Windows 7 is here ........ finally

For the most part Windows7 ( I suggest the 64 bit version) is working excellent with our CS4 apps. We will continue to monitor the various forums and see if any issues arise due to Win7.

At this point,  Encore CS4 has 3 known issues.

The key issue involves the Roxio pxhelp driver that Windows 7 replaces (this may get fixed in a future Win7 update). The other 2 issues involve building and burning projects and having the computer go to sleep in the process.

The fixes are easy. See below.

#1. Transcoding pauses when the system goes into Sleep mode in Encore CS4 (Windows 7)


ISSUE

When you attempt to transcode a project in Encore CS4 in Windows 7, and the system goes into Sleep mode, transcoding pauses.

SOLUTION

 Disable the Sleep function when you have a project that requires unattended transcoding.

To disable Sleep mode, do the following:

Go to Control Panel
Click on System and Security
Click on Power option
Click on "Change plan settings" in the "Power saver" option
Set the "Turn off the display" value to "Never"
Set the "Put the computer to sleep" value to "Never"


#2 Encore CS4 crashes if the system goes into Sleep mode while you are building a project (Windows 7)

ISSUE

 When you attempt to build a project in Encore CS4 in Windows 7, and the system enters Sleep mode, the application crashes or becomes unresponsive.


SOLUTION

Disable Sleep mode if you need to Build a project while the system is unattended. (see steps to turn off sleep above)



#3 System crashes when Blu-ray is selected as the format in the Build panel in Encore CS4 (Windows 7)


ISSUE

 When you select Blu-ray as the format in the Build panel in Adobe Encore CS4 in Windows 7, the operating system becomes unresponsive and crashes.

REASON

 Windows 7 installs an outdated version of the Roxio pxhelp driver, which causes a crash when Blu-ray format is selected in Encore CS4.

SOLUTION

Install an updated version of the pxhelp driver from Roxio. The updated driver is available here:

http://docs.roxio.com/patches/pxengine4_18_16a.zip

Installing and using Windows 7 with Adobe apps

Link:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/508/cpsid_50853.html

WHAT'S COVERED

• Versions of Adobe products tested with Windows 7
• Upgrading from previous versions of Windows to Windows 7
• Windows 7 clean install/upgrade matrix
• Installing Adobe applications after installing Windows 7
• Trial Versions of Adobe applications

Technical issues with Adobe applications and Windows 7

What’s new in the Premiere Pro 4.1 Update

The 4.1 updater for Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder are fairly critical updates for the CS4 user. If you are using the CS4 Production Premium Suite, After Effects also has a new updater, 9.02. Below are some of the major changes in these updates. I’ve also listed some of the various bug fixes for Premiere Pro and After Effects. Take the time to scan the list. I’ve also created a “What’s new in Premiere 4.1” video to get you up to speed. For the RED camera users out there, both Premiere Pro 4.1 and After Effects have new workflows for RED R3D files. I do a quick run through of the new features on the new RED workflow in the 4.1 video but there is a completely new Adobe RED video, which walks you through the new workflow in detail. I should also note that Adobe Media Encoder has been updated to match the changes in Premiere Pro 4.1 and After Effects  9.02. One of the most noticeable changes in 4.1 update for Adobe Media Encoder (AME) is the rendering speed. In many cases, you’ll see quite a speed bump.

Click Here to Watch the new video

featuring what’s new in the CS4 Updates

Premiere Pro 4.1 updates:

• Simple Frame Export is now back ! One of the new changes is that you can now choose whether you want TIFF or TARGA.

Here’s the new steps:

• Move Current Time Marker (CTM) to the frame you want to export
• File>Export>Media   (don’t get nervous AME won’t need to launch)
• From the Format Drop Down list , Choose either TIFF or TARGA
• You will prompted for a save location

This method does give you one extra step from previous versions of Premiere but you now can choose the format type. I get a ton of emails each week on this feature alone. For the record, I also want to see us enable a right mouse click option from the Current Time Marker on the Timeline to export frame.

New enhanced RED R3D Workflow.

With Premiere Pro 4.1 and After Effects 9.02 we now support the new RED plug-in You'll also see new a few new presets for 1080p and 720P sequences. While many RED Users shoot in 4K and 2K there are many times when they need to simply export to a 1080 or 720 mode for Blu-ray or web player. These new presets allow them to work in 1080 or 720 from the start of the project or drop the 2K/4K Sequence into a 1080 sequence (nesting) for final output.

New support for RED R3D Media Browser. The Media Browser now shows RED in the “View as:” drop down menu and will Span clips accordingly

New Support for the RED R3D Source Settings window in Premiere Pro 4.1 and After Effects 9.02 which allows you to adjust  Decoding, White Balance and Color Settings. You can even save presets

.

We now support Fractional Resolutions in the Project and Source Panels. To switch working resolutions on the fly, just right mouse click in the Project Panel for Sequence playback or the Source Panel for trimming clips. No more restarting Premiere Pro! You can now preview your 2K and 4K timelines at the optimal resolution and switch and back and forth as needed. For 8 Core 64 bit desktop Desktop computers,  most users are seeing Full Resolution at 2K and Half Resolution for 4K . (For Windows users, take a look at the new HP Z600 or Z800 desktops, in my testing they’ve been a solid RED editing experience) For most laptop users , remember to use Eighth Resolution for 4K and Quarter Resolution for 2K. Many users are reporting great results in Vista64 and OSX using 16GB of RAM for 4K workflows.

• 

  Long/Large Projects  open faster !

• We now parse the Premiere project file in a much different way in order to get large projects to open much faster - This has been a longtime coming. Some of my larger projects would take several minutes to open, they now open in a fraction of the time.

