The Adobe party line has always been that the Premiere Elements user cannot change the project settings once the project preset in the New Project Dialog has been set. To the contrary, it was found that this could be done in certain instances by editing the Notepad document of the saved project file (project.prel) for versions earlier than Premiere Elements 11 Windows.
A new twist has been added to this story with the arrival of Premiere Elements 11 where the program takes control of setting the project preset in the New Project Dialog, in some cases appropriately and in other cases inappropriately. Please refer to April 2013's blog post here titled "PE11: Accuracy of Automatic Project Preset (New Project Dialog) Setting".
ISSUE
The issue presented here revolved around a Premiere Elements 11 Windows user who brought his PAL DV Widescreen into a new project and found himself with this source media in a Premiere Elements 11 project set by the program for PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 (the program's default for a program installed for PAL). The questions became "How to correct the project's settings without starting a new project so that the project settings looked like those in Figure 2 instead of those in Figure 1?" and "Was it possible to do this using the Editing of the Notepad document of the saved project.prel approach sometimes used in earlier versions?".
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| Figure 1. PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 Project Settings |
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| Figure 2. PAL DV Widescreen Project Settings |
SOLUTION
The Editing of the Notepad document of the saved project.prel approach was found to resolve the issue presented above. Although the How To described next is specific for the PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 to PAL DV Widescreen project settings change, the approach is applicable in principle to other project preset settings, NTSC or PAL. Whether or not the project could have survived without changing project settings in this case is not addressed. Only the How To is given if needed.
HOW TO
Example Used: PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 Project Settings to PAL DV Widescreen Project Settings
Starting with PAL DV Widescreen imported in a Premiere Elements 11 Windows project with program set project settings of PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25
1. Save/close the project.prel with the incorrect PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 project settings.
2. At its hard drive save location, right click the project.prel file, select Open With, and then select Notepad to open the PAL AVCHD Full HD1080i25 document.
3. In the Notepad document, go to Edit Menu/Find. In the "Find What" of the Find dialog
A. Type PixelAspect. Go through the document with the "Find Next" and make the following changes for each instance:
From:
<PixelAspectRatio>1,1</PixelAspectRatio>
<FrameRect>0,0,1920,1080</FrameRect>
To:
<PixelAspectRatio>1024,702</PixelAspectRatio>
<FrameRect>0,0,720,576</FrameRect>
It is important that changes are made ONLY if the From: line above is exactly as described. There should be about 6 of the above changes in the document.
B. Type EditingMode. Go through the document with the "Find Next" and make the following changes when you see the following:
From:
<EditingModeID>d10b5335-ce74-4031-bc7c-79e8b73582ee</EditingModeID>
and
<MZ.Sequence.EditingModeGUID>d10b5335-ce74-4031-bc7c-79e8b73582ee</MZ.Sequence.EditingModeGUID>
To:
<EditingModeID>e2e6d6b0-7e3d-4455-bf93-0d9c3c791e4e</EditingModeID>
and
<MZ.Sequence.EditingModeGUID>e2e6d6b0-7e3d-4455-bf93-0d9c3c791e4e</MZ.Sequence.EditingModeGUID>
C. Type field. Go through the document with the "Find Next" and make the following change for each instance:
From:
<VideoFieldType>1</VideoFieldType>
To:
<VideoFieldType>2</VideoFieldType>
Again, it is important that changes are made ONLY if the From: line above is exactly as described. There should be about 4 of the above changes in the document.
D. Save the Notepad document with its changes. Open the project.prel to find the changes made in Notepad reflected in the project settings of the Premiere Elements 11 workspace Edit Menu/Project Settings.
ATR
