“ImportProcessServer.exe stopped” error message

[Eric Jurgenson]

Typically it is a corrupt clip. Sometimes it can be mixed codecs on the timeline. CS4 seems to be particularly unforgiving compared to CS3 in this regard.

When I say corrupt, I mean corrupt as far as Premiere is concerned. It still may play fine in a media player or After Effects (which can be used to transcode to a more PPro-friendly format). As I said, CS4 is “picky”, and I am particularly suspicious of the 4.1 update, which seems to make the problem worse.

If you can get your project open before it locks up, you could try to isolate the offending clip by taking all the video clips offline, and then relinking them one at a time until ImporterProcessServer locks up. That’s the bad clip.

Or you could try to export your whole movie to a single format (if IPS doesn’t crash first). Good luck.

[Jon Barrie]

I find that sometimes if you ask premiere to export and you get impatient and try to quit the export or render the importer gets stuck. I usually fix the problem by opening the task manager and seeing the processes tab, right clicking on the importer file and ending the process. That usually cleans out the other processes that got it stuck in the first place like headless AE or PPro and Dynamic LInk. Once thats’ done, exporting again works properly.

– JB

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Mike Prindle]

Eric said:
“When I say corrupt, I mean corrupt as far as Premiere is concerned. It still may play fine in a media player “

Thanks Eric. Coincidently I noticed another problem that might be related to what you said and I ask for any comments.

I began 2-hr video project in PPro CS4 consisting of a dozen 10-min clips. Original clips are mostly 320×240 wmv3 30fps. I used the AVC File Converter to change format to 720×480 mpg2 at 29.97 – (convert to .avi didn’t convert well). Then imported the 720x files to PPro timeline. When they played on PPro monitor, the head of the person talking (tight closeup) would frequently move from side to side with a shadow frame hesitating 1-2 frames behind the real image then snapping quickly to the real-life movement frame position to caught up. It’s as though every 5-6 seconds a sticky frame would freeze for a instant before disappearing, or appearing to caught up the real image position. It’s like a sticky shadow-image falling behind (1 or 2 frames) in the movement – in this case, the person’s head movement. At first I thought it looked as though the 3rd & 4th frames were missing, giving a jerky effect. But it’s really a stickiness of past frames occuring every 5-10 seconds of playback.

I played the file in Win Media player and the footage looks fine. I re-converted the original file format again to 720 at 29.97, but no change. AND GET THIS: I moved the original footage – 320×240 wmv3 30fps – to the sequence timeline preset at 720×480 29.97, and the clip played fine. But converted to 720×480 mpg2 at 29.97, and it plays jerky or sticky even in a 720×480 29.97 preset sequence timeline.

Amazingly, I previously used similar types files from the same footage pool – 320×240 wmv3 30fps and converted to 720×480/29.97 mpg2 – in another project preset to 720×480 at 29.97 and all went well.

I’m perplexed at this. The numerous source footage files all varied in format and fps before being converted to 720×480 29.97. So why do some work and others don’t? It’s bizarre. Sidenote: these files are not the highest quality footage and I have no idea of the model cam that shot them.

Thanks again,
Mike

Sager NP-9262 Notebook, Intel Quad Q6600, 4GB DDR2, nVidia 8800m GTX, 3x-Seagate 500GB, WUXGA, Vista Premium-x64 – Production Premium Suite CS4

[Mike Prindle]

Please disregard my second post above. I think I’ve figured it out. Thanks Jon and Eric for your replies.
Mike

Sager NP-9262 Notebook, Intel Quad Q6600, 4GB DDR2, nVidia 8800m GTX, 3x-Seagate 500GB, WUXGA, Vista Premium-x64 – Production Premium Suite CS4