Premiere Elements 12 on iMac

Question

Hi there,
I am having issues with getting my video to play in Premiere Elements 12. Files are AVI and MTS and I can load them in the software, I can edit them, cut them, put effects on, name it. It just WONT play when I hit the play button or the space bar. Anybody else had that problem ? Thank you for your time and help !

Answer 1

Marie-Pier123
I am strictly an Elements Windows user. So, I am not sure what to expect of Mac for playing back .avi. Then, on the other hand, I am not sure if your issue goes to an atypical video format for Premiere Elements and a suitable project setting for it.
Many have a problem with MotionJPEG.avi in Premiere Elements. When that happens the typical fix is to download and install the Morgan MotionJPEG codec or use a utility that came with the camera to address the codec issue. You appear to have had no problems getting this video into Premiere Elements 12 on Mac. I am assuming that you have the QuickTime player installed on your computer with Premiere Elements 12. Please check out the following to see if any of its content applies to your players on Mac.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4485999
I was able to import the Nikon D5000 MotionJPEG.avi sample into Premiere Elements 12 Windows 7 64 bit. No problems. The question became what project preset to use in view of the video properties
640 x 424 (3:2)
24 progressive frames per second
This was my decision...
a. set project preset manually to PAL DV Widescreen
b. import the video with Add Media/Files and Folders/Project Assets
c. scale the video to fill (just fill) the space in the Edit Mode monitor
d. render the Timeline content which will surely have an orange line over it.
For export, some considerations might be:
Publish+Share/Computer/QuickTime, initially set preset = PAL DV 16:9
under the Advanced Button/Video Tab and Audio Tab
a. Video codec = H.264 (to give you a H.264.mov export)
Leave the "Limit data rate to.......kbps" unchecked on first try and then adjust accordingly for subsequent tries.
b. Video codec = MotionJPEG (to give you a MotionJPEG.mov)
Same comment about data rate (aka bitrate).
The H.264.mov @ 24 progressive frames per second would look like this for the 640 x 424 variety.
The part about data rate (bitrate) is cut off at the bottom in this view.
I played back the H.264.mov and MotionJPEG.mov in QuickTime and they looked good. We can go into more details on that. I favor the H.264.mov. Do you have other requirements for the export?
Please review the above and then let us know if any of that addressed the issues presented.
Thank you.
ATR