Save a time by previewing and importing files from the Premiere Pro Media Browser panel.
I used to work with a lot of P2 files several years ago, and it was quite a headache. The folder structure of these MXF files is quite frustrating. Importing footage into Premiere was very counterintuitive. That’s when I discovered the Media Browser panel in Premiere Pro, which completely changed my workflow. Let’s take a closer look at the capabilities of this panel.
Import Window vs. Media Browser
One of the more common ways to import media into Premiere Pro is simply by using the Import command. Take a look at these P2 files when I use the import dialog box. I can see all of the MXF files nestled away in their subfolders. I can’t, however, preview any of the files or rename them. Now let’s take a look at these files in the Media Browser.
To open the Media Browser, go to Window > Media Browser. Take note of the differences here when you look at the Import Window vs. the Media Browser panel. The Media Browser offers a simple way to browse, ingest, and even edit media directly in Premiere. Let’s take a look at each of these features.
Browse, Preview, and Import
The Media Browser offers features like hover scrub and filter by file type, which give you a lot of control over your browsing. You can even browse in a Premiere Project, looking through bins of the actual project. You can specify if you want Premiere to create a folder to keep your imported project nice and neat in one bin.
Edit
When you select a clip in the Media Browser, it launches right in your source monitor. As with any clip, you can add in and out points and perform edits on the footage. Once you bring the footage into your timeline, Premiere will automatically add a reference file in the Project Panel.
Ingest
You can have the media browser ingest footage directly from a media device. As I stated before, simply importing the footage will not move the source footage anywhere. Importing is different from ingesting. When you ingest, you move the footage to a specified destination. Furthermore, when you ingest, you have four different options for how to handle the footage. They are Copy, Transcode, Create Proxy, Copy and Create Proxy. The default ingest location is Same as Project.
What’s your experience with the Media Browser? Let us know in the comments.