Adobe CS3 Production Premium Review

Written by Paul Schmutzler and Tim Siglin
August 14, 2007

With the introduction of Adobe’s Creative Suite 3 comes even greater integration among all of the Adobe dynamic media programs. The specific integration between Adobe Premiere and the Adobe Media Encoder is of particular interest to online video content creators. This mini-review of that integration is part of a more in-depth review that will appear in the October/November issue of Streaming Media magazine.

Adobe CS3 Premiere Pro is one of several of the Adobe CS3 Production Premium programs that can access the Adobe Media Encoder. Premiere has been revamped on the Windows platform—and reintroduced to the Macintosh OS X platform—with several key features that make it a formidable competitor to other more established video editing suites. Although Apple’s Final Cut Pro cooperates quite well with Adobe file formats such as PDF for Acrobat, AI for Illustrator, and PSD for Photoshop, Adobe truly simplifies the process. For example, layered Photoshop files are especially easy to work with in both Premiere and also Encore, Adobe’s DVD authoring program.

A second benefit for Premiere is an integrated title template tool that employs a Photoshop-like interface. For those content creators that are familiar with Adobe’s web or graphic design programs and want to branch into the world of video editing and streaming video, the familiarity of the new interface similarities can’t be overemphasized.

The Adobe Media Encoder, included both with the Adobe CS3 Production Premium bundle and also with the Premiere Pro point product, can export directly from the Premiere timeline through a simple two-step process: Select either a clip from your bin or any amount of media on your timeline and then go to File > Export > Adobe Media Encoder.

The Media Encoder interface then loads on your screen and, if the export is from Premiere’s timeline, the Media Encoder displays the original media at the point where the Premiere playhead (or cursor) was currently sitting prior to launching Media Encoder, a real timesaver for those who want to move between editing a series of clips and trying out small encode samples. You can switch between your source and output by selecting between the two tabs at the top or by using the toggle button at the top right that automatically switches between the two.

Media Encoder’s settings controls, on the right side of the interface, allow you to make changes such as frame rate, format, and dimensions that reflect in real-time an estimate of the final video output in the output window. After completing the settings, select “OK” to submit those settings and then provide a destination and file name for the compressed video, and watch Media Encoder do its magic. The status window gives you a detailed running tally on the encode, which we found to be quite accurate in its time estimation.

Conversion and Compression
Adobe provides compression schemes for a variety of content types, from high-end Blu-ray high definition DVD outputs to low-bandwidth streaming file formats. Two formats of particular interest to streaming media content creators are H.264 (which includes presets for compressing videos for popular use such as YouTube, MySpace, and Sony’s PSP) and the On2 VP6 compression scheme, better known as FLV or Flash Video 8.

For those who want to compress Flash Video 8 files from raw video clips or clips that have already been exported, Adobe also includes another encoding option: Adobe Flash Video Converter. This utility is very utilitarian but gives the user all the functionality needed to create FLV or SWF video files within a minimalist interface designed to maintain as much desktop real estate as possible.

For those unfamiliar with Flash, the FLV file is a video-only wrapper, while SWF is a self-contained “movie” (in Macromedia/Adobe parlance) that can contain additional information such as a follow-on video file to launch after the first SWF is completed.

As part of our review we wanted to compare two aspects: first, the speed difference between content shot in DV versus the higher-quality HDV; second, the speed of Flash video output between Adobe’s Media Encoder’s FLV conversion capabilities and the output of the more spartan Flash Video Encoder.

Again, a more in-depth HDV/DV comparison will be found in the longer review in the October/November Streaming Media. For this article, we chose three HDV files of varying lengths and file sizes. File 1 was a clip with lots of motion and shaky camera work following a crowd of people running around, which lets us assess both encoders’ ability to handle motion. This 17-second clip had an original file size 56.3MB. File 2 was a stand-up shot with relatively little motion of one person talking and gesturing. This 12-second clip had an original file size 41.0MB. File 3 had an average amount of motion and was a typical interview shot – a talking head with some gesturing. This 50-second clip had an original file size 160MB. All of them were compressed using the medium quality (400Kbps) preset.

Our tests yielded consistent results between both the Flash Video Encoder and the Media Encoder. The total conversion time for all three files in the queue was 2 hours and 11 minutes on an Intel-based MacBook Pro 2.16 Dual Core with 2GB RAM and a Radeon 1600 graphics card with 256MB of on-board memory.

Compressions on File 2 and File 3 were quite severe, from 41MB to 1.4MB and from 160.3 MB to 89MB, respectively. File 1 took up the bulk of the time, with its significant motion, and yielded a lower compression rate with the original size of 56.3MB only being reduced to an FLV size of 8.1MB.

Our results indicated that the decision on whether to use Adobe Media Encoder or the Flash Video Converter to make a Flash video file rests more with workflow issues than underlying compression speed differences. Media Encoder is best used when one is already using Premiere Pro to edit a project, as it is most efficient to export your FLV right from the Media Encoder instead of exporting a standalone MOV and then converting the standalone file with Flash Video Converter. Output from the timeline also avoids any issues with concatenation or loss of quality if an intermediate output format is used. If you already have an existing video file, though, such as an MOV or MPG, then use the Flash Video Converter. Not only will this provide an equivalent output to Adobe Media Encoder, but it will also save you from having to adjust settings and create a project in Premiere just to convert a format.

In summary, for professional video editors and for streaming media content creators, there is now a new choice in editing and encoding software to be considered. Premiere Pro is a fine initial debut on the Mac and a solid upgrade on the Windows platform, thanks in no small part to the continued integration between the Adobe CS3 programs. The Adobe Media Encoder – an example of one of the programs that spans several CS3 applications, is also a solid product that puts Adobe firmly in the running against other more established video software suites.

Originally published here.