How to start a new project

[TennisKaty040]

I have been shooting movies on Mini DV and editing with PrePro 2.0. Now I have switched to the Canon Vixia HF G10, shooting AVCHD. I also just installed PE10. My Dell PC is 5 years old but meets the specs for standard DV and HDV footage. I make edited travel movies, about 15 minutes long. My final output is standard DVD. I'm thinking I should first convert my AVCHD footage to AVI, and then set up a new project and do my editing with a preset for Mini DV 16:9. Does this make sense or will I be sacrificing quality? Is PE 10 the best way to convert the files? I don't want to buy something like Corel or Nero that will sprawl all over my computer.

[Chuck Engels]

Your suggested workflow is perfect Katy, and you should not lose any of the DVD quality during the conversion.
Obviously the DVD quality is far less than the HDV quality, but still you should find the the quality of your converted AVCHD footage is probably still going to be a bit better than your old DV Camcorder would produce
Converting with Premiere Elements 10 should produce excellent AVI files for you to use in a DV 16:9 project

[Dave McElderry]

Unless you use pans and zooms in your editing, in which case you would be better off to edit in HD and then convert to SD at the end. That workflow would give you the extra resolution up front where it's needed.

By the way, welcome!

[coolstuffiniowa]

OK - so what if I am getting HD Video from Mini DV and I dont know HOW it was recorded?
A buddy of mine just shot about 3 hours of footage on his camera and gave me the mini DV tapes.
He was using a camera from work and no longer can go back and find the settings...
I want to start this project correctly and there was a message that just came up stating that the Project Settings and the input media were not going to make the best possible quality video and that I should change the project settings....
Kind of hard when I dont know what to tell it to do!
Any idea how to proceed?

[Chuck Engels]

When the warning comes up saying that the media doesn't match the project settings Premiere Elements will normally offer to change the settings for you, didn't that happen? You should only have to select OK and it will change the project settings to match the media added to the timeline. In version 11 this is not necessary by the way, you can combine any media in any project setting and the program works it all out behind the scenes.

For HDV (HD Video from MiniDV Tapes) you should be using the project setting; NTSC / HDV / HDV 1080i 30
That is for full HDV or for 720p you would choose the "HDV 720p 30" option. Most cases it will be the 1080i option.

[Peru]

OK - so what if I am getting HD Video from Mini DV and I dont know HOW it was recorded?

Download GSpot

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

and drag one of the captures into it.
It should tell you all you need to know about the file.

[Chuck Engels]

I didn't think GSpot worked for HD Format Video files.
From the Gspot specs: Program supports OGM, MPEG, RealMedia, Windows Media, Flash and AVI formats.
That does not include any HDV formats I believe. If the video was recorded to MiniDV tape chances are pretty good that the format is M2T, same as my HV40 produces

[coolstuffiniowa]

does it make a difference if the Canon HV40 was set on 24FPS?

[Chuck Engels]

Possibly. Premiere Elements doesn't really handle 24p in the same way as a professional program like Premiere Pro would, not as many options. I still think that the 1080i setting mentioned above will work fine. If Premiere Elements says you have the wrong setting you can ignore the message or let Premiere Elements change the setting to what it thinks is best.

From Canon:

native 24p mode:

This is a feature previously found only on Canon’s professional camcorders. Native 24p Mode allows 24 frames per second, instead of the standard 60i, to be captured and recorded. It is a must for serious filmmaking work, as 24 frames per second is the frame rate of film.

Camcorderinfo.com has this quote:

Canon’s decision not to simply carry over the HV30 from the previous year was explained as tendency to refresh the lines every year, “even if it’s just to offer something new to the consumer,” explained Mitchell Glick, assistant manager of Product Marketing, Consumer Division for Canon USA. The new native 24P mode was something “a lot of filmmakers request on a unit that’s a little bit less inexpensive.”

But wait a minute you say … my HV20 has recorded 24p from day one. Well not exactly. It and the HV30 record the 24p “cinema mode” which is actually 60 interlaced frames to tape. This requires an extra step of running the captured media through some type of reverse telecine (like a pass through Compressor) to remove the extra pulldown frames. Since this new native 24p mode is still recording to tape that has to mean flagged frames onto tape so your NLE capturing application can remove those frames on the fly upon capture. Extra step eliminated.