CC 2015 - Ready for prime time?

[John Wiley]

Hi All,

I've been thinking about moving to CC 2015 shortly, but so far all I can find is negative reports. As with all things on the internet though, it's probably a case of nobody says anything unless they want to complain, so I'm wondering if there are people here who are having all-positive experiences with Premiere CC 2015? Have you felt the upgrade to be worthwhile, and has it been smooth sailing?

I'm currently on CC 2014 which I have never found to be as stable as CS6 (which I still have installed and use on many projects), and operating on Windows 7 Pro, if that makes a difference. The main reason I'd like to upgrade is for the new Lumetri colour tools.

I'll be downloading it soon regardless and installing it side-by-side for now. However, from past experience I know you can test a new version out on all sorts of smaller edits, but you never really get to know it's true nature until you are waist-deep in a large, complex project - so this is where I'd love to hear some user feedback beforehand!

[Helmut Bernhard]

few thoughts:
* 90 % of my color correction tasks I can now manage within PPro (no need for the Speedgrade linkage)
* The recent maintenance upgrade solves the nasty audio access/delay/timeout bug
* At least on the OSX platform there is a memory leakage issue related to heavy usage of the stabilization function
* The creative cloud app deletes by default the CC2014 versions --> watch out and klick the option to preserve the old version!

[John Wiley]

Thanks Helmut, good to know that the new colour tools are a practical improvement.

For sure when I'm ready to upgrade I'll double check that I have selected the option to keep the older versions!

[Brice Munn]

Hi John,

I've been using CS6 since it was released. I was very apprehensive about the subscription style of Creative Cloud and couldn't justify the financial commitment when it was first out. But I finally took the plunge a few months ago, and now have used CC on a few large projects. My first impressions are all positive. It's nice to know you're always running the latest software, and I've certainly found the steady stream of updates keep you feeling like an appreciated user. Recently, the effects and colour capabilities inside Premiere have come on leaps and bounds. A lot of the things I had to previously dynamic link to After Effects and Encore to do, I now do right in the timeline with ease. For me, these are the features I've been most impressed with, all of which can be done directly inside Premiere:

• Effects can now be individually masked (such as a fast blur on a license plate or graduated colour correction), and masks can be tracked inside the layer with the click of one button.
• The multicam editor has seen a few improvements and no longer requires its own workspace.
• Colour correction in general has far more possibilities, and presets cover a wide range of cameras.

Those are the biggest improvements I've spotted so far. The constant updates do mean frequent bugs, but things seem to be fixed relatively quickly. Would recommend the upgrade!

[John Wiley]

Thanks Bruce,

I've already had the subscription for a year and have been using CC2014 for some projects (still prefer CS6 for bigger projects which demand stability, though). I agree it's good to see regular updates but I feel like sometimes things move too quickly to be able to get settled with the program and have it running without errors.

Have you had any problems at all with CC2015? I've read plenty of bad reports or constant crashes, memory leaks, etc which at this stage make me hesitant to use it for anything other than the simplest, quickest edits - which unfortunately are the ones where added features offer the fewest benefits.

[Mervyn Jack]

John, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the initial CC2015 upgrade over 2014.
I had a i7 with 8GB RAM and doing a 1.5 hr wedding video with some multicam edits sequences and a fair bit of colour correction and noise reduction, it wasn't too bad, but I was wondering if more RAM might help. Note I have learnt to turn off noise reduction until the edit is finished.

Then came along the 2015 upgrade, and it fell into a heap. It used RAM and then virtual RAM and wouldnt let go. I immediately upgraded to 16GB ram. The program used all the 13GB allocated and would still grind to a halt sometimes.
I read to disable (not at my edit computer) something which previewed rolling edits in two windows, which was a bit better. But I was left thinking, do I have to upgrade to 32GB or what?

Anyway I persisted with the last edit and got through it constantly closing the program and starting again.
Then about 3-5 weeks ago the 2015 latest version came out. It is definitely better at handling the memory and a few other stability issues have been fixed, but I still wonder if I should edit another job which is half done on 2014 or convert it to 2015 and see how I got. I also wonder if I should upgrade the RAM even further.

I still cant get over having to have CS6 installed to make CD's and DVD's! Come on adobe.
The program is still mile ahead of my previous editors of Pinacle studio then Corel Video Studio and I wont be going back there. :-)

[John Wiley]

Thanks Mervyn, good to hear they've released an update addressing some of the problems.

