Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 (5.5.1) update: bug fixes, Mac OSX v10.7 (Lion) compatibility

[Tom Daigon]

Adobe folks, nice job! You are to be commended for your efforts to make Premiere Pro better and better. Your receptivity to input from users is outstanding. Together we will help enhance this NLE beyond all of our wildest dreams.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digita / Areca 8tb. raid

[Jim Wiseman]

THE NIKON PROBLEM IS NOT FIXED!!! it is actually worse than it was before. Renaming the files to MPG is NOT a solution. It needlessly complicates the workflow for hundreds if not thousands of potential users. DSLR compatibility was the major reason for many of us to switch to Premiere. We were told it was being addressed. IT HAS NOT BEEN.

Why do Nikon files work with Premiere Pro 5.0.x and not with 5.5?

I just received a response on the Adobe Forum from Todd Kopriva that they are still working on this problem. I truly hope they are successful, or this will be my last upgrade. I REALLY like this program and workflow. I want to believe in it.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.0.2, Premiere Pro 5.0 and 5.5, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe

[Todd Kopriva]

> DSLR compatibility was the major reason for many of us to switch to Premiere. We were told it was being addressed. IT HAS NOT BEEN.

There are fixes in this update for DSLR performance and compatibility issues. Just not the specific issue that causes .mov files from Nikon DSLR cameras to be decoded using QuickTime by default.

———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
———————————————————————————————————

[Jim Wiseman]

Is a fix actually likely to happen for this problem? Why did it work in 5.0 and not 5.5? What changed. The Nikon files didn’t. Thanks for your responses and participation, Todd.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.0.2, Premiere Pro 5.0 and 5.5, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe

[Todd Kopriva]

The problem is this:

When Premiere Pro imports a file, it looks at the file’s characteristics and decides which decoder to hand it off to. In the case of MPEG-based media in a QuickTime container, the native Premiere Pro decoder gets the first try; if it can’t decode the media, then it hands it off to QuickTime for it to try. In Premiere Pro CS5.5, the part of the program that is making this decision is—loosely speaking—too picky. The native decoder doesn’t think that it can handle the file, so it hands it to QuickTime to try. But QuickTime is hellaciously slow (in part because Apple doesn’t provide a 64-bit QuickTime, so we have to go through an extra layer of code).

But, in truth, the native MPEG decoder could have handled the asset just fine; it just didn’t _think_ that it could (in part because the Nikon files are… um… different than what one might expect from the specification).

By renaming the file, you’re tricking Premiere Pro into not thinking that it has the option of handing the asset off to QuickTime, so the native decoder is forced to give it a shot—and it works just fine, as well as other DSLR footage.

One reason that this is a tricky bug to fix is that it’s a dangerous thing to go messing with the decoder selection logic for a bug-fix update, because doing so requires retesting _everything_ to do with importing files. Testing is very often the limiting factor in determining what we can fix in a quick-turn update. We don’t want to fix one thing and have it break ten others.

———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
———————————————————————————————————

[Jim Wiseman]

Thanks for the lengthy response, but I’m curious to know why it became worse with an upgrade?

What changed between 5.0 and 5.5? This didn’t used to be a problem. The Nikon files play fine in 5.0.

Can we expect this to be fixed before 6.0?

Thanks, I know how complicated this stuff is. I was the Avid dealer in Hawaii for six years.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.0.2, Premiere Pro 5.0 and 5.5, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe

[Todd Kopriva]

> I’m curious to know why it became worse with an upgrade? What changed between 5.0 and 5.5? This didn’t used to be a problem. The Nikon files play fine in 5.0.

The decoders and the decoder selection code changed. It was an improvement in many ways, but not for these files.

> Can we expect this to be fixed before 6.0?

I don’t know.

———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
———————————————————————————————————

[Jim Wiseman]

Improvements like this could be done without.

re: Wait for 6.0? “I don’t know”

Please make it a priority. It would be a real bummer to pay three times for the primary capability you bought the software for.

Thanks for your attention to this and your help with everything else.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.0.2, Premiere Pro 5.0 and 5.5, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe

[Jon Barrie]

Thank Heaven Adobe saw fit to put Todd in this space 🙂

Adobe Video Team are bending backwards to get the best product out as possible and gratefully providing as much communication as possible!

Keep it up Todd.

– JB

Jon Barrie
Adobe Video Solutions Consultant ANZ
Jon’s YouTube Tutorial Page
follow Jon with twitter

[Jim Wiseman]

Yes, thanks Todd.

Jim Wiseman
Sony PMW-EX1,Pana AJ-D810 DVCPro, DVX-100, Nikon D7000, Final Cut Studio 2 and 3, Media 100 Suite 2.0.2, Premiere Pro 5.0 and 5.5, AJA ioHD, AJA Kona LHi, Avid MC, Hexacore MacPro 3.33 Ghz 24Gb RAM 120GB SSD, Macbook Pro 17″ 2011 2.2 Ghz Quadcore i7 8Gb SSD, G5 Quadcore PCIe