Does elements not like mpeg2 format? I have a sony HDD camcorder and when I use adobe premire elements the video output is like digitized or all jagged and weird looking. Anyone know what this is?

Adobe Premiere Elements is a dv-avi editor. Whenever an mpeg is placed on the timeline Premiere must transcode it to dv-avi prior to working with it, and then transcode it back to mpeg again. Not the hot setup actually.

Your specific problem however most likely can be corrected if you right click on your clip once it's on the timeline, and select reverse field dominance.

To edit mpegs with the adobe program more efficiently, take a look at this website for a nice plug in.


http://www.mainconcept.com/site/?id=6887

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Thank you for that information. I think they have a trial download so I can try it before I decide to purchase. I have been using Studio 11 which seems to work pretty well. It does re-encode the whole project and the menu is in full screen even though my video is in widescreen. So when I see the menu on the TV it is stretchs and I cannot read the text under my thumbnails. I have been playing with womble a bit and don't love the interface and structure of the program. Although the video I made with womble came out very good quality. A nice all around program that handles mpeg2 with no issues and has a nice amount of features that are also very user friendly that can do the smart encoding would be great.

VS 11 will not reencode unless you change the settings and force that. VS is the only one that will recognize and produce widescreen oout of the box.
Search in the forum for corect settings and procedure as it's described with details.
As you said Womble has strange interface and Premiere will ALWAYS reincode unless you buy an extra 100$ plugin.
I don't know about SOny Vegas as they dont' have a trial that supports Mpeg2

I'm posting in this zombie thread in the hope that it will help others who are searching this forum.

Premiere Elements 3 (and 4) supports editing MPEGs straight out of the box. There should be absolutely no need to purchase additional plugins just to edit MPEGs.

Don't believe me? Try this - install Premiere Elements then download a program called "GSpot". Run the program and use it to list all of the installed codecs. Scroll down the list and you will see a version of a Mainconcepts MPEG plugin is already installed and ready to use. You will only need to activate the feature by retrieving the activation code from the Adobe website.

Issues of image quality and audio problems are a whole different topic. These are usually caused by a lack of consistency in the various manufacturers formats. Some are upper field dominant, some are lower field dominant. Some use AC3 audio, others use MPEG audio.

Futhermore, the term used by original poster "video output" is very vague. Is he talking about the timeline preview monitor? Perhaps the DVD preview? Or is he trying to view and exported MPEG file in Windows Media Player? Is he viewing the file at 100% zoom or not? The timeline preview is not meant to be a indication of the quality of the final DVD project.

There are so many links in the chain with these issues, it really requires a bit of understanding of exactly what you're looking at before you can truly make a judgement. For anyone using Premiere Elements I have one big tip - before you decide there is something wrong, go to the "Create DVD" screen and click "Preview DVD" The method used to preview in this screen is different to that used in the timeline editor window and it produces results that are aligned with those that you would see on your TV screen after you've burned a DVD.

To learn more, search for reputable sources of information about "interlacing" and note that a PC screen is NOT interlaced, whereas a TV screen (and the data on most DVDs) IS interlaced. Note that the "DVD Preview" effectively deals with this difference between a PC screen and a TV screen.

You have missed the point, or you don't quite understand what happens behind the scenes when you put an mpeg2 format on the Elements timeline. Yep, it sure does have the mainconcept mpeg codec installed. Thats how it creates TV DVDs.

The difference between native mpeg editing and what Premiere Elements does is that if you have an hour of video, and you edit one minute of it, Premiere MUST transcode the entire timeline to accommodate your one minute edit.

That means decoding the entire mpeg .... transcoding to another compressed video format (dv-avi) with a slight loss of quality, acknowledge your edit, and THEN ... transcode the entire timeline back to mpeg. ANOTHER quality loss of the entire video because of a one minute edit.

Native editing of mpegs ONLY effects change to the GOP needed to complete your one minute edit and NOT the entire video.

Here is the explanation direct from Mainconcept.
So, there is a very good reason to look into this plug in if you use Premiere Elements primarily for editing mpeg video.

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So much information... the more I learn, the more questions develop. If I keep learning at this pace, soon I'll be too dumb to continue!

I haven't missed the point - you have misinterpreted my post.

The fact is that you CAN edit MPEG2 in Premiere Elements WITHOUT the expensive Mainconcept plug-in - that's all I was stating. The original poster was questioning whether it could be done or not, I was simply saying "yes, it can be done."

Yep, it can be done, but it's probably not the best program to do it with. A much better choice would be a program, like Sonic MyDVD, that uses an MPEG workflow and smart-rendering.

As Jj4 pointed out, Premiere Elements uses a DV-AVI workflow so, whatever you put in -- even if you're going from MPEG to MPEG -- gets turned into a DV-AVI first.

That said, version 4 does include a nice feature, if you do want to work on an MPEG or VOB in Premiere Elements. It has a new project preset that automatically reverses the field dominance of any footage you put in, resolving the interlacing problem that's long haunted people who've tried to edit MPEGs in a DV-AVI editor.

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At the risk of beating a dead horse, I find myself compelled to respond. Actually the original poster asked if Elements "did not like mpeg2 format"

The original poster fell victim to a common result of attempting an mpeg edit with Elements (incorrect field order) and I was pointing out why. As Steve mentioned, V4 has addressed that specific issue.

I don't know if you would call it not liking it, but it can't work with it and has to transcode the format to work with it at all.

As far as misinterpreting your post. Forgive me. I assumed when you stated there was absolutely no need to purchase an mpeg plugin, you meant there was absolutely no need to purchase an mpeg plugin.

If you want faster, higher quality edits without the need to transcode, then there would be a need for some folks, which kind of confused the term absolutely no need.

At any rate it will get the job done if you are happy with it. As Steve says, it sure isn't the first choice of editor for mpegs as packaged. Also the auto reversing field order feature, while helpful to end users, can indeed contribute to the feeling that it is editing mpegs in a seamless fashion. My post was to help clarify that it does not, and what the editor really has to do to deal with mpegs.

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So much information... the more I learn, the more questions develop. If I keep learning at this pace, soon I'll be too dumb to continue!

I accept that I could have chosen better words to express my point. There is, in some cases, a desire to have the Mainconcept plug-in but it is not essential by any means.


As a side note: I've noticed that a lot of the recommendations given to people in similar situations are along the lines of "Buy this software..." or "Alter this advanced setting..." etc. While different software might give better results, the last thing someone who just dropped a load of cash on a new video camera wants to hear is "you need to spend more money before it will work." And while I appreciate the information you guys are providing - much of it is sufficiently advanced in its terminology that novice users would simply ignore it.

This is after all a Premiere Elements forum, so the aim should be to help people use the software they already have. And if a simple solution is available, even if it's technically inferior, it should be mentioned for the benefit of novice users.

I hate to be the one to keep beating this dead horse, but I am running out of fixes to try ...

I have a Sony SR300 HDD camcorder and when I transfer the video files to my PC, they play just fine in Media Player. As soon as I import them into Premiere Elements 3, however, there are horizontal lines all over the place. I've tried downloading the Mainconcepts software and I've tried reversing the field dominance, but nothing seems to work.

Does anyone have anymore fixes I can try? Should I just upgrade to PE4? I tried Womble, but the interface was just too weird. Would switching to a DV or miniDV camcorder solve my problems?

Greatly appreciate any input!

uprade to PE4, it works fine there. I had similar problems.