Regular Crashes in Premiere CS5 - Remove Effects=Crash

[John Hewat]

Hello all,

I am working on a 90 hour project with 18 sequences (so far) using ProRes Proxy files from 7D footage.

It's a huge project (the project file itself is close to 250MB) and now I'm suffering a significant problem.

If I right click on a clip and select REMOVE EFFECTS, the program will likely crash. If I highlight multiple clips and try it, it will definitely crash.

This is problematic for me because the TIMECODE filter is applied to all of the footage and whenever two cameras were used, I have scaled them to 40% and moved them to left or right of the screen so as to see both angles at once.

This is usually a simple workflow, and when it comes time to select the angle, I simply remove the effects from it and place it in the higher video track.

So yesterday, when the producer came to visit and we wanted to show him a nice clean version of our work, I decided to remove the timecodes and select the angles.

Sure enough, crash. Repeatedly.

So what gives? Has anyone else seen this?

I have those two effects applied to almost every one of the nearly 6000 files in the project. I can't go through one edit at a time hoping that after I click 'remove effects' that it won't crash. I'd have to save after every single click.

It still occasionally happens when I double click on the clip and remove the effect from the EFFECT CONTROL window.

Is there a logical explanation for this?

I have attached the crash report, which I have no idea how to understand. And it wouldn't let me save it as a TXT file nor upload it as a DOC file. So it's a PDF. I hope it's still helpful.

Thanks for your help.

[Zoran Vincic]

I'm not sure if it's related but I had strange crashes with cs5 when I was working with prores footage. Some of them were just as you described, right click to remove effects and bang, it crashed.

When I'm editing native XDCam, 5D/7D h264 or P2 it's rock solid, and I really mean that, no crashes at all.

[John Hewat]

Yeah I didn't have any crashes when using the H264 footage but I did seem to think that it was getting to be sluggish so I thought dealing with Proxies might make things easier.

On top of that, I'm under the impression that a colorist is going to want the footage in ProRes when it comes to that point. Maybe I'll use the evening to go back to the originals and see if it does it then...

[John Hewat]

Well, I spent a few hours re-linking a bunch of media to the H264 files and still had crashes upon Remove Effects.

Can the project file be corrupted?

I even did a complete re-install of Premiere and still no success.

I am really nervous about this. It is a big project that I cannot afford to mess up.

[Zoran Vincic]

Try this, relink everything with original h264 footage and save the project. Then open a new project and import the sequence(s) from the old one.

[John Hewat]

I'll do it if I get the chance. There's so much footage to re-link in so many folders that it will literally take a day to do that, so I'll have to wait until I have access to it for a length of time enough to do it.

How do you import a sequence? Just by "copy and pasting" the timeline from one to another?

I was thinking of exporting an XML file, importing that XML into Final Cut Pro, electing to leave the effects out, and then export another XML straight from there, and then import that XML back into Premiere.

Will that work? Or will I have to re-link the media each time?

EDIT: Just tried the XML export idea which works fine as far as getting it into Final Cut Pro, but then the export from it results in an error and it fails. Every time.

I miss Windows. I never had problems like this editing in Windows...

[Bart Walczak]

It looks like your project might have become corrupted. With such a huge file it is not impossible, and it is perhaps even possible to fix it (project files are simple xml files), but would require possibly quite a lot of work and knowledge about the inside workings of Premiere.

However don't freak out.

You can try:
- Create new project and import the old one (simply drag it into the project window), and see if it works.
- Do the same but when the sequence import window appears, do it on sequence by sequence basis and see which one is causing a problem.
- Copy a sequence, create a new project, paste a sequence - it should work as well.

Hope it helps

[Todd Kopriva]

If you're having problems with crashes, be sure to install the latest updates.

[John Hewat]

I downloaded the update and it hasn't done anything to help.

The problem is affecting many sequences, not just one.

I am going to have to somehow un-corrupt this project. I don't think I fully understand the instructions for doing so...

