – it’s that easy. There is no need to transcode your video with an intermediate codec in order to use them on the timeline, and there are no AVI or Quicktime wrappers – just native P2 format.

Premiere Pro CS3 will actually allow you to edit directly on the P2 card. This means you can shoot your video and start making a quick rough cut on your laptop while going to your next shoot. Once you get back to your desktop Premiere Pro workstation, you can copy the P2 clips onto your desktop workstation and continue editing. For those of you with a Matrox Axio, you’ve been asking for a laptop based solution to use with your Axio and it’s finally here.

If you use or plan to buy any of the AJA or BlackMagic products, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with their support for Premiere Pro CS3 (v3.1) as well. More on that later….

Watch This:

I have created a quick Intro to Premiere Pro CS3 and P2 video. This video shows you our P2 support in action.

TO LEARN MORE .....click Continue reading

 

Watch This:

I have created a quick Intro to Premiere Pro CS3 and P2 video. This video shows you our P2 support in action.

Click Here to CHECK IT OUT:

 Quick Facts:

Here’ s a quick recap of Using Adobe Premiere Pro  CS3 with Panasonic P2 Content.

1. TRUE Native P2 Editing
2. Direct editing from P2 media
3. All frame rates and resolutions are supported
4. Mixed media on the timeline (different Codecs and sizes) for example, HDV & P2
5. Metadata-rich workflow
6. Export to P2

Here are a few more tips when working with PremierePro and P2 clips.

1. Make sure to choose the correct P2 Preset in Premiere Pro’s welcome screen. These presets support all of the P2 formats ranging from SD to HD and various frame rates including Varicam. You can make additional P2 presets under the custom tab.

     

2.   Viewing Metadata of a P2 clip is done by right clicking the clip in the Project Bin and selecting    Properties.

     

3.   Video and Audio P2 folders: When you import clips into Premiere Pro, you just need to show Premiere where the Video folder is located in the CONTENTS folder. Premiere will automatically find the audio and match it to the video.

     

4.    Clip Naming: Premiere Pro will assign the P2 User Clip name from the P2 media card as the name for the item in the Project Panel. This name is different from the MXF file name that you see on the media. As always, you can rename a clip in the Project Bin without changing its file name. Premiere will keep track of this “virtual” name for you.  For example, if you were shooting scenes in different cities (like Annapolis) you could change the User Clip name for each city you shot for your video. This is different from the actual P2 file name. Rather than use the file name , as its first choice, Premiere looks to see if there is a User Clip name. BEWARE – there is a user mode (1) on the camera that will name every clip the same, so when you import the clips, they will all have the same name (I’m not sure why this is a feature on the camera, but it’s there). If this happens to you, you can rename the clips in the project panel in Premiere or you can use the P2 Viewer application to change them. Take the time to read your camera manual - at least read about User modes- It’s a great feature. BTW: You can always look at the Creation Date Column in the Project Panel to help sort your clips if they were named the same.

          

5.    Icon View: Remember to change your view to Icon View in the Project Bin. This is fairly quick and allows you to scrub each clip and re-assign the thumbnail. It’s acts like a mini P2 browser. Also remember that you can quickly clean up the icons by selecting the fly out menu (small arrow on the upper right corner of Panel)  and choosing Clean up. I find myself using this a lot with P2 media.

           

6.      Multi Formats: Mixed media work great but remember to pay attention to frame size and scaling. I use DV footage (720x480) all the time with HD resolutions. But, I mainly use it for PiPs (picture in picture) I’m not  big fan of scaling DV to HD. It usually ends up looking like VHS. I know there are several hardware boards which scale and they all support PremierePro’s Scale to Fit command, but it still looks like DV to me.

7.     Spanning: Clips that span multiple cards ( must be imported and joined manually ) You can use the timecode or the Creation Date column in the Project bin to sort clips to the correct order

8.     Audio Only: You can import just the audio from a clip if needed. If you import any clip from the AUDIO folder, Premiere will import it as a single mono clip.

9.    CONTENT Folder: When using the Export to P2 option, remember that Premiere Pro will recreate a new CONTENT folder with all of the expected P2 subfolders. This will allow for you to take your rendered timeline to another P2 editor like Avid or FCP. It makes no difference whether it was created on a mac or pc.

     

 

101 Facts:

 

The P2 card is a high speed PCMCIA card and requires the P2 driver for your Mac or PC. It will appear on your Desktop or My Computer as Flash memory card. The file system is FAT 32 which has a 4GB max file size. The camera will automatically start a new clip after 4GB have been reached. The cards currently range in size from 4GB-32GB. You can use up to 5 PCMCIA cards in one device depending on the number of slots available (typically 2). There are also hard drive storage options available for P2 cameras as well. The FireStore and Shining Technology are a well-known options for both HDV and P2 cameras. I haven’t used either one for P2 yet.

CONTENTS Folder:  has a very specific folder structure of sub folders. It’s best not to rename them but rather create a TOP folder for example “Annapolis Day” and drop the CONTENTS folder into the TOP folder.

