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Premiere Pro CS5 & RS-422
I work primarily with old and obsolete VTRs — EIAJ, U-Matic, VHS, and Betacam — which I digitize for archival using a Sony DVMC-DA2. I had been using an ancient Premiere 6.5 setup which I finally decided I wanted to upgrade late last year.
As a lead up to the upgrade, I installed a demo copy of Premiere Pro CS4 which worked great. I was especially thrilled that RS-422 device control worked right out of the box with no additional hardware or software. So I built a rig to let me switch between my various decks and it did exactly what I wanted.
Since I could no longer find a copy of CS4 for sale, I upgraded to Windows 7 so I could install CS5 and I’ve been terribly disappointed that the serial device control option is no longer listed. From a cursory Google search it looks like this option was only offered on CS4.
Given the time and expense I went through to reach this point, to not have this capability is way beyond frustrating.
Is this legacy device control available as a third-party driver or plug-in anywhere? I’d really prefer not to start casting around the ‘net for someone with CS4 who wants to trade.
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8 Replies
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You may just be able to call Adobe and talk them into giving you a Pr CS4 license (serial number) given the mis-communication regarding RS-422 support on their web-site.
If you buy Production Premium (or Master Collection) CS5, you get Pr CS4 included. Not so with stand-alone Pr CS5.
Pipeline Digital, the company that used to make RS-422 adapters and serial control software, seems to no longer be around. BlackMagic Design seems to only support RS-422 via their own software Media Express.
Not sure if there is a 3rd party solution for Pr CS5 – haven’t been able to find any.
Alex (DV411)
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Thank you so much for the quick and thoughtful response!
My copy of CS5 is in fact the Production Premium bundle and looking at my serial numbers I see there is in fact one for CS4 so it looks like I can in fact get there from here. That’s much more than I had expected.
I’ve taken a cursory look at the DVDs and installing the CS4 version so far seems unobvious. Is there something simple I’m overlooking?
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I don’t think it’s included. I don’t remember how to get it – I think you may have to sign into your account on Adobe.com (or create one), register your CS5 there, and then you should be able to download it.
Alex (DV411)
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I did some more digging around tonight and found the installation files on the Content disc. That’s kind of a strange place for it, but it’s there and it works.
In theory I sort of see why Adobe would drop the support in CS5, as near as I can tell they’re trying to match the feature set between the Windows and Mac versions and I think these drivers were Windows-only. So they would have had to rewrite the driver in 64-bit and add it to the Mac as well at a time when a lot of modern systems are shipping without traditional serial ports.
But it’s still annoying to have a use for a feature and have to discover on the back side that said feature is gone.
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I did a cursory search yesterday and I can’t believe there’s nobody out there that makes a Firewire <> 422 control converter.
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The Matrox MXO2 I/O boxes (except the mini) will support RS-422 device control in CS5.
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[Matthew Kurth] “In theory I sort of see why Adobe would drop the support in CS5, as near as I can tell they’re trying to match the feature set between the Windows and Mac versions and I think these drivers were Windows-only. So they would have had to rewrite the driver in 64-bit and add it to the Mac as well at a time when a lot of modern systems are shipping without traditional serial ports.”
That’s the cleanest way to explain it. I think Adobe should adopt it. Seriously.
Alex (DV411)
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Spending better than $500 to replace hardware that works just fine (and that I only paid $150 for) just because a software revision has removed support is a non-starter.
Maybe if it supported direct U-Matic Dub (Y/C 688) input it might capture my attention.
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