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Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Glossary | Index | Legal Stuff | License


Chapter 12 - Using the Premiere Export Module

Install the Export Module | How Premiere Preview Works | Configure Premiere Settings | Preview Options | Compression Options | Using the Export Module

NOTE: This chapter assumes you are familiar with using Adobe Premiere. If you are new to Premiere, please take some time to review the Premiere manual prior to using the Media Cleaner Export Module, especially the Preview Chapter.

Media Cleaner has an Adobe PremiereTM Export Module to simplify your production process. This module acts as a "pipeline" between Premiere and Media Cleaner to transfer movie data between the two programs.

The export module eliminates the need for Premiere users to save their Premiere output as a separate file prior to optimization and compression within Media Cleaner. The Export Module does this by generating a preview within Premiere and then transfering that data directly into Media Cleaner.

NOTE: Both Premiere and Media Cleaner Pro must be running simultaneously in order to use the Export module.


Install the Export Module

To use the Media Cleaner Export Module, you must drag it from the "Premiere Export Module" folder into your Adobe Premiere "Plug-ins" folder. If Premiere is running when you do this, you must quit the application and restart it prior to having access to the Media Cleaner Export Module.

If you do not put this module in the correct "Plug-in" folder, Premiere will not be able to access it.

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How the Preview Option Works in Premiere

As mentioned above, Media Cleaner uses Premiere's preview option to transfer movie data between programs.

Depending on how you have configured your presets, Premiere can generate preview movies which reference your original files except where effects or transitions are applied. Thus, Premiere only processes the parts of your movie that are different than the original sources. This significantly speeds up the preview process by not requiring Premiere to process your entire movie for each preview.

Since Media Cleaner uses these preview movies for its final compression, you must configure your preview presets correctly to save time and maximize your quality. Please see the next section for more details.

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Configure Your Adobe Premiere Settings

It is critical that you configure the presets of your Premiere project properly prior to using the Media Cleaner Export Module. The presets you specify control how the preview movie is created which Media Cleaner then compresses. If you do not set these options correctly, you will get lower quality results and/or have to wait much longer.

You should set "Preview" and "Compression" presets as described in the following sections.

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Preview Options

Select "Preview Options..." from Premiere's Make menu. Click the "More Options" button to get access to all the settings. Make sure to check both the "Video" and "Audio" boxes to include both tracks in the final movie. Set the options using the following guidelines:

1.) Image Size
Set the image size to the same size as your source, not the size that you want the final movie. This allows Media Cleaner Pro to do the image resizing with its higher quality scaling algorithms. Allowing Media Cleaner to do the scaling gives better results than setting the size in Premiere, and takes less time.

2.) Video
Rate: Set this to the source video rate
Mode: Effects to disk
Type: Full size frame
Process at: Set to your source video size
Video Filters: Select this option to apply any video filters you have specified in the Project window

3.) Audio
Rate: Set this to your source audio rate
Format: Set this to your source audio bit depth and channels, not the desired parameters for your final movie. Like image scaling, Media Cleaner has higher quality resampling algorithms than Premiere, and you will normally get better results letting Media Cleaner do this conversion.
Build: Select "Disk"
Play: Select "Disk"
Audio Filters: Select this option to apply any audio filters you have specified in the Project window

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Compression Options

The Compression Settings control how Premiere compresses any section of your movie that has been altered from the original. You must specify a high-quality compressor, or your final results may have noticeable compression artifacts.

Select "Compression..." from the Make menu to set the Compression Settings.

1.) Compressor
If you have a high-quality capture card, you should generally choose your capture card's codec. If you have an inexpensive card, or an AV Macintosh, you should choose the Animation codec. If you keep running out of disk space, you may select the Photo - JPEG codec instead.

2.) Quality
Set the quality slider to 100%

3.) Motion
Frames per second: Set the frames per second to the frame rate of your source movie
Keyframes: Leave the keyframes box blank
Limit data rate: Leave the Limit box blank

NOTE: We suggest that once you configure all of these parameters, you save them for future use with the "Presets..." option in Premiere's Make menu.

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Using the Export Module

To use the Export Module, edit your movie within Premiere as normal. When you are done with your edits and effects, set the yellow work area bar to select the portion of the movie you wish to compress with Media Cleaner. A shortcut to select the whole movie is to option-click on the bar ­ see the Premiere manual for more details on setting the work area bar.

After you have set the work bar, select "Export to Media Cleaner" from the Export sub-menu within Premiere's File menu.

This will cause Premiere to generate a current preview using the presets you have set. A Media Cleaner Export dialog will appear, and Media Cleaner will move to the front of the desktop.

NOTE: Media Cleaner must be running in order to use the Export Module. If Media Cleaner isn't running, an error dialog will inform you of this problem. Please launch Media Cleaner prior to selecting "Export to Media Cleaner".

Once you have exported to Media Cleaner, your Premiere movie will be in Media Cleaner's Source Movie window. You can play this movie, but depending on your Premiere presets, playback may not be smooth.

In Media Cleaner, set your compression parameters as you normally would, and then press the "Start" button.

You can suspend and resume your compression as long as both programs remain open and the Media Cleaner Export dialog is visible in Premiere.

NOTE: If you quit either program, or dismiss the Export dialog, you will not be able to resume your compression.

When you are satisfied with the compressed movie created by Media Cleaner, you can switch to Premiere and dismiss the Media Cleaner Export dialog.

NOTE: The Media Cleaner Export Module does not currently support batch processing.

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