CS4 AVCHD Playback problems

[Perry Cheng]

I think they are talking about CS4 here.

Perry

[Jiri Fiala]

Yes, but they talked about how the same clips played OK in CS3.

[Jason Vong]

Hey there, I’m also having a similar problem with CS4 playing my AVCHD. I thought CS4 would be the end to all my problems, but apparently not. I got the MainConcept Plug-In for CS3 and there were choppiness. I thought that plug-in sucked, but apparently, it ran the video less choppier than CS4. I’m really out of ideas.

I’m running a AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.2Ghz, nVidia GeForce 8500GT 512MB, 3.3GB of Ram, Vista Home Premium 32-Bit.

My currently theory is that my Local Disk C has like 20GB space left, and maybe Adobe requires MORE space inorder for it to run fine… though I’m not sure since I’m not all that technical.

My last great idea is to upgrade to a 64bit so it utilizes 4GB of my ram. If that doesn’t work… I’m going to go ballistic!

[Fred Campagna]

Just to follow up on this…I have had a bit more success using CS4, but only if most other programs are closed. This frees up some resources, and allows it to play back the clips more smoothly. I have to always use draft quality, and size the clip at 25% or less in the source window.

I have noticed that the program is prone to crashing, so I would suggest saving early and often.

-Fred

[Jiri Fiala]

AVCHDs are incredibly taxing on CPU, but I think your Quad should definitely play it back. Does Premiere timeline show realtime or do the AVCHD clips inserted on it need rendering?

[Jason Vong]

Actually, I noticed PPRo CS4 just lags in general for me. When I import a few AVCHD Files into After Effect, it renders and playback just fine. Then I started importing other file types, such as MPEG2, AVI and same problem, choppiness. Any ideas?

[Jason Vong]

Updated video card helps. Thanks everyone. -_- I can’t believe the most obvious thing didn’t come to my mind. But now, I encountered new problem but it’s offtopic.

[Younker Yang]

I have the same problem when playback the AVCHD files in PR4, but I also have problem on playback the MOV file with ProRes codecs, so does anyone know how to solve this?

[Chad Averhart]

I am having the same issues. I am using CS4 and the video is not only choppy…it will sometimes just “stick” for several seconds or entire clips. During all of this, the audio is perfect.

I am using a machine that I think should do fine for this, and works fine with other footage from DV cams and the like. I am using windows vista 64 running on an Intel Quad core CPU with 8GB of ram. My system drive boots from 2 10K raptors in raid, and I have 4 terrabyte drives for storage and editing, so space is not an issue. I dedicate an individual drive for audia and another for video. The drives are all SATA II, so there is dedicated bandwidth for each stream. The remaining 2 drives are for temp files, capture, and whatever else might pop up. I also have 2 1TB eSATA drives attached for additional storage, backup and other. Since eSATA drives are technically attached in the same manner as the internal drives, their speed is the same. With all this, I am still having major issues.

I would think those specs would be enough, but I am having a “Terrible” time doing this. So much so that it makes it almost impossible to even preview in draft mode and at 25%.

Any ideas at all???

[Tom Ballister]

I had same problem, I did not resolve it, but what I learned in the process may be interesting for anyone trying to make a decision about what to do next…

I had Premier 2.0 and wanted to upgrade to do AVCHD editing, but was quickly disappointed by the playback problems. Not only did video clips taken on my Panasonic AG-HSC1UP camera not play, but I could not even start a blank project and drop a Universal Counting Leader into a project and have it play.

Adobe support pushed 2 theories, 1) a codec conflict, and 2) a poor performance graphic card (I’m using an nVidia Quadro FX 3000).

They talked me into removing all possibly conflicting applications in an attempt to resolve the codec conflict theory. I also downloaded Codec Sniper and the Sherlock Codec Detective to verify what codecs were installed, their source, and to clobber some left over after un-installs. Still no good.

Then I uninstalled CS4 and re-installed; still no good.

After that I opened about a dozen new Projects and with different presets and just added the Universal Counting Leader to see if it would play. Basically, nothing that was high def would behave well. [I’ll publish the results of that test series if anyone asks].

So then I made some CPU performance measurements for PPro 2.0 vs CS4, for an identical HDV clip used in a previous 2.0 project. I just opened a new (blank) project, added the media, pushed play, and then via Task Manager watched CPU Performance.

For 2.0, both CPUs (3.0GHz) ran between 45% and 75%, an average of about 60%. For CS4 both CPUs maxed out at 100%. That’s for an identical clip.

Then I reloaded Avid Media Composer, and for a similar configuration with video playing back only in the single (little) timeline monitor, its CPU load was slightly lower than 2.0, at about 55%. But the cool thing was that even with a second monitor activated in Full Screen mode, CPU load only went to about 65%!!

Avid Media Composer is just as picky about the hardware requirements is as CS4, but clearly this particular CPU + Graphics hardware combination is capable of successfully playing back HD video under one application, but not by the other. Both apps indicate they require OpenGL 2.0, which the latest FX 3000 driver supports, but clearly CS4’s interface to the hardware is less efficient than Media Composer’s.

While tinkering I discovered another disappointment. I used to be able (under 2.0) to just Export -> Frame and be able to quickly grab frames of interest. Under CS4 attempting to Export kicks off the separate Adobe Encore process (10 – 15 seconds), and then you need to drill through a handful of options, (another 10 – 15 seconds). Grossly less efficient from a work flow perspective than 2.0.

I’m a long time Premier user (over 10 years), and have long been a fan. But CS4 is clearly a step backwards in terms of performance, and productivity – at least for the things i do. The final recommendation their support offered was “upgrade your graphics card”; but I don’t feel so motivated to spend my money to compensate for CS4’s inadequacies.

My resolution: I’ve returned the Serial Number to Adobe, cancelled my purchase, and am moving over to Media Composer. It works now, albeit using the time consuming AVCHD Transcoder (from Panasonic), but Avid will succumb to the proliferation of AVCHD, and I’ll be upgrading when they do.