I have a clean install on a new dedicated system with a Core i7 940, 6gb ram, raid 0, the new Quadro CX card and Vista 64bit ultimate.

The RapiHD software that comes with the Quadro CX card crashes Premiere even though the two are sold as a package. (I have installed the latest software.)

Premiere CS4, Adobe media encoder and Encore CS4 crash all the time with multiple different files. The presets are all messed up and files encoded with the media encoder will not load in Encore.

When I check the Adobe help forums it seems that CS4 is the most unstable version yet.

Has anyone been able to use it?

Wow - that's disappointing. I found CS3 less stable than CS2, and so was hoping for improvement.

I suspect a lot of folks here are holding off trying CS4 until Cineform releases their CS4 update.

I believe that Adobe has released some software updates to address those issues.

Start Premier Pro, create an empty project, then select Updates from the help menu.

Hope this helps!

Has anyone been able to use it?

It's working fine for me. I've got it running on a Vista 64 machine and a Vista 32 laptop. Some people are reporting problems, but I wonder if it's some sort of hardware issue.

Have you tried re-installing it?

It is still early days for me, but no serious problems, other than those that I make for myself, so far! The only real oddity is that I have to re-boot before Premiere will open if I have been using Win DVD9, but then simply installing WinDVD9 on my MCE Vaio laptop renders it un-usable.

I am running CS4 with the Matrox RTX2 LE card. I simply removed all the previous Premiere/Encore/Audition/Photoshop 2 software, manually cleaned out any remaining foilders and files, ran Reg Mechanic and then installed Audition and Photoshop 2, followed by Premiere CS4 and the RTX2. Everything seemed to be in place from the start.

From previous experience, I would have expected to have start from scratch with the install from a formatted partition.

Generally happy with the features except for this video problem I have (posted in separate thread). For me RAM usage is about the same and I haven't tested in the same conditions but when I had CS3 it used to crash a lot, this hasn't occurred to me. However, it does seem to have a habit of telling me it crashed and asks to file a report with Adobe whenever I close the application.

Sorry but i cant get it. Here in Europe we have to pay 700€ to upgrade to Production Premium CS4 from CS3 (wow!) and what they offer in exchange is a buggier version!

What would be the reason to upgrade if they are not real 64 applications and they are inestable?

Im a Premiere/After Effects/Encore/Photoshop user + Cineform ProspectHD

I was not happy with CS4. In fact, I`ve given up on Premiere altogether and have switched to FCP. Photoshop and After Effects CS4 are great, though.

I downloaded my CS4 upgrade the day it came out and have used it like crazy ever since. I've had zero problems (knock on wood) running CS4 on Vista 64... I now have it on a desktop and a laptop and schlep an external SATA drive between the two to edit projects on both machines. Works great.

The Media Encoder render-queue is awesome (except for what it does to still image render-outs), Dynamic Link from PPro-AE-back to PPro makes for great workflow, and blending modes in PPro is nice.

I've read on the Adobe forums about users having problems with CS4, but I've had really, really good luck with my installs (knock on wood) and the Suite saves me HOURS in the course of any givem project over CS3.

Good luck,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions

Brian, could you describe your system please (graphic card included). Do you work with Cineform? Which camera are you using?

Thanks

The version of Quicktime that you install seems to be critical. I happened to have 7.55 on my desktop when I installed CS4 and my new Matrox RTX2, and have had few problems that I have not created for myself.

When I installed Premiere CS4 on my laptop it was very unstable, and Media Encoder would not work at all, crashing every time I tried to use it. I eventually solved this by upgrading Quicktime from v7.45 (which Adobe recommend), to v7.55, and all is now well.

Just out of interest, why do PC users have to have Quicktime installed at all? The only time that I ever recall using it was around twelve years ago, for two language learning programs and a Britannica CD. The Britannica also used Netscape!

QT is needed for interoperability. Unless you have some kind of intermediate codec (Cineform), you need something to make your way between all the apps (editor, motion graphics, FX...) and QT is usually the simplest and most straightforward way. There`s NO alternative for this by default on Windows PCs - you wouldn`t like to work with uncompressed AVIs or crap Cinepak files.

