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elcome to the Adobe Premiere™ program. Version 1.1 of the program includessome new input features, the ability to open a sequence of numbered still images,and the ability to set a custom CD-ROM data rate, among other things.

Chapter 1: Introducing AdobePremiere 1.1

WAdobe Premiere 1.1 also includes the Adobe Video Capture™ program—a program thatturns analog videos from your VCR or video camera into digitized Audio/Video Inter-leaved (AVI) movie clips. With Adobe Video Capture, you can capture an entire videosequence from beginning to end. You can also capture individual frames by clicking theframes you want to include or by using time-lapse capture. The ability to capture individ-ual frames selectively lets you create interesting video sequences, including regular andstop-motion animation. If you have a controllable video playback device, you can capturevideo clips precisely by referring to their time codes.

For general information on the Adobe Premiere program, see Chapter 1 of the AdobePremiere 1.0 User Guide.

THE ADOBE PREMIERE SOFTWARE PACKAGEThe Adobe Premiere 1.1 software package includes the following:

O Four disks, containing the installer, the Adobe Premiere program, the Adobe VideoCapture program, Apple QuickTime™ runtime software, Microsoft® Video for Windows™

1.1 runtime software and a number of sample files.

O Adobe Premiere 1.0 User Guide

O Adobe Premiere 1.1 Getting Started

O Quick Reference Card

O Registration card

O Read This First card, containing your program serial number

THE ADOBE PREMIERE CD-ROM EDITIONThe Adobe Premiere 1.1 CD-ROM edition also includes the following:

O The Adobe Premiere software package on a single compact disc. The software packagecontains everything that is on the Adobe Premiere floppy disks.

O The Adobe Premiere 1.0 User Guide and Adobe Premiere 1.1 Getting Started Guide inon-screen versions using the Adobe Acrobat™ Reader software. The manuals are suppliedas PDF (Portable Document Format) files.

O Adobe Acrobat Reader software package, which includes the Acrobat Reader program,the Acrobat Reader Tour and Acrobat Reader On-line Guide, the Adobe Type Manager™

(ATM™) software, five Adobe Type 1 fonts, and two multiple master typefaces for fontsubstitution.

O The Acrobat Reader Quick Reference Card.

O Samples of royalty-free video and audio clips.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND INSTALLATIONFor information on the Adobe Premiere system requirements and for installation proce-dures, see the Adobe Premiere 1.0 User Guide.

If you are installing the Adobe Premiere CD-ROM version, you will insert the compactdisc into your CD-ROM drive and type d:\premiere\setup (where d: is the CD-ROMdrive indicator) to begin the installation.

VIDEO CAPTURE HARDWARE REQUIREMENTSTo record video, you need a video source (such as a VCR, video camera, or laserdisc) anda Microsoft Video for Windows-compatible video capture board. To record sound, youneed an audio capture board. Some video capture boards offer audio capture capabilitiesas well.

Video capture boards differ widely in their functions and capabilities. Some boards func-tion as graphics display boards and video output boards. To digitize video using the AdobeVideo Capture program, you must have the Microsoft® Video for Windows™ softwareinstalled on your computer. The Video for Windows drivers that are necessary for videocapture are included in the Adobe Premiere software package.

If you have a video playback device that supports time code, you can capture video clipsprecisely by referring to their time codes. To do this, you need an installed MCI (MediaControl Interface) device control driver to control the source remotely using the AdobeVideo Capture program. The Sony VISCA™, Panasonic, and Pioneer MCI device control-lers are included with Microsoft Video for Windows 1.1, which is included with the AdobePremiere program.

If you are digitizing sound using an audio capture board, the audio device driver for thatboard must also be installed on your computer. The driver functions as a link between theaudio board and Video for Windows.

The connections between hardware components will vary with the equipment you areusing. You will need to connect the video-out port of your video source to your videocapture board. If you want to capture audio, your audio source (normally the audio-outport of your video source) must also be connected to the computer. Refer to the docu-mentation for your computer and your capture boards for the proper hardware setupand configuration.

INSTALLING AND STARTING THE ACROBAT READER PROGRAMIf you have the Adobe Premiere 1.1 CD-ROM edition, you can use the Acrobat Readerprogram to view the Adobe Premiere 1.0 User Guide and Adobe Premiere 1.1 Getting StartedGuide on-screen. The Acrobat Reader program lets you view and print on-line documen-tation and third-party reference material that has been saved in the Portable DocumentFormat (PDF). Virtually any document created with any application can be converted intoa PDF file. PDF files retain all the graphics, formatting, and fonts of the original docu-ment.

To install the Acrobat Reader program:

1 Start Windows if you have not already done so.

2 Insert the Adobe Premiere compact disc into your CD-ROM drive.

3 From the Program Manager, choose Run from the File menu. The Run dialog boxappears.

4 Type d:\acrobat\disk1\aasetup (where d: is the CD-ROM drive indicator), and clickOK.

5 Follow the on-screen instructions for installing Acrobat Reader and ATM.

To start the Acrobat Reader program:

From the Program Manager, double-click the Adobe program icon, and then double-clickthe Acrobat Reader icon.

Using the Acrobat Reader ProgramThe Acrobat Reader application directory includes the following files for learning how touse the program.

O Acrobat Reader Tour, a short, interactive tutorial that shows you how to use the mostimportant Acrobat Reader features. The tour takes about 20 minutes to complete. To takethe tour, start the Acrobat Reader program, open the Acrobat Reader Tour file, and followthe on-screen instructions.

O Acrobat Reader Help, an on-line guide containing all the information you need to use theAcrobat Reader program. To view the Help, start the Acrobat Reader program, and chooseHelp from the File menu.

ADOBE PREMIERE ON-LINE HELPHelp is a convenient, quick way to look up information on-line—a procedure you’re try-ing to follow, a feature you want to know more about, or a command you want to use. Youget help by using the Help menu, or you can get context-sensitive help for commands,tools, and dialog boxes. Context-sensitive help is not available in the Adobe Video Captureprogram.

If this is the first time you have used on-line Help, choose Using Help from the Help menufor a description of the type of assistance available. For more information on how to usethe Help feature, see your Windows documentation.

NEW FEATURES IN ADOBE PREMIERE 1.1This section describes the new features in Premiere 1.1.

O You can capture video using the Adobe Video Capture program. For information onhow to use the Adobe Video Capture program, see Chapter 2, “Capturing Video,” andChapter 3, “Guidelines for Capturing Video.”

O The Capture command in the File menu starts up the Adobe Video Capture program. Ifyou want the Capture command to start up a different capture application, hold down theShift key as you choose Capture. The Capture dialog box will appear, which you can useto locate the capture application you want.

O Acceptable source-file formats include TARGA and ADPCM audio. Adobe Premiere canalso read AVI files with compressed audio.

O You can open or import a series of numbered still images (in TIFF, TARGA, or WindowsBitmap (BMP) format) as a single video clip. The filenames must all contain the samenumber of digits in serial order, and the extensions must all be the same. For example,FILE000.TIF, FILE001.TIF, FILE002.TIF, and so on, are acceptable filenames.

To open or import a series of numbered still images, display sequenced files in the Openor Import dialog box by selecting the correct sequence type from the List Files of Typedrop-down list. The three sequence choices are TIFF Sequence, TARGA Sequence, orBitmap Sequence. (If you don’t display only sequenced files before selecting a numberedstill-image, the file will open as a single image.)

By default, the images are assigned a frame rate of 1 frame per second (fps). You canchange the frame rate using the Speed command on the Clip menu. For a frame rate of30 fps enter 3000% for the new rate in the dialog box; for 24 fps, enter 2400%; for 15 fps,enter 1500%.

O If all of the source clips in the Construction window do not use color from a colorpalette, and they use the same compressor, size, and depth, movie compilation speed willbe greatly enhanced if you compile the movie using those same settings for the outputoptions.

