I was wondering if this is possible in CS6: I have a 1920 x 1080 sequence in which there is an AE clip. The AE clip is 2048 x 1556, a few seconds in duration, is cut from a much longer AE clip, and has had scaling applied. I want to Warp Stabilize just the part of the AE clip showing in the Timeline – but I want to stabilise the full-size (2K) image, not just the scaled-crop showing in Premiere. Premiere does not allow direct stabilising of a clip larger than the sequence. So I nested, as a test. Nesting worked, but only stabilises the cropped section. Is there a way I can ask Premiere/AE to stabilise the AE clip showing in the timeline, at full resolution? One way would be to jump into AE and stabilise just that particular section, but I don't know how to jump into AE and bring the exact Premiere trim points with me. ... View more

I've been editing original Prores 4444 video files in QT7 to remove unwanted sections (to save disk space). In QT7, I trimmed a 3 minute video to 15 seconds, then accidentally saved. No problem, I have plenty of backups. However, QT – and Premiere – now thinks the file is only 15 seconds long, and will only play 15 seconds of video – but the file on disk is still the 3-minute size. VLC knows that the file is actually 3 minutes in duration, and plays the whole lot. QUES Is it possible to import all of this file into Premiere, ignoring the edit flags (or whatever they are) set by QT? ... View more

I have a mono recording that I am experimenting with inside Premiere to see if I can get an exact replica when I export. I put the recording into a mono audio track, I export as mono, then I open both files in Audition. The level of the exported file drops by 3dB. Is it possible for a mono recording in Premiere to retain its level? I'm running CS6. ... View more

I've had a Super 8 film scanned at: • 2048 x 1556 (4:3) • ProsRes 4444 • 18 fps. When I view the video in the Source window, it is correctly shown. I want the video to appear inside a 16:9 timeline, 23.976 fps. So what I do is interpret the video to be 23.976, square pixels. When I drag the video into the 16:9 timeline, Premiere asks me if I want to keep settings or change them, and I select Keep Settings. Premiere imports the video into the timeline – but crops it to 16:9 so that the top and bottom are lost. I've experienced this problem before – but only with 4:3 sources. How do I tell Premiere to stop cropping my 4:3 video when it goes into a 16:9 timeline? ... View more

I have a friend who has put together the start of a comic book on his iPad and wants my help in turning it into a format that can be read on computers, iPads and the like. The images (two-page spreads) are all in PSD format, multilayer,  5000 x 3500 px. The end result should probably be a series of images that the user scrolls through by swiping horizontally to the next one, the typical movement on an iPad, and the method used by Marvel for their How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way (which mhy friend used to learn how to draw comic-book style). You swipe to the next page, and down the bottom are thumbnails of all the pages. My first thought was to simply assemble the images in Acrobat and save as PDF – but I don't think this is going to work because how do you scroll horizontally in a PDF? So, is a PDF the best way forward, or should we be looking at something like iBooks Author, or some other software. The end result will be generated on my iMac running the CS6 suite under OSX 10.9, and should be readable cross-platform. Any suggestions most appreciated. ... View more

Is it possible to render a 480p/23.976 timeline to 480p/23.976 Blu-ray format, either as H.264 or MPEG2? When I look at the options, it seems that only 29.97i is available. Is that a limitation of Blu-ray or Premiere? Or have I missed something? I'm running CS6. ... View more

I have placed text on a layer above a sailboat. The sail moves, and when it moves I want it to wipe out the text. Takes about 2 seconds (48 frames). What is the easiest way to do this? I have thought of: Importing the video into Photoshop, adding the text, erasing it frame by frame, then importing the 'text being erased' into Premiere. Using Garbage Mattes? But can they erase parts on another layer? Adding the text in AE, using AE's Eraser, and bringing the result back into Premiere. But text can't be erased, so I have to Pre Compose the text layer to erase it. But when I do so, I can't see the sail on the lower layer to know where to erase. Any suggestions most appreciated. ... View more

I want to work out some of the limitations of Encore compared to more advanced Blu-ray authoring packages. I've chosen to examine a Blu-ray from the original series of Star Trek. This is what's on the disk: Four 50-minute episodes, plus some extras. Each episode is offered in two versions: original and enhanced. The enhanced version replaces the original exterior scenes (planets, spaceships) with modern computer-generated scenes.  Any scenes featuring characters (Kirk, Spock and so on) are left unchanged in both versions. The Stream folder on the Blu-ray disk has 115 encrypted m2ts files in it, files which cannot be opened. Ripping software reveals that each episode has six m2ts files associated with it: the introduction, 4 sections that fade to black for commercials, and the credits. Those six m2ts files are from the enhanced version. The ripping software cannot see the original exterior shots, of which there would be about 80 on the disk (~20 per episode) To emphasise the last point: each enhanced version is encoded in six m2ts files that total about 50 minutes. Those six files contain enhanced exterior scenes, and original character scenes, encoded together. In combination, they form the enhanced version. Below, I have made two observations about how this disk might have been authored. If any of my observations are likely incorrect, please let me know. Observation 1 Given that the ripping software sees only the enhanced version, I assume the six files of the entire enhanced version went onto one timeline, with chapters markers at appropriate points. This timeline is accessed by a button called Enhanced in the main menu. Press Enhanced, and away you go, straight through the episode with fades to black for commercials. Observation 2 To play the episode in its original form, you click on the Original button. This is where it gets complicated and I'm not sure how they did it. What happens is this: about 20 times per episode, the enhanced version branches away to an exterior scene of the original version. You see a grainy, wooden model of the Enterprise, for example. When that original scene finishes, play branches back to the enhanced version (but it's actually going back to an original character scene, which was encoded into an m2ts file as part of the enhanced version). I said it was complicated! Those branch points are not accessible via the remote control. They are not chapter points. I'm guessing that they accomplished the above by having a second timeline identical to the first, but this second timeline has Branch points (I just made them up) as well as chapter points. At an Branch Out point, the flow branches to the original exterior shot (a grainy, model Enterprise, for example, instead of a computer-generated Enterprise). When that original clip is finished, it branches back to the enhanced version at a Branch In point. Summary So we have enhanced episodes that are broken into six m2ts files, files which contain all the enhanced sections, all the original character sections, but none of the original exterior shots. And we have original episodes that appear to use the same six m2ts files as above, but which branch away to the original exterior shots about 20 times per episode. Ques It seems to me that the type of flow described above would not be possible in Encore. Or is it possible? ... View more

