Adobe Premiere Pro Huge Preview Files

[fishmarket]

I just finished editing, authoring and burning my 3rd movie using Premiere Pro V7.0 and busted my cherry on this one. My first problem was in the audio section. I finally figured out that my problem was that the original audio track (the one that was made with the video on the camcorder) was clipping. I figured out how to correct that (probably in my own primitive way). My next problem that I still can't figure out was the size of my preview files (152 gigs). The AVI file I created was a tad over 20 gigs. My Mpeg file I created with tmpenc was a little over 4 gigs and the length of the movie was a little over 1hr 40minutes. My problem is the size of the preview files and why they were created. I figured out that they are not needed to make the AVI file. My PC has no problem rendering the movie. My operating system is XP Home with service pak 1. I have a Vaio with a pentium 4 CPU 2.66 GHz and 512 MB of RAM. I think my problem could be the way I preview the movie. Sometimes I use the play button in the monitor window of primiere or sometimes I use the space bar or sometimes I use the Enter Key. Anyway preview files that large are unexceptable. Can they be avoided or do I have to continuously delete them? Thanks in advance for any help.

[racer-x]

Delete them when you are finnished with the project.

Everytime you save you project, Premiere writes to the files. Every time you import an AVI or wav file, it writes to the Preview files. The same applies when you edit. The Preview files are there to give you realtime editing. You should leave them until you are finnished, then delete them to clean up the HDD.

[pijetro]

Seems a little high for preview files...

IMHO, the immediate culprit would be that your captured .AVI isn't the same as the project settings of Premiere Pro..
The easiest way to check, is to drop your video on the timeline. If you see a red bar across the top of the timeline, you'll have to choose whether to create your project settings to match your video, or capture your video to match the project settings..

Clear as mud?!?

[fishmarket]

Just found out some interesting playback settings. The Real Time playback was on Playback on DV Hardware and Desktop. I believe if I set it on Playback on Desktop Only that premiere will not create preview files. What do you think?

[fishmarket]

Isn't there a way to play back the edited video just with the resources of my PC and not create any preview files?

[BJ_M]

yes -if you use vegas ... but i believe you can do that also with adobe , not sure the settings

[pijetro]

Isn't there a way to play back the edited video just with the resources of my PC and not create any preview files?

Actually, the only time preview files are made, are when you make a transition, or somehow change the "guts" of the original video. Again, assuming the original video is the same structure as the project file..

The realtime playback is a catch phrase, in where it only seems like it's realtime..It shouldn't have anything to do with preview files..

Preview files are created when you render a portion of your video (transitions for example)..This way, when you encode, save out, or playback, a pointer in Premiere accesses these little preview files to get smooth playback...
As mentioned earlier, if you hit the enter key and render the red bar to a green bar, this green bar will be the preview file that gets pointed to.

Drop any of those preview files into VirtualDub, and you'll quickly see that this is true..