Worth spending to upgrade to Version 4?

[Bruce Pelley]

1) Has the quality of the rendering with the MPEG media encoder inproved over prior versions?

2) Is it stable and more or less bugfree yet?

3) Does the grey and rather unappealing background bother you as it now has a very spartan and utilitiarian look?

4) What in you view makes it worth buying?

5) In your view, what should I know before making a decision?

Thanks in advance!

Bruce

[Brian Barkley]

This info came from Adobe website:

Accessibility Reasons to upgrade
Powerful integration, including expanded Adobe Dynamic Link, for exceptional productivity
Work with unparalleled efficiency, so you have more time to craft your vision. For example, expanded Dynamic Link lets you link content between Creative Suite 4 Production Premium components, so you can see updates immediately without rendering.

Project intelligence with XMP metadata
Capture valuable XMP metadata from your camera, and accumulate key information throughout the production process for intelligent media management. Use new Speech Search technology in Adobe Premiere Pro and Soundbooth to turn spoken dialog into metadata, making it easy to find particular clips and make video assets searchable.

Direct-to-disk recording and tapeless workflows
Shoot footage directly to disk from non-file-based cameras with redesigned Adobe OnLocation™ CS4, which now runs natively on Windows® and Intel® based Mac OS systems. Import and natively edit a wide variety of tapeless formats—including P2, XDCAM EX, and AVCHD—without transcoding or rewrapping in Adobe Premiere Pro CS4.

Wide variety of output options
Deliver on film, on video, on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, online, and on mobile devices with smooth efficiency to reach more audiences.

Collaboration with clients and colleagues*
Use the Adobe ConnectNow service to share project storyboards online before you shoot. Access improved Resource Central to find new assets, and quickly find news and inspiration in Bridge Home.
Editing efficiency with Adobe Premiere® Pro CS4
Utilize scalable, efficient, and flexible nonlinear video editing capabilities and superior integration with other Creative Suite 4 components to tell your most compelling stories. New native support for tapeless workflows and more than 50 enhancements make the editing process more efficient.

Motion graphics and visual effects with Adobe After Effects® CS4
Be more productive: Searchable timelines and projects, easier navigation of nested compositions, expanded 3D compositing options including the ability to import 3D layers from Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended, and the new Cartoon effect help you work more efficiently and open up new creative possibilities.

Industry-standard design with Adobe Illustrator® CS4 and Photoshop® CS4 Extended
Use an expanded set of creative options in Adobe Illustrator for designing static assets and creating storyboards, and take advantage of enhanced 3D support, Vanishing Point, and improved video support in Photoshop CS4 Extended to enhance your projects.

Interactive experiences with Adobe Flash® CS4 Professional
Work with a new animation model that makes Adobe Flash CS4 Professional easier to learn for new users, adds efficiency for proficient users, and provides even greater control for creating immersive interactive experiences.

Enhanced audio editing with Adobe Soundbooth® CS4
Create and arrange audio clips for your film, video, and interactive projects for Flash with more flexibility using convenient, task-based tools along with new multitrack audio project support.

[Steve Kalle]

64 BIT for me!!!

Before I took the plunge, I researched it as well. There is a great article over at DigitalContentProducer.com testing Premiere CS4 with 4GB ram on 32bit vs 12GB & 16GB on 64bit, and the encoding times were reduced by 50% up to 200%.

Even though Premiere isn't 64bit native, it can create multiple 4GB processes to utilize more ram, which AE does as well.

Another nice side effect of more ram is a smoother editing experience. I like it so much that I am upgrading my computer so I can install 12GB ram vs my current 8GB.

I also use Photoshop and PS CS4 is x64 native which greatly helps with larger projects.

[Jeff Anselmo]

Hi Steve,

I apologize to Bruce if I'm hijacking this thread, but I'm curious what upgrades you'll be doing to your computer to, as you said, make CS4 run faster?

Also, are you running 64bit Vista or XP?

I'm still currently running CS2 with XPPro 32bit. It's a current i7 system, with 6Gigs of RAM. But we work mostly with SD footage (from the Canon XL2 for our business), and the occasional HDV footage (from the Canon HV30 for fun mostly). I actually have Vista Business 64bit on the shelf; and I'm really hesitant to install it as it may screw up the Adobe CS2 programs, and all the plug-ins I have on there :(

Best,

--JA

[Jiri Fiala]

As for 64bit or 32bit, skip XP on current hardware altogether, skip Vista as well and go for 64bit Windows 7. That's the most powerful, tuned to current hardware version of Windows you can get these days.