Hi Brian,

I'm also interested in your system specs; and like Hernan asked, do you run any other plug ins like Cineform and Magic Bullet?

I've recently updated my PC to an i7 system (32bit XP Pro), but with a geForce 9800 GT card. Had problems installing Adobe CS2, Cineform, and the Magic Bullet Suite initially. Somewhat successful installing Adobe CS2 and Cineform, but still can't install MB Looks.

Best,

Hey Folks:

I built my desktop system in Sept. '07. I used an Intel board and a Q6600 quad-core CPU, 8GB Crucial RAM, GeForce 8600GT card, a Raptor 10k rpm system drive with various flavors of older PATA and newer SATA drives for projects and media. I loaded CS3 on it at the time (and it's still there), and went with the CS4 upgrade in October.

My laptop (new in Dec. '08) is an HP HDX18, P8400 dual-core with 4GB RAM and twin 250GB HDDs. Vista-64 bit on both systems.

I tried the Cineform trial (12 months ago, maybe) and had nothing but trouble with it. After Effects wouldn't even load. Transcoding to the intermediate was a painful step. No thanks. If I did a lot of CC work or multiple HD streams, maybe I'd want to suffer through to get it working, but native-HDV works just fine for me for most tasks. If I need an intermediate (and seldom do with two-way Dynamic Link), I encode to Lagarith lossless. Big files.. but hard drives are cheap.

I shoot with a Canon XH-A1, and try to do most of my coloring with presets as I capture. Most of my work is corporate and non-profit talking-heads stuff, some training, some motion graphics, and lately a lot of chroma'd transparent video straight-to-web. I do about four events a year where I project 720p video (output as HD WMVs, with down-converted DVDs to give away after the event), and the 1080p footage gives me a little leeway to recompose (pan and zoom) in post.

As for QT, I just don't use it anymore. My desktop has it on it... I bought QT Pro many moons ago, but I haven't loaded it on my laptop and the Suite just seems snappier on the laptop (could be other "OS creep" issues, too).

I don't use Magic Bullet products (would someday like to...), but bought quite a few After Effects plug-ins from Trapcode and Andrew Kramer (Video CoPilot). All seem to work great on both systems.

Some recent projects:
Broomfield Chamber S.O.S. Videos (http://www.browncowvideo.com/broomfieldSOS/)
Westec_20th (http://www.browncowvideo.com/westec/) (pure motion graphics - no video)
Crystal Jewelry - Candori Crystal Jewelry by Amy Cannon Cooper (http://www.candorijewelry.com/)
YWCA - 2008 Videos (http://www.browncowvideo.com/YWCA/videos.html)

HTH,
Brian Brown
Brown Cow Productions
BrownCow Productions - Affordable Full-Service Video Production (http://www.browncowvideo.com/)

Encore CS4 is working for me now and seems better than the CS3 version for Blu-ray. It is reliably burning BD-RE's that play every time, which didn't always happen with CS3 Encore.

With Premiere CS4, for me it seems like there are more issues with longer projects 2 hours+ with multiple color corrections.

If others are finding it rock solid with long complicated high def projects, then hopefully I can solve the current issues. Uninstalling and reinstalling did solve some of them.

With Premiere CS4, for me it seems like there are more issues with longer projects 2 hours+ with multiple color corrections.

If others are finding it rock solid with long complicated high def projects, then hopefully I can solve the current issues. Uninstalling and reinstalling did solve some of them.

I've done a 90 minute project in PPro, but it was very long instructional stuff... not many clips at all, and it worked fine. But I think Premiere is sensitive to the number of assets in any given project file, so longer projects with lots of clips (and effects, in your case) should probably be moved out into a number of project files. Discrete "scenes" of 4-5 minutes per *.pproj file could then be built in a speedy(er) environment and assembled later in Encore (even without rendering, in CS4).

Asset management becomes less of a chore, as well, with smaller-runtime projects. You could even work with a master *.pproj file and import built sequences into that, if you desire. Leveraging Dynamic Link and nested sequences seems to be the key to workflow success with the Adobe Suite.

