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Video File and Folder Management

Specific to Premiere Elements version 15

Video File and Folder Management

Postby riddelldeb » Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:52 pm

Hello,

I've been using Elements Premiere 15 for a couple of months and enjoying the software very much. However, I'm struggling to understand completely, one aspect. I don't quite understand how all these different locations interact with one another. Camera/SD ------ Portable Hard Drive/Storage ----- Computer Hard Drive ------ Premiere Organizer ----- Premiere Editing Workspace.

I'd like to know exactly the best way to set these files up and how to best to work with them. For instance, If I save the footage from the SD card to the portable hard drive, how do I then work with it in Organizer. Must the footage be saved also to file explorer?

I often get an error message when trying to open an Elements Premiere project file from Premiere 'this type of file is not supported, or the codec is not installed.' I get the same message when trying to open the Premiere saved file from my file explorer. On more than one occasion I've spent hours and hours creating and editing only to lose the entire project.

If anyone has even a remote idea of what I'm trying to understand, I'd be grateful for a tip or two.

Deb
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sat Jan 20, 2018 5:38 pm

1) With today's computers, you can pretty much work with a single hard drive and your editing will go just fine. But, if you want a little boost, the traditional computer set-up (and the one I use) is to use your C drive for your programs and a second (internal) hard drive for your media and video editing projects. In a pinch, your second hard drive can be an external drive, but it's not the ideal way to do it. It may work -- but your USB connection to the drive can be bottleneck and may or may not be fast enough for editing.

2) The Organizer will easily catalog all of the media on all of your internal hard drives. However, getting it to also catalog your media on your portable external drive may or may not work. (Anyone else have more experience in this area?) For one thing, if you disconnect your external drive and the re-connect it, the computer may not realize it's the same drive and that can confuse the Organizer. Which is why I recommend keeping all of your media and project files on internal, permanently connected drives.

2) Don't move your media files while you're editing! Everything is dynamically linked together, and moving things around confuses the programs.

3) I'm not sure why you're moving your video files from your camcorder to your portable drive. Move your media directly to a drive that is permanently connected to your computer. Ideally an internal drive. Better yet, use the Video Importer to get the video from your camcorder to your computer, as I show you in my books and tutorials.

4) I've got no idea why you're not able to open a project using File/Open. That's a whole separate issue and worthy of its own thread, where we can help you troubleshoot exactly what is going on.
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby riddelldeb » Sat Jan 20, 2018 7:02 pm

I have only one hard drive on my computer. When I tried to save more video to the pc, was told there was not enough room. I have a brand new computer 16MB RAM, 2.8Gz processor. I thought I would need to save my footage to external hard drive to store it, then copy to pc drive when I want to edit it.
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby George Tyndall » Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:11 pm

Steve Grisetti wrote:(Anyone else have more experience in this area?)


I doubt that I have more experience than you, but the following is the method that I have been using, very successfully, for over a decade.

1) My C drive is for the OS and programs ("apps") ONLY
2) My second internal drive is a mirror image of my C drive for immediate use when (not if but when) my C drive crashes
3) ALL data go on a USB3.0 external 3TB HDD ("A") that is connected via a USB3.0 port
4) Using SmartSyncPro 5, drive A gets manually but frequently backed up to a second identical external USB3.0 HDD ("B") so that when drive A (not if but when) crashes, drive B will be immediately available for use, including a copy of my A drive catalog
5) Currently Organizer 2018's catalog manages 110,000 media (audio, photos, videos) that are located on drive A.Where is that catalog located?
6) Using the Custom Location option, I placed the catalog for all the data on my A drive not on the C drive but on that one and the same A drive -- the result is that the catalog on drive A gets backed up to the B drive whenever I run SSPro
7 The result is that the next time drive A crashes, here is how I will get my catalog up and running quickly: double-click the following sequence on my B drive:

Organizer 2018 Catalog>>>A drive catalog>>>
catalog 16 db.JPG


Double-clicking on that last database item opens from my B drive a copy of the A drive catalog, including all the thumbnails that were present on the A drive when I synchronized them; however, many thumbnails will have question marks overlying them.

Single-click any of the thumbnails and then click Reconnect.

Don't ask me how, but what happens after clicking Reconnect is that the Organizer would begin the process of rapidly reconnecting the thumbnails to all 110,000 of the audio, photo and video files that I've been regularly backing up from the A drive to the B drive.

Conclusion: with this method, one can have one's Organizer catalog back up and running in a matter of hours rather days not to say a week.

Here is how to place your catalog on an external drive rather than the C drive: with the Organizer open, in the File menu choose Manage Catalogs and then use the Custom Location Radio button to choose your custom location.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to label as Watched Folders all the folders that you ask the Organizer to track. What will happen as a result is that whenever you acquire new audio, photo or video files in any of those folders, the Organizer will automatically show the thumbnails and ask whether you wish to "Import" (track) them.

BTW, regarding the Import menu at the top left, here's a suggestion: Choose the "In Batch" method for importing so that you can control which media folders in your system you want the Organizer to manage. Otherwise, it will spend, possibly, hours upon hours looking in every nook and cranny on each and every one of your internal and mounted external drives searching for media to import.

One last VERY IMPORTANT point: if ever you want to COPY, DELETE, MOVE OR RENAME any of the media files that the O tracking, DO IT VIA THE O's File menu; otherwise, the O may lose track of the them.

Why would anyone want to put with the O's requirements?