VIDEO Folder: contains video MXF files

AUDIO folder: contains upto 16 independent mono audio MXF files for each clip, using the clips file name with the channel number appended ( 0, 1, 2, 3 for 4 channels)

CLIP folder: contains clip metadata, stored as “[filename]”.xml

ICON folder: contains a thumbnail icon or poster frame stored as a BMP.

PROXY folder: contains proxy files, stored as .mp4files and containing quarter resolution MPEG-4 video at around 200kbit/sec and one mono AAC audio track, along with a BIN file. Adobe Premiere Pro does not support this function.

VOICE folder: contains voice annotations added after capture in .wav format.

Posted by David K Helmly Sr. at 04:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

 

HDV Editing:      A different take…

Over the past few years, HDV has given us lightweight and affordable cameras. Just ask anyone who shoots video for a living why they like these new cameras. These range from small palm corders to lightweight shoulder cams.The next time you see a professional video shooter, look at the camera they are using. Chances are it’s a small high quality HDV camera from Canon, Sony, or JVC.

 

From the Beginning:

 I have had the opportunity to work with HDV from the beginning. With our 3rd party plug-in partners, we actually had support in earlier versions of Premiere (6.5) with excellent codecs like CineForm’s AspectHD (still my favorite software based HDV solution for Windows users) and later on, MainConcept’s MPEGPro and the NEW MPEGProHD.

Intermediate vs Native:

With the introduction of PremierePro 1.51 we included a version of Cineform’s HDV codec and had a lot of satisfied first time HDV users as well as a lot of customers asking for true Native HDV editing (also known as m2t). I think it’s safe to say, that not all of these customers were up to speed on HDV being an MPEG2 technology and using Long GOP for editing when it comes to Native Editing. Our Native HDV m2t editing is a good experience for typical video workflows. It involves a simple HDV Firewire capture and Premiere automatically generates a quick Index file that makes it possible for PremierePro to edit the MPEG2 information. But depending on your computers performance you can start seeing one of the drawbacks of Native m2t HDV editing when you have a timeline with several  layers of video and effects. While Preview Playback looks good and timeline editing works great, at some point you will start to see your systems true limits. A Fast Processor (s), Fast RAM and Fast Disk Access all contribute to your editing experience (zippyness). Yes, we take full advantage of multiprocessors and the new CORE Technology chips from Intel (& AMD). Native m2t HDV editing is a very processor intensive process. FOR MORE INFO on LongGOP (group of pictures) check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDV (click on #6 to get to the editing part)

Again, Native m2t editing is fine for most people and most routine videos, but having an Intermediate codec like Cineform has its advantages. Using an intermediate codec means that the Native HDV MPEG2 stream is converted (transcoded) on capture into a special format (codec) that is less work for the CPU to decode when editing on the timeline. This means companies like Cineform can add Real-time effects, color correction, and more because the processor is not tied up decoding the MPEG2 stream as with Native m2t  editing. All of this happens with a software plug-in. For the techies out there, Cineform uses a Wavelet codec. The downside for some is that you need to buy AspectHD from www.cineform.com but if your time is valuable, and you want a software based solution (ie, laptop) it’s worth a look. They do offer a free full working trial. Cineform also has a new plug-in for CS3 OSX mac users too!

The hardware boards:

Hardware products, like the Matrox RT X2 and the High-End Axio handle Adobe Native HDV truly amazing. They offer a great editing experience and give the benefit of accelerated MPEG2 DVD output/rendering. The Matrox boards can render a typical timeline for DVD (m2v) output in Real-time, if time is money and you spend a lot of time waiting on Export to DVD – look at this option. I’ve done several 2 hr HDV videos using Matrox Axio and got quickly use to the Real-time performance for most Adobe effects and a slew of special Matrox effects and DVEs. Their new set of “Shine” effects and Presets are getting a lot of use in my videos. I should also be honest and tell you that all of the HDV work I’ve done with the Axio could have been done on the much cheaper Matrox RT X2. It is basically an Axio LE Jr. without the Pro video and audio connectors. It is currently the most cost effective hardware accelerated board for HDV users – I’ll be doing a full CS3 review on the Matrox boards in an up coming blog. The Matrox Axio and RT X2 3.0 drivers for PremierePro CS3 have a ton of performance enhancements.

My Best HDV Experience:

What’s the BEST experience I’ve had with HDV?

Honestly, - Not using Firewire for Ingest, but rather using SDI. What is SDI? Think of it as “FAT Firewire” or better yet, a fire hose vs a drinking straw. It’s a “Big Pipe”.

The HDV camera I find myself using the most is the Canon XH G1. Not only is it a 3 chip HDV camera, it has on-board SDI. The quality is simply amazing. It offers a beautiful range of shooting modes and frame rates. With SDI you can forget about the Long GOP MPEG2 step. You can ingest (capture) from the SDI port on the camera into any SDI capture board. These boards range in price from $295.00 and up depending on the features needed. They are available from BlackMagic Design, AJA, and Matrox and a few others. Cineform also offers ProspectHD and Prospect2K which use certain models of the AJA and BlackMagic SDI & HDMI boards. They give excellent RT performance enhancements and it uses Cineform’s well-known Wavelet codec. If you need help in deciding which board is right for your needs, you can always get help from an Adobe Platinum Var or cruise forums like the www.CreativeCow.com.

