Participant

Not Prioritized

Bring Back Video Capture

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
October 20, 2023
68 replies
19189 views

This morning when I opened Premiere Pro 24 for the first time, I was dismayed at not being able to find the Capture option in the File menu. Upon contacting customer support, I was told that feature had been retired, and I was directed to the following page:

https://helpx.adobe.com/in/premiere-pro/kb/retiring-tape-based-workflows.html#sa_src=web-messaging

Here's my problem. As a professional media archivist, I used the capture system frequently in the process of digitizing old video tapes (mostly VHS and U-Matic, sometimes DVCPro) for digital access and storage. The article above seems to think tape-based capture is only for transferring tape-to-tape, which is wrong. There are professional archivists and media professionals all over the country, or all over the world, whose job it is to preserve tape-based media via digitization. Adobe has now effectively abandoned an entire industry because it thinks people don't need this feature anymore. Adobe is wrong. As I write this, I have several dozen VHS tapes at my desk waiting to be digitized, and now I have to come up with another software solution because Adobe evidently does not care about customers like me who do this for a living.

Dear Adobe, this was a poorly researched decision, potentially affecting a lot more of your customers than you realize. I am asking for the tape-to-digital capture feature to be restored to the software for video professionals like me who were using it faithfully.

Mod note: Title changed slightly.

Show previous replies

Bruce Bullis

Community Manager

Ideally, what codec option(s) are you hoping for, that aren't supported by your capture hardware vendor?

S

SCOTT_L

Inspiring

The biggest problem with a lot of the capture cards and their software is they do not supply the codecs needed to capture in todays world. Nobody really wants to capture in full 10bit uncompressed (bloated) codecs.

Bruce Bullis

Community Manager

Before removing Capture functionality from 24.0 (in October 2023), we informed users of those removal plans the previous March on Adobe forums, at tradeshows, and all customer events. We definitely consulted with many users; while we did hear from a small-yet-vociferous community of users who wanted to preserve Capture, we determined to proceed.

We can't provided specific numbers, but I can confirm that capture usage has steadily declined for years, getting down into the 'not statistically significant' range by 2019.

In discussions with our capture-related hardware partners, all of them confirmed that they already provided their own capture utilities, and already recommended them over PPro's integrated functionality.

While we recognize that this decision causes pain for those users still accustomed to / reliant upon PPro's Capture functionality, we are doing more good for more users by working on other parts of PPro (I'm sure everyone has an area they'd like improved), than we can by continuing to support Capture.

R Neil Haugen

Legend

This is a problem for quite a few people, and especially those dealing with historical and legacy projects. Sadly, it isn't just "Adobe" having moved on, but most of the 'video post' vendors. Software and hardware.

This niche is a small subset of "total" users at this time, and getting smaller. Even at NAB, finding tape to video hardware is getting very difficult. Most manufacturers have discontinued the machines they used to make. One is told to check Ebay to find the "old" tape to digital capture machines.

So for anyone doing this work, and needing this capability, finding the hardware recorders via Ebay or whatever seems to be the necessary path forward. Sadly, that is the current reality.

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

M

Mark35140858uzuz

Participant

Thank you for your reply, @Bruce Bullis, but I think the community would at the very least appreciate an explanation as to why Adobe made this decision, especially without consulting or informing its users.

Bruce Bullis

Community Manager

Capture functionality will not return.

J

Jesse28164999jbgx

Participant

This is absurd. So many doc filmmakers need to access archive materials. Like... most? I can not even beleive this.

M

MisterAdvent

Inspiring

I wound up having old versions installed on old laptops (with firewire) to do conversions. But then the problem is getting the footage to the main array for processing, which takes a long time to copy, unless I capture to a fast SSD and work with portable media.

But hey, Doesn't Adobe have the code for "OnLocation" (formerly Serious Magic's "DV Rack") getting dusty in the long-forgotton app bin? How about spruce that up and make it a standalone application for archival transfers???

jefjaeger

Participating Frequently

Ridiculous. The capture function needs to be restored to Premiere Pro immediately. There should not have to be a 'use an older version workaround.' This is a professional software, and it is not cheap. Subscribers pay for functionality. Many of us capture analog A-V as part of our businesses. No excuses.

M

Mark35140858uzuz

Participant

Unfortunately, installing an older version isn't an option for those whose Adobe licenses are governed by our institution, and our Campus IT has disabled the "Install older version" option according to the security policies they set. I am continuing to scramble to find another solution, but currently what I've found talking to my colleagues at other institutions is only compatible with Mac/Linux (and we are, for the moment, a Windows-only production lab).

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded