A couple problems with Premiere 6.0

[drummermanphil]

Is it normal for a FOUR minute video to take 6 HOURS to export from premiere. It does have three audio tracks, and maybe like 5 transitions throughout the whole thing, but surely not 6 hours worth. It used to take like 20 minutes for a video that length or longer to export, untill I switched hard drives. But the thing is I switched to a completely empty 60GB hard drive, as compared to the other almost full 20GB HD. Im running a Sony VAIO 2.4GHZ, 512 DDR, one 20GB and one 60GB hard drive. I dont know what the problem is, it doesnt make sense.

My other problem is when I export a movie from Premiere 6.0, the light in the video is all....kind of distorted I guess. I dont know how to say it. Its only if a light source is close to something, like a lamp next to a wall. When the movie is IN Premiere still it all looks fine. Is it the Program (Windows Media 9) im using that does this? Will it look like this when I export to tape? Any suggestions on either of these issues would be greatlyy appreciated.

[mkelley]

The first thing I'd wonder is exactly what are you exporting this to -- DV-AVI, or some sort of compressed format. If a compressed format, I'd try DV-AVI. If that won't solve your problem (you're already exporting to DV-AVI, or it takes the same length of time) to nail this down you need to go back to basics. Take a four minute AVI without any transitions or effects and only one audio track and export it to DV-AVI -- this ought to take no more than a minute or two. If it takes longer, there's something wrong somewhere with your system..

If this works then add in another audio track. Then a transition. Etc. Somewhere along the line you ought to be able to nail down the problem.

My guess is that even a simple AVI with no cuts will still take a long time for you. My gut just tells me this is a system problem, maybe your registry is all screwed up, your swap file is fragmented (you say you have an almost full main drive -- is that where you swap file is located? If so, that could be a *big* problem. Move it to that second drive, preferably in a separate partition). You also don't say what OS -- let's hope it isn't Win '98, which is pretty awful when it comes to doing anything short of word processing.

Assuming you're running a good OS (any NT flavor; NT, Win2K, XP) I'd next make sure the registry is okay. Use RegCleaner or some such and get rid of anything you're not sure of. Or just reinstall your OS and clean your system out from scratch -- sometimes that's the best thing to do in these cases.

Sorry to be so general, but this sounds like a general problem.

[drummermanphil]

Im using Windows XP. This is a brand new comptuer so I hope it isnt a system problem already. I dont know if I am exporting to DV-AVI or not, im new to all of this. I dont even know what my registry is. I will try RegCleaner. I am assuming this is freeware.

[mkelley]

XP is a good OS -- I personally think it's the best OS MS has ever done.

If this is a brand new computer *and* you haven't downloaded every free software program in the world from the net your registry is probably okay. The registry is where programs register themselves and various components. Downloading a lot of crap programs (that don't particularly take care in their registry entries) can slow up your computer and/or make it not function correctly. In these instances even uninstalling the program may not properly remove the registry entries.

You need to try the tests I suggested -- take a short video (a DV-AVI, recorded directly from a camera or other video source) without transitions (cuts only) and export it as a DV-AVI -- you'll see the choice when you choose AVI (it will say NTSC and list the appropriate parameters like 29.97fps, 720x480 frame size, etc. etc). This shouldn't take more than a few minutes and if it does then there is something wrong somewhere. If you don't have a DV-AVI source then just create the color bars video inside of Premiere (File/create/colorbars, I think, in the video clip section) and drag this out so it's around 3 minutes long.

You also don't say what your video source is -- how did you get the video in the first place? If it's not DV-AVI then there may indeed be a lot of conversion going on as Premiere reencodes it to the right format.

If this works then try a transition and see what happens. Keep going until you find the culprit -- troubleshooting is all about eliminating variables so you are only testing *one* thing at a time.

[drummermanphil]

Sorry for such the general post above, I was in a rush. I havent download any freeware, it doesnt even have internet yet. I got the video straigt from my Sony TRV22 MiniDV camcorder via firewire cable. I will try the tests you suggested, thanks alot for taking the time to type out all of that! Ill tell you how it turns out. Thanks again.

[drummermanphil]

Ok I tried just exporting a 47 SECOND film with just cuts.....nothing else. 31 MINUTES!!!!! This is making me real mad. I dont know if this could have anything to do with it, but I tried exporting to both of my harddrives, and both had the same result. I dont know whats going on. Could it be some settings wrong in Premiere.

One quick other question, for shooting movies that will be sent to the computer and edited, should i shoot in 16 or 12 bit audio?? Or does it matter. I have just had some problems recently with capturing movies from my MiniDV camcorder to the computer, audio is jumpy, thats it. It may be because I have used this tape over aboutt 10 times, because the video that I shoot on the unused part of the tape captures well. I must go now, help is welcomed.

[mkelley]

I'm in front of Premiere now, so let's go through this step by step:

1) When Premiere opens and you get the "Load Project Settings" create a new project using an available preset. We want to use "DV-NTSC Real-time preview" and the one that says Standard 48kHz.

2) Go to the Project window and right click. Choose Import/File and then chose the AVI that you captured from your camera.

At this point it should be identified in the project window as a Movie that is 720x480, 29.97fps and 48000Hz- 16 bit Stereo. If this is not correct then there's something wrong with your video capture.

3). Right click on the movie and choose "Insert at Edit Line". This will put your clip in the timeline. Do not do anything else at this point -- don't edit or anything.

4). Go to File/Export Timeline and choose Movie. The default settings should be "Work Area as Microsoft DV AVI, 720x480 at 29.97, compression Microsoft DV (NTSC) @ 100%. Audio 48000 Hz - 16 bit Stereo, Compressor: Uncompressed. Press Save

5) With the my 2.4Gz processor it takes about the twice the length of time to save as the movie length -- in this case I saved a three minute movie in about five minutes. If after following this directions exactly it takes you appreciably longer then there is something wrong with your system.

The first thing I'd worry about is your swap file. Go back and look what I said about it. Having only a 20 gig main drive is a real problem, particularly if you don't have at least 5 to 8 gig free on that drive. Make sure it's defragmented (and defragment your D: drive as well). That's all I can think of right now.

[drummermanphil]

Fixed it. Was exporting as Windows AVI not Windows DV AVI. Just overlooked it. Thanks for stickign in there with me.