Mac Pro and Premiere Pro CC (mid Dec 2013).

The present and future of post production business and technology by Philip Hodgetts

Today I performed the same test using Premiere Pro CC as I did with Final Cut Pro X a few days ago. In the process I learnt a few things.

I translated the Final Cut Pro X project back to Final Cut Pro 7 XML for Premiere using our Xto7 app. There was a little tidying up to do. To use the same media (managed in the Final Cut Pro X Library) I added an alias to the Original Media folder on the desktop so that I could relink in Premiere Pro CC, ensuring the fairest possible test.

Where Final Cut Pro X has Best Performance and Best Quality settings, in Premiere Pro performance is controlled by the resolution setting.

With the recommended 1/4 – which I’m told by my Adobe associates is the closest equivalent to Apple’s Best Performance – the sequence played easily. There was no perceptual difference in performance. I’m told from those same Adobe sources, that I could expect to get another couple of streams at that setting, with the option of even more if I dialed down the resolution to 1/8th. Fades, rotation, composite modes – none of it phased the Mac Pro.

The different approach to controlling performance typifies the approach each company takes. Adobe gives fine control, down to using different resolutions for playback and paused (where you would use Full in most cases). The control geek in me likes that, and in the right hands it’s a good tool, but it requires the user to understand the connection between playback resolution and performance. read more...