Here is just one of many answers: check out the O's Find Menu to see all the many different ways it can search for a specific one of my 110,000 audio, photo and video files -- and that's only one of the benefits. Both the PRE and the PSE books by Steve succinctly describe many more that result from mastering the capabilities of Organizer 2018.


catalog 16 db.JPG


P.S. Note from the images of their respective Welcome screens that, if you have both PRE and PSE installed on your system like I do, what will happen is that if you open either program's Welcome screen, you will also be able to open both the Organizer and the complementary program to, if you wish, have all three open at once. (If I had only, say, PSE installed, then its Welcome screen would not show the Video Editor option like it does in this image of the PSE Welcome screen.) Here is the reason that, when assembling a movie in PRE, I also have both the O and PSE open: my workflow would be to import my audio, photo and video files from the Organizer into Premiere, and edit the photos with PSE. I also use PSE to verify that photos are roughly 2500 x 1875 pixels, as Steve recommend for a high-def project.

::wav::
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby George Tyndall » Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:54 pm

Steve Grisetti wrote:
3) I'm not sure why you're moving your video files from your camcorder to your portable drive. Move your media directly to a drive that is permanently connected to your computer. Ideally an internal drive.


I keep all my data files on the two external HDDs, labeled A and B, because when I'm at home I work with my desktop, but when I travel I work with my laptop. Both machines have the PRE/PSE/Organizer 2018 installed. Adobe allows a single copy of the program to be installed on two different machines, using one and the same serial number.

Adobe keeps track of all my serial numbers at Adobe.com. If I wish to move the programs to, say, a different laptop, I'm allowed to deactivate on the one via Adobe.com and then install it on the other.

P.S. No matter the source of my files -- Akaso Brave 4, Mavic Pro, scanner, Smartphone, etc -- I import them first to my HDD before editing them. Then, when I wish to work on them, I use Files and Folders as my source. Once I have them onto drive A -- and backed up by drive B -- only then do I feel comfortable formatting the respective memory cards for a new shoot. Here is the bonus that you get from moving all files from whatever devices you have to a HDD that you have backed up: you can free up space on the various memory cards for your devices.

P.P.S. If shooting with a tape-type camcorder, use HDV to import the files to your HDD so you can then use Files and Folders as the source for your timelines.

::wav::
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sat Jan 20, 2018 11:00 pm

If you have so little space on your hard drive that need to only temporarily put files on there when you want to make movies, you have a lot of potential issues at work, Deb. I mean, if your system is working for you, then I guess you can continue to use it. But hard drive space is one thing video editors can't have too much of -- and can easily have too little. And you do not want to edit video with too little hard drive space.

What is the name of your processor?

How much free, clean, freshly defragmented space on your hard drive.
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby Peru » Sun Jan 21, 2018 1:56 pm

Is this a desktop or laptop? What model and full specs?
Adding a larger hard drive or two is the best solution.
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby George Tyndall » Sat Jan 27, 2018 2:52 am

George Tyndall wrote:however, many thumbnails will have question marks overlying them.


That's what I thought I was seeing, but it turned out that what I was seeing was the icons for version sets.

In summary, by backing up external Drive A to external drives B, F and G I now have 4 identical catalogs, all of which stay up-to-date for the following reason: all folders in each catalog are "watched" folders. What this means is that, whenever I add a new file to my primary HDD and then back it up to each of the 3 other drives, it will appear in the watched folders of the other 3 catalogs, each of which then asks whether I wish to import the file into that particular catalog, which of course I always do.

As I wrote previously, I have no way of knowing whether this phenomenon exists for all backup synchronizing programs or is unique to SmartSyncPro.

::wav::
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Re: Video File and Folder Management

Postby George Tyndall » Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:28 pm

George Tyndall wrote:BTW, regarding the Import menu at the top left, here's a suggestion: Choose the "In Batch" method for importing so that you can control which media folders in your system you want the Organizer to manage. Otherwise, it will spend, possibly, hours upon hours looking in every nook and cranny on each and every one of your internal and mounted external drives searching for media to import.


Edit: 2018 0130@1330

After trying a different method with my second replacement 4TB USB 3.0 drive, I've learned that the following method is far more efficient than Import>In Batch.

To begin the process, choose Computer>[right-click]Manage>[left-click] Disk Managment>Change drive letter and path>OK (if it really is OK, as when you are assigning a letter to a brand new drive). I assigned the letter G to the new drive.

Upon opening the Organizer, I elected to show all the folders that the O can see (all the drives that are mounted) in Tree View rather than List view.

Next, I right-clicked on Folder G to show its sub-folders.

After that, I right-clicked again on G to choose Import Media.This changed the drive from Unmanaged (no icon) by the O to Managed (new icon on the folder)

After the O had finished "importing" -- creating links to drive G (no media are actually imported) -- I right-clicked once again on the now-Managed G folder to choose Watch Folder. This caused a binoculars to appear on the folder. From this point onward, whenever I save a new audio, photo, project or video file to Drive G, I've chosen the setting for which the O will ask whether I wish to have it tracked. I will, of course, click Yes only if I actually wish to save that file on drive G

Bonus: the O's Tree view provides me a detailed picture of all the folders on drive G -- plus thumbnails of any audio, photo, project or video files contained therein.

Having this Tree quickly scrollable makes it very convenient for me to stay aware of where and what I have on the drive, including folders that do not contain media.

I'm giving a round of applause to the devlopers, plus Steve, whose three chapters re the O that comprise Part IV of his PRE 2018 book are, like the remainder of the text, both masterpieces of succinct writing and wonderfully illustrated.

::CLAP:

Next project: I want to learn whether, like elements organizer 7, the 2018 version will allow me to create a precise backup of Drive G on a second identical external drive that preserves the links to the files that the O is managing.
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