Next big revision of Premiere Pro?

[Nigel Davey]

I intend to build a new edit system this year based around Premiere Pro requirements/recommendations. But inevitably there will be some big update/version of PP in the not too distant future. Does anyone know when this is likely to be? I realise this is crystal ball territory, but does Adobe stick to an update cycle or has there been news of an imminent release?

As an aside I've been using PP CS6 on a Mac for circa 4 years and before that I had older versions of PP on a PC. I only swapped to a Mac because PP was incredibly buggy in the PC environment and 95% of those bugs (well conflicts) disappeared when I went the Mac route. Is this still pretty much the case these days? Obviously I can save on hardware going the PC route, but I don't want it to be a false economy.

Finally I'm based in the UK and have about £3-4K to spend on a custom build edit machine. This year I'll move up to a 4K camera (FS5 or 7) but 95% of my projects will still be in 1080 I suspect. So can anyone recommend a specialist UK company that understands and builds edit systems for PP? I'm also open to any advice on whether to gear the new machine towards 4K or stick with a really decent 1080 spec? My gut tells me clients won't want 4K for a very long time, most of mine are using the Net for delivery right now and happy with 720/1080. So is the jump in hardware spec worth it?

[Noa Put]

I'm also open to any advice on whether to gear the new machine towards 4K or stick with a really decent 1080 spec? My gut tells me clients won't want 4K for a very long time, most of mine are using the Net for delivery right now and happy with 720/1080. So is the jump in hardware spec worth it?

I spend 1K on a pc and edit 4K with ease but it's not on adobe software although I have been a adobe premiere user up to cs3, not investing in a pc/mac that can't handle 4K workflow would not be wise, my clients also have not requested 4K yet but that doesn't mean I cannot take advantage from shooting in 4K. It would only be to bad to invest in a computer now that is not up to the task. I do recall there being a adobe forum where Harm Millaard provided some excellent info on hardware requirements for optimum performance with premiere, not sure if that still is the case. Also, if premiere runs bad on your pc and excellent on a mac that means you have configured the pc wrong, it can be many things from wrong hardware choices to incompatible drivers, if you have no experience in choosing the right hardware components or know how to set up your pc then I recommend buying a workstation or a turnkey system.

[Mike Watson]

I buy a new iMac every year, usually the mid-level 27" model, I deck it out with (aftermarket) RAM, it runs Premiere Pro CC great, I sell it a year later at a $1k loss and buy a new one. It's cheaper than buying a $4k machine and using it for 4 years, that machine is worth $0 after 4 years and you're using a dog in years 3 and 4. I am saving money and using a top-end machine every year, plus new gizmos (USB 3, etc) each time I upgrade.

I was super resistant to go Mac 10 years ago, took me 3 weeks to get the hang of it, I will never go back to PC.

[Noa Put]

It's cheaper than buying a $4k machine and using it for 4 years, that machine is worth $0

I spend 1K every 4 year on a pc...and then my wife gets to use that same pc for another 4 year. :)

[Noa Put]

I am saving money and using a top-end machine every year

It's true that mac's hold their resale value much better then pc and it's also no secret that Premiere likes a powerfull system so in that respect buying a new mac every year is not such a bad idea if that new mac you buy has a faster processor or faster graphics card because otherwise it's just a waste of money. In your case you are not using a top end machine because you said you buy a mid level one.

that machine is worth $0 after 4 years and you're using a dog in years 3 and 4

As Mac owners tend to generalize when it comes to pc's I would like to place this a bit into perspective, as what I stated earlier I agree that your approach could be more beneficial, especially if you run a business where time is money but to give my situation as an example; I recently bought a new pc for under 1K, it has a i7 4790k processor, 32gb memory and a 250gb ssd. I just move several components over from my old pc like a few 2TB internal harddrives, a slow nvidia quadro k420 graphics and a spark pro output card.

This machine allows me to run at least three 4K native files in a 1080p or 4K multicam sequence in realtime, also when I color correct them. Rendering a 1 hour 4k file out in a 1080p project takes 30 minutes, in a 4K project it takes 45 minutes. I use Edius and the program doesn't even need a dedicated graphics card nor a lot of memory, memory usage is always below 4gb while I"m editing.

My current camera's will have to last me another 4 years and this pc configuration is no "dog", even in 4 years time, that might be different for you but for my use it's plenty fast and I have spend many hours on that pc on a daily base to edit.

In 4 years time, I buy new camera's and if they would have more demanding codecs, like h265, the machine I will buy then will be plenty fast again for another 4 years.

Sorry to take this thread off topic but it's just to show that there are different ways to get the most out of your editing machine and NLE.

