Customer Reviews

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Classroom in a Book

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I must be missing something, I don't understand the low ratings on this book. I have several years' experience with Photoshop but am new to the video editing world. I have watched video training on Premiere CS4 to get familiar with non-linear editing and have already done some project work. But I wanted more detail in written form that I could go to as a repeat reference. This Classroom series for Premiere CS4 fills that need VERY well. The writers cover everything from setup of the software through to output with everything in between. I didn't find it too difficult as a beginner like others have mentioned. In fact, it is written in a very understandable style... often I'm reading through sections while not even at my PC and yet I can visualize what's being taught. I have notes and bookmarks all over the book, because it's also quite a good "How-To" reference guide, not just a bunch of lessons. It's obvious the author is passionate about video production because he/she even covers how to best shoot video to then edit later. I've learned a lot about shooting footage, not just "here's how the software works".

By all means, don't skip this book if you've made the investment in Premiere CS4. As as for the other gripes/reviews, I'd take those with a grain of salt. I did buy it thinking I would sell it if it wasn't worth keeping. No WAY am I getting rid of it.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 CIB

I have used Premiere infrequently over the years since version 5 and it was time for a refresher and to become acquainted with the new features. The last Premiere CIB book I purchased was 5.0 (1998).

The book touches on a wide range of key features in a concise manner. If greater depth is needed, the book refers the reader to additional resources. I felt that the range of topics covered and the depth of treatment was good. This book is targeted at beginning and intermediate Premiere users and is not intended to make anyone an expert.

I completed almost all of the exercises and felt that the book fulfilled its mission and was well worth the cost and the time/effort.

I recommend that when copying the DVD to your hard drive, you place it in the recommended location. I have a separate Books & Training folder on my D: drive and copied the DVD there. Every time I opened a project for the first time the "Where is file" dialog opened. Also, this non-standard location caused some Dynamic Link exercises to produce unsatisfactory results and display the red Media Offline image.

Re the complaints by some of the early reviewers regarding the files on the DVD, I recall only one switch setting (p. 262, noted below) which was incorrect. I received my copy March 9, 2010.

While some may quibble whether all of the items below are errata, my frustration was sufficient to knock off one star for the book. When the Adobe software is brought into the mix, my frustration would cause me to knock off two stars.

I have submitted my errata list to Adobe Press.
=================
Errata

The AdobePress & Peachpit errata list contains only one item (this was already corrected in my printing [ISBN-13: 978-0-321-57385-8, 9 8 7 6 5 4 3]):

Page 252: Step 2 should read "Open the Lesson 13-2 Working sequence."

My errata list:

p. 34, Retakes: "Add Shot Placeholder" -> "Add Take Placeholder"

p. 104, step 2 (at top of page): The image should show the gap after writers2.avi, which was created by p. 102, step 8. Either that or Ripple Delete needs to be applied to the gap.

p. 191, Order counts: "works from bottom to top" -> "are applied top to bottom"

....Explanation: Either the statement is incorrect as written or I am misinterpreting what "works from" is supposed to mean.

p. 242, step 12: (See errata for p.263)

p. 262, step 5: In the Practice sequence of Lesson 14-2.prproj the Toggle Track Output of the Audio 1 track has been set (unintentionally) to not output the track (i.e., the Toggle is blank rather than displaying a speaker icon). It is necessary to click Toggle Track Output to hear the track.

p. 262, step 6: To duplicate the image shown below Step 6: Note that to keep the audio panned to the right after the second keyframe you will have to change it to a Hold keyframe. The alternative is to create a third keyframe at the end of the clip. Otherwise, the pan will return to center by the end of the clip.

p. 263: Note (in margin): An alternative cause of not hearing all 6 channels is that Edit > Preferences > Audio Hardware > Default Device needs to be set to something other than Premiere Pro WDM Sound.

....Explanation: For my Creative Audigy 2 I had to set the Default Device to Creative ASIO. Win7 64-bit.

p. 265, step 2: "...by clicking Channel Volume." -> "...by clicking Volume:Level."
p. 265, step 3: "Select Left." -> "Select Left from the Channel Volume entry."

p. 338, steps 4-6: Player controls may be missing from Adobe Reader on Vista x64 or Win7 x64. Apparently there is a bug related to Adobe Reader/Quicktime/Windows_x64.

