Adobe Premiere Elements Software Manual · English Table of Contents 1 2 3 4 5 Starting and Working with Projects 1 2 2 3 3 About working with projects Starting a new project Opening an existing project Locating missing files Working with palettes and windows Preparing your system for capture Connecting your DV camcorder to your computer Guidelines for connecting other sources Capturing video Troubleshooting DV capture problems File formats you can add to projects About editing a movie Working with the Monitor window Working with the Timeline window Adding clips to a movie Trimming frames from a clip Copying, pasting, moving, and deleting clips Changing clip speed About creating DVDs Working with DVD markers Creating menu-based DVDs Creating an auto-play DVD Previewing a DVD About burning a DVD Burning a DVD Recording your movie to videotape Exporting video for hard disk playback Capturing Video and Adding Files 4 5 5 6 9 10 11 12 13 16 22 26 32 34 35 40 45 45 46 47 48 50 Editing Movies Creating DVDs Exporting Movies © 2004 ADS Technologies. All Rights Reserved First Edition: December 2004 Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM is a registered trademark of the International Business Machines, Inc. Adobe is a registered trademark of Adobe Inc. ADS is a registered trademark of ADS Technologies Inc. ADS Technologies (ADS) makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The information furnished within this written document is for information purposes only and is subject to change without notice. ADS Technologies assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear herein. ADS makes no commitment to update or to keep current information contained within this document. (rtt) Starting and Working with Projects About working with projects A project is a single Adobe Premiere Elements file that combines everything you need to create a movie, including video, audio, effects, and titles. A project stores only references to the source files that you capture or import, so you'll want to avoid moving, renaming, or deleting your source files in Windows®. 1 Workspace buttons in the task bar After you start a project, you can work through each stage by clicking the task bar buttons labeled Capture, Edit, Effects, Titles, DVD, and Export. When you click these buttons, the content of the How To palette changes to reflect your current task. Likewise, the workspace changes as follows: Capture Opens the Capture window, which lets you preview, navigate, and capture footage from a tape in your DV camcorder. Edit Opens the Media, Timeline, and Monitor windows, which respectively let you organize, edit, and preview clips. Effects Opens the Effects window, which lets you apply a wide range of video and audio effects to clips in the Timeline window. Titles Opens the Adobe Title Designer, which lets you create and edit titles using a variety of background templates and text styles as a starting point. DVD Opens the DVD Layout window, from which you can apply menu templates, and preview and burn DVDs. Export Opens a menu with options that let you share movies on videotape or in common file formats, such as QuickTime and Windows Media. If you rearrange a default workspace, Adobe Premiere Elements stores your changes. You can restore a default at any time. 1 Starting a new project In most cases, you can start a project simply by selecting New Project from the welcome screen or File menu. The default project settings reflect the standard video format for your region: NTSC for North America and Japan; PAL for Europe. You rarely need to change these settings. If your source footage is in a very unusual format, such as widescreen, you need to change the preset used for new projects. Presets determine the video and audio format of a project, including video frame rate and aspect ratio, and audio sample rate and bit depth. You can't change these settings after starting a project, so verify the format of your source footage before changing project presets. Note: Capture cards certified as compatible with Adobe Premiere Elements may install their own optimized presets when you install the software that comes with the card. To start a new project: 1 Do one of the following: · Start Adobe Premiere Elements, and click New Project. · In Adobe Premiere Elements, choose File > New > Project. 2 Specify the project name and saved location, and click OK. Note: By default, the folder for a saved project also stores rendered previews, conformed audio files, and captured audio and video. These files are very large, so you should save them to your largest, fastest hard drive. To store these files separately from projects, choose Edit > Preferences > Scratch Disks. To change the preset used for new projects: 1 Do one of the following to access the welcome screen: · Start Adobe Premiere Elements. · In Adobe Premiere Elements, choose File > Close. 2 Click Setup, and then select a preset from the list of Available Presets. 3 Click Save as Default. Opening an existing project You can open only one project at a time. However, you can add media from one project to another. To open an existing Adobe Premiere Elements project: Do one of the following: · Start Adobe Premiere Elements, and click the project name in the welcome screen. (If the project isn't recent, click Open Project, select the file, and click Open.) · In Adobe Premiere Elements, choose File > Open Project, select the project file, and click Open. · In Windows, double-click the project file. 2 Locating missing files Adobe Premiere Elements doesn't store original source files in a project--it references the file name and location of each source file when you import it. If you later move, rename, or delete a source file in Windows, Adobe Premiere Elements opens the Where Is The File dialog box when you next open the project. Note: After you create the final movie, you can delete source files if you do not plan to use them in a project again. To locate missing source files: In the Where Is The File dialog box, choose one of the following options: Display Only Exact Name Matches Displays only the files that match the name of the missing file when the project was last closed. If you know that the file name has changed, deselect this option. Select Replaces the missing file with the selected original or replacement