PE12: Adobe Revel Add Media/Publish+Share

INTRODUCTION

Adobe Revel poses a questionable presence in Premiere Elements 12. The Adobe ID and Password are used to gain access to the processes involved. So far with 11 of the 50 uploads per month remaining under the free Adobe Revel account, there is no 100% how to for the two major components of this feature in Premiere Elements 12.

• Add Media/Adobe Revel

• Publish+Share/Private Web Album 

The major problems target the video offerings and are characterized by incomplete uploads and prolonged upload times. All this takes place long after the "Successfully Shared and Published to Revel" message appears with the invitation to email the link to the upload. (In spite of upload failures, these emails are getting sent, received, and the link to the upload in the email works. But, there is no upload to view.)

ISSUES AND WHAT WORKED MOST OF THE TIME

Add Media/Adobe Revel 

For Source Media Choices in Premiere Elements 12 Project....
How do you get those thumbnails as shown in Figure 1 to show up there?

Figure 1. Premiere Elements 12 Expert Workspace. Add Media/Adobe Revel/Mobile Albums/ As Source Media For Premiere Elements 12 Project.

In Figure 1, two of the three JPG photos and the ".mp4" video clip displayed were entered into the Adobe Revel Library/Mobile Album named "Adobe Revel Test" at the Adobe Revel web site. Tip seemed to be to differentiate between Library and Photos and Album. Library entries came first by selecting Photos in the header, then "Add Photos and Videos" in the subheader. Once the two JPG photos and one .mov video file were entered into the Library, then Album was selected in the header, and each of the two photos and one video were added to the Album one at a time.

Note: The video file uploaded to Adobe Revel in this test was  27 second 1280 x 720 @ 29.97 progressives frames per second AVCHD.mov, and Adobe Revel is displaying it as .mp4. Figure 1 represents the display before any of the media choices had been dragged to the Timeline for the first time.

Figure 2 shows the Library after addition of the two photos and one video to the Library.

Figure 2. At Adobe Revel Web Site/At Library After Additions Of Three JPG Photos And One MOV Video File.

Figure 3 shows the view after Album header was selected and the album "Adobe Revel Test" was created.

Figure 3. At Adobe Revel Web Site/At Library. Creation of "Adobe Revel Test" Album For Three JPEG And One MOV Video File.

Not forgotten, "How did that third JPG get entered into the Library and subsequently get into the Mobile Album "Adobe Revel Test" as seen in Figure 1?" In an iPod Touch 4th Generation was installed the Adobe Revel App , and the App was used to gain access to the Mobile Album "Adobe Revel Test"  created. The third photo came from the iPod camera roll and was placed in the Mobile Album "Adobe Revel Test" via the Adobe Revel App.

When it comes time to use the Add Media/Adobe Revel feature to obtain source media for the project, apparently there is a one time downloading process involved to get the file to the Timeline. No problem with a JPG photo source being ready for use within seconds; however, the 27 second video source took over 10 minutes to appear on the Timeline to which it was dragged from the Adobe Revel area of Add Media. All this may be related to the fact that the original video is .mov, is displayed as .mp4 in Adobe Revel hands, and then is downloaded/placed by Adobe Revel on the Premiere Elements 12 Timeline as .mov. Thereafter, the thumbnail for the file in Add Media/Adobe Revel/Mobile Album "Adobe Revel Test" is.mov, no longer .mp4. (See Figure 4 and compare to Figure 1).

Figure 4. Premiere Elements 12 Expert Workspace.Add Media/Adobe Revel "Adobe Revel Test" Album After Download Of Video Choice Displayed As MP4 Before Download, Now MOV After Download.

There is another way to populate that "Adobe Revel Test" album with choices. And, it comes by way of the Elements Organizer which offers "Local Albums" and non album image inclusions in its workspace. In the Elements Organizer, a "Local Album" can be dragged into the Adobe Revel Mobile Albums/AT's Library in this case) to make it a Mobile Album and/or one of the images in the Elements Organizer workspace can be dragged into an existing Mobile Album "Adobe Revel Test" to add it to that Mobile Album. The add ons will be reflected in Premiere Elements 12 as well as in the Mobile Albums at the Adobe Revel web site and the iPod Adobe Revel App.

Figure 5. Elements Organizer 12 Workspace. Viewing Mobile Album There.

Figure 6. Elements Organizer 12 Workspace. Viewing Only Elements Organizer 12 Contents After Hitting Add Media Button Seen In Figure 5. Images Shown Are Not In Any Elements Organizer Local Album At This Point.

Publish+Share/Private Web Album  

Premiere Elements 12 Publish+Share/Private Web Album is described as an opportunity to upload the Timeline content to Adobe Revel and Mobile Album where the Timeline content in video format can be shared with friends and family. When the feature is used for the first time, a "downloading preset" pop up appears, but it is never shown just what the preset is. The Upload can be seen progressing through essentially 4 stages

• Rendering Media

• Uploading

• Transferring  to Adobe Revel

• Success Notification as seen in Figure 7

Figure 7. Premiere Elements 12. Publish+Share/Adobe Revel Notification of "Successfully Shared".

The Email link works well, and the email is sent and received by the recipient without issue. But, most of the time, all there is to share is an "Upload Incomplete" as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Premiere Elements 12. Publish+Share/Adobe Revel Upload Incomplete Failure For A Notified "Successfully Shared".

This particular failure represented a Premiere Elements 12 Windows 7 64 bit NTSC DV Standard 35 second project with three JPG photos (each 960 x 720 pixels) plus one 640 x 480 MP4.avi. In some instances the Incomplete Upload would complete many hours or a day later. In the few cases where the upload materialized into a video in the Mobile Album at Adobe Revel, the emailed file associated with the Mobile Album suggested that the preset might be:

1280 x 720 pixels @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Video Compression = AVCHD, Audio Compression = AAC (Stereo),  File Extension = .mp4.

Further details of what Publish+Share/Adobe Revel is supposed to do can be found:
 Adobe Premiere Elements Help/Importing and Exporting movies using Adobe Revel


Commentary

The Adobe Revel Add Media and Publish+Share features will be re-evaluated in the future. But at this time, the performance of these Premiere Elements 12 features were found not to merit their inclusion in Premiere Elements for video purposes.


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May 13, 2014 Update Note
A re-evaluation of Adobe Revel Add Media and Publish+Share features is still planned...not yet  started. An Adobe Revel email today announced that, in a few weeks, it is changing "the way storage works for free Adobe Revel accounts". Its free 50 photos/videos per month will go to free 2 GB of Cloud coverage.

ATR