Trouble with CS5.5

[John Wiley]

With the recent Adobe CS6 announcement, and the current free upgrade for CS5.5 purchases, I finally decided now was the time to upgrade from CS3. I ordered a new PC so I'd make the most of it and installed CS5.5 a few days later. I am using what I assume is the newest build of Premiere CS5.5, seeing as I only downoaded it less than a week ago.

There's a few little bugs I've come across and am wondering if anyone else has solutions to these:

1. The 'overwrite' and 'insert' edit functions do not work. No matter if I am using the keyboard shortcuts ("," & ".") or clicking the icons in the source monitor, it does not send anything to the timeline. I have target tracks selected for both video and audio and I have set in and out points in the source panl. When I try to do one of these actions, the CTI advances to the point in the timeline where the end of the new clip should be, but nothing appears on either the audio or video tracks.

2. Every time I open a project Premiere rebuilds the peak files and conforms all the media in my project. I have made sure that the "Save Media Chache files with originals" checkbox is not selected. I have the Media Cache files directed to a folder on a seperate hard drive to my source media. Even so, My media cache files are appearing in the folder with the source media, and they still get re-created each time I load a project. I've googled this one extensively, and for everyone else the solution seemed to be unchecking the "Save media chache files with originals" checkbox, but for me this box was never checked.

Any help would be much appreciated! Hopefully CS6 has most of the bugs ironed out at release or very soon after, otherwise I'll be going through the whole bug-fixing thing again with CS6, just after I get comfortable with CS5.5.

[Robert Young]

The latest version of PPro is CS 5.5.2
The Insert and Overwrite functions in the Source Monitor have worked normally for me from day one, and I have not heard of problems/bugs with the source monitor from other users.
I have used Premiere from the very early versions and,honestly, CS5 has been the most bug free, user friendly version in all of my experience- particularly since the HD revolution.
I think that your problems may be idiosyncratic rather than any actual software defect/bug.
Maybe some things to try:
Be sure you have ver. 5.5.2
If things don't settle down, possibly try and reinstall from the disks rather than the download- maybe a bit more reliable.
Premiere Pro CS 5.5 really is the best ever.
If your hardware is up to speed and optimal for CS 5.5, you should expect everything to work, work fast, and be free of crashes, lock-ups, and all of the other nusiances that have been part & parcel of the 32 bit HD video editing experience of the past.
Good luck :)

[Paul R Johnson]

I've been an adobe premiere user since old version 5, and have never in my own workflow, ever used overwrite or insert. Perhaps I'm a little dim, but what circumstances make it a useful feature and how 'should' it work - I just can't get my head around how the manual details it. I just don't work that way?

[Bart Walczak]

1. Make sure you have both video routed to a track that you want (V in front of the selected track), and then make sure that you have the track and video router (V) active (highlighted), This is a major change between CS3 and later versions, that tends to be pretty annoying at times, especially with overwrite when you have other tracks selected - it will overwrite not only routed track, but also the selected ones.

2. Weird. Make sure you have enough free space on the drive where your media library cache is present, and I would change it from the system drive to some other drive.

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

I've been an adobe premiere user since old version 5, and have never in my own workflow, ever used overwrite or insert. Perhaps I'm a little dim, but what circumstances make it a useful feature and how 'should' it work - I just can't get my head around how the manual details it. I just don't work that way?

Paul, if you have ever dragged a clip from the source moniter to the timeline, you have used an overwrite edit. Perhaps you mean you haven't ever used the keyboard shortcuts to do this?

I like to use the keyboard shortcuts as much as possible when editing because it's much faster once you get into the habit. You can build almost an entire rough cut without ever touching the mouse. Every time you need to use the mouse to scroll across the screen it is wasting valuable time - which is fine in most situations but can really add up make a difference in time sensitive jobs.

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

The latest version of PPro is CS 5.5.2

Be sure you have ver. 5.5.2
If things don't settle down, possibly try and reinstall from the disks rather than the download- maybe a bit more reliable.

Thanks Robert, I just checked and it looks like I have version 5.5.0. I'll download the update and see if that fixes things. Strange that they do not make version 5.5.2 available for download when you purchase through the Adobe website, nor do they give you any notices along the way to let you know you are not getting the newest version. I though that was one of the advantages of purchasing the download version - you get the most recent version, rather than the version that was printed to your paticular disk whenever it happened to be manufactured.

I don't have the disk at all; it was nearly an extra $300 for the disks, as the download-only version is not subject to GST here in Australia.

Originally Posted by Bart Walczak

1. Make sure you have both video routed to a track that you want (V in front of the selected track), and then make sure that you have the track and video router (V) active (highlighted), This is a major change between CS3 and later versions, that tends to be pretty annoying at times, especially with overwrite when you have other tracks selected - it will overwrite not only routed track, but also the selected ones.

2. Weird. Make sure you have enough free space on the drive where your media library cache is present, and I would change it from the sym drive to some other drive.

Thanks for the reply Bart.

I have targeted both audio and a video track (and yeah, the change to track selection process/assignable shortcuts was one of the reasons I held off on upgrading for so long). The "V" and "A1" boxes are both highlighted alongside my target tracks.

I am working on a new machine with plenty of free space on the drives (2 x internal 1TB drives, one just with OS and CS5.5 installed, the other dedicated to render files/encoded videos, and 1 external drive with the source media. I have tried putting the media both on the :D\ drive with the render files and on the external drive with the source media. Is the the best hard drive arrangement? Should the Media cache optimally go on the drive with the media files or the render files?

I'll report back once I complete the software update - though I'll wait till I finish this current project first to avoid any further hiccups.

[Bart Walczak]

Originally Posted by John Wiley

I have targeted both audio and a video track (and yeah, the change to track selection process/assignable shortcuts was one of the reasons I held off on upgrading for so long). The "V" and "A1" boxes are both highlighted alongside my target tracks.

And still you get nothing? Very weird. I assume that there is no Inpoint and/or Outpoint set on the timeline as well - in this case the clip would appear where they are set.

As far as media cache is concerned, I usually put it on my fastest drive, but it's not that important, it's only audio and index files, not very big, but numerous.

Let us know how the 5.5.2 update works for you.