Premiere RT 5.1 with Pinnacle ReelTime

Step into my office, friends, where we have a great software/hardware combination to take out on the open road. Finally, Adobe's gotten it right: Premiere RT 5.1 is the ultimate version of the venerable software stalwart. Let's take a close look at this software and a board with which it closely works, the Pinnacle ReelTime Nitro capture and accelerator card.

ReelTime is billed as a real-time, full-screen, full motion dual stream editing system for Windows NT, and let me tell you, it doesn't disappoint. It really caught my interest when it was first introduced, because it was the first real-time capture card and accelerator for Adobe Premiere. This is great because, for years, my biggest gripe about Premiere was how long it took to do even the simplest thing with it. No more. The card supports data rates of 13.4MB/sec for some mighty fine looking M-JPEG output. Component, composite, and Y/C analog input/output interfaces are standard on its rack-mountable breakout box. Adding extra oomph are optional DV/1394 and Serial Digital I/O modules. In addition to the usual Premiere transitions, ReelTime includes 130 transitions that are a scaled -down version of Pixélan Software's Video SpiceRack along with real-time chroma key, luma key, linear key and titling.

Set up here in DigitalVideoEditing's Midwest test facility is Premiere RT 5.1 with Pinnacle's ReelTime board providing video capture and hardware acceleration. For this report, we also had the Nitro upgrade option installed, which lets you do lots of (sometimes cheesy) real-time 3D effects. If you're one of the lucky few to have one of these systems, sidle up and get ready to learn some tips, because we've consulted some of the most astute experts Adobe and Pinnacle can muster. Together, these gurus showed me how to put the pedal to the metal, and best of all, no one got hurt!

First of all, you won't find this supercharged version of Premiere on the shelves of your local software store. That's because it's only available bundled with hardware that supports its real time features. Not only are these systems capable of real time transitions, but the new version of Premiere sports lots of speedups over its much-maligned predecessor, 5.0. Premiere 5.1 (sans RT, which stands for Real Time) is available as a stand-alone application, but if you really want to see Premiere fly, you'll have to spring for the specially-bundled Matrox LE or Pinnacle ReelTime Nitro systems, with Premiere RT 5.1 lurking inside.

Rev up this speed racer, and you'll be able to see something new right at the starting line. The first thing you'll see is the capability to set the software to Load Settings as its first dialog box. This comes in handy if you're a multimedia producer who authors for a variety of formats. It'll let you indicate from the beginning whether you're authoring for broadcast, the Web or anything in between. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll select Pinnacle Reel Time.

Next: Three Point Editing

Premiere RT With Pinnacle's ReelTime by Charlie White
	Step into my office, friends, where we have a great software/hardware combination to take out on the open road. Finally, Adobe's gotten it right: Premiere RT 5.1 is the ultimate version of the venerable software stalwart. Let's take a close look at this software and a board with which it closely works, the Pinnacle ReelTime Nitro capture and accelerator card. ReelTime is billed as a real-time, full-screen, full motion dual stream editing system for Windows NT, and let me tell you, it doesn't disappoint. It really caught my interest when it was first introduced, because it was the first real-time capture card and accelerator for Adobe Premiere. This is great because, for years, my biggest gripe about Premiere was how long it took to do even the simplest thing with it. No more. The card supports data rates of 13.4MB/sec for some mighty fine looking M-JPEG output. Component, composite, and Y/C analog input/output interfaces are standard on its rack-mountable breakout box. Adding extra oomph are optional DV/1394 and Serial Digital I/O modules. In addition to the usual Premiere transitions, ReelTime includes 130 transitions that are a scaled -down version of Pixélan Software's Video SpiceRack along with real-time chroma key, luma key, linear key and titling. Set up here in DigitalVideoEditing's Midwest test facility is Premiere RT 5.1 with Pinnacle's ReelTime board providing video capture and hardware acceleration. For this report, we also had the Nitro upgrade option installed, which lets you do lots of (sometimes cheesy) real-time 3D effects. If you're one of the lucky few to have one of these systems, sidle up and get ready to learn some tips, because we've consulted some of the most astute experts Adobe and Pinnacle can muster. Together, these gurus showed me how to put the pedal to the metal, and best of all, no one got hurt! First of all, you won't find this supercharged version of Premiere on the shelves of your local software store. That's because it's only available bundled with hardware that supports its real time features. Not only are these systems capable of real time transitions, but the new version of Premiere sports lots of speedups over its much-maligned predecessor, 5.0. Premiere 5.1 (sans RT, which stands for Real Time) is available as a stand-alone application, but if you really want to see Premiere fly, you'll have to spring for the specially-bundled Matrox LE or Pinnacle ReelTime Nitro systems, with Premiere RT 5.1 lurking inside. Rev up this speed racer, and you'll be able to see something new right at the starting line. The first thing you'll see is the capability to set the software to Load Settings as its first dialog box. This comes in handy if you're a multimedia producer who authors for a variety of formats. It'll let you indicate from the beginning whether you're authoring for broadcast, the Web or anything in between. For the purposes of this discussion, we'll select Pinnacle Reel Time. Next: Three Point Editing