Karl Soulé at The Video Road shows how to do a ProRes Setup in Premier Pro

Karl Soulé at the Video Road has an excellent article on how to setup a ProRes workflow in PremierePro. This can be used for ProRes sequences from Final Cut Pro, or for projects shot in ProRes which is happening more often. It is too bad, you have to at the least Purchase the new Apple Motion to get ProRes codecs on your mac, but you need them (you have them if you have FCS 3.0) and with these setup settings you can easily work end to end in ProRes in Premiere Pro on your Mac.

Premiere Pro Annoyance

Mostly I am really enjoying working with Premiere Pro. Sure I have not tried it with external video as of yet, but just working with my GeForce I am fairly impressed, but there is one thing I don’t like, and that is how premiere pro deals with audio tracks. You must pick your audio setup before hand, and it is a choice between, mono, stereo and 5.1 tracks. Well honestly I really never know how I am going to get audio, some stuff can be stereo and some mono (never get any 5.1), and it is nice to be able to just put stereo tacks on two tracks (as in AVID or Final Cut), versus their own single stereo tracks in premiere. Honestly the way Premier handles audio tracks is a bit strange and a bit frustrating to my workflow. Sure I can work with it, but am not sure that I like it.

Premiere Pro with Client in the Room Article

The great Pro Video Coalition and Scott Simmons has a must read article on using Premiere Pro with a client in the room. ppro-real-world-edit-main

It is a must read for an Final Cut Pro 7 switcher. And has some great stuff on using it with an external monitor with either a Kona or a Matrox (seems Kona works better, but still has issues, especially with a long sequence).

Check it out if you get a chance. I am already making the switch to Premiere Pro CS5.5, though I am having issues with Lion, and this points out some issues I had not realized that you have to think about.

I hadn’t realized Premier Pro doesn’t have any sort of Auto Media Relinking, that each clip must be manually found. Of course with how slow Final Cut Pro 7’s could be, this might actually be faster.

No timecode window, which is a must, though was not added all that long ago to FInal Cut Pro.

Reveal in Project from Source Window! A no brainer since you can do it from the sequence!

Check out the whole article. It is worth checking out.

Adobe just blew me away! Wow!

So I have been learning Premiere Pro CS 5.5 and liking it a lot as an alternative to Final Cut Pro, but there are some things I think are missing, and have been adding Feature Requests.

Well for my request to add a duplicate clip showing in the timeline, I got a response! And one that points out all the features in the program that are similar. I am so impressed by this!

Hi Jonah,


Thanks for your request and feedback. I’ll add your name to the list of requestors for this feature request.


Premiere has clip usage indicators, which isn’t quite what you’re looking for (indicators in the Timeline), but can be very useful and is a feature that neither FCP nor Avid have.


You can turn on the Video Usage and Audio Usage data columns in the Project panel (list view mode). In the flyout menu (accessed via the widget in the upper right of each panel), choose Metadata Preferences. Then either do a search for “usage”, or twirl open the Premiere Pro Project Metadata section and put a check in the Video and Audio Usage properties so they’ll show up in the List View of the Project panel. You can rearrange the data columns in the Project panel so you can see these usage indicator columns while you’re editing. Now each time a clip is used, the usage count indicates the number of uses across all sequences in the project. For example, this is great for monitoring which clips have been used in cutaways already and which clips are unused and available.


If you need more specific usage information, here’s another tip: in the Preview Area (the top of the Project panel with the thumbnail previewer and clip info), when a clip is used in any sequence, “video used x times” or “audio used x times” appears next to the video and audio type description. And if you click on the small drop-down arrow next to the usage info, a popup menu reveals a list of the sequences the selected clip is used in, with its timecode location in each sequence usage. PLUS, if you select one of these locations in the usage popup menu, that sequence is opened and the playhead is parked at the timecode where the clip is actually used. This is one of Premiere’s “best kept secrets” and we’re working on making the feature much more discoverable.


David Kuspa | Adobe | Sr. Experience Designer, Dynamic Media

AWESOME! Adobe you are doing something right and winning a convert. My only complaint is your level 1 tech support in India is not good at all, and doesn’t really help until you get to tier 2 for the most part.

Premiere Pro in Lion Update 2

  1. OK, so NVIDIA has been able to re-create the problem, and there is a workaround. You must force the Mac into 64 Bit mode (If it can handle it). This Apple Tech Support Document gives how you can do it permanently or for a single boot.

If your Mac uses the 32-bit kernel by default, but supports the 64-bit kernel, you can start up using the 64-bit kernel by holding the 6 and 4 keys during startup.



To select the 64-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

To select the 32-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:
sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

Premiere Pro Feature Requests

So after going through and learning about the features in Premiere Pro CS5.5, I have some feature requests, all of which I have put in with Adobe at their Feature Request web site. I will continue to expand this list as I think of more things that are frustrating me, and will always submit them to Adobe first.

