CS4 Loading and Render Times

[Jamey Gigliagi]

I have been having some frustration due to the amount of wasted time I am encountering during my current project. I dont know if it is a software or hardware problem.

My computer specs
amd x2 @2.8ghz (280mhzx10)
4x1gb ddr2 800 4-4-4-12
nvidia 7900gtx
seagate 7200.10 320gb (3 partitions (xp 32, win7 64, scratch disk), 190gb free)
samsung f1 1tb 7200rpm (single partition, data)

I am doing a claymation and am using a digital camera to take stills. The short is a little less than 6min long and has about 2000 frames (8mp) and about 50-75 audio clips; although, my problems began at the beginning of the project so I do not think the number of files is the problem.

The Problem:
Whenever I click out of premiere, it takes about 30sec-1min from the time I click back on the frame until the time I can do anything. My OS hdd's activity jumps up and I just have to wait it out. Once I am in, everything runs fine. I can move my files around, add transistions, filters, adjust levels, etc. Now to rendering. Maybe I am just being unrealistic about the capabilities of my machine or do not understand the complexity of the task, but a 2-3min calculation time to render 200 frames of pure video stills (6fps, single layer, no filters, no transistions, no nothing), seems very long. This is in win7 with only premiere running.

Any advice?

Thanks

[Harm Millaard]

Size your stills to your project settings or slightly larger if you need to pan or zoom. It makes no sense to import a 8 MP still into a 720x480 project or even a 1920x1080 project.

[Brett Griffin]

I totally agree with Harm. Determine what is the maximum output framesize you are looking for and then batch encode the stills in photoshop if you have it. If you do have photoshop, you can create a Action by manually recording and resizing the first still, then apply that action to the entire folder of images. if you are unsure how to do this, there are several tutorials on Youtube showing you how to create and use actions.

[Jamey Gigliagi]

Thanks, that helped with load times.

I finished my project in SD for my film class, but since I will never again display it on a SD monitor/tv, I want to make an HD version. I imported the project (with 1920x1080 stills) into an HD project and loaded the sequence onto the timeline and everything seems fine. However when I go to render the sequence, it just hangs there, forever. Checking my processes shows no sign of an active render. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks

[Javier Gallen]

Tremendous load times and waiting forever when clicking outside and clicking back to Premiere are usual when working with lots of imported clips, no matter if they are stills, audio or video.

In fact, is a real problem when working with large projects with lot's of P2 clips (MXF). I hoped this was resolved on CS4, but seems to work the same way. :(

[Harm Millaard]

Jamey,

What are your export settings?

[Jamey Gigliagi]

I tried just exporting without rendering and it worked just fine (3hr render, but it worked, so no complaints, although I cannot play the file). What compression codec should I use to make the file playable on a standard single hdd system, without sacrificing resolution?

The problem I was encountering was rendering the timeline for preview purposes as I thought that needed to be done before exporting, but obviously that step can be skipped. For future reference, is it better to do the editing in an sd project then just import the project into an hd project to avoid hd renders? Any other suggestions for rendering hd projects? I am assuming that a more powerful computer should work, but I just want to make sure that it is not a software problem before I go spend a few thousand on a new computer.

Thanks

[Harm Millaard]

SD editing is less stressful for a PC than HDV. BUT, it is not recommended to uprez SD footage to HDV, you will lose too much quality. It you start out with HDV material or better, only use HDV or better sequence settings. It may mean that the time to get a better PC is approaching rapidly.

[Jamey Gigliagi]

Just to clarify my process. I edited the project in dv as it allowed for reasonable render times to view my film. Once finished, I opened a new XDCAM EX project as it was the only format which supported 1920x1080 and imported the dv project which had 1920x1080 stills as its source scaled to fit the frame. As such, I belive that there should be no loss of quality. I exported the video as uncompressed 8bit which is about 124MBps and thus I cannot watch it and am currently searching for compression codecs for a viewable version. But at least I have a good archival version for when I build my future computer with a RAID storage system.

I know that I cannot capture any tape based uncompressed HD format due to bandwidth, but since I do not have a way of obtaining any high end source, that is not a problem. However, I cannot even render a 5 second clip of my video which would make it impossible to do any full projects starting in an XDCAM EX format. Would it be safe to assume that I would have to get a new computer to even consider editing any XDCAM EX projects?

Thanks

[Harm Millaard]

Sorry, but you really have a convoluted workflow. You have no XDCAM-EX material, you have only stills from a still camera and yet you are editing in a XDCAM-EX workflow. Have you ever considered something a bit easier, like Imaginate from GV or other consumer applications for editing stills? Convert the output to a format that PR likes and that is editable and only then start using CS4.

If you want to edit in a XDCAM-EX preset, get a EX1 or EX3.

[Jamey Gigliagi]

I downloaded the trial of Imaginate, but it seems to be a lot more work for what I am trying to do. All I want to be able to do interms of video is import my project folder full of a few thousand stills, which are in subfolders by scene and lay down the subfolders on my timeline in order with a specfic frame duration per still (in my last project it was 5 frames, in the one before 3 frames). Then I add credits and title if I did not make my own while shooting, and the video is done. I do all the "editing" in camera including fades, pans, tilts, lighting, color correction, etc. So, now I have my images laid on the timeline and I render it so I can work on the audio which is the only editing which is done in the nle. I can complete the entire video portion of my project in 10min, not including rendering. Is there an easier way to do this?

I do all of the editing in sd to save render time then load the project (audio and video) into an hd project and export (still looking for playable codec).

The only reason that I choose the XDCAM-EX specification was because it was the only option that showed 1920x1080 other than ACHDV. Should I be doing this some other way? Obviously, I need a little help.

Thanks

[Brett Griffin]

Jamey

Update for PPCS4.1 is now available through Adobe Update. I have tried it and projects that once took 5 minutes to open, open in about 50 secs. Worth a shot in your situation.

Brett
Griffin Video Productions - Sydney Wedding Videos and DVD

[Glenn Babcock]

Originally Posted by Jamey Gigliagi

The Problem:
Whenever I click out of premiere, it takes about 30sec-1min from the time I click back on the frame until the time I can do anything. My OS hdd's activity jumps up and I just have to wait it out. Once I am in, everything runs fine. I can move my files around, add transistions, filters, adjust levels, etc.

Any advice?

Jamey,

This sounds like page file activity. That means that you may have run out of physical RAM, so your OS is caching to the hard disk to free up RAM for other apps. When you switch out of PP it may be paging processes using large amounts of RAM, then when you switch back it has to page the other processes and read back in the PP processes. Takes time to do this.

I bumped my RAM from 4GB to 8GB and it's night and day. On my system it's not unusual to see 5GB-7GB physical memory in use. Use Task Manager to check it on your system.

(4) 2GB sticks cost me $130. Cheap performance!

Glenn