How to edit videos in Premiere Elements 2023

[Maine Man]

HELP! I need help with simple editing. All I want to do is remove the beginning and end of a Zoom video and remove clips in between. I know how to select what I want to remove and have followed a "How To" text and used the guided function but nothing seems to work. Have not looked at YouTube yet.

I was able to isolate a clip, hit delete, and the segment went away. I can't do the same with the start or end of a video. Using the same method I did for a clip, the part to be deleted does not go away. Sometimes the part I want to keep goes away. 

I have saved and closed the program but the start and end segments I wanted to remove were still there. Do I need to save the edited video as "save as", renaming the edited video?

[Bill Sprague]

A common way to eliminate the beginning of a clip is to first put a cut in at the end of what you want to go away, then select the cut part and delete it.  For me, it is a lot easier in the Expert mode.

Another way is to grab the end of the clip with your mouse and slide the end to where you want it to be. 

It can be done in the Quick mode but I think it is harder to see what you are doing. 

What steps are you doing?

[Maine Man]

Hi Bill,

The normal way to eliminate the beginning of a clip is to first put a cut in at the end of what you want to go away, then select the cut part and delete it.  What steps are you doing?

Thanks. What is the difference between the rendered seconds and the timeline seconds? They don’t match.

What I did was play the video to where I wanted to edit it, (38 seconds next to “render”, did not pay attention to the timeline seconds), clicked on the scissors icon, right-clicked on the clip I wanted to go away, and clicked on delete. So far, so good.

I saved the edited video using “Save as”, renamed the edited clip, closed the program, and reopened it. When I opened the edited video there was a blank space between 00:00 seconds on the timeline and where the edited video now started.

I deleted the beginning of the video up to 38 seconds render, the new starting place for the edited video. However, the timeline marker was at 17 seconds.

Is this the way it is supposed to be? Why don’t the timeline seconds and the rendered seconds match?

[Steve Grisetti]

I've done a whole series on YouTube showing the basics of using Premiere Elements.

This episode shows you how to trim and cut video. Maybe it will answer your question.

[Maine Man]

Hi Steve,

Thanks. In the example the deleted timeline edit point is close to 00;00;00;00 but the rendered seconds are at 00;00;00;21. Why.? As I asked Bill, what is the difference between the rendered and time line seconds? Which should I be using to edit videos?

The example video does not show how to delete the selected clip or how to save it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Tom

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm  sorry. I don't understand your question. If Bill understands the difference between timeline and rendered seconds, maybe I should stay out of the discussion.

[Maine Man]

Hi Steve,

The mp4-saved video and audio are out of sync. This has been answered before here but the answers are over ten years old and suggest downloading a 3rd party program to fix the problem. How can a .prel video be converted in sync to an mp4 in PSE 2023?  

[Steve Grisetti]

A .prel is not a video. It is a Premiere Elements project file.

There's a source video. That's the video you load into Premiere Elements. And there's the output video. That's the video that you export from the editing project.

If your source video does not have a lag but your output video does, that's one issue.

But if your original source video has a lag, that's a whole other issue. Make sense?

[Steve Grisetti]

BTW, are we chasing this same issue over more than one discussion, Maine Man? I see you have a very similar discussion already going.

Please don't do that. It makes it very difficult to help you if we're tripping all over each other trying to figure out where we are in a discussion.

[Maine Man]

The mp4-saved video and audio are out of sync. This has been answered before here but the answers are over ten years old and suggest downloading a 3rd party program such as Handbrake to fix the problem.

How can a .prel video be converted in sync to an mp4 in PSE 2023?  

[John T Smith]

If your source video file is VFR (Variable Frame Rate) the only real solution is to use Handbrake to convert the file to CFR (Constant Frame Rate) before editing

Convert to constant frame rate with https://handbrake.fr/ open source transcoder/converter
- and a tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSVarfrhr1M

[Bill Sprague]

Can you explain more?  What is the source of the video?  Is it out of sync during editing?  After Export?  Or both?  

I'm confused by your question about converting a .prel video.   A .prel file is not a video.  It is a project file and can only be opened with Premiere Elements.   

I've never had audio that was out of sync from any camera produced video file.  If it were me, I would try to unlink the audio from the video on the timeline and attempt to manually adjust it.  

[Maine Man]

Hi Bill, Sorry for the confusion. I don't know the terminology. 

My source is Zoom. Our group has a monthly Zoom meeting and I want to edit the recorded video and post it on our YouTube channel. The video was synced during editing and playback but not after saving it as a .mp4.

The other thing that may be important is I "renderded" the video. I couldn't get an answer to what the render seconds were so I clicked on it and popup with progress poped up. Don't know what rendering did.

[John T Smith · Accepted solution]

>My source is Zoom

Screen recording video is OFTEN created using VFR - Variable Frame Rate

Report back with the codec details of your file, use the program below
Free program to get file information for PC/Mac http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download
- a MediaInfo tutorial https://youtu.be/Ivy9ckSX1M0
- when you analyze your file in MediaInfo and post a screen shot in the forum, do so in TREE view
- post your information IN your message, not as an attachment that someone would have to download
.
Does your video use a Variable Frame Rate? See https://community.adobe.com/t5/Premiere-Pro/Variable-frame-rate-video-with-Premiere-Pro/td-p/4601935
If yes, use https://handbrake.fr/ open source transcoder/converter to convert to Constant Frame Rate

[Maine Man]

Thanks for all the advice, it worked. Because of this forum, I am able to edit the start and end of a Zoom video and delete clips in between. Most importantly, Handbrake corrected the out-of-sync audio/video when the .prel file was saved as a .mp4.  Thank you.

[Steve Grisetti]

Please mark this question as correctly answered, Maine Man. Glad we could help!

[John T Smith]

>when the .prel file was saved as a .mp4

That is actually not what you are doing

.prel is a PROJECT file... commands that tell the program what to do to the video file

When you export you are creating a new video file, you are not changing the project file