• Native .VOB file support! This feature is just plain cool. For those of you that need to pull video/audio from an old DVD (not copy protected), you can now insert the DVD and watch it pop up in the Media Browser (turn off your auto-play option for Apple or WIN/Power DVD Player ) and just double click it. Once the DVD starts to spin, it will automatically show the VIDEO_TS folder. Double click it and watch your .VOB files start list. Double click on any .VOB file (except those that end in “0”) and they will load into the Source Panel. You can now make IN & OUT points or you can make Sub Clips if you need lots of clips from the same VOB file or chapter. You can then drag these clips down to the timeline (I suggest using DVCPro 50 NTSC or PAL as a SD preset) . Why is this cool? Premiere Pro now looks at your video DVD the same as it would any other tapeless media. If you need to use several DVDs , you’ll need to jot down the VOB file name that you are using and drag the VOB files  to your project folder from the DVD. If you need the whole DVD , then just copy the entire VIDEO_TS folder to your project folder. As always, watch your workflow and organize your media in to logical folders. If you are using several DVDs for source material, make several different folders to keep from over writing files. Lastly, if you see a scrambled preview from your DVD in the Source Window or Timeline, then the video is copy protected. If Premiere sees a copy protected DVD it will pass through the scrambled video. How does this work? When you insert a DVD , the DVD player driver will read the disc to see if it is copy protected. This happens at the driver level and not the Adobe Media Browser level. Lastly, if Premiere seems to hang while reading or editing a DVD – Make sure it’s clean and not scratched. If you want to edit the DVD direct from the source, then you need to make sure your disc is 100% readable. Again, if your not sure, copy the Video_TS folder to your Project folder.

• Faster/smoother AVCHD playback

• New AVCHD Support for Presets @ 1080p & 720P.

• As AVCHD editing gets more and more popular (the prices keep coming down, do a quick search on AMAZON.COM for CANON AVCHD HF , prices are as low as 599.00 for the basic model) we are doing our best to keep up with the changes. When Panasonic introduced the new AVCCAM AG-HMC-150P and most recently the New AG-HMC-40P, my inbox filled up with 1080P and 720P requests. I’m happy to report that these new modes work great. In fact, we used the Panasonic 150P to test the new workflow with the new presets. We also made a number of changes to the way we read Native AVCHD files and the result is better playback support.

• NEW Support for Avid Import and Export.

• You’ll now be able to Export your Avid Media Composer projects as Avid AAF and Import them directly into Premeire Pro CS4.1.You can make changes in Premiere Pro and Export those changes back to Avid AAF. Obviously you’ll need to manage your AVID media accordingly. Since Premiere Pro and AfterEffects can read many Native file formats directly, you may need to convert your media to a form Avid can read. If you are exporting from Premiere and back to Avid please note that not all transitions and effects are available.  Premiere Pro 4.1 also supports some Avid IMX and Avid MXF formats.

• What about After Effects CS4 and Avid? Here’s a quick way to get Avid projects into After Effects?

Step 1. Export your Avid Project as AAF

Step 2. Launch Premiere Pro CS4.1 and File>Import and open the Avid .aaf project

Step 3. Check your timeline and make any needed adjustments and then Save the Premiere Pro project.

Step 4. Launch After Effects CS4 (9.02) and File>Import>Premiere Pro Project.

Adobe Media Encoder 4.1  has had a few updates as well.

You’ll see faster Encode times for several formats.

New YouTube Wide Screen HD and SD presets (.mp4)

Better support for RED workflows.

What about those NEW MP4 Cameras ?

Lastly, with tons of new pocket MPEG4 (MP4) cameras coming out everyday. I keep getting emails about supporting them. In nearly all cases, you can edit the format in Premiere Pro CS4. The key is to import the .MP4 into Premiere Pro and right mouse click on the file and goto Properties and look at the info (see picture below). Check these 3 things : Type, Size, and Frame Rate and make a Preset to match it. You can always make a custom Preset using the Mobile and Devices list. Click on the General Tab to make changes. Some MP4 formats like the new Sony Webbie HD Series MHS-CM1 and MHS-PM1 actually make Premiere Pro CS4 think they are XDCAM EX files. If you have this camera, just choose XDCAM EX 1080i, XDCMEX 1080 60i (SP) and you can edit in real time and no Red Line. The picture below shows the properties of a Sony Webbie clip. Again if you have a MP4 camera changes are you can edit , just take the time to check your properties. Many of these cameras shoot in 1440x1080 not 1920x1080 so set your sequence settings accordingly.

Premiere Pro C4.1 &

After Effects CS4 9.02

workflow using the

NEW Native

RED R3D plug-in

     After several months of hard work, the REDCODE 1.7 Red Plug-in is finally available and you can find it here:  http://www.red.com/support . Make sure you update Premiere Pro and AfterEffects and Adobe Media Encoder. The workflow video will show you how to apply the updates.

As you'll see in the New Tech workflow video and workflow guide, this plug-in now allows you to use Premiere Pro CS4.1 and After Effects CS4 9.02 to import Native RED R3D files as easily as any of our other native tapeless formats.

I’d like to take the time to say thanks to the beta testers that spent countless hours figuring out the various 2K and 4K workflows. After working with the beta testers and discussing these workflows we have updaed the workflow video that steps you through the basic workflow. Included with the plug-in is the RED Workflow Guide which has been put together as a reference guide.

Watch This:

Click the RED Button to watch the Complete Work Flow Video

Below is the RED & CS4 Workflow guide.

Overview

The RED Importer plug-in provides full native support of RED raw files including the ability to work with RED media at resolutions from 256 up to 4k. RED files can be imported directly into Premiere Pro and After Effects and worked with in a variety of frame rates, aspect ratios and resolutions. Dynamic Link can be used to serve frames directly from Premiere Pro to After Effects and sequences can then be exported using the Render Queue in After Effects.

Minimum Windows and Mac Desktop System Requirements

3.0 GHz Quad core system with 8GB RAM

Hard drive with 40MB/sec sustained throughput is required; RAID striped array recommended

Windows Vista 64 Service Pack 1 or Mac OS 10.5

Premiere Pro 4.0.1 update

After Effects 9.0.1 update

RED Importer plug-in available at www.red.com/support

High end notebook computers should support real time playback in Premiere Pro using 512 sequence settings and 4GB RAM and a fast 7200 rpm hard drive with a separate partition or video. Laptop users with a FW800 port can use drives like the G-Raid Mini (worked great for me)

** Vista64 users should "tune" Vista for Video Editing.The main advantage for WIndows users is access to more memory in Premiere Pro & After Effects.

