Convert an online clip to an offline clip, About online and offline editing – Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 User Manual

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USING ADOBE PREMIERE PRO CS4

Capturing, digitizing, transferring, and importing

Last updated 11/6/2011

Note: To link the audio of a new source file, the source file must have the same type of audio track as the offline clip. For
example, if the offline clip has a stereo audio track, you cannot link it to a source file with a monaural audio track.

In the Project panel, select one or more offline clips.

Choose Project > Link Media.

Select the source file, and click Select.

Note: If you selected more than one offline clip, the Link Media To dialog box appears in turn for each file you selected.
The title bar of the dialog box gives the filename for each offline clip. Relink the correct source file to each offline clip.

(Optional) If you selected a source file containing no audio to link to an offline clip containing audio, the Media
Mismatch dialog box appears. Do one of the following:

•

To delete the audio track from all instances of the offline clip from the project click OK.

•

To cancel linking to the source file, and retain the audio track in all instances of the offline clip, click Cancel.

Convert an online clip to an offline clip

In the Project panel, select one or more online files.

Choose Project > Make Offline.

Select one of the following options:

Media Files Remain On Disk

Makes the selected files offline in the project but doesn’t erase the source files from the disk.

Media Files Are Deleted

Makes the selected files offline in the project and erases the source files from the disk.

Note: If you recapture a clip using the same filename as a file remaining on disk, the original file is replaced. To preserve
original clips without changing their names, move them to another folder or disk, or specify different filenames for the
clips you recapture.

About online and offline editing

For online editing, you edit clips at the level of quality required for the final version of the video program. This is the
default method of working in Premiere Pro. Online editing works well when the speed and storage capacity of the host
computer are adequate to the demands of the video formats used. For example, most modern computers can handle
the data rate of DV in full resolution. They may be challenged, however, by the greater demands of, for example, HDV
or HD footage. For many videographers, that’s where offline editing comes in.

In offline editing, after capturing high-quality clips, you make low-quality copies of them for editing purposes. After
editing, you can unlink the clips in Premiere Pro from the low-quality media, and relink them to the high-quality
originals. You can finish, render, and export your final product in high-quality. Editing the low-resolution clips allows
standard computers to edit excessively large assets, such as HDV or HD footage, without losing performance speed. It
also lets editors use laptop computers to edit—for example, while on location.

You may edit a project entirely online. On the other hand, you may edit in a two-phase workflow: making your initial
creative decisions offline, then switching to online for finishing tasks like fine-tuning, grading, and color correction.

You can complete an offline edit of, for example, an HD project with Premiere Pro and then export your project to
EDL for transfer to an editing system with more powerful hardware. You can then perform the final online edit and
rendering, at full HD resolution, on that system.