Rather than tell you my favorite new features of Premiere Pro CS5 and the new video suite, I’d thought I’d blog about some comments I heard on the NAB show floor today.
Attendee on GPU acceleration in Premiere:
“I recently bought a new computer that did not have a supported Mercury hardware card(NVIDIA CUDA) and I was relieved to see that Mercury running in 64 bit software mode was totally fast. I just spent a ton of money on an ATI card and it looks like it will work great with Mercury. To the least, I’m relieved”
My response:
After making the “Sneak Peek” Mercury video a few months ago, I think we put too much emphasis on using a supported hardware card. Remember that Mercury has 2 modes, software(CPU) and hardware assist(GPU+CPU)Users with ATI cards or other unsupported cards will still have an incredible experience with CS5. Even on my MacBook Pro laptop (2.93 GHz), I’m editing 4 layers with graphics and effects in Realtime. It’s pretty surprising. Thank you to Apple and Microsoft for 2 great 64 bit OSes. BTW – Windows 7 64 is really good with CS5, I’m starting to use a new HP Elitebook and I have zero complaints. As a longtime mac user, this new laptop now has my attention.
Attendee commenting on 3D:
“I had no idea Adobe had a 3D workflow for Premiere Pro and After Effects. Being able to render effects and transitions and keep those processes as true Left and Right eye (Stereo) on a single timeline has a leg up on the competition. Their Export process was clean and simple, the whole process was really not that much different than editing standard video.”
My response:
The credit here really needs to go to the mind-blowing development team at Cineform who always seem to keep Adobe Premiere one-step ahead in the latest high-tech trend in video. They’ve been a longtime developer partner for us and know our SDK inside out. Their new CS5 NEO3D plug-in works fantastic in 64 bit. I’ve been working on our 3D CS5 workflow story for while now with Cineform and I must say that what Cineform brings to Premiere and After Effects arrived just in time for all of the new 3D content that needs to be created to support the new 3D channels launching soon. This is a MUST SEE at NAB (I suggest heading to Cineform or NVIDIA to see it in 3D), as the attendee noticed, you can render the timeline in left and right eye in a single pass. Other workflows require you to export each eye separately and then Mux them back together and re-import–not fun! . Premiere does all of this in 1 step. You can even edit in CS5 with your 3D glasses on.
I’ve been testing different monitoring solutions ranging from NVIDIA 3D VISION Active glasses (very clear) and various Passive 3D display monitors. (If you saw me on the plane coming to NAB , then you saw me with my paper anaglyph glasses from Shark Week a few years ago editing 3D in CS5 on my laptop). Cineform supports switching to and from all these modes including AJA SDI support. Cineform even has our Titler working in 3D! I recently setup my first 3D Stereo camera rig using a pair of Canon cameras to shoot my hometown of Annapolis Maryland in 3D. I worked through the simple Cineform NEO 3D and CS5 workflow switching LUTs on the fly and was sold on the future of what 3D video will bring to the CS5 Editor. This is first new high-tech feature that can be used in a wide range of areas ranging from an event video to a Kiosk in a local mall or car dealership to broadcast and film. Seeing my footage in 3D that was shot hours before changed my opinion of this market entirely. There is money to made here for any editor looking for a leg up on the competition. Watch for a full workflow video coming to Adobe TV or my YouTube Channel. (DAVTechTABLE).
Attendee on new DSLR support in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5:
“As an FCP user, the biggest new feature that got me thinking about looking at Premiere Pro CS5 is the native support for DSLR cameras. The editing speed is unbelievable. Not having to convert to another file format is a huge time saver for me. Watching the Adobe rep take a compact flash card from a Canon 5D and edit directly off the card blew me away. To make it even better he then exported the sequence to an FCP XML file. No question CS5 will be part of my new DSLR editing”
My response:
We worked hard on getting these DLSR presets right. As the North American Technical Sales manager for Pro Video products my senior team reported weekly on the need to have fast DSLR editing – As a Canon 5D owner myself, I‘ve never been happier.
Attendee on the new “Just Do It” (JDI) features:
“Drag Clip to make new Sequence works exactly like dragging a video clip to the new comp button in After Effects. It’s a small thing but a big one for me – thank you Adobe for listening. Not having to got to File>New Sequence> and dig through the tons of presents only to pick the wrong one will save me tons of time and get me editing faster. Wow – this thing is fast, and you’re demoing on a mac!”
My response:
This was another feature we heard time and time again from customers. I also think this will help newer editors get started fast. It’s pretty common to see people that are new to our NLE world pick the wrong preset and get mixed export results. I admit we were pretty late with this feature but it’s here now.