  1. Clip Dupe Detection in the Timeline. Both AVID and Final Cut Pro 7 have this. As it is often important to not repeat shots in Commercials, the ability to see a visual representation which shows which clips are repeated is an essential feature.
  2. MIDI interface. With Final Cut Pro I uses a Behringer BFC-2000 to be able to do a good audio mix within Final Cut Pro using it’s automation controls. This would be a perfect pairing with the Audio Mixer in Premiere, and it is frustrating that only Audition has the ability to interface with MIDI controls as I would prefer to be able to mix directly within Premiere Pro.
  3. In the Title Overlays Final Cut Pro includes markers for 4:3 center cut within a 16:9 project, which I am often using (HD project for SD 4:3 delivery).
  4. A re-sizeable, movable Timecode window, like the added to Final Cut in FCP 7.
  5. Reveal in project from Source monitor and not just from the sequence.

Premiere in Lion Update

Well my issue with Premiere and Lion is certainly a CUDA issue. NVIDIA released a new CUDA driver, 4.0.21, but it does not solve the issue. The only way to get Premiere Pro to boot is to remove the CUDA.framework from my Library, and then Premiere boots, but with software only acceleration making my GeForce completely useless. Lets hope they get on this quick!

Premiere Pro not working on Lion

I am having issues running Premiere Pro on OS X Lion with an NVIDIA Geforce GTX 285. It is crashing on launch, and seems to be a driver issues in Lion.

It seems that there is a new NVIDIA driver in Lion, as it is listed as 270.05.05f01, while the most recent NVIDIA drivers on their web site is 256.02.25f01.

And checking the CUDA Preferences it lists the current CUDA Driver 4.0.19 but says an Update is Required (though it is the latest CUDA for Mac Driver on NVIDIA’s Web site).

Since this is the relevant part of the crash log, it looks like a driver crash to me, but the driver info is the 270.05.00 NVIDIA Driver.
 

0   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x000000011769286f cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 4359831   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x00000001176c1e25 cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 6299572   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x000000011766efa9 cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 2903773   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x0000000117669a8b cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 2685874   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x0000000117671b0c cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 3014845   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x000000011766e2a7 cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 2870476   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x00000001176372f2 cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 618427   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x0000000117637caf cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage + 643358   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x00000001176d83c8 cudbgGetAPIVersion + 869529   libcuda_270.05.00.dylib           0x000000011762715c cuGLCtxCreate_v2 + 10810  com.adobe.GPUFoundation.framework    0x000000010cf3fe4c GF::Device::InitializeContextAndLoadKernels() + 194811  com.adobe.dvacore.framework       0x0000000100190b3e dvacore::threads::ExecuteTopLevelFunction(dvacore::threads::Allocated FunctionT > const&) + 4612  com.adobe.dvacore.framework       0x0000000100190438 dvacore::threads::(anonymous namespace)::WrapGCDAsyncCall(void*) + 2413  libdispatch.dylib                 0x00007fff8f9887e9 _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 25514  libsystem_c.dylib                 0x00007fff8b2913da _pthread_wqthread + 31615  libsystem_c.dylib                 0x00007fff8b292b85 start_wqthread + 13This looks like it is a driver issue with the new Lion Drivers for the Geforce GTX 285.


The only way I was able to get Premiere to launch was getting rid of the 5.5 folder from the Application Support:Adobe:Premiere Pro: folder. The program launched, but would not show any video in the sequence or from any clips, and once I quit the program, when I tried to relaunch I got the same crash again.

Here is my Thread at Adobe forums on the matter. I also called Adobe Tech supper and got a case number. They had me install the older driver from NVIDIA’s web site, but that froze my Mac at the spinning wheel (the wheel just kept going and going) so I had to do a restore using Command-R. It works, but is slow as it has to re-download the Lion install.

Editing Software on Lion

So I am checking Editing Software Compatibility of Mac OS X Lion.

As Apple Said Final Cut Pro 7.0.3 does open fine in Lion, though it does ask me to register, though the button to register is grayed out.

The Demo of AVID Media Composer 5.5.2 boots and runs just fine.

Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5 I am having issues with. and it won’t start. Adobe claims it should run fine, so I am going to try and re-install and see what happens. It is weird as After Effects and Photoshop work fine, but just Premiere won’t boot.

Larry Jordan has a nice post on Accountability

Larry Jordan has a good blog post on how Apple is not accountable to anyone for the disaster of it’s Final Cut Pro X release.

And it really is true. No is accountable, and Apple would hold everyone accountable if things were revered. Nvidia made one mistake and look they have not been in a mac since, and we the users are punished by Apple for it (having to put our ATI cards back in for major upgrades and then re-install the NVIDIA drivers).

I am knee deep into learning Premier Pro (after trying, but giving up on FCP X) and am pretty impressed by many features (especially the XML export being able to do the whole project with all sequences), but can’t see why this was even necessary! I can see that Apple might have wanted to cement their lead in the future, but not at the expense of their entire installed user base who are going to bad mouth the hell out of their new product until they make something useful.

And why buy Color, just to kill it a few years later? Or why kill Shake? Why did they not spin off their entire pro-division like they did with FileMaker Pro? Make a business unit that is answerable to it’s base. and needs to make a product that it’s customers want!

I am left shaking my head.