Importing, transferring, capturing, and digitizing

5Either select File > Import From Browser, drag clips from the Media Browser into the Project panel, or drag clips from the Media Browser into a timeline.

The asset or assets are imported into the Project panel as whole clips.

More Help topics

“Create an HDV or HD sequence” on page 149

“Mapping source and output audio channels” on page 221

“Export to Panasonic P2 format” on page 437

About spanned clips

When a shot or take is recorded requiring more than the file size limit of a medium, a file-based camcorder starts another file, and continues recording the shot to that file without interruption. This is referred to as clip spanning because the shot spans more than one file or clip. Similarly, a file-based camcorder sometimes spans a shot across clips on different cards or disks, if the camcorder has more than one card or disk loaded. It records the shot until it runs out of room on the first medium, then starts a new file on the next medium with available space, and continues recording the shot to it. Although a single shot or take can be recorded to a group of multiple spanned clips, it is designed to be treated as a single clip.

For P2 and XDCAM EX, Premiere Pro imports all of the spanned clips within a single shot or take as a single clip. It will import all the clips within a shot on a card when you select any one of them, provided none of the spanned clips is missing and the relevant XML is present. When one or more spanned clips are missing from a shot, Premiere Pro will import one or more of them depending on where the missing clips fall within the shot.

To import a group of spanned clips, select one of them to import all of them. If you select more than one spanned clip, you will import duplicates of the whole group of spanned clips as duplicate clips in the Project panel.

If the group of spanned clips itself spans two P2 or XDCAM EX cards, copy the full directory trees from them both to same-level folders on the hard disk before importing. For P2 media only, you can alternatively import clips spanning two P2 cards if both cards are simultaneously mounted to your computer.

Colin Brougham explains how Premiere Pro works natively with tapeless media (no transcoding) in this article on the ProVideo Coalition website.

Importing still images

You can import individual still images into Premiere Pro or import a numbered series of still images as a sequence. You can import still images from Adobe applications such as Photoshop and Illustrator. For information about the still-image formats that Premiere Pro imports, see “File formats supported for import” on page 58.

An imported still image uses the duration specified in the Still Image preferences. You can change the duration of a still image in a sequence.

The maximum frame size that can be imported for still images and movies is 256 megapixels, with a maximum dimension of 32,768 pixels in either direction. For more information, see this post on the Premiere Pro Work Area blog.

More Help topics

“Change speed and duration for one or more clips” on page 299

“Create and edit Photoshop files” on page 30

Last updated 1/16/2012