A data rate limit prevents your computer from dropping frames when you capture or render digital video, which causes video to appear stuttered or jerky. The data rate you choose for video capture depends on the capabilities of your system and hardware configuration, while the data rate you choose for playing or previewing video depends on the target playback system.
If your movie will be played or previewed on your local hard drive, you should limit the data rate to the maximum video data rate of your local system and hardware configuration.
If your movie will be played on other systems, you should limit the data rate to the maximum video data rate of those playback systems. For example, a realistic data rate for CD-ROM movies is 90-100 K/sec for single-speed (1x) CD-ROM drives, 150-200 K/sec for double-speed (2x) drives, and 350-500 K/sec for quad-speed (4x) drives. Remember you may have a (24x) or (36x) CD-ROM, but most computers still have a quad-speed at most.
Choosing a Data Rate Limit for Capturing Video in Premiere
When capturing video, the amount of data you capture should not exceed the capacity of your capture drive and video capture card, otherwise your computer will drop frames. Because the amount of data you can capture is affected by your system and hardware configuration, the only way to determine an appropriate data rate is to test the system yourself.
To determine your system’s maximum data rate for video capture using Adobe Premiere:
1. Make sure you have followed your device manufacturer’s instructions for optimizing your system and hardware configuration. Adobe also provides optimization instructions for some capture cards.
>2. In Premiere, choose File > Preferences > Scratch Disks.
3. Choose the hard drive you will use to capture video from the Temp/Captured Movies pop-up menu (Macintosh) or from the pop-up menu that appears (Windows), then click OK.
4. Choose File then Capture then Movie Capture to activate the Movie Capture menu.
5. Follow the instructions provided with your video capture card for entering a data rate limit. The procedure for most capture cards is as follows:
