Capturing Video to Adobe Premiere CS3 (USB)

[Haz567_a]

Hello, i'm new to capturing video and i'm having difficulty transferring footage from my video camera to Adobe Premiere CS3.

My camera - Panasonic VDR-D300

I am trying to connect through USB and I get the Capture Device Offline message in the Capture window everytime I open it. I have installed the camera drivers, and I am able to access the files through a third party program (DVD-MovieAlbumSE) where I can export the files but only as .mpeg.

Any help? Thank you.

[edDV]

I didn't think CS3 supported any capture over USB. You should use the software that came with the camcorder and then try to import the resulting file. First check to see if the file format and codec are supported by CS3.

[edDV]

...
I am able to access the files through a third party program (DVD-MovieAlbumSE) where I can export the files but only as .mpeg.

That camcorder encodes everything to MPeg. That is what you have.

Premiere CS3 should import the MPeg2 file but will recode every frame.

[Haz567_a]

So firewire might be a better option?

Will there be any quality difference through importing straight into Premiere as opposed to using DVD-MovieAlbumSE to save the movie files first?

[edDV]

So firewire might be a better option?

I don't think that camcorder has a Firewire port. It's a DVDR cam. It encodes to MPeg2 on DVDR.
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/panasonic-vdr-d300/4507-6500_7-31660692.html

Will there be any quality difference through importing straight into Premiere as opposed to using DVD-MovieAlbumSE to save the movie files first?

No since nothing is being recoded.

A quick look at Premiere CS3 camcorder support shows nothing for consumer DVDR camcorders. You will need to import the MPeg2 file.
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/search_result.html?manuSearchVar=1&modelSearchV...ras&format=PAL