O When setting the Data Rate in the Project Output Options dialog box, you can specifycustom CD-ROM rates by selecting the CD-ROM option. For playback on a standard-speed CD-ROM, you can specify a data-rate limit of up to 150 kilobytes per second. Forplayback on a double-speed CD-ROM, you can specify a rate as high as 300 kilobytes persecond. Adobe Premiere will automatically adjust the spatial and temporal quality of themovie to achieve the data rate you specify.

O The Project Output Options dialog box also has an option for selecting a color palette.You should select a palette if you are making an 8-bit, 256 color movie, and the clips werecaptured with different palettes. Using a common palette for all clips in a movie ensuresthat the movie’s colors are consistent throughout.

If you select the Load Palette option in the Project Output Options dialog box, the LoadPalette dialog box will appear when you click OK to compile the movie. You can use thepalette from any Windows bitmap file (.bmp), any AVI file (.AVI) that was captured witha palette, or any Windows palette (.PAL). You cannot use OS 2 bitmap files.

O The Preview Options dialog box lets you control the positioning of the Preview windowwhen you preview or scrub through a movie. You can keep the Preview window in frontof other open windows by selecting Previewing, Scrubbing, or both from the In FrontWhen area.

his chapter describes how to record video images and sound directly to yourcomputer by digitizing, or capturing, the analog video and audio signals fromyour VCR, CD player, video camera, laserdisc, microphone, or television. For

Chapter 2: Capturing Video

Tbackground information on video capture, see Chapter 3, “Guidelines for CapturingVideo.”

You can capture video with or without device control, depending on the capabilities ofyour VCR. (Device control is the ability to control video devices from your computer,which allows you to capture frames between exact time-code addresses.) Regardless ofwhich method you use to capture video, you specify capture options such as capture typeand frame rate, image size and format, audio format, and so on.

To capture video as efficiently and accurately as possible, the Adobe Video Captureprogram preallocates disk space to store the video temporarily. This preallocated diskspace is called the capture file. You can specify the capture file’s size and the hard disk driveon which to store it. You can also tell the program not to preallocate space, although doingso is not recommended.

Note: It’s a good idea to defragment your hard disk using a defragmenting program such asNorton Utilities before starting to capture video. Doing so improves performance, ensuresenough disk space for building the capture file, and decreases the likelihood that video frameswill be dropped.

STARTING THE ADOBE VIDEO CAPTURE PROGRAMYou can start the Adobe Video Capture program from the Program Manager or fromwithin the Adobe Premiere program.

To start the Adobe Video Capture program, use one of the following methods:

O From the Program Manager, double-click the Adobe Video Capture program icon inthe Adobe group.

O From within Adobe Premiere, choose Capture from the File menu.

SETTING UP THE CAPTURE FILEWhen the Adobe Video Capture program captures video, it temporarily stores the videoin a capture file on your hard disk drive until you save the video as an AVI file. Even ifyou’re capturing directly to RAM, the program still uses the capture file to store the videoafter it’s created. The capture file is called ADOBECAP.AVI.

When you set up the capture file, you preallocate some amount of space for the file on thehard disk drive of your choice. You can choose not to preallocate space, in which case theprogram will build the capture file as it captures. If you don’t preallocate disk space, framesmay get dropped whenever the program needs to allocate additional space for the file.

The capture file is not automatically deleted after each capture session, so you don’t haveto wait for the file to be rebuilt each time you want to capture video.

To set up the capture file:

1 Choose Set Capture File from the Capture menu. The Set Capture File dialog boxappears.

The Set Capture File dialog box always displays the current capture file state. If a capturefile does not yet exist, the file size will be zero, and the option for preallocating disk spacewill be deselected. If a capture file already exists, its size will be displayed, and the preallo-cating disk space option will be selected.