I've got 32GB RAM installed, but from what I've read this was still not enough to prevent "out-of-memory" errors for some people!

Are you on a Mac or a PC?

[Peter Ferling]

In the twenty-years or so of editing, I've learned that the best feature of any tool (hardware or software) is "stability". It's the one feature that ensures meeting deadlines and getting paid. The client always comes first, with your desires for a new toy or to try something new, taking a back seat. I've worked with some folks whom continue to use gear that should be in a museum or dump, and with the 'it ain't broke, don't fix it" logic, they get work done.

I held on to CS3 for years for an all cine form pipeline, until 2014.2 convinced me to switch 100% to the CC pipeline in native MXF, (and I will most likely stay there for the foreseeable future).

Some might chime in that I'm old school, or unwilling to accept change. The truth is, I do accept change, I just practice a little more patience. I don't like being a beta tester on the clients time and dime. This is one fact that has remained a constant. In my opinion, it's worth the risk yet.

If you must upgrade, then do so offline, without involving or risking the clients work.

[John Wiley]

Totally agree about the 'beta tester' aspect of the current Adobe system, Peter. It feels as though they move so quickly that every update is at beta-testing stage at release, and before all of the bugs are actually fixed they've moved on to a whole new version, which again is only at beta stage.

[Andy Wilkinson]

This was my fear when the CC concept was launched and so it seems to be in reality - especially for us on Mac Pros. Still using CC2014.2 (and CS6 on an older "locked-down' Mac Pro - which is superbly stable). Although 2014.2 is better than the very crash prone 2014.1 that I started my CC subscription with (on this MP 'Trashcan') it's far from totally stable and bug free.

Not feeling keen to beta test CC2015 just yet.

Adobe, in case you ever listen to your customer base, what we want more than anything is STABILITY... as Peter has already reminded you. I'm more (but not totally) comfortable with the subscription idea now, but not at all confident about continuing with Adobe because of the stability issues. With often tight client deadlines, I need to know that I can get jobs done and delivered without NLE "issues".

[Jan Klier]

It's a fine balance between new features and stability, and there will always be early adopters that need those new features, and people running a steady production that need stability. A smart software company caters to both.

But you cannot hang on to a stable system forever. Even if you keep the software around, it often can only run on hardware of similar vintage. Eventually that hardware will give out and replacement parts are no longer available, or only 2nd hand. Software updates are no longer published leaving your system open to security vulnerabilities. This can be managed to some degree, but eventually the energy expended at dealing with the lack of support exceeds the energy dealing with a newer stable version.

On the other hand, the digital evolution, while it has mostly settled for still cameras, is still in full swing in the video workflow. Therefore new features are required to keep pace with what's happening on the device front. Stability on the leading edge of software cannot be achieved easily when so much change is still occurring.

For those who cannot afford to deal with some issues, the best bet is to stay one release behind. Update to the last service pack of the last major release, and stay on that until the next major release is about to be lapped. Those versions have most bugs fixed but are current enough to deal with current hardware on both ends.

[Peter Ferling]

"But you cannot hang on to a stable system forever. "

Defining "forever" is too wide open. Five to ten years between absolute rebuilds is doable.

However, I understand that even five years of the practicing the same methods may seem like "forever" for the impatient newbie. You need to understand that expenses are overnight and investments take years. Clients want deadlines met within their given budgets. They don't care how you get there until you screw up and miss it. It takes years to build a relationship and one stupid mistake to ruin it, (it doesn't matter if your a freelancer or working as an employee, it's all the same in terms of trust).

While this may sound mean spirited, there's some truth that to every person whom whines on a forum that they screwed up and upgraded or changed a process mid-stream of a clients job and screwed up, missing the deadline, is one less entity to compete with for the next.

[John Wiley]

Originally Posted by Jan Klier

For those who cannot afford to deal with some issues, the best bet is to stay one release behind. Update to the last service pack of the last major release, and stay on that until the next major release is about to be lapped. Those versions have most bugs fixed but are current enough to deal with current hardware on both ends.

This is what I've tried to do, but in reality it seems they're moving onto the next version before even making a current one completely stable (of course 'completely' is a relative term - given the variables with hardware, plug-ins, etc, you should always expect some quirks or idiosyncrasies).