I'm new to Playlists. Generated my first one last night. No fancy navigation, just a button on an otherwise blank screen, and then straight into the Playlist, which returns to the start button. And I now have several questions that have never popped up when using a single Timeline. Again – all the below assumes a single Start button. No fancy navigation at this stage. Ques 1 I generated several Timelines while playing around, and populated them with clips. Then I choose just three of them for my test Playlist. When I Built to Blu-ray, I was warned about orphan timelines and other matters, but since the Preview worked, I went ahead – and was surprised by the size of the Blu-ray folder. Several times bigger than what it should have been. Timelines that are not used in a Playlist, but which are still in the Project Panel, do they also become a part of the Blu-ray? I can have Sequences in Premiere that are not rendered; I can have pages in InDesign that are not exported; but, unless I'm mistaken, it seems that every timeline in Encore ends up on the Blu-ray when I build. If that's the case, it seems strange behaviour to this Playlist beginner. Ques 2 Timelines that are not a part of a Playlist, but which I assume are on the Blu-ray (because of the folder size), can they be accessed by someone who is playing the Blu-ray? Ques 3 Can I tell Encore not to include certain Timelines in the Build? Ques 4 As part of testing any Encore project, I like to check the time between certain clips. i.e. there might be a fade to black, and then a certain amount of 'black time' before the next clip appears. That 'black time' has to be well judged. Not too long, not too short. Very easy to do in a single Timeline – you simply jump to the next clip, back track a little, then view the 'black time' to see if it's appropriate. I don't need to sit through every clip in it's entirety, just a few seconds either side of the 'black times'. When previewing a Playlist, is it possible to jump to the next Timeline, backtrack a little into the end of the previous timeline, then play from that position? Ques 5 When I built the Playlist to a Blu-ray and played it… well, I wasn't impressed with the navigation. With my single-timeline Blu-ray, I can jump back and forth between chapters manually with my remote, or by typing in the chapter number. When I tried that with my Playlist Blu-ray, I could jump forward, but not backwards. The player barred me from jumping into a previous timeline, even though that timeline was part of the viewing experience. Imagine a Playlist that features, say, 7 timelines, each of which has 3 clips (what I call 21 chapters in total). Can I set up that Playlist so that when built to Blu-ray I can start playing it with one button, and that I can jump back and forth between all 21 chapters just by clicking on the 'next chapter' or 'previous chapter' buttons on my remote? Thanks in advance for any suggestions. ... View more

In my experience with Encore, when I butt clips against each other and Build to Blu-ray, the end of each clip seems to pause for maybe 0.25 seconds before going onto the next clip. In my testing, all clips were rendered out of Premiere as m4v and wav files, in legal Blu-ray format, such that Encore reports them as Don't Transcode. The clips I've tested come from a variety of sources, but are mainly old TV ads, movie trailers, shorts and cartoons. They could be NTSC or PAL, interlaced or progressive, but all are rendered as 1920 x 1080, 23.976 fps. In what follows: Cut means the outgoing clip shows full-brightness images right till the end of the clip Fade means the clip fades to black in one second, right at the end of the clip Black means the final 0.5 second of the clip is black. Here is what I've found: Multiple clips on a single timeline when played in Encore – no problems. Multiple clips on a single timeline when Built to Blu-ray – Cut and Fade clips show the pause problem. Fade clips seems to pause at about half brightness, whereas Cut clips pause on the last frame. Black clips don't have the pause problem. The pause problem occurs when I build to a folder and play that from a fast USB stick, and also when built to a Blu-ray disk. Reassembling the clips one at a time onto separate timelines, and then generating a Playlist, has the same result as above. The problem does not occur if I extract the m2ts files from the Blu-ray, open them in VLC, and play them automatically in sequence. Similarly, if I Join the extracted m2ts files using tsmuxer, and play the new file in VLC, there is no pause problem. Similarly, if I use tsmuxer to multiplex the original m4v and wav files (directly out of Premiere) into m2ts, then Join, then assemble in VLC, again no problem. Ques 1 Is it possible to fix this pause problem, or is it inherent in Blu-ray? Ques 2 Is it likely that the problem is due to the types of clips I'm using? Would the problem disappear if tried stills that Fade? Ques 3 Making the final 0.5 seconds of a clip black, fixes the problem. Would a shorter time work? Ques 4 Although I've been testing on material that's not my own, my real interest in all of this will be when I produce my own Blu-rays. Based on advice I read from experienced users of Premiere, I generated my projects in a number of Sequences. I assumed that I would then render each Sequence, and have the Blu-ray authoring program join them together seamlessly. But it appears I may be mistaken; that doing so will not work properly; that Blu-ray cannot play a series of m2ts files without a pause between them. When professionals produce a feature film on Blu-ray, do they ever do so in small sections? Or are films always rendered as one big file when it's time to go to Blu-ray? Thanks in advance for any comments. ... View more