2 Select the option for preallocating disk space.

3 From the list of currently available disk drives, choose the one on which you want tocreate the capture file.

4 In the Capture File Size area, type the number of megabytes you want to preallocate. Theamount of space currently available on the chosen disk drive is displayed in the Disk SpaceAvailable field. You can specify a capture file size of up to 2 megabytes less than the avail-able space.

5 Click OK.

SETTING CAPTURE OPTIONSUse the Capture Options dialog box to specify a variety of options for controlling how theAdobe Video Capture program captures your video and audio input. In some cases, theoptions available depend on which video board you’re using—each video board manufac-turer determines the available options for its board.

Displaying the Capture Options dialog boxYou can use the Capture Options dialog box before starting to capture video, or you canuse it during the capture procedure.

To display the Capture Options dialog box:

1 Use one of the following methods:

O Before starting to capture video, choose Capture Options from the Capture menu, orclick the Options button at the top of the Capture window.

O If you’ve already started the capture procedure, click the Options button in the Capturedialog box.

The Capture Options dialog box appears.

2 When you finish specifying options, click OK to accept the changes and close theCapture Options dialog box.

Capturing to memory or to diskThe fastest way to capture video is to capture it directly to RAM; however, you must haveenough memory available to capture the entire clip. If there is not enough memory, theprogram will save to disk when it reaches the end of available memory, which can causedropped frames. The default method is capturing to disk.

For guidelines on capturing to memory or to disk, see Chapter 3, “Guidelines forCapturing Video.”

To specify memory or disk capture:

1 Display the Capture Options dialog box if it’s not already displayed.

2 Select or deselect the Capture Directly to Memory option.

3 Click OK when you finish specifying options.

Specifying the capture typeThe Adobe Video Capture program lets you create a normal, stepped, or time-lapse AVIclip, or a single frame bitmap file.

To specify the capture type:

1 Display the Capture Options dialog box if it’s not already displayed.

2 Select one of the following capture types:

O Normal Capture creates an AVI (.AVI) clip at the frame rate you specify.

O Single Frame creates a bitmap (.BMP) file of the frame displayed when you click StartCapture in the Capture dialog box.

O Step Capture creates an AVI clip containing the frames you specify. Step Capture is idealfor capturing regular or stop-motion animation.

O Timed Capture creates a time-lapse AVI clip for which you specify how many frames perminute, hour, or day to include.

3 Click OK when you finish specifying options.

Specifying the frame rateThe frame rate determines how smooth and natural the clip appears. The frame rate youshould specify depends on a variety of things, including the following:

O Amount of RAM you have available

O Performance characteristics of your destination medium

O Video frame size

O Audio quality settings

O Color settings

O Whether or not your playback system has hardware compression

O Performance characteristics of your video capture board

The normal real-time playback rate for video is 30 frames per second (fps). Frame ratesunder 15 fps tend to make playback appear jumpy. In general, the lower the settings youspecify for frame size, number of colors, and audio quality, the higher the frame capturerate you will be able to achieve. Using compression can also help you increase the capturerate without significantly decreasing quality. Be sure to consult the manufacturer of yourvideo capture board to understand the board’s capabilities and characteristics.

You specify frame rate when capturing in Normal Capture or Timed Capture mode.

To specify frame rate:

1 Display the Capture Options dialog box if it’s not already displayed.

2 Choose a frame rate as follows:

O If you’re using Normal Capture mode, choose a rate from the drop-down list in theFrame Rate area, or type a custom frame rate. The rate is expressed in frames per second(fps).

O If you’re using Timed Capture mode, type in the Frame Rate area the number of framesto capture, and choose a time unit from the drop-down list. Doing so determines thenumber of frames the program will capture per minute, hour, or day.

3 Click OK when you finish specifying options.

Specifying capture timeIf you are capturing in Normal Capture mode, you can set how many seconds of video youwant to capture.

