Premiere vs Pinnacle?

[AlanE]

I want to convert and edit DV to DVD. A buddy gave me his old Adobe Premiere 5.5. How does the Adobe 5.5 compare with Pinnacle in editing and converting DV to DVD (or DVD compatible format). I am very new to DV editing and looking for idiot-friendly editing software. Some of you recommended Pinnacle a couple of days ago but I now have an opportunity to use Adobe Premiere 5.5 for free. Is the Adobe a good, easy to use program? Which is better?

Also, do I need a capture card if my system has iLink and Windows Movie Maker?

Thanks for your help and have a great holiday!

[jtor]

AlanE,

...it really depends on what you want to do. Pinnacle Studio is somewhat 'highly recommended' for beginners, so it'll be great if you're a newbie. Premiere offers 'A LOT' more, but the learning curve is much steeper (compared to Pinnacle Studio). For basic video stuff, like transitions, titles, Pinnacle Studio is good enough.

Hope this helps.

[AlanE]

Thanks for responding. What I want to do is simple DV editing with transitions, titles, and music....then burn it to a DVD. Sounds like the Pinnacle is the way to go. I would have to buy a $35 book to use the Premiere anyway.

What about the capture ability? Shouldn't I have capture ability with the iLink or the Windows Movie Maker on XP?

Thanks again for your help.

[jtor]

DV is not captured. The video/audio stream is basically transferred to your PC thru the firewire (ilink, IEEE1394) port. Pinnacle Studio, Premiere, and MovieMaker have this 'tranferring' capability, so you shouldn't have to worry about that.

Making DVDs is another story. First, you need to create MPEG2s out of these DV-AVI files you've edited/played with. I'm not sure of the quality of Studio's encoder. Consider TMPGENC, which is relatively cheap for the quality. But be warned, depending on your PC's power, this encoder could be very slow.

Once you have MPEG2s, you'll need a DVD Authoring software. Check the TOOLS section, for demos.

Hope this helps.

[abe1975]

So your saying that Pinnacle supports the VOB video formats?
I have tried Premiere and it doesnt seem to recognize DVD Rips(VOB) and doesnt allow me to edit them. I will look into Pinnacle further,

[EricB]

No I think you read some things into that answer. Studio does not support editing VOBs. Your topic was DV which Studio will import, edit, etc.

The encoder in Studio is in my opinion poor. I would suggest saving your edited file as DV and encoding with TMPGEnc.

You don't need a capture card if you have iLink (Sony brand name for firewire). You need a digital camcorder and if you want to convert other sources then it needs to have at least analog in.

[donpedro]

Studio 8 does have capture function (FireWire port). It captures in DV AVI format. Studio 8 converts DV AVI to DVD mpeg2. Quality is good enough but not as good as TMPGEnc (will your grandma see difference ?). Studio 8 is very easy to use and still enough powerfull to do home video editing. Studio 8 can create very nice menus with moving (short video) buttons. Studio can create DVD (ready to burn) image (VIDEO_TS dir) and also it can burn (never tried since it seems that they don't support Sony 100%). They have poor support, but who doesn't.

[Russo238]

Well, I used both Studio 8 & Premiere 6 and found the learning curve for Studio to be amazingly easy. Premiere, like other professional software from Adobe, requires some time, a lot time in front of the PC. If cost is not the issue, I think I'd still use Studio for this fact alone. Still try to get the Premiere copy for future.

Now, I still have Premiere (came loaded on my notebook). Once I get more familiar with video editing I may switch but since all I'm doing is capturing home movies, editing with cool transitions and sounds, Studio is what I'll use.

Hope that helps in your decision.

[q1aqza]

I have recently 'moved up' to Premiere from Studio. I admit I found it very difficult and found I was taking much longer to produce basic edited video than what I can produce in Studio in much less time.

I then decided to go to a bookshop and bought Sams teach yourself Premiere in 24 HRs by Jeff Sengstack. Sat down in front of my PC and read the book and followed some of the tasks. After about 6 hours (not all in one session) I was able to do more with Premiere than I could with over a year of using Studio, largely due to the more powerful and interesting features and learning how to use them.

I am only scratching at the surface of what it can do and I'm looking forward to learning much more.