Preview Window Emulate Rectangular Pixels?

[jmsweatt]

Hello!

I'm all confused by the pixel aspect ratio thing lately. Does the PE7 preview window show you what things are going to look like on your TV where you have rectangular pixels as opposed to your computer monitor which has square pixels?

If not, does anyone who is serious about wanting their movie to look good on the TV have to have a television monitor attached to their PC so they can see what its really going to look like over there?

[ATR]

Do you actually now have Premiere Elements 7?

If so, how are you planning on exporting your Timeline content...as DVD-VIDEO on a DVD disc or other? Does the content of the Timeline include photos as well as video?

When you open a Premiere Elements project, you select a preset for your project. That preset will contain a correction factor for any rectangular and square pixel issues.

I am giving you the short version here, but your focus needs to be on:
1. if you are on the road to creating a DVD-VIDEO using a NTSC DV Standard (4:3) or Widescreen project (16:9), your photo pixel dimensions should not exceed 1000 x 750 pixels and maintain the appropriate aspect ratio and have aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9, not 3:2 which is used for photos for printouts. That 4:3 is for the 720 x 480 pixels frame size. But, widescreen version also has that 720 x 480 (4:3) frame size. In the case of the widescreen, during encoding the video is adjusted for widescreen based on a 16:9 flag. Do not confused the 4:3 and 16:9 with the correction factor for rectangular and square pixel issue. The latter is referred to in the specs as "pixel aspect ratio".
2. if you want to get a better Preview of what is on the Timeline before you head to Create Menus or Share, you "Render the Timeline" by pressing the Enter Key of the computer main keyboard. This can be time consuming, but gives you the best possible preview of what the end product should look like. It does not impact quality.
3. when you get to Create Menus and press the Preview option there, that should give you a good idea of how the menu buttons are navigating and an overview of the video. BUT, the final judge of quality will be the play back of the end product on your TV.
4. TV setting may need to come into consideration depending on how the TV is setup.

Bottom line:
1. Pick the appropriate Project Preset for your project.
2. Keep the pixel dimensions of the photos close to the specs for the project preset
3. Make sure that your computer has enough resources to handle the demands of the project.
4. The program will attempt to resize and adjust aspect ratio of oversized photos as well as correct any rectangular square pixels issues.

I would suggest that you check out the getting started section of the Premiere Elements 7 PDF.

Please let me know if you now have a better understanding of the situation. If not, I will try to reword/reorganize my response. If you supply more details of your project, I can offer some step by steps.

To be continued, if necessary

ATR

[jmsweatt]

Yes, I have Premiere Elements 7 now.

My goal is to convert roughly 100 hours family VHS, VHS-C, HI8 and DVD movies that I've taken over the last 20 years into consumer-DV using a Canopus ADVC-55. I plan to use PE7 to cature the movies and then archive the footage in DV format. I don't yet know what the best archival medium is, though. Beyond archival, I intend to edit, author and then encode my movies using PE78 to either MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 for viewing on my home theater system. To do that, I have a TVersity media server running on my PC and a D-Link DSM-520 media extender hooked up to my HD A/V receiver which is connected to my HD television.

Thanks for your quick response, ATR! I can use all the advice I can get. This video stuff is complicated!! :)

Thanks again!

[jmsweatt]

That should be PE7 above, not PE78.

THanks again!

Jim

[ATR]

Jim

Take a look at the chat in the following thread that appeared in this forum not so long ago

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46346

You mentioned that you use Canopus ADVC-55 for your analog digital conversion. There are those who visit here who favor the ADS Pyro AV/Link. Here is a sampling of one of the online links on one vs the other.

I would need to do a lot of homework on your TV setup before I could comment on that. Play it safe and make sure you do a mini run to an end product before you get too far into a grand project in Premiere Elements with your digitalized video. Remember DV AVI is the native format of the Premiere Elements Timeline.

Please update us on your progress.

ATR

[jmsweatt]

I'll check out the ADVS Pyro box and the link you provided, ATR. I will definitely keep this forum up-to-date with my progress.

Thanks again!

[Barb O]

Are you running Premiere Elements 7 using Vista or using XP ?

I thought I had seen some reports of people having problems with the ADS Pyro and Vista. So I wonder if that is a consideration for you ...

I do realize that quite a few people had success early on using the ADS Pyro. In fact, I used the ADS Pyro and a VCR with Premiere Elements 2 and Windows XP for Hi-8 tape converstion.

However, there are some intangibles (like my percpetion that ADS tech support has not been very responsive recently) that might make me choose a Canopus today - not sure which model.

Barb

P.S. A general comment (based on my experience) is that with a VCR in your configuration, the quality of the VCR makes a very significant difference in the quality of the output converted video.

[jmsweatt]

Thanks for your post, Barb O.

I will do my work on a PC that has Windows XP Professional SP3.

My only experience so far is years ago with an ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro card, and quite frankly, the video capture with that board was so poor it was depressing. I've never used the ADS Pyro box or the Canopus, but I've read tons of great things about the quality of the Canopus output so my plan is to use one of those.

Thanks again!

[ATR]

Jim,


From all the reports that I have seen, the analog digital converters cited do work in Windows XP and Vista. So, I do not believe it is an issue of XP vs Vista vs the analog digital converters up for discussion. In the cases that I have seen, it was a matter of knowing how to troubleshoot effectively.

This might be an example of what BarbO may have encountered personally or from reading some online links in general or at another web site.
http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=4648&start=15
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic345736.html

I am not pushing one analog digital converter or the another, but keep in mind that the level of technical support can vary from experience to experience (call to call) anywhere, and the need for troubleshooting exists in the best and the worst of products/programs. Note in the second link how the user resolved his own problems and moved forward with the Pyro AV/Link product.


Just to throw another thought into the mix, there is always the possibility of using your VCR in conjunction with the PassThrough feature of a miniDV camcorder.
http://www.videohelp.com/dvanalog

To get a board overview, also check the online links on the topic of Analog Digital conversion of your VHS tapes.

Looking forward to your results.

ATR

[jmsweatt]

That's a neat trick using a miniDV camcorder to convert analog video to DV. I would try that, but unfortunately, I don't have a miniDV camcorder.

I will check out those links you have provided. Thanks very much for your advice!

Jim

[ATR]

Jim

I just noticed your avatar. Did you just place that or was it there all the time?

It is very nice.

ATR

[jmsweatt]

Thank you! I just placed it on there. It wasn't there to begin with. I found it on www.iconlook.com. They have some very high quality free icons on their site.

Jim