Newbie crashes head 1st into PE9

[krummo]

New to forum... apologies if I have failed to find ground already covered
new to vid editing....hair rapidly dissapearing

I have taken the plunge and decided to get PE 9 to edit some vid I took on Wedding/Honeymoon . Having seen someone using it's big brother (PP CS4) I thought it is the right thing for me . (and of course the pedigree attached to Abobe)
I have the recorded footage from a Sony cx105e (HD-mt2s) as well as stills shot on the day and was hoping to be able just slot all the diff media straight into the program Is this wise?

Having read some articles and forum posts etc, should I have converted vid to AVI 1st and reduced still pic to a better size?
The reason I am asking is that when I went to burn the final movie to dvd, PE9 fails to encode at 37%. I realise now that I should have disabled AV etc and will attempt this in an hour or so. I am trying to burn to a normal DVD so that it can play on my TV (Widescreen, Pal, CRT) through my DVD player

I have a Quad 3ghz, +3GB (XP limitation) 9600GT which I hope has enough poke to do this type of work.
Should I archive the current project and then run conversion on the media...or, god forbid, start all over again

All help gratefully received.

Cheers

[Steve Grisetti]

Hi, krummo. Welcome to Muvipix! Glad to have you aboard.

No, you should have no problems using the video from that camcorder in a Premiere Elements project -- assuming you've shot in FH or HQ-HD quality and that your Premiere Elements project is set up for a 1920x1080 project. (This camcorder can also shoot in standard MPEG mode, as you know. But, from your description, I'm assuming you shot in hi-def.)

Two things I recommend:
1) Make sure any photos you use in your project are no larger than 2000x1500 pixels in size. This will greatly reduce your render time and help ensure the program doesn't choke (which it often does on photos taken directly from still cameras).
2) Since your goal is to output a DVD, I'd recommend that, rather than going directly to a disc, you use Share/Personal Computer/AVI to output a standard definition PAL DV-AVI if your finished project. Then open a new project (set up for standard PAL DV), add that AVI to your timeline and author and output your DVD from this project. This will help eliminate another potential choke point.

Meantime, I hope you'll check out the many wonderful resources on our site!

If you're new to Premiere Elements at all -- or you just want to learn the correct way to set up and start a project -- you should check out our Basic Training for Premiere Elements tutorials. Just go to our products page and type "Basic Training" in the search box.

We also have hundreds of tutorials, tips, media clips, licensed music clips and motion backgrounds that are worth checking out. And, if you really want to master the program, we've got books on both Premiere Elements and the Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements combos available through our Muvipix products store.

Meantime, let us know what we can do. Good luck with your project!

[krummo]

Thanks for the reply...it helps a lot
one more thing, is it possible to change the size of the still in the project, or do I need to do it outside PE9 and re import them?

[Chuck Engels]

Welcome to Muvipix Krummo

You will be fine with Steve's help as well as the forum in general. If you run into problems this is definitely the place to come.

You should use a photo editing application like Photoshop Elements to change the size of the images.
With Photoshop Elements you can change multiple images all at the same time.

For wedding/honeymoon motion graphics be sure to check out our downloads
http://muvipix.com/products.php?subcat_id=32

[Bob]

Welcome to Muvipix

If you don't have a photo editing program, there are free applications that can batch resize your photos. For example, Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) has a batch conversion capability that can do the job. Whatever you use, be sure you don't overwrite your original photos.

Other things can cause a failure like that. You didn't mention how much free space you had on your disk drive. If you don't have enough, that can cause problems. Gaps in the timeline (even a single frame) where you don't have anything have been known to cause problems too.

[krummo]

Thanks guys,
It appears that with your help and advice, I think I cracked the basic

I have managed to burn a working DVD and she is currently watching the results...
The tip about exporting to AVI and then starting new project with AVI file worked a treat...no probs burning a disk

@ Chuck.. thanks, I look forward to improving my skills at this, and I think I found the right place. I was tempted to buy the PH E, but my Financial Adviser (wife) suggested otherwise .. so I'll find prog ( Thanks Bob ) and do a lot of prep before I load a new project. The manual doesn't tell you this and would probably make a good "before you get started" article.

So much capability in PE, I've barely scratched the surface.

@ Steve... I've looked at buying your book and atm, it'll only go on sale here in the UK (Amazon.co.uk) in Dec, so until then, I'll be picking your brains.

Thanks again... and in the immortal words of the "governor"...I'll be back

[Steve Grisetti]

Glad you're doing well, krummo, and that we were able to provide a solution for you!

Meantime, let me know if you'd like to me drop-ship a book to you. If you don't mind paying the overseas shipping, I'll be glad to have our printer ship you a copy of any of our books.

Just send write to me at my first name at Muvipix.com and we can figure out the shipping costs.

Happy moviemaking!

[Svein Berger]

@ Steve... I've looked at buying your book...

Yes, buy the books. I have read them. They are a must have. I've learned a lot. Thanks Steve.

[Steve Grisetti]

Hey, thanks for the endorsement, Svein! Danke!

[momoffduty]

Welcome Krummo to Muvipix! You are correct about things not in the manual. Steve's books fill in those blanks. The tutorials are great to jump start into PrEl. And it is good that you listen to your financial advisor.

[Chuck Engels]

And it is good that you listen to your financial advisor.

Yup, that's right Cheryl, don't we all know it

[krummo]

Welcome Krummo to Muvipix! You are correct about things not in the manual. Steve's books fill in those blanks. The tutorials are great to jump start into PrEl. And it is good that you listen to your financial advisor.

In pursuit of World peace (my world), is why I adopt this strategy, mostly

To quote from another source

"What is thy bidding, my Master" no cluues to who said that