Adobe Announces Premiere 6.5

[Jerry Jones]

Real time previews
New titling module to compete with ULEAD CG Infinity

http://www.digitalproducer.com/2002/07_jul/news/07_22/premiere65020722.htm

ULEAD MediaStudio Pro 7.0 will likely follow later this year.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

According to the PDF below, the real time previews in Premiere 6.5 are visible on "external screens" in addition to the computer monitor:

http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/pdfs/aag.pdf

(Look under 'software real time.')

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

It all kind of makes you wonder if *hardware* real time is now dead.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

Well...since the cat is out of the bag... I've been betaing Premiere 6.5. Here's the skinny on the major changes;

1. The titler has a different emphasis than CG Infinity. It's more like a bundled version of Inscribers Title Express as included with the RT-2x00 cards but with a few additions.

It has about 100 preset layouts for stills, rolls and crawls and a some nice text styles. It can also animate drawn vector shapes and do leading, kerning, slant etc.

After working with it for a while I found the major advantage all the canned layouts, but CG Infinity still handles animated vector graphics with greater flexibility.

2. It has a built-in MPEG encoder using the same Main Concept SDK as Uleads MPEG.now. The difference is that unlike MSPro 6.51a it has a full set of rendering options. This is where Ulead will have to catch up, but even with all the adjustments Premiere 6.5 has MSPro 6.51a delivers almost identical quality.

3. It has an "Instant Preview" type feature, but it needs a very fast system to keep up with what MSPro 6.5x can do with lesser hardware specs.

4. Some improvements to the audio mixer.

5. It can import *.wmf files.

6. Native 16:9 editing.

Other than some other changes in terms of the software bundle (DVDiT LE included in non-OEM vcersions etc.) it looks, walks and talks like Premiere 6.01.

As far as hardware realtime goes it still has a lot of kick in it. Witness the RT.X100 which uses BOTH hardware and software realtime to do some pretty spectacular stuff. This mixed technology is also scalable, which means as CPU's get faster the drivers can be updated to do more video & graphics layers, additional effects etc. in realtime that would take a much faster system if done in pure software.

Dr. Mordrid

[Elie]

Actually hardware realtime is not dead yet, because even though Premiere 6.5 has RT preview out to external monitor, you will still have to render regardless.

RT NLE cards still have a major advantage because of the software and drivers used to take advatage of the CPU's plus on board processors of your NLE card.

Take the RT.X100 as an example, there is no way you can combine 2 DVE's with colour correction and chroma key all in realime strictly on a software solution. The RT.X100 does it nicely

Regards,
Elie

[Jerry Jones]

Elie,

I think cards like...

1. DV500
2. RT2000 and RT2500
3. RaptorRT

*ARE DEAD.*

Why?

The cards above never gave the user real time output to Firewire.

They only gave real time previews via analog.

They're dead... let's face it.

The only real time cards that still have any life left in them are:

1. Canopus DVRexRT Pro
2. Matrox RT.X100
3. Canopus DV Storm

I can't think of any others.

And within one - two years max - CPUs will be able to do so much more than they can now.

I think the lifespan of even the newest real time cards is incredibly short.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

Like Elie said, in software you can't stack effect layers in software like you can with the RT.X100.

Even though Premiere 6.5 can export "Instant Previews" to a vidout this doesn't mean it's all *that* utilitarian because they are not that smooth. As such you still can't record them effectively and DV exports still have to be rendered.

This is another area where Premiere 6.5 shows NO improvement; rendering speed. It's still a major stick-in-the-mud in this regard due to the lack of SSE/3DNow! support throughout the program.

Uppance: even though Premiere 6.5 and MSPro 6.51a use the same SDK to create their encoders it still takes twice as long to render equivalent MPEG projects with Premiere.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jerry Jones]

I don't disagree with your points, Doc.

But I would maintain that first & second generation "real time" boards such as Canopus DV RaptorRT, Pinnacle DV500, Pinnacle Pro One, Matrox RT2000 and Matrox RT2500 are - indeed - obsolete.

a. They never gave real time output to Firewire
b. Their real time capabilities were often exceeded when too many layers were stacked
c. Their real time capabilities often ceased when proprietary 'real time' effects were MIXED with stock effects in Adobe Premiere.

The only types of boards that aren't obsolete would be the ones that give real time output to Firewire.

Those boards include:

Canopus DVRex RT Pro
Canopus DV Storm
Matrox RT.X100

...and that's about all that's left...

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Software real time will likely get a major boost when Intel ships the 3ghz Pentium 4 later this year:

http://www.digitalproducer.com/2002/07_jul/news/07_22/cw_intelp43.htm

[Dr Mordrid]

Yes it will....but lets not forget that some functions will always be better done in hardware (high level filtering, 3D effects etc.) while others will be better done in hardware (2D effects like Chroma/Luma keys, colorization etc.).

As such Matrox's method of splitting the them into two distinct classes of effects and doing them where they are done best is the way to go.

Dr. Mordrid