How useful do you find the "instant play" feature?

[Hulk]

To tell you the truth, I hardly ever use it. When I first upgraded to 6.5 and checked the feature out I thought I'd be using it all the time, but I don't.

I think there are three primary issues keep me from using it:
1. With my P4 1.5, the quality of the preview isn't good enough for me to get a "feel" of what I'm trying to convey with the video.

2. There is a pretty good time lag before the preview actually starts.

3. Doesn't preview to my TV monitor.

On top of those reasons, when I simply preview the 5 or 10 seconds segment I usually need to see using the normal preview, the rendering is so fast that the wait doesn't really slow me down.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing the function, sometimes, when I need to get an overall look at a long segment I will use it, and I think as processors become faster yet, it will be more useful. I'm curious as to how much others people who use this program employ the instant preview function.

Mark

[Jerry Jones]

I use it CONSTANTLY.

But the reason I use it has more to do with audio than with video.

When editing to a music track or when I need to get a feel for how various audio elements will "flow"... I find the instant play feature VERY useful.

It gives me the ability to check the sync of scenes with the beat of the music...

...or it allows me to check the continuity of various audio elements that have been inserted into the timeline in succession.

Jerry Jones

[Ted222]

I use Instant Preview a lot and think its a very useful tool.

Only takes a few seconds (10-15) to show up on my P3-1000 computer. I am going to install MSP on my new P4a-2gig computer soon and hope for less pause, but will use it reguardless.

Ted

[wkulecz]

On PIII-500 I turn it off, its uselessly slow.

On PIII-800 its marginally useful, would be much better if it displayed out G450 DVDmax feature. The startup lag annoys.

On 1.4G Athelon it rocks, I use it most of the time except when I want to see something on the G450 DVDmax, then I do what you do -- preview a selection.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

I find it extremely useful, especially on the faster systems (of course!).

I also set a preview range if the need is there to speed things up.

Even then I don't fine the delay that onerous given how long it would take to generate a preview otherwise. For a 1 hour project with perhaps a single overlay layer here and there it takes maybe 6-10 seconds for IP to start with the preview range being the whole project.

Terry

[sergiovalentino]

I'm trying it just now and i have to say it's really INCREDIBLE! On my DV project it takes just a second to start and any transition is REAL TIME.
Now i'm using an Asus A7V266-E + Athlon XP 1800+ (waitin for dual A7M266-D) + 512 megs DDR 2100.
I loved and love Premiere, but after seen this......
At this point i have only to test output to dv camera.

ciao

[Dr Mordrid]

If you think that's impressive check the Premeire vs. MSPro rendering tests here;

http://www.hyperactivemusic.com/MS%20Pro%206.0.htm

NOTE: when these test files were created they were designed to;

1. heavily stress the codec (especially MPEG-anything) and therefore the CPU (even dualies where the software supports them)

2. they were designed to defeat smart rendering so all is even

then take into account that MSPro 7 is in the works with some features Premiere users would kill for.

I'm also a Premiere 6 user on my RT-2000 and the new stuff (which can't really be discussed because of an NDA) has me VERY excited.

Also:

while the preview cannot go to the vidout on DirectShow devices you can expand the Preview window to 1:1 and get a full size look at things, which is very nice.

Dr. Mordrid

[Hulk]

Hmmm speaking of MS Pro 7.

Here's my short wish list:

- Copy/Paste control in keyframes so that I can right click on a keyframe and select copy, then right click on another keyframe to copy all parameters.

- Better MPEG I/II quality, especially at lower bit rates.

- Slider bar in Capture program so that when I have a file open I can quickly scroll through the file to scan for screen grabs.

- Larger slider bars in Editor's trim window! Make it scale with the window.

- More speed! More speed! Come on boys, lets write some of those often used parts of the program in assembly!

- Speaking of speed, when stills are in the time line, the program should be "smart" enough to render the first frame and then duplicate the rest, not render them all.

There's more but it's late!

[wkulecz]

MSP7 needs...

IMHO the single most needed usability enhancment in MSP7 would be an ALT key or other modifier to increase the precision of slider/trimbar/scrub etc. mouse movements. As it now they always seem to scale in proporting to the window or selection size.

With a short clip in the source window the slider has reasonable resolution, but on a 10X longer clip resolution of the smallest possible mouse movement is too big a jump in the video.

click and drag -- as it is now
ALT-click and drag -- move half what it would do now
CTRL-click and drag -- move 1/10th what it would do now
ALT-CTRL_click and drag -- move single frames

I'm open as to the modifier, but kind of "gain" control for mouse movements other than as a fraction of the window or selection is need, especially a quick way to force percepatble mouse movents to be in single frame increments other that zooming the timeline to near single frame scale.

The second most important thing is bigger previews in the filter and transiton setup dialogs along with Hulk's key-frame attribute cut and paste.

I agree it does seem rather brain dead the way still frames are rendered, its one thing if they are evolved in a transition, but the way it now is pretty lame.

--wally.

[Hulk]

Yes!!!

Wally,

"IMHO the single most needed usability enhancment in MSP7 would be an ALT key or other modifier to increase the precision of slider/trimbar/scrub etc. mouse movements. As it now they always seem to scale in proporting to the window or selection size. "


Yes!!! That is a GREAT idea.

One addition. In the "preferences" dialog you should be able to enter your own values for the resolution of the three key combinations you mentioned.

Mark

[sergiovalentino]

For what concern Reaal Time, Instant Play, etc. i have a simple question. I'm sure doc has the right answer.
The question is: why Premiere does a Real Time usin Alt+scrub only, and not by a Play command?

thanks

[Dr Mordrid]

Because when you alt-scrub it can (and often does) skip frames and/or fields and it isn't done in real time, as in 30 fps. What InstaView does would require more horsepower and better programming during a real playback.

Dr. Mordrid

[sergiovalentino]

Thanks Doc.
The Adobe guys should work in this way.

ciao

[Dr Mordrid]

First they'd have to rewrite Premiere to make use of SSE/SSE2/3DNow! throughout the program then they'd have to optimise their preview and rendering engines. No sign of that coming anytime soon.

Then there is the issue of vendors and partners. Much of Premiere's business is in OEM bundling, as in with realtime cards like the RT-2x00, Pro One, DV Storm, DV500 etc. etc. etc. What do you think would happen to that revenue source if Premiere were suddenly capable of doing realtime without the cards?

Hmmmm....

Dr. Mordrid

[sergiovalentino]

Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
......

Then there is the issue of vendors and partners. Much of Premiere's business is in OEM bundling, as in with realtime cards like the RT-2x00, Pro One, DV Storm, DV500 etc. etc. etc. What do you think would happen to that revenue source if Premiere were suddenly capable of doing realtime without the cards?

Hmmmm....

Dr. Mordrid

Just what i was thinkin about...