Here are a few tips I use:

Things to turn off:

Control Panels:

User Controls
Security Center>Auto Updates
Windows Updates (check them manually)
Windows Defender
Appearance and Personalization>Change Theme>Windows Classic

When your done "tuning", your Vista should look more like WIndows NT. You'll see a much snappier interface. Also remember to close all open windows when not using them. This includes all open folders and drives on the desktop.Vista uses RAM to keep these windows open.If all of this makes you a bit nervous, you can goto http://tweakvista.com and download their free Utility or buy their enhanced version (more control). This is a great little utility for people that want a simple way to shut everything off.

Please review the Known Issues in the Read Me file bundled with the RED Importer plug-in

Premiere Pro CS4

Editing in Premiere Pro CS 4.01

For these workflows, you'll need Premiere Pro 4.0.1, After Effects 9.0.1 and the RED Importer plug-in

To create a new RED Sequence, open Premiere Pro, specify a project name and select Sequence settings that match your desired working resolution. 1k, 2k, 3k and 4k presets at various frame rates and aspect ratios are provided for working with all common RED file types.

RED Presets are available inside Premiere Pro after the RED importer plug-in has been installed.

It is generally recommended to edit RED media in 1K sequences as this typically provides an optimal editing experience in Premiere Pro.

Native RED media can be imported directly into Premiere Pro without the need for additional logging or transcoding. To import RED media into Premiere Pro, choose File > Import or drag media directly into the Project Window.

Modifying global RED settings

To access global settings for RED media, select a RED clip in the Premiere Project panel, right-click to bring up the contextual menu and select: Source Settings. (The Source Settings menu item is also available in the Clipmenu)

The RED Source Settings dialog applies a global setting to RED media for playback. This allows users to switch to a "working resolution" for optimal performance during editing. At any time, the settings can be restored to the RED media's native (higher) resolution for final export.

For example, to work with native 4K footage at 1/4 resolution, or 1K, select 4K in the Format popup menu at the top of the Red source settings dialog, and select 1/4 for the Resolution setting. (For 2K source footage, select 2K in the Format popup menu and set the Resolution to Half for 1K resoloution)

For RED sequences with resolutions greater than 1920 x 1080, all unrendered segments in the sequence will remain red and cannot be rendered to a preview file. However, scrubbing and playback is supported, and Dynamic Link will correctly export these frames to After Effects. Unrendered yellow sequence segments can be rendered using the Render Entire Work Area command in the Sequence menu.

Format

Select 4K for the Format setting.

Resolution

Next, select 1/4 for the Resolution setting and hit OK.

Full A full debayer to extract a 1:1 resolution (slowest).

Half HQ A high quality 1/2 resolution debayer (faster than a full debayer).

Half Quick A fast debayer for 1/2 resolution (faster than Half HQ but not as smooth).

Quarter 1/4 resolution output.

Eighth 1/8th resolution output.

Sixteenth 1/16th resolution output.

Next, save the project and quit Premiere. When Premiere is reopened, changes to RED source settings will be applied globally to all 4K clips in the project. Premiere Pro will now playback, import and export all RED 4K footage at 1/4, or 1K resolution.

Individual global settings can be specified for 2K, 3K and 4K media. It is not possible to apply different settings to individual clips.

The settings for each of the R3D Formats (4K, 3K, 2K) are stored separately and remembered. For example, once you set up parameters for 4K, switching to 2K allows you to set up different parameters for 2K.

Quality

Extracts varying levels of quality to improve playback speed.

Highest always use this setting for final output. Default is highest.

Medium lower quality, used for better playback performance.

Chroma Denoise

Denoise on red/blue channels. Default is Off.

Debayer Detail

Controls the debayer's detail quality. Default is Highest.

OLPF Compensation

Controls the optical low-pass filter (OLPF) that refines edge detail. Used to eliminate color Moire fringes. Default is Off.

Timecode

Select the timecode track to use from the R3D file.

Camera Setup uses the the TC track that was selected as primary in the camera.

Edge Code selects the continuous media based timecode track.

External/TOD selects the external jam sync'd TC (or internal clock TC when not jammed).

Maximum Bit Depth

Selects the bit depth.

On 32-bit float

Off 8-bit

Optimizing performance

To optimize performance on your configuration, you may need to experiment with various combinations of settings for Maximum Bit Depth, Resolution and Quality in the Source Settings dialog, as well as adjusting Premiere's playback quality settings.

Here are some adjustments you can make to optimize performance:

• Close all other applications when editing.

• Set Premiere's Playback Quality setting to Draft if Automatic or Highest cannot play back in real time.

• Premiere's default setting for the monitor's zoom level is "Fit". Setting the zoom level to 100% may also improve playback.

• Turn off thumbnails in the timeline.

• Setting Premiere's rendering preference to "Performance" will generally improve playback performance on a multi-core machine. (Preferences > General > Optimize rendering for Performance).

Note that this requires additional memory to take advantage of parallel processing. Conversely, if you are attempting to render out at 4K resolution, you may want to consider setting this back to "Memory" so that the application has the head room to deal with large frame sizes.

• When Maximum Bit Depth is on in the Source Setting dialog, processing is at 32-bit float, and when off, processing is 8-bit.

Turn this off to improve playback performance during editing in Premiere. When exporting to After Effects using Adobe Dynamic Link, this setting has no effect. After Effects always uses maximum bit depth.

• When exporting using After Effects, quit all other applications including Premiere Pro and wait for these processes to close before continuing:

ImporterProcessServer

ImporterRedServer

Processcoordinationserver

This may take a minute or more after you quit the application(s). You can view the open processes in the Task Manager (Win) or Activity Monitor (Mac).

High resolution output from Premiere Pro

At this time, we recommend that Premiere sequences be exported through After Effects using its Render Queue. This method requires the least amount of memory and provides the highest stability for render intensive exports. Additionally, After Effects is required for all high bit depth exports such as 4k, 2k, Cineon, DPX, Targa and Tiff. There are 2 methods for exporting from Premiere via After Effects: importing a Premiere sequence directly into After Effects or importing a Premiere sequence using Adobe Dynamic Link.

