PP CS4 Crashes – significance of red line above time line

[Rick Connolly]

I’ve been thinking of swapping out the vid card in one of the units for something else.

Here is my config.

System 1:

HP XW6200 workstation
Dual Core Processor
4 gigs RAM (RAM was tested)
RAID system with 300 gig
1 Terabyte 10k SATA seperate drive that is used for application data and rendering
NVIDEA Quadro FX 1400
LG 23″ digital flat panel HD monitor hooked up on the HDMI port

This is a dedicated PC, no other apps run.

System 2:

HP XW6200 workstation
Dual Core Processor
4 gigs RAM (RAM was tested)
2 SATA drives 10k speed and 5ms both drives are 500gig
NVIDEA Quadro FX 1400
SyncMaster 205W flat panel monitor hooked up on the HDMI port

As you can see both systems are very robust and dedicated to the job.

So I guess the answer is that I am using Nvidea Quadro.

As I mentioned in the other posts, the problem have been reduced now that I am using the correct template, but it still rears its ugly head.

Despite my good friends critique of my “shaking” the mouse, it WORKS to fix it. It may be a “stupid” thing to do, but can anyone explain WHY THIS WORKS? It is an obvious problem with the code…and the movement of the video back and forth invokes god knows what line in their code to then correct the problem.

It is entirely random. I just imported an M2T clip shot on the same camera, the same time, same settings, same everything.

For some explicable reason when I dragged it to the timeline I noticed that after it finished conforming the “red line” was not there. Even knowing the obvious, I attempted to drag it to the SOURCE window….and as soon as I did, 5 secods later CS4 crashed!

I rebooted, restarted CS4, reimported the same clip….and again the red line was not above the clip.

So I “grabed” the clip in the PROGRAM window, and “shook” it back and forth and as soon as I saw the red line appear I stopped and then dragged the clip to the SOURCE window and no problem all is good.

So if anyone can explain to me why this works like this (without calling me names) I would love to hear an explanation, because I sure as hell cannot find the answer in the manuals and Adobe has been no help.

But what I can tell, from my scanning the web, there are thousands of people having the same problem.

I do agree however, that it is probably video related, and it could very well be there is some coding bug that affects some video cards and not others.

If you have a recommended video card for me, then please let me know, and I will install and report back the results.

And again, in my experience…and believe me I have a LOT of experience in technology….”stupid” suggestions are NEVER stupid, and I have personally witnessed some of the most complex technical problems brainstorming and trying what seemed at first as a “stupid” theory or solution. As a project manager who worked on global projects with CISCO….I have seen it all, and the one thing I never tolerated was team members calling someones idea stupid. Problems are solved by brainstorming not telling someone to “read the f(U&&& manual.”

Thank you for allowing me to digress.

Thanks

[Rick Connolly]

Vince,

The crash occurs even when shooting with non HD. As for the memory, XP pro cannot access more than 3 gig, so putting in more memory is on no use.

I am going to wait a few months for the bugs to get ironed out of Windows 7, then I will upgrade and add more memory and see if that has any affect.

Also going to try a different video card when I have a chance.

The more I work with it, the more I am thinking it is related to video, since the crashes all seem to center around video issues.

Also just to clarify, you commented about a bug in the footage…these crashes occur on nearly every project I work on, from normal to high resolution. I’m on my 9th project thus far and it is all the same issues. All footage is shot on a Sony HVRZ7U using tape amd the digital backpack. The same footage has been edited by an associate on their Final Cut without these issues, so it seems clear it is something to do with CS4 and video (card?)

Richard