To specify the capture time:

1 Display the Capture Options dialog box if it’s not already displayed.

2 Select the Capture Limit option, and type the number of seconds you want to capturein the text box.

3 Click OK when you finish specifying options.

Specifying audio optionsYou can choose whether or not to include audio in your capture. If you do include audio,you can set the rate and the format. There is a direct relationship between the size of theaudio sample and the audio rate and format specification. For example, 8-bit monauralaudio captured at 11 kHz produces the smallest possible audio samples (and the lowestquality audio signal—as in the AM radio range), and 16-bit stereo audio captured at44 kHz produces the largest samples (CD quality). Unless you’re producing music videosand require extremely high-quality sound, 8-bit stereo sound captured at 22 kHz normallyprovides the optimum balance between sound quality and data capture rate.

To specify audio options:

1 Display the Capture Options dialog box if it’s not already displayed.

2 Select or deselect Capture Audio in the Audio Options area.

3 If you are capturing audio, choose a rate from the Rate drop-down list. You can choose11 kHz, 22 kHz, or 44 kHz.

4 If you are capturing audio, choose a format from the Format drop-down list. You canchoose 8-bit or 16-bit, mono or stereo.

5 Click OK when you finish specifying options.

Specifying video optionsThe video options that are available to you depend on the video capture board that isinstalled in your system. There are four categories of video options: format, source, com-pression, and display. If your video board does not support one of these categories, thatcategory will not be available in the Capture Options dialog box.

For information on the specific video options available with your video board, see theboard’s documentation.

To specify video options:

1 Display the Capture Options dialog box if it’s not already displayed.

2 Specify format options by clicking Format in the Video Options area. Doing so displaysyour capture board’s Format dialog box.

The format options vary depending on your video board. They usually include settings forimage size (in pixels) and format. There are standard image sizes that you can use—640pixels by 480 pixels is full-screen size. Keep in mind that larger sizes require more memoryand disk space, and will lower the frame capture rate.

There are also standard image formats such as 8-bit color (256 colors), 15-bit color (32Kcolors), and 24-bit color (16.7 million colors). Although higher numbers improve thequality of the image, they also increase the size of the data for each frame.

Note: If you are capturing using a color palette, the Adobe Video Capture program uses thedefault color palette of your video capture board. The color palette determines which colors areused. See the board’s documentation for information on adjusting the color palette.

3 Specify source options by clicking Source in the Video Options area. Doing so displaysyour capture board’s Source dialog box.

The source options vary depending on your video board. They control the interactionbetween your capture device and capture driver, and they may include settings for optionssuch as the video signal (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc.), the active port (Composite, S-Video,etc.), and quality controls (detail level, anti-snow, sharpness, noise, etc.).

4 Specify compression options by clicking Compression in the Video Options area. Doingso displays your capture board’s Compression dialog box. The Compression dialog boxlets you turn compression on or off and choose which compression method to use. If yourboard does not support hardware compression, attempting to compress during videocapture will likely result in dropped frames.

5 If your capture board supports display options, click Display in the Video Options area.Doing so displays the board’s Display dialog box. Display options specify driver-specificparameters such as brightness and contrast. If your board does not support displayoptions, the Display button will not be available.

Using overlay previewingYou can use overlay previewing if your video capture board supports this feature. In over-lay mode, the source video passes directly to the Capture window rather than beingprocessed by the board. Overlay previewing requires much less processing than does stan-dard previewing.

To use overlay previewing:

Select or deselect Overlay from the Capture menu. If your video board does not supportoverlay previewing, this command will not be available.

CAPTURING WITHOUT DEVICE CONTROLYou can capture video to your hard disk in real time by monitoring the signal in theCapture window and recording the frames you want. The effectiveness of this methoddepends on the speed of your CPU, the capabilities of your video capture board, and thesize of the video frames you’re capturing. (For more information, see Chapter 3, “Guide-lines for Capturing Video.”) You should close all other applications before capturing.

To capture without device control:

1 Choose Capture from the Capture menu, or click the Capture button at the top of theCapture window. The Capture dialog box appears.

The Capture dialog box displays information about the capture file and about the videoand audio options being used. For information on the capture file, see “Setting Up theCapture File,” earlier in this chapter.