Other RED export options from Premiere Pro, such as Export to Adobe Media Encoder and Send to Encore, have not been thoroughly tested. Results will vary depending on the complexity of your Project.

Exporting Premiere sequences using Adobe Dynamic Link to After Effects

Adobe Dynamic Link is only available in Creative Suite Production Premium.

After editing is completed in Premiere Pro using a working resolution sequence, RED media must be reset to higher resolutions for high quality export. This is typically performed as one of the final steps prior to the export process and provides full access to the native resolution and deep color of the RED media. In order to export at full resolution a new sequence must be created that matches the desired output resolution of the project.

For example, if your working resolution sequence in Premiere was created at 1K and the native resolution of the RED media is 4K, a common workflow would be to create a new 4K sequence inside of Premiere to be used specifically for the final export. The next step is to copy and paste the 1K clips into the newly created Timeline.Note that at this point, the clips do not fill the entire program monitor (they appear as smaller 1K clips). This is expected behavior as all 4K RED media is still set to decode at 1/4 resolution. Next, you'll change the global RED source settings to 4K and the clips will appear at full resolution to fit the 4K output sequence.

For high resolution export, the global decode settings for the RED media need to be set to a higher resolution. In this example, let's assume we want to export at 4K. After changing the RED decode settings to 4K, press OK. Next, save your Project in Premiere and quit the application. When Premiere Pro is reopened, changes will be reflected in your timeline and all 4K media will appear at full resolution in the 4K sequence. The project is now ready for export.

Unrendered red segments in RED sequences with resolutions greater than 1920 x 1080, will remain red and cannot be rendered to a preview file. Unrendered yellow segments in 1920 x 1080 and lower resolutions can be rendered using the Render Entire Work Area command in the Sequence menu. Rendering of either red or yellow segments isn’t required for export via Dynamic Link, which will correctly export these frames to After Effects.

The next step is to import a Premiere Pro Sequence into After Effects using Dynamic Link. After the sequence is imported, it can then be exported using After Effect's Render Queue. This workflow preserves all edits, transitions and effects from Premiere Pro.

Step by step instructions:

1. Inside Premiere Pro, create a new sequence that matches your final output resolution (example: 2K or 4K)

2. Copy/paste your edited sequence from the working resolution sequence into the final output resolution sequence

3. Reopen the RED Source Settings dialog and switch the settings to full decode resolution (example: 2K or 4K)

4. Quit and relaunch Premiere in order for the settings change to take effect

5. To export the sequence, quit Premiere Pro and wait for all Adobe processes to close before continuing.

6. Launch After Effects

7. Choose: File > Adobe Dynamic Link > Import Premiere Pro Sequence

8. Navigate to the Premiere Pro project and select the RED final output sequence you wish to export

9. After Effects will take a few moments to conform the imported sequence

10. Place imported sequence into a Composition and make sure it remains selected

11. Choose: Composition > Add Composition to Render Queue

12. Select your desired export settings in the Render Queue

13. Click on the Render button to complete your export

All transitions and effects applied in Premiere are sent via Dynamic Link. However, this method uses more memory than importing the sequence directly into After Effects. Depending on the complexity and size of your sequence, you may need to use the alternative method below, importing the sequence directly into After Effects.

Importing Premiere Pro sequences into After Effects for export

Use this option to import a Premiere Pro sequence directly into After Effects for export. Unlike Dynamic Link, all Premiere transitions and effects are not supported when importing directly into After Effects. For this reason, this method is most useful for cuts-only edits without transitions or effects applied in Premiere.

One advantage of this method is that creating a final output resolution sequence in Premiere is not required. You can import the working resolution sequence from Premiere and adjust the Composition settings in After Effects to achieve the desired final output resolution.

Direct import of Premiere Pro sequences or RED clips into After Effects requires setting up Interpret Footage's Color Management for consistent color appearance between After Effects and Premiere Pro. See the Color Management instructions in the After Effects section below.

Step by step instructions:

1. When finished editing in Premiere, quit and wait for all Adobe processes to close before continuing (see note in the Optimizing Performance section).

2. Launch After Effects

3. Choose: File > Import File

4. Navigate to the Premiere Pro project and select the RED final output sequence you wish to export

5. After Effects will take a few moments to conform the imported sequence

6. Place imported sequence into a Composition and make sure it remains selected

7. Choose: Composition > Add Composition to Render Queue

8. Select your desired export settings in the Render Queue

9. Click on the Render button to complete your export

After Effects CS4

RED R3D files may be imported directly into After Effects. Using these files in After Effects is very similar to using other types of footage. By working in 32 bits (float) color depth, extended range color information is preserved for accurate compositing and color correction. There are also several workflows for using Premiere Pro and After Effects together for integrating editing with effects. The combination also provides expanded output options from Premiere Pro.

For access to the RED Settings dialog from within After Effects, installation of an optional AE plugin is required.This plugin must be manually copied into the correct application folder. See the pdf installation instructions in the RED plugin installer folder labeled “After Effects only”. This plugin is recommended for AE projects that use R3D clips, but is not required for exporting a Dynamic Linked Premiere Pro sequence from After Effects.

To access the global RED Source Settings dialog, choose Edit > RED Settings... The Resolution and Maximum Bit Depth controls are disabled when this dialog is opened in After Effects. This is because RED resolution is controlled using the resolution popup menu in the Composition Viewer, and the bit depth in After Effects is always 32-bit float.

To temporarily work at a lower resolution, use the resolution popup menu in the Composition Viewer.

Configuring After Effects for R3D files

For consistent color appearance of R3D files between After Effects and Premiere Pro, you must change the way After Effects interprets R3D files. If your previous workflows relied on Color Management in AE (i.e.: your Project Workingspace is set to something other than None), the required change is to assign the HDTV (Rec. 709) color profile in the Color Management tab of the Interpret Footage dialog.

You can only select Assign Profile if you have color management enabled by setting the Project Workingspace.