[Bruce Pelley]

Jeff,

Well to be honest, a ram upgrade never occured to me until you mentioned it in your post.
I've been through several versions of Premiere (6.5/2.0/3.0) and just installed a trial verion of CS4 a couple of days ago. My computer was bought last year in April or so (I think) however it's a "ok" (Dell Inspiron 530 with firewire installed) model and not a maxed out professional machine. Unfortunately, its only a 32 bit machine maxed out on 4 gigs of ram. I have Vista with service pack two, a core 2 Quad 2.4 ghz processer and a couple of small hard drives onboard. Nothing great but it does the job at hand.

What bothers me is that rendering time is very slow.....hours to export from the timeline to an MPEG-2 file with AME. It processes at night while I rest/sleep/watch cable. So, based on the above there's not much more that can be done to beef up my machine considering its capacity,design and built-in limitations.

Own a pair of GL-2's and can borrow a HV-30 if I need it.

Thats about all I can say about my situation except I'm still looking to find out if the quality of the encoding has improved in CS4 and to get screenshots of all of the MPEG-2 paramaters and setting which are absent in the CS4 trial/demo.

Bruce

[Jeff Anselmo]

Hi Bruce,

Before upgrading to the recent i7 system, I was running on an old Dell Dimension 8400 with only 2 gigs of RAM (3.2ghz Pentium w/hyper threading) and a 500G harddrive with CS2 and it was pretty good. Aside for the occassional hiccups and locking up (it is Adobe after all :), things were pretty smooth. I don't know if the render times are much faster for CS2 on the i7 system, but my plug ins seem to be smoking (like TMPGnc).

Best,

[Jeff Anselmo]

Hi Jiri,

I'm thinking of "stalling" to install Vista Business 64bit, and wait for Windows 7. And will possibly wait for CS5 to come out as well :) Hopefully, that will be Adobe's magic combo!

Best,

[Bruce Pelley]

Jeff,

If I may ask, do you do your encoding with the standard AME on CS4, plug-in (and if so what and why) or perhaps a stand alone?

What changed in AME from versions 3 to 4 in regards to MPEg-2 settings,ranges and parameters?

Is the encoding quality better on CS4, worse or the same as CS2 and CS3?

Do any of your plug-ins do a better job in this particular regard?

Curious,

Bruce

[Jeff Anselmo]

Hi Bruce,

Just read this and your other thread. As Marty had mentioned, I also use TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG2 files for DVD (then import that file onto Encore and burn DVDs there).

I can't measure or compare CS2 to CS4 obviously (as I don't have CS4). But I've gotten really good results encoding out of TMPGEnc compared to CS2's encoder. (And like Marty, I usually export a Cineform AVI from Premiere CS2, then use TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG2. Gosh, I really did learn alot on this forum :)

I'm not a bleeding edge type guy. But like any boy that wants toys, I would like the latest and the greatest tech available (much to my wife's chagrin :). But running a business means I've also got to be practical, making sure the tech we buy makes money for us (otherwise it's just an expensive hobby). But I certainly rely on this forum for us folks who can't test/afford the latest and the greatest.

Best,

[Bruce Pelley]

Hi Jeff,

In my other thread I just posted a fairly long one which gave more details as to my background, mission, purpose and asked a few follow-up questions as to TMPGEN and its capabilities,degree of excellence,etc. Rather than post it agin here,would you be willing to read it at your earliest convenience?

Thanks,
Bruce

[Bruce Pelley]

Jeff,

Which version of TMPGen do you use?

Xpress,Plus,Free,Authoring Works or other?

Please let me know.

Thanks so much.

Bruce

[Jeff Anselmo]

Hi Bruce,

I'm running TMPGEnc Express 4.0, which is around $100 I believe (after you purchase, you get updates and upgrades for free.)

Going to send you an email soon.

Best,

[Bruce Pelley]

Jeff, thanks for taking all of your valuable time to explain your particular workflow and situation.

I will reciprocate & respond via private e-mail very soon.

To all, I will definately give this app a try out and form an opinion.

Regards,
Bruce

[Jun Galinato]

I tried the trial version of TMPGENC express and whenever I import the encoded file to encore, encore will transcode it again, so I just stick with encore.

I am using CS3 and will not upgrade to CS4 for now, until adobe will support i7's 8 core. Power Director 7 supports 8 core.

Jun