....Details as of March 25, 2010: I found references to this problem starting in November 2008, but I gave up researching/testing fixes because I do not intend to use Clip Notes anyway. My config: Win7 x64, Adobe Reader 9.3.1 (the latest), and Quicktime 7.6.5 (the latest).

p. 342, step 5: If you didn't copy the CIB DVD files in the recommended folder, you will encounter the red "Media offline" image. Click the Project panel, press ~ to make it full screen, and you will see that the media is offline (also indicated by the file icon). Right-click on the file icon for each of the three offline files and select "Link media.." as was discussed in a previous lesson. Press ~ again to return to normal view.

p. 357, step 5: "...select the lower third/ae_practice composition..." -> "...select the lower third composition..."

....Explanation: The "/ae_practice" suffix appears in the Project panel after import, but not in the Import Composition dialog box.

p. 360, step 4, second paragraph: "You may need to render the sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro to set it play back smoothly." -> "You will probably need to render..."

....Explanation: As originally written this seems a little disingenuous. Maybe if you perform the playback on a supercomputer you will not have to render it to see it play smoothly. It took 4 minutes 22 seconds to render the 29 seconds of the DV-quality sequence. My config: Asus P6X58D motherboard, stock i7-920 2.67GHz (4 actual processors; 8 virtual processors), 12GB 1600 memory, no RAID 0. I am considering the purchase a 1920x1080 camcorder but render times like this for DV make me question the wisdom of doing so.

p. 365, step 3: "Adobe Premiere Pro offers nine export options..." -> "Adobe Premiere Pro offers at least five export options..."

p. 369, step 6: "The export will be added to Adobe Media Encoder." -> "An Export Frame dialog box will open with the frame number appended to the file name. Click OK."
p. 369, step 7: Delete this step.

p. 372, step 1: "To begin, open the Format menu..." -> "Export the same sequence as in the previous exercise. To begin, open the Format menu..."

p. 374, step 5: "...is selected and click OK." -> "...is selected."
p. 374, step 6: "Name the file and click Save." -> "Name the file and click OK."

p. 374, steps 7-10: (bugs in Adobe Media Encoder or Device Central?) The video was frozen at the first frame while the audio played correctly. The player controls did not work. Note that selecting Fullscreen Mode in step 8 will rotate the video but not the phone so you need to click the CCW rotation icon near the bottom of the window.

p. 382, step 3: "Name this chapter marker Dixie." -> "Double-click on the marker icon or, if the Current Time Indicator is still over the marker icon, press * on the numeric keypad to open the Marker dialog box. Name this chapter marker Dixie and press OK."

....Explanation: While creating numbered markers was presented earlier in the book, I don't recall any training on opening and using the Marker dialog.

p. 389, step 5: If you didn't copy the CIB DVD files in the recommended folder, you will encounter the red "Media offline" image. Unlike Premiere, Encore does not have a feature to locate assets missing from a Premiere project.

p. 391, step 3. Encore hung while switching to Blu-Ray. Switched to Premiere to shut it down and it hung. Windows Task Manager would not start so I could not shut down Encore and Premiere down. Had to perform a hardware reset. My system has been very reliable so I suspect that Dynamic Link is fragile and that going back and forth between Premiere/AfterEffects/Encore in the preceding lessons had pushed it too far. Rather than re-doing the entire Encore chapter from scratch I gave up with one page of the book to go.

With the frequent errors toward the end of the book I got the impression that either a different writer worked on those chapters or the testers were getting weary or sections were extracted from a previous version of CIB.

==================
Premiere Pro CS4 bugs/inconveniences which you may encounter (version PP4.2.1 on Win7 x64):

o Checkbox "Display only exact filename matches" in the "Where is the file" dialog box has no effect. Works correctly on XP x32.

o The Effects Control panel does not honor the standard keyboard shortcut of entering time from the numeric keypad. If you want to go to a specific time in the Timeline, Program Monitor, Source Monitor, or Reference Monitor you can simply enter the time (no punctuation (e.g., ; or .) needed). But this does not work when the Effects Control panel has focus. (Note that if one or more clips are selected when using this technique, the clips are moved so that the in point of the first clip aligns with the entered time.)

o Activating the Effects panel does not place the cursor in the search field. This is probably a minor issue if you select the Effects panel with the mouse, but it is more of an inconvenience if you got there via Shift+7.