However, assigning color profiles on a clip-by-clip basis can be time consuming. After Effects can make this change automatically on a global basis with a small revision to AE’s “interpretation rules.txt” file. This file is located at: Vista64: C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files\interpretation rules.txt

Vista32/XP32: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS4\Support Files\interpretation rules.txt

Mac: Applications/Adobe After Effects CS4/interpretation rules.txt

Add the following 3 lines of text directly above the line:

“# this soft rule should be the last in the list of soft rules”:

# rule to make red raw files available as Rec709

# with Gamma encoded 32bit float data

*, *, *, "R3D ", * ~ *, *, *, *, "r7hf", 0

Once this change has been made, After Effects will automatically interpret the colors provided by the R3D plugin correctly.

Working with Premiere Pro via project import

Premiere Pro projects containing R3D files can be imported into After Effects. This creates a similar project in After Effects and preserves timelines edits and some effects. For example, color correction added to individual clips in Premiere Pro can be refined in After Effects.

Working with Premiere Pro via Dynamic Link

Dynamic Link allows content from one application to be shared with another without exporting intermediate files. Edits and other changes are automatically updated across applications.

You can use a Premiere Pro sequence as footage in After Effects. In After Effects, choose the File > Dynamic Link menu command. In After Effects, you'll get a single linked clip that represents the duration of your Premiere sequence, but you won't see all your individual cuts and clips (you still can access these in Premiere and continue

editing there, and they'll be updated in After Effects). Premiere Pro sends a complete frame with all effects, transitions, etc...nothing is lost.

I had the opportunity to work with nVidia on their new powerhouse of a video card, the NEW Quadro CX board. Over the past several months I also worked with one of the companies (ETI) who is the first to unleash the GPU power of  nvidia’s CUDA for Adobe software. ETI is the company behind the new GPU based H264 exporter. This new exporter gives you upto 5x performance for h264 exports. This is perfect for people creating blu-ray discs. The performance gain depends on your system config. For example, if you have an 8 core machine, then your looking at about a 2x gain. I also highly recommend that you use Vista64 and 8GB Ram for Windows based HD workflows. (the CX card is currently windows only)

For more info on nVidia & Adobe. Check out this site:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/builtforadobepros.html

The Quadro CX board was specifically designed for the CS4 Production Premium user. It accelerates Premiere Pro’s H264 Export, Several After Effects Filters and GPU processing, and the new Photoshop CS4. Photoshop CS4 now includes a new GPU architecture.

Here’s a quick video that shows off the power of this card.

Click the board to view the video

More info on ETI:

http://elementaltechnologies.com/

Another cool piece of software to check out from ETI is their botaboom software. This gives you even more ways to use your Quadro CX board.

Check it out:

You can get more info on CUDA here at the Cuda Zone: http://www.nvidia.com/object/cuda_home.html

Intro to PremierePro CS3 and XDCAM, XDCAM HD, and XDCAM EX support
For Intel Macs and Windows XP/Visa (Version 3.2.0)

What’s New ?
With Premiere Pro CS3 and the 3.2.0 update, you can now natively Ingest, and Edit Sony’s XDCAM (DVCAM), XDCAM HD, and XDCAM EX format. Just as you would expect from Adobe and the Premiere Pro team, just drag and drop directly from the card into the Project Panel and start editing. No need to transcode your video with “wacky” single platform codec’s and no need to worry about .mov and .avi files – just edit ! There are also more updates to the MPEG-2 (HDV) editing modes. For more info jump to the “What’s New in the 3.2.0 release?” section and read about new Fixes, Known Issues, and more.

To Learn More ………..Click Continue Reading

With Sony’s XDCAM EX format, making quick rough cuts directly from your Sony EX camera is a snap . YES - you can edit directly from the Sony SxS Pro card in your laptop or a simple USB 2.0 cable connected to your camera. When you return to your studio, simply copy the Premiere Pro project file from your laptop to your desktop via a standard USB2.0 Thumb drive or Network connection.

Premiere Pro project files typically range from 1MB to 20MB in size (Projects do not include video assets, only Titler Titles). With Sony’s SxS Pro memory cards you can use various Express Card readers that are available to help you transfer your video to your desktop or simply use any USB 2.0 cable connected to your EX camera and transfer.

Here is an Adobe XDCAM workflow guide we put together to help answer some basic questions.

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/pdfs/PremierePro_xdcam_workflowguide.pdf

For this video I had the opportunity to try out the new Sony PMW-EX1 camera (http://sony.com/xdcamex) The camera is an amazing step up from the Sony Z1U (HDV) with full 1920x1080i , 1080P and lots of flexible frame rates. There are too many feature to list here but I highly recommend taking a look at the Sony brochure which is available in PDF format.

Download it here:
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/markets/10014/docs/PMW-EX1brochurefinal3-08.pdf

For a great intro FAQ from Sony on XDCAM go here:
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/minisites/cinealta/docs/XDCAM_FAQs.pdf

There are two featured videos for Premiere Pro 3.2.0.
The first video shows off the new XDCAM support and the second video “MixItUp” shows using XDCAM EX, Panasonic P2, HDV, and standard DV on the same timeline with no special codecs.

Tip:
When using mixed format media/clips the first thing to keep in mind is that you need to pick an editing environment or in Premiere Pro terms, a Preset.

For example, if most of my footage is Sony XDCAM EX at 1920x1080 60i, then choosing the Sony EX 1920x1080 60i Preset would mean that those clips would not need to re-render or scale to another size or aspect ratio (no redline) .

If I wanted to downscale my HD footage to SD, then I might choose a DV WideScreen 16:9 Preset and use the Scale to Frame Size feature (Right Mouse Click on any clip on the timeline) and Premiere Pro will scale the clip to match the Preset. Another tip to remember is the Aspect Ratio for the Preset and the clips you are importing. Panasonic P2 1280x1080 uses a 1.5 aspect ratio while DV 16:9 uses a 1.2 aspect ratio so you may not be able to see the entire frame edge to edge. Premiere will handle this for you, just keep aspect ratios in mind. For more info and see it in action, watch the video.
Watch This:

Here’s a quick video showing the new XDCAM in action.

