Wondering if Adobe is right for me and my classes: Premiere's Continued Issues of Importing Videos

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
April 7, 2018
2 replies
229 views

I'm a new teacher in Montana and the teacher before me was using CS3 . . . well I should say had it in the cupboard but not installed. I'm teaching a Video Production class and so I thought we would use Premiere Pro, since that what professionals use. We had some Macbook Pros that I could see past students used in the past that had CS5 on it. We tried importing video from my Sony HDX (I forgot the number) camcorder and we ran into problems. I searched forums and tried to find solutions, which most of them pointed to needing to convert the files, but nothing worked. To get around this I had them use iMovie. Time went on and my Superintendant gave me a link to an article about free video editors which I selected to use Shotcut and switch to using PCs. I thought this would work better anyway because it is on the network and it would be easier to upload them once where all could access them. Importing those videos were no problem but it certainly didn't have the functionality that Premiere Pro does. I tried installing CS3 on the PCs that I found in the cupboard but ran into the same problem. My first question, is how do I import .mp4 or .avi video files and not get just the audio to come through?

I'm at a point now where we need to prepare for next year and I need to decide on if I want to continue to use Adobe or move on and use other software. To be honest, I'm on the verge or swearing off Adobe for ever. However on a practical note, I thought I could use the Adobe suite to teach other classes as well like photo editing, desktop publishing, a little graphic design, and web authoring with it's related facets. My main concern is with Adobe Premiere. It seems that through reading most of the forums Premiere, no matter what version, has problems with importing video including the popular formats of .mp4, avi, and .mts. I can't seem to find an easy fix for this issue which has plagued the product for decades. Does the new version have these issues? I want to be able to have some kind of assurance that if I go to the expense of getting my school on board with Adobe, especially Premiere, that I will not run into these problems and have support.

This topic has been closed for replies.

John T Smith

Community Expert

Somewhat (a lot?) outdated now, but still some good information

PPro/Encore tutorial list http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1448923 has lots of tutorial links to help learn

I have not gone through that list of links for about a year, so I'm sure some links won't work

T

teachmedaveAuthor

Participant

Thank you, this helps me to understand more. I went to your link Mr. Cox and swore that the background look like the mountains in Utah. I'm teaching in Montana but my wife and kids are in Provo. I did take the files from the cameras and drag and drop them into a folder in the network for the students to access. The cards from the cameras, we just took and put them in the computer and dragged and droped them as well.

So from what you were saying this might have changed the codec somehow. in the early days when we were using CS5 with the Macbook Pros we did import them directly from the camera. Is there a codec analyzer or something that can uncorrupt them or something? The files can still be played with VLC or Media player (I haven't tried any others) without any problem. So I know they still work. I'll look over the other link Mr. Smith gave and see what it says there. Is there a different way that I should transfer the videos from the camera to the computer?

R Neil Haugen

Legend

The vast majority of users like me use all those formats without issue. Some have problems with them. Especially if one doesn't know how the app and the various codecs work.

Premiere Pro is a rather complex app, and yes, used by a lot more professionals than the other apps you've mentioned. In order to teach it with some success, you would need to study it hard and become somewhat versed in the capabilities and some of the troubleshooting that may be necessary. If students are going to be using it on their own computers, the number of issues can become problematic.

So ... what level are you teaching? High-school, community college, standard 4-year college? Will you have labs of computers the students use, or will they be providing their own?

Jason T Cox is quite a good teacher ... I'm not able to bring the "ping" for him up for the moment. He's on the "Meet the Experts" page under 'Explore' at the top of the header bar here, and his member page is here ... jasontcox ... he'd probably have some good advice for you.

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...

T

teachmedaveAuthor

Participant

Thanks Neil,

I appreciate the link and the information about the codecs. I'm teaching high school and hopefully Mr. Cox will shed some light that will get me off the ground. It sounds like there is a really high learning curve maybe too high for a naive teacher that thought it would just work because it was the best. I am confused about the codecs and am not sure what I need to study. I would think that the editing software would be able to handle the codecs or formats that the cameras are outputting, especially from major brands. Does this mean I need to convert the native video files to something else?

I used the MTS converter to convert the Sony camera's, but that didn't work either. We were using a Canon Rebel, a new Nikon (student brought), and the Sony camcorder I mentioned earlier. None of these were able to be loaded. The other forums and YouTube videos never mentioned codecs but gave other options that didn't work. To be honest, this is making me feel overwhelmed that I need to become a codec expert in order to use the software and maybe isn't suitable for high school. I didn't want to say anything in the post but many of the teachers I met at our State Business Professionals of America (BPA) Conference mentioned the trouble with trying to get Premiere to work and decided to use other software because they were able to figure it out. Our judges for the Video Production Team event at the competition were from different TV stations and used Premiere and convinced me to give it another try. One of them I contacted and he was kind enough to try and help but only offered that I probably need to upgrade and use the newer software. This is where my conundrum lies and brings me here because I don't want to go to the expense of having the school pay for this and then not be able to use it.

Thank you again for the info.

jasontcox

Inspiring

Ha, well, Neil, I did get "pinged." lol.

So in all honesty, this is one of these 'can of worms' topics that's very hard to tackle, discuss, and decide on the best way forward via message board. There's a lot going on here. I'm sorry you've been having troubles with Premiere, but I assure you that with the proper understanding of some camera formats/containers/codecs and making sure you aren't trying to use outdated formats, Premiere can actually import the widest variety of media of any professional video editing application out there. I promise, I'm not just saying it, I don't even work for Adobe! lol.

It's hard to say right now if you're having issues because of the method you are using to try to import the media or if it's because it's an old format. But in most cases, you should have no issue importing the vast majority of MTS files if you do it the right way. Are you using the Media Browser or the standard import window? (Make sure it's the Media Browser and that you do NOT alter the file structure of the memory cards or independently pull files off which can sometimes cause import issues.) However, it can be a little more complicated than that as well. It's not just a matter of what the file extension is, but the codec as well. MP4, AVI, and MTS files are just containers, not the codecs themselves. So while Premiere is 100% compatible with those containers, it also depends on what codecs are inside the files.

Sooooo long story short, this is a tough topic to cover here but hopefully that might give you a tiny bit of insight of what to explore next!

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