2 Use the Options command to specify video and audio capture options. For informationon specifying capture options, see the preceding section, “Setting Capture Options.”

3 Press the play button on the VCR to start the tape. The video begins to preview in theMovie Capture window.

4 Click the Start Capture button to start the capture. You should start the recording 1/2 to1 second before the first frame you want in your clip to ensure that the video capture boardis digitizing at full speed.

5 Use one of the following techniques to complete the capture procedure, depending onwhich capture type you’re using:

O If you’re capturing in Normal Capture mode, the video being captured immediatelyappears in a clip window. To stop recording, press the Escape key or click the left mousebutton. If you specified a capture limit in the Capture Options dialog box, recording willstop automatically when the limit is reached.

O If you’re capturing in Single Frame mode, the preview freezes in the Movie Capturewindow (to show the captured frame), and the Save As dialog box appears. Use the dialogbox to save the clip.

O If you’re capturing in Step Capture mode, the Step Capture dialog box appears. As youwatch the video preview, click Add a Frame whenever you want a frame added to thecapture. Click Done to stop recording.

O If you’re capturing in Timed Capture mode, the Timed Capture dialog box appears. Thedialog box dynamically displays the current number of captured frames. Click Done tostop recording.

Current number of captured frames

6 To preview the capture file (titled ADOBECAP.AVI) in its clip window, click the Playbutton, or use the slider to move through the clip to particular frames.

7 Use the Save Captured Video As command on the File menu to save the clip as an AVIfile. You can have up to five saved clip windows open at a time.

CAPTURING WITH DEVICE CONTROLIf you have a controllable VCR (or other video input device) and the correct MCI devicecontroller, you can control the capture of video clips by specifying the time-code addressfor the starting and ending frames. Doing so provides for much greater accuracy in record-ing exactly the series of frames that you want.

To be captured with device control, your subject should have been recorded with timecode. If the videotape is not time-code stamped, device control will only be accurate to thenearest second—it will not be frame-accurate.

To capture using device control:

1 Choose Capture from the Capture menu, or click the Capture button at the top of theCapture window. The Capture dialog box appears.

2 Display the Options dialog box, and select Use MCI. The MCI Options button becomesavailable.

Play button

Slider button

3 Click MCI Options. The MCI Options dialog box appears.

4 Choose your device from the MCI Device drop-down list. The pop-up menu lists allavailable MCI devices.

5 Select Step Capture if you want the source video to play one frame at a time. StepCapture improves the quality of the capture by ensuring that no frames are dropped;however, the capture will take longer to complete.

6 Press the play button on the VCR to start the tape. The video begins to preview in theMovie Capture window.

7 Use your device controls to locate the frame where you want to begin recording.

8 Click Mark In to mark the frame as the in point for the capture. The time-code addressappears in the Capture In text box.

9 Locate the frame at which you want to end recording, and click Mark Out.

10 Click OK.

11 Specify the remaining video and audio options in the Capture Options dialog box. Forinformation on specifying capture options, see “Setting Capture Options,” earlier in thischapter.

12 Click OK.

13 Click the Start Capture button to start the capture. The tape will automatically rewindto the in-point frame you specified, and the capture will begin. When the tape reaches theout-point frame, the capture ends.

SAVING CAPTURED VIDEOWhen you finish capturing a video clip, the capture file (titled ADOBECAP.AVI) opens ina clip window. You must save the capture file as an AVI clip before you can capture again;otherwise, your data will be overwritten during the next capture session.

To save a capture file as an AVI clip:

Use the Save Captured Video As command on the File menu. Adobe Video Capture usesthe standard Windows dialog box for saving captured video.

OPENING ADDITIONAL AVI FILESYou can use the Adobe Video Capture program to open any AVI file, not only thosecaptured by the program. You can have up to five AVI files open at a time.

To open an AVI file:

Use the Open command on the File menu. Adobe Video Capture uses the standardWindows dialog box for opening files.