file. Find Starts the Windows XP® Search feature. Skip Previews Skips missing preview files so you aren't asked to find them. Skip Replaces the missing file with an offline file, a blank placeholder for related clips in the Media and Timeline windows. Skip All Replaces all missing clips with offline files without asking you for confirmation. To replace an offline file, use the Locate Media command. Working with palettes and windows In Adobe Premiere Elements, the workspace contains both palettes and windows. When displayed, the How To, History, and Info palettes always float above windows. You can also combine these palettes to organize the workspace. While palettes provide helpful information about the current task, you perform tasks primarily in windows. Three named windows form the main work area in Adobe Premiere Elements: Media window Lets you organize all media clips that you add to a project. To add a clip to a movie, drag the clip to the Timeline window. Monitor window Includes Clip and Timeline views. Use the Clip view to see an individual video or audio clip; use the Timeline view to see the overall movie you're editing in the Timeline window. Timeline window Lets you assemble and edit video and audio clips on multiple tracks. Changes you make in this window appear in the Timeline view of the Monitor window. Adobe Premiere Elements also provides specialized windows for tasks such as capturing video, applying effects, creating titles, and laying out DVD menus. 3 Capturing Video and Adding Files Preparing your system for capture Adobe Premiere Elements includes all of the tools necessary to acquire the footage from your DV camcorder so that you can begin assembling your movie. The process, called capturing, is easy; you simply connect your DV camcorder to your computer, and then enable the Capture command in Adobe Premiere Elements. However, before you capture, it is important to make sure that your system is set up appropriately for working with digital video. Following are some general guidelines for ensuring a DV-capable system: Note: Adobe Premiere Elements supports capture only from video camcorders, not digital still-image cameras. To use photos from digital cameras, you need to transfer the footage to your hard disk, and then add them to your project. 2 · Make sure that your computer has an IEEE 1394 (also known as FireWire or iLink) port. This port may either be built into your computer or available on a PCI or PC card (often referred to as a capture card) that you install yourself. A majority of computers manufactured in the last two years include onboard IEEE 1394 cards. · Make sure that your hard disk is fast enough to capture and play back digital video. The speed at which digital video files transfer information, called the data transfer rate (often shortened to data rate), is 3.6 MB-per-second. The data transfer rate of your hard disk should meet or exceed this rate. To achieve this rate, your hard disk must be able to operate at 7200 rpm. Most hard disks manufactured in the last five years have this capability. To confirm the rate or rpm speed of your hard disk, see your computer or hard disk documentation. · Make sure that you have sufficient disk space for the captured footage. Five minutes of digital video occupies about one gigabyte of hard disk space. Though the Capture window in Adobe Premiere Elements indicates the duration of footage that you can capture based on the remaining space on your hard disk, be certain beforehand that you will have sufficient space. · Make sure that you periodically defragment your hard disk. Writing to a fragmented disk can cause disruptions in your hard disk's write speed, causing you to lose, or drop, frames as you capture. You can use the defragmentation utility included with Windows XP, located in Start > All Programs (or Programs if you are using the Classic Mode display) > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. 4 Connecting your DV camcorder to your computer To capture DV video, connect your DV camcorder to your computer by using an IEEE 1394 cable and IEEE 1394 ports. If your computer does not have a built-in IEEE 1394 port, you can purchase an IEEE 1394 card separately (see your computer's documentation for more information). If your DV camcorder does not include an IEEE 1394 cable, you can purchase one at any computer, camera, or consumer electronics outlet. Connecting to the IEEE 1394 (FireWire/i.Link) port on the computer Some DV camcorders require that you use the power adapter to activate the IEEE 1394 port. Other camcorders may go into a sleep or other inactive mode if left in camera mode without being activated for a period of time. To ensure the camcorder doesn't go into these inactive modes, connect your camcorder to its power adapter when setting it up for capture. Guidelines for connecting other sources Before DV camcorders were widely manufactured, most people used camcorders that recorded video onto VHS or 8mm tapes, among other tape formats. These formats are called analog formats, and the video recorded and stored on them is called analog video. To use video from analog sources in your Adobe Premiere Elements project, you must first convert the footage to digital data, or digitize it, because Adobe Premiere Elements only accepts direct input from digital sources. To digitize your footage, you can use either your DV camcorder or a standalone device that performs analog-to-digital conversion. You can perform a successful conversion by using one of the following methods: · Use your DV camcorder to output a digital signal on-the-fly from an analog input. Connect the analog source to input jacks on your DV camcorder and connect the DV camcorder to the computer. Not all DV camcorders support this method. See your camcorder documentation for more information. · Use your DV camcorder to record footage from your analog source. Connect your analog source's output to the analog inputs on your DV camcorder. Then, just record your analog footage to DV tape. When you are finished recording, Adobe Premiere Elements can then capture the footage from the DV camcorder. This is a very common procedure. See your camcorder documentation for more details on recording from analog sources. · Use an analog-to-digital converter to bridge the connection between your an ...