CHECK OUT Video 1:
Intro to Adobe XDCAM Editing:

CHECK OUT Video 2:

MixItUP !

Available Presets for XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD (XDCAM users can any Preset DV NTSC for DVCAM Mode).

Viewing the Metadata (right Click on the clip in the Media Bin and select Properties)

What’s New in the 3.2.0 release?

The 3.2.0 update adds compatibility with the Sony XDCAM range of cameras. This includes disc-based XDCAM and XDCAM HD cameras., and the newer SxS-based XDCAM EX cameras. Content from XDCAM cameras can be imported and edited natively without transcoding or conversion. This makes possible similar workflows to Panasonic P2, including the ability to edit content directly from XDCAM EX cameras.

Note: Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 3.2 does not support IMX editing or XDCAM HD50 editing at this time. Export to XDCAM is also not possible.

Adobe Premiere Pro now has presets for HDV 24p. Note: Adobe Premiere Pro does NOT support print to tape in 24p mode.

Improved handling of MPEG streams (e.g.: HDV video), along with error detection. MPEG stream errors can occur during recording due to tape dropouts, record start/stop glitches, timecode breaks, etc. Bad frames caused by these MPEG stream errors are identified during import/indexing or playback. These frames will play back as full red frames to alert the user that there is a problem in the encoded video at that location.
Adobe Premiere Pro will also log error messages to the Events panel, indicating where the error(s) were encountered in the stream. Users can open the Events panel, determine the location of the MPEG stream error, navigate to that location in the clip and take corrective action, such as trimming out the video glitch or covering up the red frames with duplicated good frames copied from before or after the glitch.
Note: MPEG files will need to be re-indexed to take advantage of the improvements in Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 3.2.0 For more information, please see Working with MPEG Files.

Notable fixes
Titles/Footage show up as offline when reloading saved projects.

Rendered preview files will be missing when reloading saved projects.

Certain filters and/or transitions aren’t applied correctly when reloading saved projects, until the timeline is forcibly refreshed.

When exporting via the Adobe Media Encoder, a long delay would occur before the progress dialog would show &
rendering resumed (Mac OS 10.5.x only).

24p HDV clips shot on a Canon XH A1 come in incorrectly as 30 fps clips.

Creating an offline clip in the project window, then attempting to link it to media on disk would trigger a crash in
Adobe Premiere Pro.

QT PAL movies rendered out of Adobe After Effects® software would be incorrectly identified as requiring rendering in a Adobe Premiere Pro PAL project.

DV Clips of certain specific durations would be incorrectly identified on the timeline as requiring rendering.

For P2 DVCPro clips, the right-most pixel column contained video garbage.
Fixed a memory fragmentation problem that would occur with projects with many custom bin columns.

Fixed a bug where exporting to a QuickTime movie (with QT 7.4) would crash the application.

Selecting "display only exact name matches" when relinking clip no longer crashes on Leopard.

Fixed an issue where 30p and 30f HDV clips would incorrectly be identified as requiring rendering in a 29.97 progressive project.

Known Issues

For Batch Capture of 24p, 24f, 30p and 30f HDV clips, it is recommended to manually capture clips one at a time or capture the entire tape or portions of the tape and edit the captured clips manually. Using Sub-clips from the captured clips can help remedy the issues with batch capture and organization of the clips in the project.

Download the PremierePro 3.2.0 Update for XDCAM Support and Improved HDV support

Note: Updates will not install on trial versions due to license restrictions

Click logo for PremPro 3.2.0 OSX updater

Watch This:

Click logo for PremPro 3.2.0 WIndows updater

Special Thanks to our Adobe Platinum VAR sponsers: www.mbsdirect.com for hosting the videos and special thanks to www.thedvshop.com for providing the 8 core GraVT Vista64 screamer and finally www.microsearch.com for the www.iKanCorp.com GreenScreen lighting system.

During our internal CS3 beta cycles of Adobe PremierePro CS3 and Adobe Encore CS3 , I spent most of my efforts on HDV and Blu-ray workflows while prepping for NAB 2007. The idea was to come up with a simple workflow allowing the user to ingest HDV and end up with a playable Blu-ray disc for the Sony Playstation 3, which is currently the least expensive Blu-ray player.  In the Adobe booth we demo’d Blu-ray authoring on an Intel QuadCore Mac and playing burned media on a Playstation3. We had 2 Blu-ray discs, one encoded as MPEG2 Single Pass (draft mode) and a H.264 Two Pass (High Quality Mode) ** UPDATE ** Since this article was written last year, I have spent my early 2008 efforts on working with Panasonic P2 footage and Blu-ray and have been very happy with the workflow. P2 footage to Blu-ray works amazing well with Encore. Look for an upcoming article. Once you go tapeless , it's hard to go back to tape. I'll also be working with Sony EX tapeless footage this year as well - Stay tuned.

In the Sony booth Blu-ray area, a Sony Rep was demoing and burning Blu-ray discs from EncoreCS3 via a Sony burner and Dell machine. He was taking the burned BD-RE Sony disc from the Dell Desktop and playing it in the PS3.For time sake, they were also encoding in MPEG2 Single pass “draft mode” and using a standard DVD size project (720x480). This allowed them to demo a complete “click to burn” cycle in just a few minutes. They wanted to show a complete Blu-ray workflow from PremierePro’s Timeline to Encore to Auto Erase to burn, and lastly, playing in the PS3. It was a great demo. The video quality was so so, but keep in mind that the idea was to show the workflow, not wait for a long H264 Encode for the highest quality.

Read on to learn more .......