TRANSFERRING CLIPS TO THE ADOBE PREMIERE PROGRAMYou can quickly transfer a newly captured clip to the Adobe Premiere program fromwithin the Adobe Video Capture program. Doing so closes the file in the Adobe VideoCapture program.

To transfer a clip to Adobe Premiere:

1 Make active the AVI clip that you want to edit.

2 Choose Open in Premiere from the File menu, or double-click the clip. If AdobePremiere is not already running, it is started up, and the clip opens in an Adobe PremiereClip window. The Adobe Video Capture program continues to run.

igital recording of full-frame, full-motion video requires a fast computer and a lotof hard disk storage space. Only recently have desktop computer systems beencapable of processing data effectively enough to capture, store, and play back

Chapter 3: Guidelines for CapturingVideo

Ddigital video. This chapter provides guidelines for using your equipment to produce highquality video and audio.

REDUCING MEMORY REQUIREMENTSThe three main strategies for reducing memory requirements are as follows:

O Compressing the video data

O Reducing the image dimensions of the captured video

O Reducing the frame rate of the captured video

Each of these strategies compromises the quality of your digitized video. If you mustcapture full-frame video at 30 frames per second (fps), you’ll need some specialty hard-ware and a lot of data storage capacity. If you can afford to compromise the quality or theimage dimensions, you’ll be able to do much more with less. For example, if you’re digi-tizing video for use on CD-ROMs, you should not capture at full frame or at 30 fps,because standard CD-ROM players can play back up to only 15 fps.

Video data can be compressed using either hardware or software compression. Some typeof hardware compression, available on certain video capture boards, is required to capturefull-frame video at 30 fps. Software compression can provide a higher frame capture rate,but typically less than 30 fps.The Video for Windows software (included with the AdobePremiere program) includes the Microsoft Video 1, Microsoft RLE, and Intel Indeo soft-ware compressors.

USING HIGH QUALITY SOURCE VIDEOThe quality of your captured video will never exceed the quality of your source video, soyou should try to use the highest quality source possible. Laserdisc video is currently thehighest quality source video. After that, in descending order, are Hi 8, Super VHS and8mm, and VHS.

If your video capture board supports both Composite and S-Video input, you should useS-Video if possible—doing so will improve captured video quality.

CAPTURING THE HIGHEST QUALITY VIDEOAchieving the maximum frame rate and image size during capture and playback is depen-dent on the speed and compression capabilities of the video capture board, the speed ofthe computer’s hard disk drive and drive controller, the speed of the computer’s centralprocessing unit (CPU), and the data processing load on the CPU.

CPU speedThe faster your CPU, the faster your computer will be able to process the data necessary tocapture and play back digital video. Currently, the fastest PC processor is the Intel Pentiumoperating at 66 mHz—the minimum recommended CPU is the Intel 80486.

Hard disk drive and drive controller speedThe faster your hard disk drive and drive controller, the faster the computer can read andwrite data. For 30 fps capture, it is recommended that your hard disk drive have an averageaccess time of 10 milliseconds (ms) or less and a data transfer rate of 1.5 MB per secondor more (available with Local Bus SCSI controllers).

Hardware compressionIn general, hardware compression on the capture board greatly increases movie captureperformance. Video boards that have JPEG or some other form of compression canusually capture full-motion video very effectively. You will need to experiment with yourcomputer and video capture board to determine which settings in the Adobe VideoCapture program produce the best results.

CPU loadDuring capture, make sure you have as much of the CPU dedicated to the process aspossible. This means closing any applications that are running and minimizing all openwindows (except the Capture window, of course).

CAPTURING TO RAM VERSUS CAPTURING TO HARD DISKThe most reliable video capture method is to capture directly to RAM. Because the accesstime for RAM is faster than it is to disk, it is possible to capture to RAM at the highestpossible rate and quality levels. However, as mentioned above, capturing at high framerates drastically increases the amount of memory required to capture each second ofvideo. If the amount of data you capture exceeds the amount of RAM available in yourmachine, your video quality will be compromised due to dropped frames.

