Background I'm converting my three-screen audio-visuals to Blu-ray format, with the aim of presenting them at the local cinema. Basically they're slide shows from the 80s and 90s, with a few added clips from my GH3, and new stereo soundtracks. It's just a hobby, but I want to do the absolute best job I can. All content enters Premiere as sRGB, exits as H.264 Blu-ray (m4v format), and passes through Encore (without transcoding) to a Blu-ray disk. I then check it out on a BenQ W7000 projector in my home theatre  – my test bed. At the Cinema What I am concerned about is how the presentations will look in the cinema. I've had a short tour of the projection room. They run four Barco projectors… https://www.barco.co...5ft.aspx#!specs … and the projectionist assured me that I can feed in my Blu-ray content via the HDMI input on the Barco. Different Gammas My entire workflow is in sRGB, from scanner (or GH3), to my iMac's monitor, through to my BenQ W7000 projector. However, Cinema projectors, I read somewhere, have a gamma of 2.6, and I assume they use the colour space I've seen in my list of Photoshop profiles: DCI P3 RGB (Gamma 2.6) 5900K. When, as a test, I applied that profile to a scanned image, there was a significant darkening. I want to retain my sRGB workflow as it works well with Premiere, but I suspect I'll have to alter the rendered video so that what I see in the cinema matches what I see in my home theatre. And I'm not sure of the best way to do that, but I suspect I'll have to use After Effects. Ques 1 If I play my Blu-ray disk – as it stands now – through the Barco projector at the cinema, is the image really going to look darker than at home? Ques 2 My first thought on how to alter the video was to use an effect in Premiere. I came across Cineon Converter, and when I selected the options log-log, and set the gamma to 2.6/2.2 = 1.18, it seemed to work well. I altered the monitor gamma to 2.6 during the test (which darkens Premiere's image), and when I applied Cineon Converter the image seemed to return to it's original look. Is using Cineon Converter an effective way to alter sRGB to DCI P3? Ques 3 Another idea I've had: In Premiere, create a Master sequence of the entire video and replace that with an After Effects composition. In After Effects, convert the composition to the DCI P3 colour space. (I don't know how to do that, but I'll work it out). Back in Premiere, export the Master sequence as I normally would and build to Blu-ray in Encore. Would the above steps work? Is that the best way to have the cinema and home-theatre images look the same? ... View more

This matter relates to a previous thread (How do I generate pure rendered grayscale?, but I have narrowed down the problem. I'm using CS6 under OSX. Fault with Gray (244) Using the Titler in Premiere CS6, I set up a gray rectangle of RGB (245, 245, 245). I'll call that Gray (245). When I: render as H.264 (Android Tablet preset, or any other) play the video in QuickTime 7 and use the DigitalColor Meter (set to native values) to determine the colour… …the colour is shown as Gray (244). When I import the rendered file back into Premiere and drag it into a timeline, the same problem exists. Ques 1 Is this change in colour value a bug in Premiere or Media Encoder, a rounding error, or some other cause? If anyone would care to test later versions of Premiere, the file can be downloaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/v831y3rpn4bz3of/Calibration_02.prproj.zip Other colour rendering faults I repeated the test with Gray (244), Gray (251), and Gray (252), and rendering via H.264 and QuickTime (ProRes 4444). This is what happens to the test colours: Rendered as H.264 Gray (245) –> 244 Gray (252) –> 251 Rendered as ProRes 4444 Gray (244) –> 245 Gray  (251) –> 252 Almost makes me want to give Premiere the boot and try FCP! ... View more

Background Every year I calibrate my BenQ W7000 projector using the Disney WOW Blu-ray disk. Nothing fancy, I simply calibrate blacks, whites, and colour (using the provided blue filter). It's always a battle because I have to alternate between the three calibration videos several times, and each time I change videos the projector has to resync (which takes 20 seconds or so). Brilliant Idea So I had the brilliant idea of generating my own calibration video using Premiere and Encore – a video with three chapters, so that I can jump back and forth between chapters without losing sync. 1. Generate the Black, White and Colour videos in separate timelines in Premiere. 2. Export to Blu-ray format 3. Assemble in Encore and build to Blu-ray Problem The grayscale on the resultant Blu-ray was not accurate. For example, RGB (239, 239 239) generated as a Title in Premiere, ended up something like RGB (240, 238, 240). So I tried exporting with a variety of codecs and containers, and only ProRes 4444 gave the right results. But… when I imported ProRes 4444 into Encore, it had to be transcoded, and I ended up with the wrong colours again. Accurate Grayscale The Disney disk seems to have accurate grayscale, and some freebie calibration mp4 videos that I tried also have accurate grayscale, but I can't get Premiere to do it. Question 1 When setting up grayscale panels and then rendering, what do I have to do inside Premiere to get accurate grayscale in a small output file? For example, the mp4 included in the download below, runs for 5 minutes, is colour accurate, and only consumes 2.3 MB (only 52kB when compressed). My attempt in Premiere at generating a calibration disk, and a freebie calibration mp4 file as a comparison, can be downloaded here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/bcczbqm0ee5afuj/Grayscale.zip Note: the levels named in the mp4 file have been shifted for some reason. 16 is actually Black (level 0) and 235 is white (level 255). ... View more