CREATING THE PROJECT

For my tests I used the Mac OSX version of Adobe PremierePro CS3 and Encore CS3. For hardware, I used a new 8 Core MacPro Desktop and my 17” MacBookPro laptop. Both systems have internal Blu-ray Matsushita Panasonic BD drives. The Mac Laptop has the new Matsushita  UJ-215I internal BD drive (www.fastmac.com and only fits the 17”) and 3 GB RAM. The Mac Desktop has the Matsushita SW-5582 drive and 8GB Ram. Both Macs are running 10.4.9. ** A note for PC users, I will be running the same workflow tests shortly on XP and expect similar results. The current tests had more to do with getting a fast machine for H.264 crunching and the 8 core mac was available. I recently upgraded my GravTY XP desktop (The DV Shop.com) to an 8 Core system running CS3 and will be posting the results soon. Having an 8 Core machine ( Intel Mac or PC) makes all the difference when it comes to processing power. Adobe and Intel have done a great job on utilizing the 8 Cores to about 80% (See screen grab). I did the same test on a 4 Core machine and all 4 cores were pegged at 98-99% - meaning that more processors would help.

The above Mac screen grab shows the 8 Core processors crunching a H.264 Two Pass file. Note the processors levels.  I did a quick test on an 8 Core PC and got the similar results. If you were wondering whether to spring for an 8 Core, this should help your decision.Both the Mac and PC have utils for monitoring the performance of your memory and processors.

KNOW YOUR SOURCE

For source material, I used both Canon and Sony HDV demo tapes. The Canon tapes had demo footage from their new HV10, XH A1, and XH G1. The Sony tape had demo footage from their Z1U camera. Sony overlaid a Sony Z1U Logo in the upper right hand corner, which means at some point it was recompressed back to HDV and put back on tape therefore making the Canon footage a little cleaner. For BEST results, shoot your own HDV footage so you know where the source originated. After NAB, I used some of my own HDV footage I shot with a Canon XH G1 and the final Blu-ray quality was simply amazing. I am totally sold on the XH G1 and SDI.

THE REAL WORK

The HDV capture process in Premiere CS3 is the same as earlier versions of PremierePro. By picking the correct HDV project preset when I launched PremierePro, the HDV capture settings were ready to go.

One thing to point out, HDV to Blu-ray projects can get very large rather quickly. Most people just keep track of the footage files and their sizes, but when you start encoding for Blu-ray (or DVD) you can take up an additional 12GB per hour ( 3 Gb per hour for Standard DVD) and finally, once Encore starts the burning process, you take additional space to create the Image File (another 12GB per hour) which is burned on the disc. This Image file is automatically deleted once the burn is completed. Obviously, the file size will differ depending on your encoding method and settings. H.264 is roughly 7 GB per hour and MPEG2 is roughly 12GB per hour – but having a general rule of how much working space you need on your drive is key – many drives have errors on various long processes when they reach the last 20% of the drive. This one of many reasons to always create a simple internal 2 drive Striped Raid set for your video data.

For this first test project, I captured 10 minutes of 1440x1080i HDV footage, created a simple title logo and exported using the Adobe Media Encoder (AME). The new version of AME allows you to encode Blu-ray as either MPEG2 or H.264.  In all cases I used the standard High Quality presets (make sure to double check that your frame rate is correct 29.97 NTSC or 25 PAL and so on). MPEG2 Single Pass encodes faster than RealTime. I found the Single Pass quality to be very useful when you want to quickly create a “draft” quality Blu-ray. For the best quality, I found using H.264  Two Pass (High Quality Preset – check your frame rate) to be excellent. The encode time was about 41 minutes for the 10 minute timeline (basically a 4 to 1 encode). REMEMBER, that I am using an 8 core Mac with 8GB ram. When I ran the same 10 minute test on my Core 2 Duo 2.33 Ghz 17” laptop, the results were 24 minutes for the MPEG2 Single Pass and 110 Minutes  H.264 Two Pass.

Encode Times Table for the 8 Core Intel 3.0Ghz

Source: Sony Z1U 1440x1080i

Hardware: Macintosh MacPro Dual Quad 8 Core 3.0 Ghz. 8 MB Ram. OSX 10.4.9

Next step, Launch Encore CS3 and select Blu-ray for Authoring Mode, 1440x1080 for Dimensions and H.264 or MPEG2 as the codec (depending on which one you exported out of PremierePro).For my quick test, I simply imported the video and audio files (takes a few minutes to read the H264 file, be patient) and selected both clips in the Project Panel, right mouse clicked and selected New >Timeline. Encore automatically named the timeline with the same name of the first selected clip, in my case, Sony H.264. From Project Panel I selected the Sony H.264 Timeline and took the End Action “pick whip” from the Properties Panel and dragged it to the Sony H.264 Timeline in the Project Panel.

This creates a quick looping project. Next, I clicked the gray area in the Properties Panel, which will change the Properties Panel to Disc. I used the “pick whip” again on the Title Button and dragged it to the Sony H264 Timeline in the Properties Panel. This will allow you to select the “Title” button on your Blu-ray remote and restart the Disc from the beginning. Lastly, I selected the Build Panel and pressed the [Check Project] button and then [Start]. This would have listed any errors in the project. There were none.

I use Verbatim BD-RE (re-writable) Blu-ray media as they always result in a great quality disc. Encore can erase them in just a few seconds and they can be used over and over allowing you to start with a quick preview of the video quality without wasting a BD-R disc (write-once). Encore goes through several processes before writing the disc. Some of these are ; Transcoding the Audio (remember, the video was already transcoded from Premiere and AME), Importing Sequences, Building Movies (folders),  Building Disc Image, and finally Write the disc.

The write speed currently is 2.5x on the Desktop models and 1.0x on the internal laptop slim drive. If you are writing a 20GB disc, it will take a while. Again, this is a great reason to use reliable media BD-RE media for testing in case something fails.

After the write process was completed Encore ejected the disc. I put the disc in the Playstation3 and in just a few seconds the video was playing. *** Note *** the Playstation 3 requires the 1.6 or higher firmware update to play BD-R and BD-RE discs. If you have a PS3, make sure you have updated the Firmware using the System Update.

I have also played the disc on the Samsung and higher end Blu-ray players with no issues.

A FEW MORE NOTES

If you are new to Blu-ray authoring, you will find the process in Encore to be much the same as creating a standard DVD. The Menu creation is the same with the exception of the size of the menu (HD), I did have one menu, which the quality seemed low, and I realized that the menu I selected was a 720x480 size , after adjusting the size in Photoshop to HD, it looked fine. In later tests, I created larger projects (2 Hrs) and used sub-menus, the same as if I was creating a standard DVD. Encore had no issues.