- Do the same but when the sequence import window appears, do it on sequence by sequence basis and see which one is causing a problem. -- Does that mean I will lose the sequences that are corrupted? I am trying this now and it took 5 minutes at least just to show me the window with all the bins and sequences and I double clicked on the first sequence and now Premiere has been waiting for at least five minutes to do whatever it's going to do next... I can't click on anything. So I'm trying this method:

- Copy a sequence, create a new project, paste a sequence - it should work as well. -- Except instead of copying sequences only, I am copying entire bins of footage and sequences, otherwise, when I just copy the sequences, the footage comes over too and loses its place in the folder structure. But if I do it that way, aren't I going to be bringin over whatever it is that has corrupted the original project??

EDIT:

I I had so many troubles copying bins (Premiere would hang or crash just upon a left click in the Project Window) that I thought, maybe I'll just try copying and pasting a single sequence.

So I did. And I asked it to remove effects from the clips... and sure enough...crash.

So I can't copy and paste the sequence... What the heck am I going to do?

[Bart Walczak]

Yes, copying/importing a sequence will bring all associated media to new project. This is normal Premiere behavior.

If you bring a single sequence to a new project, how big is the new project file?

Can you try to create a new sequence with a different codec (let's say uncompressed or XDCAM) and copy the clips from one sequence to the new one and try it again?

Can you try copying part of the sequence in this way? Do you still get a crash?

If you copy just a single clip from a sequence to a completely new sequence in a completely new project, do you still get a crash after clicking "remove effects"?

If you do the same, but convert the clip to a different codec and reconnect to a new file, do you still get the crash?

I know these are many steps, but it will help you to find out if it is a problem with sequence, media or something completely different.

Are you using any monitoring solution like Blackmagic or AJA? How much RAM do you have?

[John Hewat]

Yes, copying/importing a sequence will bring all associated media to new project. This is normal Premiere behavior.

If you bring a single sequence to a new project, how big is the new project file?

It appears to depend on which sequence I import. but basically 2MB if I import the smallest sequence. About 17MB after a second and third sequence is imported. Premiere crashed too frequently to allow me to continue transferring them.

Can you try to create a new sequence with a different codec (let's say uncompressed or XDCAM) and copy the clips from one sequence to the new one and try it again?

Did this and it still crashed.

Can you try copying part of the sequence in this way? Do you still get a crash?

Still crashed

If you copy just a single clip from a sequence to a completely new sequence in a completely new project, do you still get a crash after clicking "remove effects"?

Yep. Still crashed.

If you do the same, but convert the clip to a different codec and reconnect to a new file, do you still get the crash?

I'm not sure. I don't really know how to convert the clip to a different codec other than exporting it out of Premiere. Is that what you mean? What I do know is that I removed the HDD with my ProRes proxies on it and re-linked back to the original H.264 files and it still crashed when I tried to remove the effects.

Are you using any monitoring solution like Blackmagic or AJA? How much RAM do you have?

Nope, no external monitor or solution. 8GB RAM, 2.3GHz 2011 MacBookBlows.

Thank you so much for your help!

[Kevin Monahan]

Which version of OSX are you running? Video card?

[John Hewat]

I can't remember which card it is. The ATI that comes standard in the MacBook Pros of 2011. And I always keep OSX up-to-date, so I guess 10.6.7 (and the problem persists through 10.6.8).

[Steve Kalle]

Can you select a clip, go to the Effects window, select the TC effect and press delete?

Another thought is to upload the project file somewhere and let someone download it and try removing effects. Then, upload it back to you and see what happens. I will be glad to help as I have both CS5 and 5.5 (I don't recall which one you are using). I have a yousendit account and I can email you the link.

[Bart Walczak]

Steve is right, running it through a PC version of Premiere might help - it certainly solved some issues with importing CS3 projects to CS5 that we had. And trying to replicate the effect on another machine would also tell you if it is a general bug or specific problem of your computer. But apart from that I'm out of ideas. You could open a project with an XML editor like XMLWrench to check if it is consistent, not truncated etc, but it would require a little bit of XML knowledge, and if project is corrupted, then there is very little that can be done.