• I'm running CS6 under OSX 10.9. • OSX is on an SSD via USB3. • All data for the project is on an external Firewire 800 drive, via a thunderbolt cable. The first time I open a project after OSX boots, the opening time for a project with about 1300 items is 170 seconds. If I close the project and open it again later on during the same session, the opening time is 40 seconds. Why is that? How can I improve the original opening time? ... View more

I posted this is the Premiere forum two months ago, but no response. I’m trying to understand where Key Frames are positioned, but the info I have found on the web is unclear. Here is Adobe’s explanation from the Adobe Media Encoder PDF: Explanation 1 Key Frames are complete video frames (or images) that are inserted at consistent intervals in a video clip. The frames between the Key Frames contain information on changes that occurs between Key Krames. By default, AME automatically determines the key frame interval (Key Frame Distance) to use based on the frame rate of the video clip. If your footage has a lot of scene changes or rapidly moving motion or animation, then the overall image quality may benefit from a lower Key Frame Distance. A smaller key frame distance corresponds to a larger output file. In another Adobe document it states that a Key Frame Distance is the: Explanation 2 Number of frames after which the codec will create a key frame when exporting video. Somewhere else it states (re Key Frame Distance): Explanation 3 This sets the maximum # of frames between key frames. If this # of frames without a keyframe occurs, the compressor will insert a keyframe regardless of whether the scene has changed. There are differences between the explanations: the first says that Key Frames are created at a constant separation; the second implies that Key Frames may not be at a constant separation (because a new Key Frame will be created a certain number of frames after the previous Key Frame, but doesn’t say anything about the Key Frame before that one); the last explanation is quite clear (but at variance with the first): The Key Frame distance is the maximum number of frames allowed between Key Frames. My interest in Key Frame Distance is because I have noticed a very slight, brief shimmering at one-second intervals in my slide shows exported from Premiere in h.264 (Blu-ray), 23.976 fps, 20-30 Mbps bit rate, 2-pass, Key Frame Distance unticked (with “23” appearing dimmed). It’s a very subtle effect, not always visible. I assume the shimmering is when a new Key Frame has been inserted during a still. Whether or not that really is the cause, I'd still like to know more about Key Frames. Most of my Premiere work is with stills, with the occasional video clip from a Lumix GH3 (1920 x 1080, 23.976 fps, AVCHD) thrown in. The stills have mainly simple dissolve transitions. Q1: I assume the clips out of my GH3 have, as per Explanation 1, a constant distance between Key Frames. If such a clip is cropped inside Premiere at a frame that is not a Key Frame, does Premiere, when exporting, insert a new Key Frame at the crop point, using information contained in the original clip to create the image at that particular frame? Q2: In general, where two unrelated video clips abut (but not at Key Frames), what does Premiere do about Key Frames? Add one at the last frame of the first clip, and at the first frame of the second clip? Then apply the Key Frame Distance parameter to ensure that within each clip there are a suitable number of Key Frames? Q3: For stills, does Premiere insert Key Frames at the Key Frame Distance? Or is it clever enough to know that: “Hey, this is a still. No Key Frames are needed.” Q4: Where are Key Frames created for a still that is dissolving? Assume a Key Frame Distance much greater than the dissolve time. If I was designing Key Frame inserting software, I would create a Key Frame at the start of the dissolve, one in the centre, another at the end of the dissolve, and then no more until the next clip. Q5: Can Premiere (or AME or After Effects) tell me where Key Frames are located? Can I move them? ... View more

