@Oedipax, just buy a $35 GT 240, don't even bother with ATI. Zoom! @lpowell--can you upload a couple of export presets for mainconcept for 1080/24p? I downloaded the demo but I can't seem to get it to work. I have the red line over anything with effects. The small chunk I did get to work looked good (with a watermark).

Looking good! And with Wes (Automatic Duck) now working directly with Adobe I'm assuming he's solved the hand-off issues all the way around including FCP and AVID interoperability with all adobe products.

@lpowell--thanks for the tip! That seems more worthwhile than the upgrade to CS6. I can do Dolby by swapping the audio out but having that and the fine control of the video parameters all built in would be very cool. I have a question, however, can you do some scaling, like zoom in and zoom out to 160 percent, and see if you still get the superscaling feature? You have to check the render at max depth boxes I believe to get the scaling benefit.

I am currently on CS5 so the new Production Suite looks very promising indeed. The integration of a 3D camera tracker is huge as it has in the past been a rather convoluted route of different apps. I feel a strong pull toward a Premiere/AE workflow now. I have been a big fan of FCPX but it's handling of .mts HD files leaves a little to be desired. I can watch my HD Driftwood .mts files in real time on a broadcast monitor with Premiere CS5, and have little problems. Can't do this in FCPX on my non Lion machine. Only thing I miss is the fact I am on a mac and CUDA is pretty much essential for the accelerated effects. I really feel Adobe is overtaking Apple in this area, as Apple focusses on perhaps the more lucrative consumer market. Still I have a lot of love for FCPX. Interesting times.

@duartix The major workflow benefit of the MainConcept Codec Suite plugin is that it is seamlessly integrated into Premiere Pro. To use x264, I believe I'd have to make an additional render from Premiere to an intermediate format, and then use x264 to do a command line render. The MainConcept plugin also provides integrated MPEG2 and Dolby Digital 5.1 encoders.

From
http://www.retooled.net/?tag=premiere-pro-cs6

@DrDave I use the MainConcept Codec Suite 5.1 plugin for Premiere Pro to tweak H.264 and MPEG2 renders. While it's not cheap to license, it provides access to virtually all internal encoder parameters. It also includes an optional Dolby Digital 5.1 pro encoder for DVD and Blu-ray renders. Here's a link to the MainConcept website:

http://www.mainconcept.com/products/apps-plug-ins/plug-ins-for-adobe/codec-suite.html

@AlexManta You've hit one of Adobe's awkward gotcha's in Premiere/After Effects integration. While the link provided by @tuprware documents the gaps in detail, the rule of thumb is that AE is oblivious to all Premiere transitions other than cross fades. Adobe also claims that video effects that are built into both Premiere and AE will be preserved, but I personally haven't had the time to do the detailed individual tests to verify this.

I too, prefer to use AE to color correct Premiere projects (since Premiere is not color managed). Here's the workflow I use in order to maintain sanity:

1. Assemble all clips with in and out markers in Premiere, and generate timelines with the appropriate defaut transition (cut or cross dissolve). Apply manual cross dissolve or cut transitions as needed. Normalize the stereo audio levels in each clip.

2. When done with all editing, make a new Master Sequence of the same type, then drag all other sequences into the Master Sequence.

3. Unlink the Master Sequence audio track and send it to Adobe Audition. Use Audition to EQ, normalize, compress it, and convert it to 16-bit 48k if necessary.

4. Open the Premiere project in AE and verify that all edits and transitions remain intact. Use the Master Sequence to grade and apply video effects to the entire project. Use the original sequences to grade and apply video effects to individual clips.

5. Render the Master Sequence in AE to an appropriate intermediate format, with enough bit depth and bitrate to avoid visible degradation in all target distribution formats.

6. Import the rendered intermediate file back into the Premiere project and create a Sequence for it. Then add titles, soundtrack, and a separate surround sound mix if desired (using the original audio tracks).

7. Render the imported sequence to each target distribution format in Premiere, using multi-pass encoding when available. This will produce optimal video quality at low bitrates.

In PDFs it is stated as Q2 2012

@AlexManta cross dissolve should work in cs5.5, it was a bug in cs5. This is the list of stuff that transfers across: http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WSbaf9cd7d26a2eabf53ab041041081290f-7fbb.html#WS3189FAE2-6A10-4144-B337-8FF81B2E6C8C

So with AE's native support for Adobe SpeedGrade .Look files, does that mean I can import a Speedgrade project into AE without rendering?

My workflow would then be: Premiere (edits) => Speedgrade (Tech, Creative Grading) => After Effects (Effects, Neat Noise reduction, etc)

there's a free series of tutorials covering AECS6 new features at http://www.video2brain.com/en/products-313.htm njoy:]

I'm very interested in Prelude and the improved multicam for now. Former possibly addresses my primary need, proper management of videos. Not just adding tags to files, but to sections of a file. And the multicam was in need of improvement. Personally I could live with the limitation of four cameras, but stability and auto-sync (actually in general) are welcome. Warp stabilizer in PP is nice too. The other improvements are nice too, but I still have to get used to those tools first. AE is just some basic stuff and audio is the thing I'd like to improve at in the upcoming months. Especially since Audition seems to be such a nice application.

@albertdros, check this one out: http://www.motionworks.com.au/after-effects-cs6-3d-material-template/