Attendee on Field Monitoring:
“As a Law Enforcement investigator, I’m happy to finally see true Field Monitoring in the Program monitor in Premiere Pro CS5. Being able to switch between Field 1 and Field 2 will allow us to export the best Field that shows the exact image we need to enhance in Photoshop. The new Camera button now allows us to take a quick snapshot of the Program or Source monitor. We currently use Avid, but this is the one feature that I needed to see. I’m placing an order for CS5 ASAP.”
My response:
For the first 12 years of my career with Adobe (I’ve been here 15) I was the main lead for Forensic workflow at Adobe. The daily challenges these investigators go through to get a decent image from a low quality security video camera into Photoshop is astounding. While this new feature of picking Field 1, Field 2, or both Fields can be use for a number of things, it was really put into Premiere Pro to better serve their workflow.
Attendee on Speech Search:
“I currently use CS4 Premiere Pro and had mixed results with the Speech to Text feature but CS5 now allows us to use a simple Text file as a reference file for the audio it’s converting. This means I can use a simple outline script with phrases to help Premiere analyze the audio. Exporting to Flash and seeing the text also appear as subtitles in a web browser caught me off guard as well. I can’t wait to try this out!”
My response:
This is another feature that will help us create a better workflow as the need to get text on screen or search able text. We are still actively working speech analysis but this ability to use simple TXT files will help a ton of users. What it really means is that you can now create a “Phrase Dictionary” of common sentences that apply to your content. Whether you’re editing a video about a Cardiologist or an Astronaut really makes no difference. Just typing a quick few paragraphs of text will help the analysis.
Attendee on new DSLR support in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5:
“As an FCP user, the biggest new feature that got me thinking about looking at Premiere Pro CS5 is the native support for DSLR cameras. The editing speed is unbelievable. Not having to convert to another file format is a huge time saver for me. Watching the Adobe rep take a compact flash card from a Canon 5D and edit directly off the card blew me away. To make it even better he then exported the sequence to an FCP XML file. No question CS5 will be part of my new DSLR editing”
My response:
We worked hard on getting these DLSR presets right. As the North American Technical Sales manager for Pro Video products my senior team reported weekly on the need to have fast DSLR editing – As a Canon 5D owner myself, I‘ve never been happier.
Attendee on the new “Just Do It” (JDI) features:
“Drag Clip to make new Sequence works exactly like dragging a video clip to the new comp button in After Effects. It’s a small thing but a big one for me – thank you Adobe for listening. Not having to got to File>New Sequence> and dig through the tons of presents only to pick the wrong one will save me tons of time and get me editing faster. Wow – this thing is fast, and you’re demoing on a mac!”
My response:
This was another feature we heard time and time again from customers. I also think this will help newer editors get started fast. It’s pretty common to see people that are new to our NLE world pick the wrong preset and get mixed export results. I admit we were pretty late with this feature but it’s here now.
Attendee on Field Monitoring:
“As a Law Enforcement investigator, I’m happy to finally see true Field Monitoring in the Program monitor in Premiere Pro CS5. Being able to switch between Field 1 and Field 2 will allow us to export the best Field that shows the exact image we need to enhance in Photoshop. The new Camera button now allows us to take a quick snapshot of the Program or Source monitor. We currently use Avid, but this is the one feature that I needed to see. I’m placing an order for CS5 ASAP.”
My response:
For the first 12 years of my career with Adobe (I’ve been here 15) I was the main lead for Forensic workflow at Adobe. The daily challenges these investigators go through to get a decent image from a low quality security video camera into Photoshop is astounding. While this new feature of picking Field 1, Field 2, or both Fields can be use for a number of things, it was really put into Premiere Pro to better serve their workflow.
Attendee on Speech Search:
“I currently use CS4 Premiere Pro and had mixed results with the Speech to Text feature but CS5 now allows us to use a simple Text file as a reference file for the audio it’s converting. This means I can use a simple outline script with phrases to help Premiere analyze the audio. Exporting to Flash and seeing the text also appear as subtitles in a web browser caught me off guard as well. I can’t wait to try this out!”
My response:
This is another feature that will help us create a better workflow as the need to get text on screen or search able text. We are still actively working speech analysis but this ability to use simple TXT files will help a ton of users. What it really means is that you can now create a “Phrase Dictionary” of common sentences that apply to your content. Whether you’re editing a video about a Cardiologist or an Astronaut really makes no difference. Just typing a quick few paragraphs of text will help the analysis.