o The image on External Devices (Program Monitor > Playback Settings) is not updated real time while manipulating an effect in Effect Controls while the Program Monitor > Display Mode is set to one or more of the Vectorscope/waveform monitors. The work around is to leave the Program Monitor set to Composite Video and set the Reference Monitor (Window > Reference Monitor) to display the Vectorscope/waveform monitors.

o Applying the Reverb effect to a 5.1 submix only outputs to the Front Left and Front Right channels, that is, only the two leftmost VU columns in the mixer display for the Master bus display activity. (I tried a variation on Lesson 14-5: add a 5.1 submix, direct Audio 6 and Audio 7 to that new submix, and add the Reverb effect. With Reverb bypassed everything is fine; with Reverb enabled, there is no output. Maybe Premiere is using the stereo version of Reverb rather than the 5.1 version.).

I bought this book because it was required for an undergraduate class in videographic post-production. Although it is not the definitive source for learning Premiere Pro CS4 it will get you started on the right track. I already had some experience with this software, so I found a lot of this book to be less than what I expected. If you follow the lesson plans and carefully read the instructions for each lesson, you will be able to navigate through the powerful and convoluted software interface on an elementary level. Take note: some of the CD information that must be loaded on your hard drive to follow the lesson plans does not work properly, and more often than not you are required to find "lost" files that lose their pointers. This becomes an annoyance after a while.

This being said, I will repeat: this book is not the definitive source for learning Premiere Pro CS4 even though it was written by Adobe experts as a guide for their software. You should research other sources for more in depth methods for utilizing the nuances of this software. It seems to be more of a beginner's guide for learning to navigate through some of the basic post production manipulations that can be done with video. Having used other Adobe graphics software in the past, I found that I could intuitively navigate Premiere Pro CS4 without the purchase of this textbook and also found that the free video lessons at Adobe's website and those available on other online video websites showed me with greater ease more complex manipulations that are not included in this book.

In the beginning I gave it 4 stars but after working with the book longer, I see that it is written rather poorly. It takes a lot of extra time just to find the thing they are writing about. In many lessons the authors do not always show that or another button, and you need to spend time to find it. For example, in the Audio section, p.240, they suggest to open Source Monitor panel menu. Where is it? You are on you own - they forget to mention that you should click a rectangular on the right top corner. I have years of experience of working with Adobe Premier versions. I do not know another book, so there is no choice but to use it. In the past, companies included similar manuals as a part of their products, but in these days you need to pay separately to receive it.

The book seems to be what I expected, covering the Premiere Pro workspace and workflow well, but the DVD is shockingly poor which is unfortunate and inexcusable given the purpose of the program is all about producing professional work.
Some clips fail to import with an error "codec missing or unavailable." There's actually a random clip in the first lesson that can only be an accident, showing part of a Sureshot chart on a disorganized desk with a handtowel in the background and the sound of coughing in the audio track. Embarrassing, what a mess.

I've used Adobe's Classroom in a book in past years to learn various products, but lately their books are filled with errors, hard to understand and are simply some of the worst learning books on the market. You are much better off with the "For Dummies" books or products from other vendors for learning.

This is simply the most poorly written, organized and produced learning book I have ever read in my life. Highly recommend avoiding this product all together.

In general, I think this series is overrated.

Key information for beginners is too often omitted, assuming the user already knows it. I had trouble getting the DVD lessons to work as well.

I just downloaded the book to my iPad. That part is fine. Now that I am trying to actually DO the lessons, I realize that the Kindle version does NOT come with the lesson file DVD that would come with the paper book. I assumed I could download these files somewhere, but no. So, for the past hour, I've been searching for the files instead of learning how to use Premiere.

I had never used Permer before and this bood did a great job of walking me thought thr program.
I use this book all the time and could not go with out it.
In short if you do not know how to use Permiere this is the book for you.

I have just started the book, so I can't honestly rate it with stars, but I felt it was important that I share the directions for how to find the course files. For Adobe ebooks, if you look towards the back of the ebook, there is a section called "Where are the lesson files?" It includes directions and a link to download the files.

On another note, I give Amazon 0-stars for their description of this book. The descriptions for Adobe ebooks need to be rewritten to include this info. The fact that the description clearly states "it comes with a DVD" is inaccurate. They should put the info for where to find the link instead of saying "comes with DVD."

When I contacted Amazon they said "sorry doesn't come with files, want a refund?" When I contacted Adobe directly, I was able to find out how to get the files.

Love you Adobe! Frustrated with Amazon!