Just a thought,
Brian Brown

Yeah, or you can just switch to whatever else editing app. They have problems as well, but can at least handle what is paramount for editing - working with material.

I have been using Premiere since Ver 6 and CS products since launch. I must be one of those lucky ones that have never had a major problem with installation or usage.

I currently have CS4 and apart from using a extra ram for AME and Dynamic Link from Premiere to Encore, still no issue.

I am editing on a Q6700 with 3gb ram (Vista Ultimate 32) but shortly moving to a Core I7 with Vista Ultmiate 64 and 12gb ram.

Hi Brett,

Would be curious to find out how your upgrade to an i7 system goes, along with Vista 64bit, and CS4. No Cineform?

Best,

Brian, interesting point on breaking long projects up into multiple projects. Question: does making nested sequences in a single project accomplish this, or is it better to make multiple projects altogether? / Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

Battle (cool name, BTW):

To directly answer your question, you'll have to gauge your own projects to determine whether a project is bogging down with too many assets to merit breaking it into separate projects. I've found that PPro loading times are the main things affected by LOTS of assets, esp. with HDV projects that always have a series of conforms and index files to sync.

Nesting sequences is a great way to accomplish all sorts of things from the PPro timeline. It's an easy way to add video effects, audio effects (compression and limiting, esp. for broadcast), and multi-layer transitions to an entire sequence.

It's also an efficient way to manage media within a single project. I usually work a "scene" into a "comp" sequence with all the individual cuts. Then, I nest "comp" sequences into a "render" sequence to add the underscore music and effects. An overlay from an After Effects Dynamic Link comp almost invariably comes on top of that to handle vignette masks, titles, and lower-thirds.

Here's a work-in-progress example (and a screenshot below) for this rendered sequence:
YWCA Co-Parenting Videos (http://www.browncowvideo.com/YWCA/coparenting/master.htm)

In this project, there are four nested sequences, an effects track (a Dynamic Link from AE) and the music. You can also see my bins and organizational structure of a project in the screenshot. I typically use the AE term of "precomp" instead of "nested sequence", but it's the same idea. Keep in mind, assuming one has the Suite, one can easily bring in After Effects comps as Dynamic Link sequences to render in PPro... I regularly do this with keyed footage with the Keylight filter in AE.

HTH,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Video

Double post

Jeff,

I can't wait to get my hands on my new system. Should have it up and running within a month. As for Cineform, I have used it with CS3 and found it excellent to use, however I, like may others are waiting for the release of CS4 compatible Cineform. Then, when I have new system and if Vista 64 + Core I7 + Cineform (trial copy to test) all play nice and get along with each other, then I will go that route.

Brett

Hi Brett,

That's exactly what I'm waiting for also. But I did upgrade to an i7 system recently, but kept working with CS2 (as we hadn't really worked with HDV much), and with XP Pro. (But we've shot a friend's wedding recently using an HV30, and an XL2, and would like very much to edit it efficiently)

Can't wait for the Cineform update, as I've recently upgraded to Prospect HD. (And I own a copy of Vista 64bit ready to install when everyone is updated :)

Best,

... As for Cineform, I have used it with CS3 and found it excellent to use, however I, like may others are waiting for the release of CS4 compatible Cineform.

I have been holding off on the upgrade to CS4 for that reason. I probably would have upgraded, had either Premiere CS4 or AE CS4 been 64 bit. But, I'm glad I waited, since there is a lot of negativity about CS4 online, justified or not.

It would be nice if someone could post their experiences with CS4 & Version 4 of Cineform when it comes out.

I am happy mostly because of AVCHD native support. With Premiere CS4, i can import and edit my avchd footages without any re-encode and with very acceptable performance of my CORE 2 QUAD Q6600. Also, i installed on my MBP 2.4 and the performance is slower, but ok (with avchd)... I got some erros, but, nothing is perfect...

by the way... I have on my desktop PC, ATI X1600XT 256 RAM. If i replace the video card to geforce 8800GT or 9800 GT/GTX, with 512 Mb of RAM or more, and CUDA feature i will have more performance of premiere cs4??? I know with QUADRO CX's cyda i can have a lot of bennefits, but and what about gamers card like these?? THANKS.