Adobe premiere pro 2?????

[Reggie6966]

Hi,
This is my first post so I hope I am in the right section of the forum.

I have played around with other basic movie makers in the past but have just started using Adobe premiere pro 2 in the past few days and need help.

I have no problem capturing and importing clips from my panasonic video camera into premiere, but the clips are huge.

A 3 second clip is 11mb, 15 seconds is 60mb and 1 minute is 300mb.

Ok, I know you people are laughing at me, but I am new to this...what have I done? or not done?
I appreciate any help.

Thankyou
Reggie

[aedipuss]

you can also use winDV to import from the camera but the file size is probably correct. uncompressed miniDV from a digital cam is about 13GB per hour.

[Reggie6966]

Thanks for the reply,
If the uncompressed miniDV from a digital cam is about 13GB per hour. Then How do I compress this footage? is there a setting in premiere? As i would prefer to download my footage thru premiere as that is the program I will be using.
Or what do i need to do?
this is all new to me,
thanks

[Guiboche]

There is nothing wrong, and there is no mistakes.

The footage is that big. And, if you're going to be working with it in Premiere, then it should/has to/needs to stay in the form you have captured it in. As well, if you want to record back to tape, thsi is also the same format it has to stay in.

Compression should only be applied to the final project for DVD (or whatever delievery method).

[BJ_M]

DV IS already compressed - you edit it still in the DV format is the correct method ...

then when all done editing - you export it in whatever format you require (dvd, web, archive, etc)

[Reggie6966]

Thanks for the help,
gee I will have to invest in an external hard drive as my 80g won't last long with files of this size in premiere.

I came across this site tonight trying to find answers and I must say it is awesome, you people really know your stuff. In the past 2 hours reading posts and help, it has already taught me new skills. I will be checking in here more often.

Thanks again,

Reggie

[Guiboche]

For external, I'd definitely recommend a firewire drive.

USB2 drives do work. And I've tried it myself. But the performance is sluggish.

As well, be careful of configuration if you get a firewire drive. Unless you have at least 2 firewire ports on your motherboard, you won't be able to capture to the drive. Since 1 firewire line is using, Cam-to-PC-to-Drive, you will drop frames like crazy.

If you're going with internal IDE drives those will work fine. Just make sure it's 7200RPM + 8MB ram cache (or better), and you're good....

Drives are SUPER cheap for internals as well.....

[Reggie6966]

Thanks for the info, i really appreciate that and i will do some research tomorrow as I must be off now 11.30pm here in OZ.
cheers,

[Reggie6966]

Hi, I have returned.
I have spent the past week or 2 making a short surf dvd. With the advice you gave me before i ended up capturing all of my vid tapes at the highest quality, and yes it was about 13g per hour.

I am still not sure if I am doing this in the right way.

I captured all my footage from video camera onto pc through windows movie maker,(was the easiest programme for me to start with) then being an AVI file i used virtual dub to break it into smaller clips, then i made about 5 short movies of the different surf sessions. I done this using Windows movie maker and saved them to pc as AVI. I then made one movie out of those 5 clips using windows movie maker. My dvd ended up being only about 7 minutes. I am happy with the results, except in the last 2 minutes of the dvd the sound (songs) becomes crackly or scratchy (like a loose speaker) . The movie seems ok in the movie making program but became crackly or scratchy in the burn process, i think.

Does this procedure sound right? or do i loose quality by making small movies first then putting them into another movie?
any ideas on the sound problems?

any info is appreciated,
thanks
Reg

[kimco52]

Yes, the procedure sounds about right. Should not matter that you break them up into smaller clips as long as you don't compress them or alter them other than extracting them and saving them as the same.

Sound problems sound normal. You need to reduce the volume level of your audio. It may sound normal while making it but you haven't altered it yet. When exporting to DVD, the conversion process can distort the audio if the level is too high.

I have noticed in Premiere Pro that if the final output level on the meters exceeds 0, I get distorted audio. That is why I keep the level indicators window open while editing.

[Reggie6966]

thanks for the help,
I will keep check on my audio levels from now on.
cheers
Reg