problems previewing transitions in premiere

[dubmuffin]

Hi,
First, a bit of history....
I've been trying to use premiere to capture and edit footage from my Mini DV for about a year and have had lots of trouble, e.g. the quality of the captured files (loads of dropped frames/banding etc.)and the source monitor going blank when I'm trying to view avi's. I have finally found a way round these problems thanks to advice given on this forum and my own research.
At the moment, I capture using the Avid Cinema software that came with my card and have put the prem50.ini file in the same folder as the premiere.exe file to overcome the source preview problem.
Latest problem:
I can't preview any transitions by holding down the alt key as I scroll through the timeline. The preview monitor flashes through the frames but just shows the cut, not the transition. This is also a problem with transparency.
I would appreciate any suggestions on this matter.
My system:
Carrera Cygnus 820
750Mhz
128 SDRAM PC100 (about to upgrade top 256, will this help?)
27Gig hard drive UDMA66 7200rpm
Matrox Marvel G400 TV
Soundblaster live platinum

Hope this is enough info, looking forward to a reply.
Thanx.

[sergiovalentino]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by dubmuffin:
...I can't preview any transitions by holding down the alt key as I scroll through the timeline. The preview monitor flashes through the frames but just shows the cut, not the transition. This is also a problem with transparency.
</font>

This is a well known problem using Matrox Mjpg codec in Adobe Premiere. The solution is to substitute the above codec with another third party codec such Morgan (working great for me) or PicVideo.
For what concern DV i don't know if it is the same stuff.

sergio

[dubmuffin]

Thanx for the reply, as far as I am aware, I am not using any codec. I want to edit and save in uncompressed format to begin with to get the best possible quality. I don't believe that avid cimema is using any compression as I create the avi files and I'm editing in Premiere using 640x480, no compression, 25fps. I think I'm using the latest driver - 4.12.01.1550 in the device manager driver file details. Any other suggestions?

[Sciascia]

OK, granted it has been awhile for me to mess with either AVIDCinema or Premiere, but I do believe that Cinema does use the MJPEG codec to compress when capturing. Another thing that may or may not help is that when you use resolutions and compression other than the original format of the capture, each clip has to be completely re-rendered while editing. That takes time, HD space and you get a genertaion loss even if it is digital, it is recompressed (although you are going to uncompressed). What worked best for me before I fell in love with MSP6 was to capture with avi_io (still use it) and either use MJPEG or the Flying Dutchmans YUY2 hack and capture to PicVideo or Morgan MJPEG. Those are both SW compresors, but they are high quality with PicVideo being the most popular recently. Make sure that you use the same settings for your project as the captured footage (NTSC is 29.97 fps, 704*480) when using the Marvel. This should help considerably. I wouldn't suggest AVID Cinema as I don't think that it maintains 29.97 fps, avi_io locks that baby down. Also make sure that your audio is the same format. As far as the preview window problems, that is a Premiere/Matrox problem that will never be resolved 100% according to both parties. Adobe does not list the Marvel as a supported device and Matrox recently posted that it will not be able to fix the drivers for it (or HW MJPEG in Win2000 for that matter)

[This_Idiot]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by dubmuffin:
Thanx for the reply, as far as I am aware, I am not using any codec. I want to edit and save in uncompressed format to begin with to get the best possible quality. I don't believe that avid cimema is using any compression as I create the avi files and I'm editing in Premiere using 640x480, no compression, 25fps. I think I'm using the latest driver - 4.12.01.1550 in the device manager driver file details. Any other suggestions?</font>

Well you have to be using a codec, whether you want to or not. Since Avid doesn't cater for DV input, I guess you are using an analog connection from your mini-dv to a Marvel. By default (as memory serves me) Avid will capture in 1/2 frame MJPEG using the default Matrox hardware (DMB1) codec.

As Sciascia points out, there are lots of better ways, and using a G400 Marvel the best of these is probably to use Flying Dutchmans patch to enable YUY2 and capture via AV_IO (or VirtualDub), compressing on-the-fly to PicVideo.

If you want to maintain the integrity of your DV footage, a better solution(and certainly simpler) is to buy a decent DV capture card to import the DV stream. Most of them come with a DV-enabled editor (probably either VideoWaveIII or VideoStudio4) which you will find as easy to use as AvidCinema and certainly more flexible. Retaining the G400Marvel would give you the ability to output edited footage out to a VCR (or TV) should you want to.

Chris
(T_I)

[dubmuffin]

I'm using analogue input at the moment but am considering buying a DV card - in particular, the Pinnacle DV500+ which comes with Premiere 6, (any thoughts on that would be appreciated). In the meantime, can you give me some further info on AVI-IO as although I've come across it in these posts, I am not familiar with what it is and where I can get it from. Is it a capture program or editing software (forgive my ignorance!). Also can you direct me to the Flying Dutchman patch you recommend and I'll have a go to see if it helps.

[This_Idiot]

I liked the DV500 when I tried it. Unfortunately I didn't get to keep one for long enough to review properly. A lot of die-hards here will tell you that it's nowhere near as good as the RT2000 (but then it's nowhere near as expensive either). I think that I'd recommend that you bought a pure DV card instead of a hybrid - there are plenty of these around at very reasonable prices now, although the cheapest ones aren't necessarily the bargain they might appear. I use an ADS Pyro, this is available in several packages with different editing suites. I run this alongside a G400 Marvel without any problems.

For the rest of your queries, go to www.desktopvideoworld.co.uk and take some time to work your way through the content. The "Links" and "Downloads" sections will get you to the most common 3rd party products and patches that most folks here use, and there's plenty of other info too.

Cheers

Chris
(T_I)