From the Premiere Elements 4.0 readme file: "Voice over narration may not be recorded using a mono USB microphone." I'm pretty sure this was the same in previous versions as well. This doesn't seem to apply if you have a non-usb microphone that plugs directly into the microphone jack. I've...

Also, the record narration feature requires a stereo microphone. Mono won't work.

Regarding Codec's, once they are installed on your system, will most, or all app's take advantage of these. Good question. The short answer is "No". Let's just talk about Windows (because I'm not familiar with how the MAC handles this). There are two main systems for handling the encoding...

Sound great, Chummy! Especially the week in Marrakech! Plenty of time to chase down and resolve what's happening after you return.

Cinde, Battery backup systems come in various capacities and you need to get one adequate for your power requirements. APC has a selector web page to help you pick a size at http://www.apc.com/tools/ups_selector/index.cfm . Other makers probably have a similar page, but I'm not aware of them. I'm mo...

Hi guys! A couple of things. Re: exporting transparency. DV AVI doesn't support it. DV AVI supports 24 bit video but you need 32bit (i.e. four 8-bit channels R,G,B, and Alpha). The color depth setting needs to be set to say something like "millions of colors+". The "+" is the alp...

Chummy, I removed the link from your post as you requested. FYI, You can also edit your own posts when necessary. Matte Alpha uses the alpha channel (transparency) of the matte to make the mask but ignores the luminance (brightness) information. You would use this setting when the transparency compl...

That clip does not use the alpha channel. What it does is provide a matte at the end that can be used to mask the first half of the clip. One way to use it would be as follows: 1) load the clip into the media bin. Let's call this clip a. 2) duplicate the clip in the media bin. Let's call this clip b...

I don't do much sketching or drawing either. I just find pen mode, personally, to be easier. At one point in my career, I used computer aided design and mapping applications extensively and got quite used to the absolute positioning tablets they utilized. When I purchased a tablet for use with photo...

Hi Jayell, The active area of the tablet comes mapped to the full screen area by default out of the box. Of course you can change the mapping any way you want. Most of the people that I know have never bothered to change the mapping. I do change the mapping. I use the full monitor screen, but I only...

Graphics tablets are great. I've had a Wacom 4x5 Graphire for many years. When it's time to replace it, I'll be getting the Intuos -- probably the 4x6 although the 6x8 may be ok too. Definitely nothing bigger. The Intuos has double the resolution of the graphire and has pen tilt sensitivity. What si...

6) The cost to take your family to a movie will exceed a weekend at Disney World. Ticket: $120... Gosh, Jack. The way things are going, that may only be a year or two off! Even worse than the price, the theater experience is going downhill even faster. Last time we went to the theater it was misera...

It was worth trying the cache rebuild. That needs to be rebuilt whenever a plugin is updated or replaced. Evidently something else is going on too. I think John is on to something with the directory structure. The SDK indicates that the new convention for plugins is to place them in the language spe...

Ken, try holding down the shift key as you start up Premiere Elements. The plugins are cached to speed up startup. Holding shift during startup forces the plugin cache to be cleared and the plugins will reinitialize.

Welcome Gregg! From one retired IT guy to another, you'll enjoy it here.