Adobe Community: OPINIONS PLEASE - Is my computer to slow to edit HDV in Premier Pro CS4 ?

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1. don solomon,

May 24, 2009 8:58 AM in reply to Powered by Design

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What resolution HD?

Off hand, I suspect that you are underpowered to do HD optimally. Surely, as you realize, you can't do anything optimally with the CPU at 100%.

Have you got all your drivers up to date, especially video. Have you checked all the background processes to see if you have stuff running you don't need while editing? Have you checked you disk usage--what disks do you have. More information would possibly be helpful.

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2. Harm Millaard,

May 24, 2009 1:14 PM in reply to Powered by Design

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For HDV you are at the lower end of the performance spectrum. For AVCHD it is not enough. Your system was top-of-the-bill in 2005 but 'progress' has overtaken you. BTW, do you have only 1 physical disk? If so, get at least 2 other disks to supplement that. That will be more beneficial in the short term and less costly than getting a new computer. Eventually you need to get a new computer, look here for hints:

How to get the best from a PC

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3. Powered by Design,

May 24, 2009 3:33 PM in reply to Powered by Design

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I have all drivers up to date Don.

The HDV is 1440x1080 at 60i

Video shot on:

Sony HVR-Z1U & HDR-FX1

I have 3 hard drives inside.

I run premiere on the C: drive - 1TB 895MB free space

the scratch disk on the D: drive

and the project on the E: drive

I import it into Premiere from my camera with the capture video inside premiere.

When I watch the file with QuickTime outside of Premiere it plays great. My CPU process only goes to 50-60%

Is there a reason why it can capture it without dropping any frames but cant play it ?

Premiere saves the file in a .mov format MPEG2

Allot of great info in that article Harm.

Thanks for the info: Glenn

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4. Kroycom,

May 25, 2009 6:47 AM in reply to Powered by Design

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I'd be surprised if you have a Dual Core Pentium as those didn't come out until after 2005.

So that leaves you with the regular (single core) Pentium 4.

With that considered, as was said here before, your system is kinda pushing it for HDV however you should be able to edit on it.

Make sure all antivirus is shut down, no iTunes or any other non essential software is running either.

If you use any effects (like Fast Color Corrector or the even slower other color correctors) you'll be

crawling, that's for sure.

There are always some tweaks you can do to make things a bit faster but to really see major

improvements you'll have to get a computer with faster chips (Core2/Core i7). And of course

going to a 64 bit OS lets you use more than 3 Gb of memory, which will make a big difference as well.

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5. LpGrumpy,

May 25, 2009 7:59 AM in reply to Powered by Design

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I would say yes, you are under powered. I built a system based on a DuoCore 2 two years ago and it was extremely marginal. I had Win XP Pro, 4 Gig (only 3 do you any good), lots of fast HD and a reasonably good video card.

This year I built a new system with the following:

i7 - 920 ($229)

12 Gig Tri-channel (2 x $89)

ASUS P6T motherboard ($229)

Vista Ultimate 64 bit (Win 7 to come

soon. Release Candidate is getting rave

reviews and you can use it for almost

a year for free!) ($189)

Premeire Pro CS4 (64 bit, of course.

I also took the opportunity to indulge in

the CS4 Production Premium Suite. Much

cheaper than upgrading everything individually.)

Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 video card.

Lots of fast HD.

Premiere Pro CS4 processes AVCHD flawlessly on this system. Not bad considering that I paid $400 for the DuoCore 2 ($600 retail).

Lp

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6. Powered by Design,

May 25, 2009 10:57 PM in reply to Powered by Design

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Update on HDV inside CS4

I tried running the same HDV mpeg file with my laptop that is a Duel Core and it still was choppy and pegged the CPU out at 100% inside CS4

Then I tried using Bridge and the HDV played fine with the CPU running at 50-60% just like the .avi file from the SD timeline. So its a Premiere problem.

That got me thinking that maybe it was a codec issue.

I took the same HDV file and started a CS3 project. Worked PERFECT CPU at 50-60% no problems.

It must be a CS4 problem inside Premier.

I captured the file using Premier CS4 capture software and had no dropped frames.

Anyone have any ideas on what would be the next step ?

Is this one of those cases that I have to wait for ADOBE to update the premiere software. I have the current updates on all software.

Is there anyway to get the CS3 HDV codec and put inside CS4. Its probably not even a codec issue.

So for now CS3 works but not CS4

P.S. System is a Dual Core. Both cores show up in device manager and the task manager.

I still want a new system but it looks like its not my computer. ( we all want faster computers )

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

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7. Kroycom,

May 25, 2009 11:32 PM in reply to Powered by Design

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Your Pentium 4 has Hyperthreading which shows up as multiple cores.

Anyhow, you're not alone seeing a big difference playing the same HDV files in CS3 and CS4, where

CS3 (and even CS2) outperforms CS4 dramatically.

There are many threads here and other places on the web indicating that Adobe dropped the ball with Premiere

Pro CS4 in many areas. One of those is that, as you point out, many users have a tough time working with HDV files,

which wasn't a problem with earlier versions.

While I'm sure somebody will now chime in and claim it's a user thing (or hardware conflict, or MainConcept's fault...or...insert excuse here) and it has nothing to do with Premiere Pro CS4 I think it's pretty clear that it does - lots and lots of complaints about it.

If CS3 works for you then I'd suggest you stick to that. Once (if) Adobe decides to finally fix CS4 you might want to give it another shot. For the future I would suggest however to look into a new Quad Core machine (or better yet Core i7) with a 64bit OS and as much memory as you can afford. It'll make a big difference regardless if you use CS3, CS4, or any other program.

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8. Powered by Design,

May 25, 2009 11:56 PM in reply to Powered by Design

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I agree with you.

I think my next computer will be a:

3DBOXX 8500 Series

High Performance Workstation

http://boxxtech.com/products/3DBOXX/8500_Overview.asp

I has a Dual Xeon Quad core for 16 cores with hyperthreading.

It going to cost allot.

I don't need it till about a year from now but that is where im looking.

As long as I can get by with CS3 I will till our project is done and I need the power for the final edits.

At least now I know its not my machine. Even though its on the slow side it is still working for now.

Thanks: Glenn

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OPINIONS PLEASE - Is my computer to slow to edit HDV in Premier Pro CS4 ?

May 24, 2009 5:52 AM

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