Importing assets from tapeless formats, More information, see – Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 User Manual
Page 94
88
USING ADOBE PREMIERE PRO CS4
Capturing, digitizing, transferring, and importing
Last updated 11/6/2011
2
Check Default Scale To Frame Size.
3
Click OK.
Importing assets from tapeless formats
File-based camcorders from various manufacturers record video and audio into files of specific formats organized
within specific directory structures. These formats include Panasonic P2 camcorders, Sony XDCAM HD and XDCAM
EX camcorders, Sony CF-based HDV camcorders, and AVCHD camcorders.
Camcorders recording in any of these formats typically record to hard disks, optical media, or flash memory media,
not to videotape. These camcorders and formats are therefore called file-based, or tapeless, rather than tape-based.
The video and audio from a file-based camcorder are already contained in digital files. No capture or digitizing step is
necessary to bring them into Premiere Pro. Reading the data from the recording media and converting it to a format
that can be used in a project is instead called ingest. Premiere Pro ingests files in any of these file-based formats from
any of their media.
XDCAM and AVCHD formats
You can find the video files from XDCAM HD camcorders in the CLIP folder, written in the MXF format. XDCAM
EX camcorders write MP4 files into a folder named BPAV. For more information on the XDCAM format, see
“XDCAM: Codec technology for XDCAM tapeless products and systems, by Hugo Gaggioni,” at
AVCHD video files can be found in the STREAM folder. For more information about the AVCHD format, see
“AVCHD format specification overview,” at
The Panasonic P2 format
A P2 card is a solid-state memory device that plugs into the PCMCIA slot of a Panasonic P2 video camera, such as the
AG-HVX200. The digital video and audio data from the video camera is recorded onto the card in a structured, codec-
independent format known as MXF (Media eXchange Format). Specifically, Premiere Pro supports the Panasonic Op-
Atom variant of MXF, with video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, or AVC-I formats. A clip is in the
P2 format if its audio and video are contained in Panasonic Op-Atom MXF files. These files are located in a specific
file structure.
The root of the P2 file structure is a CONTENTS folder. Each essence item (an item of video or audio) is contained in
a separate MXF wrapper file. The video MXF files are in the VIDEO subfolder, and the audio MXF files are in the
AUDIO subfolder. XML files in the CLIP subfolder contain the associations between essence files and the metadata
associated with them.
Note: Premiere Pro does not support proxies recorded by some Panasonic P2 camcorders in P2 card PROXY folders.
For your computer to read P2 cards, it needs the appropriate driver, which you can download from the Panasonic website.
Panasonic also provides the P2 Viewer application, with which you can browse and play media stored on a P2 card.
Note: To use certain features with P2 files, you first change the file properties from read only to read and write. For
example, to change the timecode metadata of a clip using the Timecode dialog box, you first set the file properties to read
and write. Use the operating system file explorer to change file properties.