Creative Timelines (lots of Photoshop, AfterEffects, and Filters)

When it comes to doing complex “Adobe Style” creative timelines, SDI capture is a great start. You can pick your SDI capture format ranging from Uncompressed 10 bit HD to I-Frame compressed editing modes. Each board and manufacture has different capture/ingest modes and PremierePro Presets to help you get started. The key thing to keep in mind is that you can still shoot with HDV and get all the benefits without the LongGOP step.

Just think; Long GOP is Long GONE! Simple and FAST with SDI. (Ok, that’s not my tagline – it’s actually Convergent-Designs)

But, I already have an HDV camera !

For those of you that already have an HDV camera like the highly successful Sony FX1 or Z1U, Convergent Design saves the day with their new HD-Connect SI converter. This small converter allows you to connect your existing HDV camera via Firewire to an SDI card. Basically giving you a pristine image in any codec your Non-Linear Editor (NLE) board supports for capture. An added bonus is a RS 422 deck control port is built in!  In the case of PremierePro, I first tested it with the Matrox Axio to capture in their high quality I-Frame mode which saves on disk space (the Axio also does Uncompressed 10bit with RT effects). The workflow is truly a pleasure to edit long projects with all of the real-time you would expect from Matrox.

 

  I also tested PremiereProCS3 the AJA LHe card in an Uncompressed 10bit workflow and was totally sold on the quality and the smoothness of editing 10 bit on the timeline. They should also get credit for their Capture and Playback setup screen which exposes nearly all of the high-end features in the PremierePro recording and playback architecture.   AJA has been long known for their attention to detail and control over the capture and output process (up/down convert) and with PremierePro CS3 they spent extra time exposing it.

 

BlackMagic Design should also get a mention here as well. They are also well known for their SDI boards and have a fast growing range of products. They have just introduced a new compressed codec for PremiereProCS3 Windows called "Online JPEG" and at 12MB per second and full 1920x1080 resolution it is sure to get some attension.They are best known at Adobe for their part in several motion pictures, one of which is SuperMan Returns. Every frame of SuperMan returns was ingested with PremierePro and BlackMagic Design Hardware. If your curious, check out this case study: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/showcase/index.cfm?event=casestudydetail&casestudyid=114473&loc=en_us

 

I’ll be doing write-ups later on AJA and BlackMagic Designs and PremiereProCS3 Mac OSX support soon and will use the Convergent Design SI converter in a Mac SDI based workflow. One thing to think about when deciding which SDI board to choose is your disk requirements in regards to uncompressed or compressed workflows (I-Frame). Compressed workflows offer nice quality at lower data rates. Yes, there is a trade off on Quality vs disk space. Uncompressed 10 bit SDI HD projects need large fast raids.

If you’re curious, I use mostly www.G-Technology.com raids. They offer the HD, HDV, or DV user a wide range of raids for laptop and desktop use. They are also a good resource for helping you to match a raid with your PremierePro capture board or laptop based system. If you see me at an Adobe event, I’ll more than likely have my portable G-raid mini as I edit a lot on the airplane. This little wonder, is a hardware based raid that has built-in FW 800. I was sold after using it for 10 minutes!

Lastly, I should mention that I was extremely impressed with Convergent-Design converter when I had to update the firmware to a newer version. They have a very simple JAVA based firmware updater program that makes updating firmware a piece of cake.

Do your Homework:

As with all 3rd party add-on hardware for Adobe Video products, make sure you review the hardware requirements on the various websites. Adobe OpenHD has a number of them listed for you. http://www.adobe.com/adobeopenhd/. Adobe also has a group of resellers or VARs called Adobe Platinum Vars. All of them are very familiar with hardware requirements needed for the various boards. If you want to build your own system, the board makers also have system requirements that list the various pieces needed to make a compatible system. If you’re a Mac user, you already know that you only have 1 desktop system with board slots to choose from  - How easy is that!

Too much info:

I know I covered a ton of different products in this blog.It’s really, more of an intro into up coming articles and I wanted to introduce a lot of key players as well as an alternative way to work with HDV cameras. It goes to show the extensive support that PremierePro and the rest of the CS3 video family have with our 3rd party partners. For more specific information on the products mentioned, visit their website. Here you will find SD/HD, capture Codecs, and other various features. All of these partners have released or soon will release new CS3 updates. Make sure you check out their current information.

Cineform AspectHD and Prospect HD/2K:      www.cineform.com

MainConcept: http://www.mainconcept.com/site/

Matrox Axio and RT X2:http://matrox.com/video/home.cfm

Canon HDV Cameras: http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ProductCatIndex1Act&fcategoryid=102

BlackMagic Design:      http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/

AJA: http://aja.com/

Convertgent Design: http://www.convergent-design.com/

G-Technology: http://g-technology.com/

Next Article? PremierePro CS3 version 3.1 and Panasonic P2!

Posted by David K Helmly Sr. at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)