Thursday, November 12, 2015

PE 14: Changes In Project's Automatic Project Preset Setting

INTRODUCTION

For Premiere Elements 11, 12/12.1, and 13/13.1, the program is designed for the project to set the project preset automatically based on its analysis of the properties for the first file dragged to its Timeline.This analysis is reported to be based on the file's clip dimensions, frames per seconds, PAR (pixel aspect ratio), and field order. Mention of this can be found HERE.

And, if the project can not automatically analyze the file because there is no matching project preset or for any other reason, the project assigns its default project preset, either NTSC AVCHD Full HD 1080i30 or PAL AVCHD Full HD 1080i25, depending on whether Premiere Elements was installed for NTSC or PAL.

ISSUE

Premiere Elements 14 appears to have been given different instructions on how to response if it cannot find a match between one of the Adobe project presets and the properties of the source media.
That direction seems to be for it to attempt to give a "closest match" project preset rather than its default project preset of NTSC AVCHD Full HD 1080i30 or PAL AVCHD Full HD 1080i25.

OBSERVATIONS*

Premiere Elements 14

640 x 360 16:9 @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Project Preset Expected: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 640 x 360 project preset
Result: NTSC FLIP Flip Mino and Ultra 29_97p which is 640 x 480 4:3

Premiere Elements 13/13.1

640 x 360 16:9 @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Project Preset Expected: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 640 x 360 project preset
Result: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 640 x 360 project preset

Example 2

Premiere Elements 14

1400 x 900 @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Project Preset Expected: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 1400 x 900 project preset
Result: NTSC AVCHD AVCHD LITE 720p30 which is 1280 x 720 16:9

Premiere Elements 13/13.1

1400 x 900 @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Project Preset Expected: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 1400 x 900 project preset
Result: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 1400 x 900 project preset

Example 3

Premiere Elements 14

1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Project Preset Expected: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 with the progressive frame rate
Result: NTSC AVCHD HD 1080i30 which is 1440 x 1080 16:9 with the interlaced frame rate

Premiere Elements 13/13.1

1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 @ 29.97 progressive frames per second
Project Preset Expected: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 with the progressive frame rate
Result: NTSC AVCHD Full 1080i30 default since no 1440 x 1080 HD anamorphic 16:9 with the progressive frame rate

SOLUTION

When possible set the project preset manually according to the scheme described HERE.
or
Create new project preset as was done HERE for special occasion
or
Plan strategy as indicated

The major consideration is knowing and confirming the Premiere Elements 14 project preset since many of the activities in the new Export & Share area take their guide from the project preset. See Edit Menu/Project Settings/General to verify settings established by the user manually or the project automatically.**

More on this later. Work in progress. Please consider.
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* Work done with Premiere Elements 13/13.1 and 14 on Windows 10 Home 64 bit. Both MPEG.mpg and AVCHD.mp4 files were used in the studies.
**Although significant project settings cannot be changed in Edit Menu/Projects Settings/General, it is a good place to verify project settings established by user manually or the project automatically.

ATR