Adobe prelude: how to create subclip on both .264 and .aac files together

[afjka]

Dear all,

I'm a complete newbie to video editing and I've encountered some problems. It would be highly appreciated if anyone could offer some help.
I'm using macOS Catalina 10.15.7 and Adobe Premiere Pro 2020, Adobe Prelude.

Video resources I have: mkv files for over 400 anime episodes
Goal: create a fan video for a few characters

1. What I have done:
1.1 transferred mkv files into .264 for video and .aac for audio cause the latter are compatible with Premiere and Prelude

2. What I want to do at this stage:
2.1 ingest all .264 videos and .aac audios into Prelude
2.2 create subclips and comment on them so that I can sort the clips as [A walks away]; [B smokes]; [C cries], etc. I was told that sortting the resources is the first step before you use them to create a new fan video with story line.

Problem I have:
Now I stuck at 2.2 because
1) Prelude cannot put both audio and video at the working space as in Premiere
2) When I create subclips, for example, "in" at 00;12;10;04 and "out" at 00;13;23;14 in .264 the video file, this subclip's in and out time is only saved in .264 the video file.
3) But obviously, I need the same subclip "in" and "out" at the same time in .aac the audio file

How could I do it? Anyone could help me? Or it is a too basic and simple question that some tutorial courses would help? If so, are there any suggestions about tutorials for Prelude and Premiere? I'm trying this one http://t.cn/A6b48OED?u=7279138788&m=4556142032716454&cu=7279138788&ru=7279138788&rm=4556141717619765 but it does not solve my question above.

Thanks again. I'd be very grateful for your advice and help.

Best!

[smrpix]

First, eliminate Prelude from your workflow completely. There is nothing you can do in Prelude that you cannot do in Premiere.

Why did you separate the audio and video in your very first step? Keep them together and you eliminate all your subsequent problems.

Also, what software did you use for that first step?

[Cornucopia]

I agree. Mux them back into simple, standard mp4 contaners. This will also have the effect of ganging the clips' audio & video streams timelines, so an edit/trim to one will similarly affect the other (stream).

Scott

[afjka]

First, eliminate Prelude from your workflow completely. There is nothing you can do in Prelude that you cannot do in Premiere.

Why did you separate the audio and video in your very first step? Keep them together and you eliminate all your subsequent problems.

Also, what software did you use for that first step?

Thanks for your reply!
The software I used is tsMuxerGUI on macOS. I've also found that a mixture of mkvtoolnix and MKVExtractGUI on windows would do.

I want to separate them because
1) premiere cannot use MKV
2) convert MKV to MP4 can be very slow, but extract .264 and .aac from it just takes seconds. (and I've heard that .264 is a better form to work on Premiere b/c it takes smaller space and thus will be smoother in my case with 50G+ resources.
3) the MKV I have there have multiple subtitles and I only need the ENG one. I'll need to extract that later.
4) and maybe the most important one, I've been told it is easier for Prelude to handle large files than Premiere. Say, Premiere might crash when you work on 10+ movies there b/c they are just too large, but Prelude will not. So, create useful subclips in Prelude first and then use them in Premiere will solve this problem

Again, I'm completely new to all of these things. Plz correct me if I'm wrong or inaccurate. Thanks a lot.

[afjka]

I agree. Mux them back into simple, standard mp4 contaners. This will also have the effect of ganging the clips' audio & video streams timelines, so an edit/trim to one will similarly affect the other (stream).

Scott

Thanks. Seems like the only option I have now. Extra question, is mp4 the most common type of file we use to edit in Premiere? Should I convert all my resources from MKV to MP4 before editing in Premiere?
Thanks again.

[smrpix]

I want to separate them because
1) premiere cannot use MKV

True.

2) convert MKV to MP4 can be very slow, but extract .264 and .aac from it just takes seconds. (and I've heard that .264 is a better form to work on Premiere b/c it takes smaller space and thus will be smoother in my case with 50G+ resources.

Your original .mkv files are probably h.264 in an .mkv contaiber. No need to re-encode, simply rewrap. It is fast.

3) the MKV I have there have multiple subtitles and I only need the ENG one. I'll need to extract that later.

Do not use TSMuxeR for subs. It will not output .srt

4) and maybe the most important one, I've been told it is easier for Prelude to handle large files than Premiere. Say, Premiere might crash when you work on 10+ movies there b/c they are just too large, but Prelude will not. So, create useful subclips in Prelude first and then use them in Premiere will solve this problem.

You've been misinformed. Even Adobe isn't pushing Prelude anymore. Get rid of it.


Do this:

Download Shutter Encoder, a good FFmpeg front end.

Use the extract function to extract your desired subtitles as .srt.

Use the rewrap function to convert your .mkv file to .mts. This will be your muxed audio and video. (It should work to rewrap to .mp4 or .mov as well, but for some reason it does not. That's fine. They are all just wrappers. You have not changed the actual content.)

Load both the .mts and the .srt into Premiere. (You may need to set the captions parameters to ensure your subs match your timeline fps and raster size.)

Make a timeline including the video, audio and subs.

Select all tracks.

Right Click and choose Group.

Now all your tracks are locked together.

Subclip and rearrange to your heart's content.

[afjka]

smrpix, Thanks a lot for your reply! Very detailed and useful!!! Wish you a happy week and year!