I think I know what the difference is: one works and the other doesn't, at least for playback on my setup (see Playback, below). Apart from that, there appears to be no detailed description of what these two options do, either in the Premiere PDF or anywhere online. Unless you count this as description (p471 of PDF): For single-layer or dual-layer Blu-ray Disc, select either MPEG2 Blu-ray or H.264 Blu-ray. Really informative stuff (please forgive my sarcasm). So, other than peering at the settings that come up, I can't work out why there are two H.264 options. PLAYBACK I have a 60-second test sequence, consisting of an animated still with audio and titles, 1920 x 1080, 23.976 fps. I exported two versions, at maximum quality settings: 1. H.264: VBR, 2 pass, Target 32.00 Mbps, Max 40.00 Mbps, AAC, 192 kbps, 48kHz, Stereo. 2. H.264 Blu-ray: VBR, 2 pass, Target 25.00 Mbps, Max 30.00 Mbps, PCM, 48kHz, Stereo. (1) came out as a 20.7 MB, mp4 file, 2.8 Mbps. Played in Quicktime, VLC and Premiere. (2) came out as a 20.6 MB, m4v file, ? Mbps. Would not play (video or audio) in QT or VLC. In Premiere, the file lacked audio. QUES 1 Why are there two H.264 options? In what situations do you use one and not the other? QUES 2 The bit rates of the exported files are very low, less than 10% of the target. Is this because low bit-rates are all that was needed for maximum quality for this simple file? QUES 3 Why doesn't the H.264 Blu-ray file playback properly? VLC can normally play almost anything you give it. Even Premiere couldn't play a file it had just exported. I've uploaded both files to a 40 MB zip file on MediaFire. ... View more

I haven't had to use crop marks before – my books have been printed on sheets the same size as the InDesign page. Now however, I am about to print a small book, 4-Up, on sheets larger than the page size, so I will need to add crop marks. I want to run my understanding of how to place crop marks on the page and how they will be used by the guillotine man, past some of the experts on this forum. And before anyone says: "Crop marks are the printer's job. Just let him do it", or somesuch comment – in this case it's not the printer's job, it's mine. I've chosen to do everything: the writing, the layout, purchase of the paper (910 x 650 sheets), the cutting of the paper, the imposition, the printing, arranging the cutting of the sheets, and then the binding. So, I need to know about crop marks. This is what I have discovered, or guessed (please correct me if I'm wrong): Assume a page size in InDesign of 100 x 200 mm. When you export to PDF and tick Crop Marks and set Offset to a certain dimension, two things happen: The page size is increased to (100 + 2 (Offset + 5.3)) in width, and (200 + 2 (Offset + 5.3)) in height. In the case of an offset of 5 mm, the page dimensions of the PDF become 120.6 x 220.6 mm. Crop marks of 5.3mm in length (5/12"), are placed at the four corners of the new page pointing inwards to the original page size. Thus, in this case, there is a gap of 5mm, the chosen offset, between the end of the crop marks and the original page. This offset allows for movement of the sheets during printing, so that when the crops are made the crop marks won't appear on any of the pages. i.e. the offset is greater than the expected sheet movement. The guillotine man, when he comes to cut the sheets, lines up the narrow beam of light from the guillotine with one of the crop marks – and cuts that edge. Now there are only two crop marks left because two have been cut off in this first cut. The guillotine man then rotates the sheets 90º and cuts again. Now there is only one crop mark left. The sheets are again rotated, the beam of light lined up with the remaining crop mark, and the third cut is made. There are no more crop marks left. For the final cut, the sheets are rotated 90º, but as there are no crop marks left, the appropriate dimension has to be entered into the guillotine (or marked out on the top sheet), and the cut is made. I have yet to confirm with my guillotine man that steps 3-6 describe how he will do it. That's simply how I imagine it would happen. And in the case of 4-Up, a couple of extra cuts will be needed in the centre, depending on how the imposed pages are positioned. Is the above an accurate description of how crop marks are inserted and how they are used? ... View more

SCRIPT TO IMPOSE AN INCOMING PDF I need a script that uses a modified version of the sample script supplied with CS4 (called PlaceMultiPagePDF.jsx, or the Applescript equivalent). Instead of placing the pages sequentially: 1 –> 1 2 –> 2 3 –> 3... the script would place the PDF pages in 2-Up Perfect Bound imposition order. The arrangement is outlined in the attached document. It would be very flexible to allow for any combination of signature lengths. As a simple example, for a 8-page booklet, the script would place the pages from the PDF in this order in InDesign: 1 –> 2 2 –> 3 3 –> 6 4 –> 7 5 –> 6 6 –> 5 7 –> 4 8 –> 1 I have written a Pidgin BASIC code that handles the page sequencing (see attached document), but I have to steer clear of actually scripting it -- my programming skills end at MS BASIC ca 1986 (which I still use occasionally on my 512k Fat Mac as I can't get anything out of modern BASIC). Why did they ever complicate things with Java and the like? Anyway, I have manually stepped through my flowchart several times and haven't come across an error, so all that is required ("all" he says, in hope) is to interrupt the pages coming from the PDF, and instead of 1 -> 1, 2->2... the script steps in and says "Whoa there... you're not going to page 315, you're going to page 297. Would it be that simple? As simple as inserting a bit of renumbering code as per my flowchart? I hope so. If anyone is interested, please let me know. ... View more