Pre 8 and Cannot Find Correct Preset (UGH)

[frblock]

Hi All,

I've just installed Premiere 8.0 and I'm about at my wits end trying to get this software to fly for my son. The machine has all of the requirements needed for the application. He has a new Canon FS200 video camera and told me he shot wide screen mode for the files I'm using. These files are *.MOV type and play just fine in the Organizer. However, when I try to bring them into a project, they look extremely pixely but the audio plays fine. I've tried most of the "Presets" with no luck at all. I expected the "NTSC; Hard Disk, Flash Memory Camcorders; Widescreen 48kHz" to do the trick but it didn't.

Another note is that when I try to check other settings, the dialog boxes do not display their contents, I get the window's border but that's all!

The graphics card is a Radeon X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory. The machine has an Intel P4 (SSE2) and 2GB RAM; plenty of HDD space. I'm technically savy with PCs (software developer) but not at all in the video realm (but will be soon it appears .

Please help "me" help my son out. I surely appreciate any help provided and thank you all in advance for your time!

Regards - Fred

[ATR]

Fred,

Do you have the latest version of QuickTime installed on your computer? If not, that is a must do. Also, check out the situation with and without checking the "Enable GPU Playback" under Edit Menu/Preferences/General.

From what I have read, the Canon FS200 is recording standard definition MPEG2 video to a memory card. You say that the video was recorded with the widescreen option and that the file has a file extension of .mov.

From that description, I would also expect the Premiere Elements 8 project preset of choice (new project dialog) to be:
NTSC/Hard Disk Flash Memory Camcorders.
As an alternative, you could also bring the video in using a project preset = NTSC DV Widescreen and then, when you have the video on the Premiere Elements 8 Timeline, right click it, select Field Options, and then dot the Reverse Field Dominance.

How are you bringing the video into Premiere Elements 8....Get Media/Files & Folders from a save location on the hard drive or other?

When you have your video on the Timeline, do you render the Timeline by pressing the Enter Key of the computer main keyboard to get the best possible preview of the end product? If so, how do the before after views appear in the Edit Mode Monitor?

If you right click the Edit Mode Monitor, select Magnification, what is the set for the Magnification, Fit, 100%, or other?

If you were to import a jpeg photo to your Premiere Elements 8 Timeline, what does that look like in the Edit Mode Monitor?

Depending on your responses, we could look at converting the video to DV AVI with a free program such as MPEG Streamclip, followed by bringing the DV AVI version to the Premiere Elements 8 Timeline.
http://www.squared5.com/
If you are getting black borders in the Edit Mode Monitor, you could also check out the Interpret Footage feature when you are in the Project Media view.

Let us start here and take it from there.

ATR

[frblock]

Hi ATR,

Installed QuickTime (had prior build)/ verified version is: 7.6.5; did not corect.

Enable GPU Playback setting:
- when enabled; images in Edit area display pixelated (bad news)
- when GPU Playback is "disabled"; (and after restarting Premiere) images appear coreectly and playback fine! YEAH!

TWO (2) more questions (I enjoy learning all there is to about these issues):

1) What is GPU playback and why does disabling this corrct the problem?

2) What is ElementsAutoAnalyzer.exe running as a process? This stays in memory even after I've close PRE and/or the Organizer. What does this EXE do?

THANK YOU SO MUCH (!! !!) for getting us up and running. I hope all will run well now. I'll surely plug back into this group as needed with any questions. My son and I are thrilled we can get started now.

Regards - Fred

[ATR]

Fred

I was so glad to learn that disabling the “Enable GPU Playback” option in Edit Menu/Preferences/General worked to resolve your issue. Check out the AdobeTech Note titled “Troubleshoot digital video playback (Adobe Premiere Elements 8)”
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/515/cpsid_51526.html
The whole issue goes to your computer display card. As you will read in the AdobeTech Note,
“Adobe Premiere Elements 8 is designed to take advantage of display cards with accelerated GPUs.” From your results, I would assume that your computer display card does not or does not fully support Direct 3D, since the write up says “Disable GPU Playback: The setting offers the lowest performance but is appropriate for display cards that do not fully support Direct 3D.

Now for that AutoAnalyzer feature that takes on a life of its own in Premiere Elements 8. In my opinion it and Background Rendering are best left disabled and used on a command basis. That AutoAnalyzer first caught my attention when I discovered it was splitting video clips (which I did not want) and stacking the split clips (which I did not want). Check out the Premiere Elements 8 Help PDF on the AutoAnalyzer topic
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Premiere...38D9C0E63.html
Also check out this thread on the topic from the Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/501214?tstart=0

Thanks for letting us know the outcome. I am very pleased with your progress. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have any further questions.

ATR

[frblock]

Hi ATR,

Thank you again for the follow-up and great references for me to read so I can better understand all of this. I disabled the auto-startup stuff and "then" read that thread. I too do not like all of my resources eaten alive by "stuff" I'd rather control myself and/or not use.

I might upgrade the graphics card in this PC with a better one so I'll keep the GPU in mind and check the specs on the card before I even open the case... We'll see...

So again - thanks! I (and I'm sure my son) appreciate you blessing us here over the last few posts.

Regards - Fred

[ATR]

Fred

Glad that all helped.

Special holiday greetings and great photo video opportunities for you, your son, and family.

ATR
(native of northern NJ!!)