6 Replies Latest reply: Dec 12, 2013 4:36 PM by bellurypants RSS

    Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.

    mjshade Community Member

      I'm a student working on a long-form documentary. I'm working with thousands of mts files that I store on an external hard drive. I use different workstations at school to edit, depending on which computer is available at a given time (the machines are Macs, ~2.66 GHz ~8-12 GB memory running Mac OS 10.6.x and Adobe Premiere CS6).

       

      When I first imported all of my mts files into my project, I allowed the program to run overnight to conform all of the media. When I had to relocate to a different work station, I connected my external hard drive to another computer, and the conforming process started all over again. This is absolutely a no-go for me because of the huge amount of media I'm working with.

       

      I thought I had figured the problem out by manually setting the media cache folders to a folder on my external hard drive, but every time I move my hard drive to a new work station, Premiere starts conforming the files all over again, even when I reset the media cache directory to the folder I've created.

       

      I'm really at the end of my rope here. I can't wait 5-8 hours for Premiere to conform my media every time I have to move my hard drive to edit my project. I'm considering switching back to FCP 7. Somebody. Anybody. How can I fix this?

        • 1. Re: Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.
          JSS1138 CommunityMVP

          Unfortunately, you're working under less than ideal conditions, and that always has the potential for causing a problem.

           

          Ideally you want any Adobe edit system set up with a minimum of five internal drives:

           

          System

          Projects

          Cache/Scratch

          Media

          Exports

           

          And of course, you want to use only one system for the life of a project.

           

          You might try taking this data to the school and saying "Hey guys, you're not doing things right and it's creating a problem for us students."

          • 2. Re: Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.
            mjshade Community Member

            Hi Jim,
            I appreciate your reply. Short of picketing univesity administration until they upgrade our systems, I am looking for a way around this problem that accommodates my hardware limitations.

            I switched from FCP 7 to CS6 because I didn't have to log and transfer all of my footage, thus saving me a huge amount of hard drive space, and because of the convenience of Premiere's connectability with Ps, Ae, Au, etc. But for its faults, FCP 7 worked flawlessly in the environment in which I used it - I set my scratch disk to my external hard drive, and I didn't have to worry about it again.

             

            Once I have all of my files conformed in Premiere, it works perfectly. Surely there must be a way to direct the program to recognize the conformed media from other workstations. It seems like it should be a simple fix. Do you know if this is possible? Thanks very much for your input.

            • 3. Re: Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.
              JSS1138 CommunityMVP

              Sorry, I just don't know.  I generally do work under the aforementioned conditions.

               

              Someone else will have to chime in if they've had experience moving projects around like that.  I know quite a few people do, so hang in there.

              • 4. Re: Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.
                Andrew_S Community Member

                You could try this. On your external HDD have a blank project file (contains no video files) which is set up exactly the same as your real project. When you go to a new computer, open the blank project, set up all the preferences so that they are the same as the computer that your real project was first used on. Once that's done, quit premiere and then open your real project. All the preferences will be set up and so no conforming should happen.

                 

                We run windows machines, I have pre-configured the preferences to avoid just this kind of problem. Once I had them correctly done, I then copied the files into the default profile (under C:\Users) and so when anyone logs onto the machine, they automatically get a pre-set set of preferences. So  CS6 project on a HDD can be opened on any machine, by any person using their own log on details and no re-conforming happens. (All media, conformed files etc must be on the external HDD).

                • 5. Re: Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.
                  mjshade Community Member

                  Thanks for the great suggestion. I actually had already tried that - I created an empty project file and saved it to my HDD. Before working with my actual project, I'd open the blank project, set my media cache directory to the folder I'd been using previously, and then I would close that project and open the actual project. Unfortunately, this still doesn't solve the problem.

                   

                  I've just resorted to conforming my entire media directory on each of the workstations I use at school, and that seems to have fixed the issue. Still baffled by why I couldn't figure out a way to get Premiere to recognize the conformed files on any workstation.

                  • 6. Re: Recognizing conformed files on different workstations.
                    bellurypants

                    This is happening to me too. I'm working on a long form doc project and I have to alternate between my desktop at my studio and my laptop when I'm on the road. It's completely infuriating. No one knows of a work around?