Capturing to RAMBecause capturing a movie to RAM provides the highest quality results, you may want touse this method. Use the following guidelines when capturing to RAM:

O Consult your video capture board’s documentation. Determine if compression is avail-able and how much memory is required to store each video frame. Use this informationto determine the maximum clip size you can capture without exceeding the RAM capacityof your machine (and without subsequently dropping frames).

O If compression is available with your board, experiment with its settings. Quite often,compression can produce results that are nearly as good as the original while using only afraction of the memory required for uncompressed video.

O Be sure to free up as much memory as possible by closing other applications and turningoff unnecessary utilities—the more memory you have available, the longer the clip you cancapture.

Capturing to a hard disk driveIf you don’t have enough free memory to capture to RAM, you will need to capture to ahard disk. Use the following guidelines when capturing to a hard disk:

O Use a high-speed hard disk drive and drive controller. If you have multiple hard diskdrives, capture to your fastest one.

O Use a dedicated hard disk drive, or create a separate partition for capturing video.

O Run a disk caching program, such as the Windows SmartDrv program, to allocatebuffers that write to the hard disk drive.

O Do not record to a fragmented hard disk drive; it can reduce the frame rate at whichframes are captured. Use a defragmenting utility, such as Norton Utilities, to optimize anddefragment the hard disk drive as often as necessary to keep it efficient.

CAPTURING WITHOUT COMPRESSIONWith smaller movies (160 pixels by 120 pixels), higher frame rates can be achieved by cap-turing the movie with no compression, because the compression process itself requirestime. As you increase the size of the movie, however, capturing without compressiondecreases the frame rate. This is because the capturing is limited by the data transfer rateof the interface between the video board and the computer.

CAPTURING FULL-SCREEN IMAGESFull-screen video (640 pixels by 480 pixels) can be captured in two ways: in real time usinghardware compression, and in non-real time using a frame-accurate VCR or laserdiscplayer that is controllable by the computer. In general, capturing in real time with hard-ware compression provides the fastest and easiest method for capturing full-screen video.

Non-real-time capture methods grab a single frame of the movie at a time or make mul-tiple passes until they have captured all the needed frames. These methods require that youhave a frame-accurate VCR, a time-code stamped source tape, and a device controller thatsupports time code.

CAPTURING THE HIGHEST QUALITY AUDIOThe quality of digitized audio depends on the sampling rate and bit depth of the sample.These parameters determine how well the analog audio signal is represented when it is dig-itized. As with video however, as quality increases, so does the amount of data required torepresent the sample. Audio sampled at 22 kHz and 16-bit stereo resolution is far superiorin quality to audio sampled at 11 kHz and 8-bit mono resolution—but it also requiresroughly eight times the amount of memory. CD-quality audio, which is digitized at44 kHz and 16-bit stereo resolution, is often not practical for video applications becauseof the tremendous memory requirements it imposes.

The sampling rate you should use depends on the following three factors:

O The capability of your audio capture board. The most commonly used audio boardssupport only 8-bit mono sampling. Newer boards support 16-bit sampling at up to44 kHz. A few boards support a rate as high as 48 kHz, which is the sample rate for digitalaudio tape (DAT).

O The quality of your audio source. For example, if your source tape was originallyrecorded in mono, or if you’re capturing an AM radio broadcast, there’s no reason tocapture using stereo (which takes more memory without adding quality).

O Your intended audience. If you are creating a music video, you will want to produce thebest sound track—even if it means having to make compromises on the video side ofthe production. On the other hand, if you are producing a corporate training tape thatprimarily features one person providing a narrative, you can probably get away withrecording in mono and optimizing the video portion.

© 1993 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.

Adobe Premiere 1.1 - User Guide

This manual, as well as the software described in it, is furnished under license and may only be used or copied in accordancewith the terms of such license. The information in this manual is furnished for informational use only, is subject to changewithout notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporatedassumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book.

Except as permitted by such license, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit-ted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission ofAdobe Systems Incorporated.

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