PE Basic Questions

[jburrows500]

Wondering if someone might be able to help me out....

1. After making edits for a while I will hit the enter key to render the movie. I really have no idea what it does or what it means. Could someone explain how it is different from a save? I am guessing a save can be backed off while after rendering it is what it is.

2. I seem to use cross dissolve between my clips as a transition. I put them in the center of each clip. Is there a fast way to do this other than going to transitions and pulling one down. 50% of the time I need to go into properties and specify to place it in the center.

3. Is there a way in timeline to stop having a thumbnail picture all along the time line? I find that I am often unable to do something as I wait for all the small thumbnails to refresh. I have read that you can just have the begining and end of the clip with thumbnails.

4. When I burn my movies to DVD I use avai at the highest setting. Is this the correct setting I should be using for playback on a wide screen lcd tv?

Thanks very much.

[Chuck Engels]

Wondering if someone might be able to help me out....

1. After making edits for a while I will hit the enter key to render the movie. I really have no idea what it does or what it means. Could someone explain how it is different from a save? I am guessing a save can be backed off while after rendering it is what it is.

2. I seem to use cross dissolve between my clips as a transition. I put them in the center of each clip. Is there a fast way to do this other than going to transitions and pulling one down. 50% of the time I need to go into properties and specify to place it in the center.

3. Is there a way in timeline to stop having a thumbnail picture all along the time line? I find that I am often unable to do something as I wait for all the small thumbnails to refresh. I have read that you can just have the begining and end of the clip with thumbnails.

4. When I burn my movies to DVD I use avai at the highest setting. Is this the correct setting I should be using for playback on a wide screen lcd tv?

Thanks very much.

I will do the best I can to answer your questions

1) The rendering process provides a smooth preview in the monitor, that is about all. If your preview is smooth without rendering then there is no real need to render, rendering is not required.

2) You can grab the transition on the timeline, above the clips, and drag it right or left to center. Other than that there is no real quick way to adjust its position. If you have purchased a subscription to Muvipix there is a free video tutorial on the Cross Dissolve http://muvipix.com/products.php?maincat ... ubcat_id=6

3) There is a small box at the very left of the Timeline next to the video tracks, 'Set Video Track Display Style'. Clicking this box will change from thumbnails for each frame, thumbnails at beginning and end of clip, no thumbnails at all.

4) What program are you using to burn the DVDs? You should probably be burning to a folder and using Nero or RecordNow to burn the folder to a disc, or using Premiere Elements to burn the DVDs. If you are using a program like DVD Architect or Encore then exporting the AVI would be the best, yes

Hope that helps!

[Andy_E]

2. I seem to use cross dissolve between my clips as a transition. I put them in the center of each clip. Is there a fast way to do this other than going to transitions and pulling one down. 50% of the time I need to go into properties and specify to place it in the center.

This used to happen to me a lot. I started by dropping transitions in from the scene view. Now I always do it on the timeline. If you've zoomed the timeline in sufficiently, dropping the transition in accurately at the cut point between the two clips to get "center at cut" is much easier.

[jburrows500]

Thanks guys.. much appreciated! I must not be zooming in far enough before dropping the transition into the time line.. Some times it works... other times it goes off to either side. No matter how much I try and move it to center it wont go. Oh well.. One last question.. how do you know the two clips are tight against each other. Sometimes I will preview my movie and notice as soon as it comes out of a cross disolve transition it seems to freeze for a frame, then its ok. I suspect it might be because the clips are seperated somehow. Hopefully a book will be out soon on Premier 4... Thanks again!!

[Ron]

Thanks guys.. much appreciated! I must not be zooming in far enough before dropping the transition into the time line.. Some times it works... other times it goes off to either side. No matter how much I try and move it to center it wont go. Oh well.. One last question.. how do you know the two clips are tight against each other. Sometimes I will preview my movie and notice as soon as it comes out of a cross disolve transition it seems to freeze for a frame, then its ok. I suspect it might be because the clips are seperated somehow. Hopefully a book will be out soon on Premier 4... Thanks again!!

That's a classic example of not removing some frames to allow the transition (and the reason why the transition won't 'drop' in the center). This used to perplex me as well in the past. Try removing at least 15 frames (half a second) from each clip end.

Here's a basic, well explained video of the transition in PE.