Be careful when adjusting the bit rates for video and audio, try using the default settings in AME and Encore. I always use AME straight from PremierePro rather than importing the Quicktime or AVI into Encore and having Encore Trascode the video. It’s simply a matter of disc space. Both Premiere and Encore use the same AME engine, only the presets are slightly different.

(OK - The War is OVER. THIS IS OLD NEWS) WHAT ABOUT HD DVD ?

WHAT ABOUT BD-J ?

I also got a ton of questions at NAB on BD-J (Java) which is a method of making an interactive Blu-ray menu and more. This is obviously a possible future direction for Encore and other Blu-ray authoring systems, but requires an entirely new menu-editing mode. The BD-J authoring system I saw at NAB used a ton of Java command lines and,  to me, this seems to me to be the wrong approach for the typical user of Adobe video tools. We will have to wait and see what the Encore Engineering team dreams up for BD-J or maybe they have a different approach all together ; )

FINAL THOUGHTS

I wasn't’t quite sure what to expect from creating my first Blu-ray disc. The PremierePro editing and Encore process was as simple as creating standard DVD's with the exception the various settings. The 1440x1080 workflow seems to be perfect for the standard LCD's and Plasma 16:9 screens as the 1440 image fills the entire screen. The HD quality looked beautiful and I now seem to be spoiled and whenever I see a standard DV project burned to a Standard DVD-R it just isn’t the same. The only thing I can compare it to is Cassette Tape to Compact Disc. As we all know, Cassette Tape is pretty painful to listen to after years of Cds.

UPDATE 5/17  David Helmly Adobe Systems,Inc.

I have been getting questions on the various Blu ray burners we have tested with Encore CS3 and we will be posting them on the Adobe site once PremierePro CS3 and Encore CS3 ship this summer.
Some of the models we have tested: Pioneer BDR-101A , Sony BWU-100A , Plextor PX-B900A , Lacie d2 External Blu-ray Drive , Matsushita UJ-210S , Matsushita SW-5582 , Matsushita UJ-215I slim laptop, Phillips SPS7000 , LITE-ON LS2B1S , LG GBW-H10N. Note I plan to check out the new Primera Bravo SE Blu and the Bravo XR-Blu as they also use the Matsushita Panansonic SW-5582.

Entry Update 3/01/08

IMPORTANT MacPro UPDATE: Using the 2 ODD onboard SATA ports.

I have had a lot of questions recently on using the Optical Disk Drive (ODD) SATA ports on the MacPro towers with Encore Blu-ray burning. These 2 ports are located under the Front Fan Housing. People wanting to install an internal Blu-ray drive are finding it more and more difficult to get their hands on the older IDE/ATA Blu-ray drives like the Sony 100A or the Panasonic 5582 or others. These drives can simply connect to the spare IDE cable in the MacPro drive cage. SATA Blu-ray drives like the new LG GGW-H20L , Pioneer BDC 202, and the Sony BWU 200S are becoming cheaper and cheaper, now under 399.00. It would seem like a quick and easy solution to simply connect the SATA Blu-ray drive to one of the ODD SATA ports on the MacPro logic board. If you choose this route you WILL run into a ton of burning issues. I have spent hours testing this and it will not work reliably as of today. I see issues with burning a simple BR data disk in Mac OS 10.5.2, which now appears to support Blu-ray BD-R mounting and writing (Apple makes no mention of supporting BR) . Toast 8 seems to have issues burning BR with the SATA ports as well.

Someone from the Apple Hardware team responded to us with this statement:

"I spoke with our engineering folks and they've said that those ODD SATA ports were never intended for customer expansion. They were there for future possible expansion. In the current Mac Pro 2008, those ports should be turned off completely. It looks like the best alternative right now is the approach you've taken with the converter board. I'll keep poking around to see if there is any more data on this but for now, I think that the best answer is that those ports aren't supported for expansion."

I also spoke to our lead engineer on Encore and asked him to double check with Sonic (they write the Blu-ray and DVD drivers for Encore) and he replied with this:

"The AS_Storage team found a problem in the transport layer in OSX. They’re going to report the bug to Apple, but will look for a work-around in the mean time. I’ll let you know if we find a resolution."

I HAVE FOUND A WORKABLE SOLUTION FOR INSTALLING SATA INTERNAL BLU-RAY DRIVES:

You need to buy a cheap (20-30 US dollars) 40 pin IDE/ATA to SATA converter adapter. This small adapter connects to the back of the SATA drive and gives you 40 pin IDE on the back side and it appears to work OK. I have been testing this found no down side. You may need an IDE extension cable depending on the SATA drive you buy. My Pioneer BDC 202 Blu-ray drive did need a 4" extension cable. The drive still shows 4x speed. If anything changes on using the ODD SATA ports on the MacPro , I will post info. For now, save your self the headache and get an older IDE internal drive or SATA with the Manhattan Adapter or use an External Blu-ray burner (best solution) PLEASE BE SMART - HAVE AN AUTHORIZED MAC SERVICE CENTER INSTALL THESE DRIVES: you don’t want to void your warranty.

If you want to try the Manhattan adapter, here is some info:

Purchase:
http://www.computercablesource.com/sata-adapter-adapt-your-serial-ata-drive-to-a-ide-40-pin-controller-manhattan-170000-internal-use-1383.html

Hope this helps
DKH

Watch This:

As promised here is a quick workflow video showing the new support in  After Effects CS3 for Panasonic P2 MXF.You will see this P2 feature as part of the next free update (v8.02) which is due to be released before the end of 2007.

A few key points:

AE Importer P2

Native Panasonic P2 MXF on the AE timeline

Using Effects on P2 Footage

Premiere Pro Project Importer: Import full PremierePro P2 Projects or take your pick from a project sequence list

Imported Premiere Pro CS3 P2 Project

Take advantage of the Production Premium video suite by using DynamicLink between AfterEffects CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3. Just drag and drop from the After Effects Project Panel into the Premiere Pro Project Panel.