[Mike Watson]

You can tell a Mac user because when he meets a PC user, he shrugs his shoulders and moves on.

You can tell a PC user because when he meets a Mac user, he must talk that person into buying a PC, and not give up until that challenge is overcome.

[Noa Put]

I am not trying to sell anyone anything, at least I look at the positive side in both ways instead of having a one way mind. :)

[Robert Young]

It seems to me that for a long time the software (NLEs) and the cameras were kind of ahead of what the affordable hardware could easily handle.
About the time that all settled down for standard def DV, the Hi Def era was upon us in the form of HDV.
Once again the affordable hardware with 32 bit OS and max of 3GB RAM was struggling to keep up with the software and HD cameras.
But beginning a few years ago 64 bit systems with 32+GB RAM, high performance CPUs & GPUs, fast SSHDs, etc. are readily available at reasonable prices and are more than up to the job for very sophisticated editing up to 4K .
I'm inclined to believe that if you build a truly competent system by today's standards, the chances are very good that it will continue to perform well through the software, codec, and camera changes we may see over the next 5-6 years and beyond..
My previous system was purchased in 2008. I upgraded some components over time, but it ran my Adobe products, all the annual updates, and finally Creative Cloud versions all those years without a hitch.
I just replaced it with a new system, not because of any real problem, but just because I was ready to move on to something new and shiny., All the latest whistles & bells are great. It's fast, stable, and can work with any codec or format.I believe it will do the job for another 7 years
Just an other approach to the issue.

[Nigel Davey]

Thanks guys for your thoughts. I guess I'm more in Robert's camp, in that I just like to set something up well and use it until something a lot better comes along.

On that score I wonder if I'll see a massive improvement over my current system of 4 years? It's a Quad-core 2.26GHz Mac Pro, 32Gb Ram, x3 SSD's and a Nvidia GTX 660 (2Gb) graphics card.

The biggest improvement I'm hoping to see in a new system is faster render times. I grade inside Premiere Pro often applying 4-6 filters/effects (including 3rd party plugins) to mpeg2 and H.264 1080 clips. Thus I start to see 1-2 min render times per 3-4 sec clip when applying 6+ filters/effects. You may wonder why I don't grade in AE or SG. I work on a lot of short (1-3 min) projects requiring a quick turnaround. Thus in the edit I regularly and quickly swap clips in/out and around on my timeline. This workflow doesn't allow me to settle on a finished timeline and export to AE for grading. The alternative is very clunky to keep going in and out of AE to grade just to see if something works in context.

So my question would be has the technology evolved enough in the last 4 years to see a significant performance improvement over my current system?

[Noa Put]

I think the biggest speed jump you will see with your processor but I am not sure how much premiere still relies on the graphics card so that also might make a big difference but I"m sure premiere users will be able to tell that. Also if you plan to invest in a Imac be sure you get the I7 processor, a mid level one that Mike referred to is standard only a I5 which will become the bottleneck of your system depending on which codecs you will handle the following years.

[Robert Young]

I agree with Noa.
Setting up the new system with a powerful, fast CPU is the key to futureproofing.
A fast i7 or Xeon with at least 6 cores would be a proper priority.
A generous size power supply is also important.
You can always upgrade the GPU, storage, add RAM, etc.as time goes on, but you'll be stuck with the CPU.

[Guy Caplin]

You originally asked for a recommendation of a UK custom PC builder for editing, with knowledge of PP. I can thoroughly recommend Welcome to David Vincent Clarke Ltd. They are based in Brighton and are extremely helpful. I have bought 4 custom built laptop editing systems through them and they installed the all the editing software for me. I believe that their specialist knowledge of PP is second to none in the UK.

[Robert Young]

In the U.S. "The Video Guys" are well known for producing custom systems from HP workstations that are designed & tweaked for video editing.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Nigel Davey

The biggest improvement I'm hoping to see in a new system is faster render times.

Not sure but is that in Premiere not handled or aided by the GPU? I know for edius the render times are almost 4 times faster if I use the build in GPU on the motherboard compared to the pc processor.
Maybe this is a good read to determine what Premiere needs the most:
What kind of PC to use?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Before spending a lot on hardware make sure the software will take advantage of it. When doing intensive tasks such as rendering or encoding, I've noticed neither the hardrive or cpu is being used to it's capacity.

One component that can make a big difference is the video card but only specific cards will help based on whether your editing software was written for it. There hasn't been much improvement in cpu speed gains in the past 5 years. Most of the gains have been in reduction of heat and power usage that benefit small devices such as laptops and phones. I'd only recommend getting a mid range i7 .