Adobe Premiere CS4 - Mac issues

I wrote before that I haven’t been using Premiere Pro for some time, despite having a soft spot for it back in the day. The lack of a Mac version for a while really put the kibosh on that, but I was interested to see the CS4 update, and to read the review of it in MacWorld. It’s an academic interest only – I’m in no hurry to switch from Final Cut unless Premiere is totally awesome - so I just read the Pros and Cons list (it’s a long article!)

Something leapt out at me right away: “no preview of HDV during capture.” Say what?

It took a little while, but I found the passage:

On Windows, Premiere Pro’s Scene Detect feature identifies points on the tape where the camera stopped between shots and captures the shots as separate master clips, each linked to a corresponding media file. But on the Mac, Premiere Pro captures a single master clip and creates a subclip for each shot. Both master clips and subclips work fine when it comes to editing. But because the subclips are linked to a single, large master clip and media file, managing media and storage space could be more difficult. And as in the previous version, Premiere Pro for the Mac can’t display HDV footage in the Capture panel; you’ll have to use your camcorder’s built-in screen or an attached monitor instead.

Okay, that sucks! I mean seriously, one of the coolest things in Final Cut is the way it breaks up clips as you capture. And being able to preview to find what you want; I really can’t imagine not having that.

Major bad words for Adobe.

I can’t believe they’d leave it that way. The suggested solution “use the camera’s screen” uhhh…what if you are using a deck?

That Premiere supports many tapeless formats – including P2, AVCHD, XDCAM EX, and XDCAM HD – is cool, but HDV is still an important format, surely? Well, I guess I'm not going to be switching this year!