[Aaron Cadieux]

Mike,

I’ll have to check out Walmart and Target on that. I’ve never seen tape/film to DVD transfer services offered at either store. I’ve actually paid to have 8mm film transfered in the recent past (before I had the capability), and it was very expensive. $50 sounds cheap for a film to DVD transfer.

-Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Mike,

I probably should have disclosed what the spot is for. It’s offers tape/film to DVD transfers for people’s old home movies. So it really doesn’t compete with the cable company.

Best,

Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Mark,

The spot is actually for Tape/film to DVD transfer services, so it doesn’t compete with the cable company in any way. It’s kind of a niche item, and I think a TV commercial is a great way to inspire people to have their old home movies transfered from tape and/or 8mm film to DVD.

-Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Steve,

Thanks for your swift response. Getting another bid from a media buyer is a great idea!

In regards to your suggestion that I talk to the agency I work for . . . I am in a unique situation. I work full-time for an ad agency as their in-house video production specialist. However, I also run my own production company on the side. This commercial would be an advertisement for my own company, not for the ad agency. I am not under a non-compete at the ad agency (they don’t really pay me enough to demand that). Despite the lack of a non-compete, I try not to mix my side-business with my full-time job. I am protective of my ideas and projects, and I can’t have my superiors at the agency trying to wedge themselves into my independent venture(s). If the situtation were different, your idea would be perfect.

Thanks for your help and advice. Like I said, I am clueless when it comes to buying media. Regardless of what happens, this is a good excercise for me.

Best,

Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

David,

I don’t have a solution for you, but I will say this. You’re looking for a solution to a problem that has no solution. I’ve given up on CS4. It crashes all the time, and, like you, my system is far above the recommended specs. People will ask you what your specs are, and then speculate about what’s causing the problem. You might even get some intelligent-sounding suggestions, but you, like me, will find that the system will continue to crash no matter what. Bottom line is this. CS4 is a flawed and buggy program. Anyone who is using it crash-free should consider themselves lucky. I feel your pain man.

-Aaron Cadieux

[Aaron Cadieux]

Anyone had any problems with AVG Antivirus conflicting w/ CS4?

[Aaron Cadieux]

Mike,

Here’s what I’m running.

Adobe Prod Suite Premium CS4 – All updates installed.
Windows XP Pro service pack 3
Mobo – Intel DX48BT2
CPU – Intel Core2 Quad 3.0Ghz
4GB of DDR3 RAM
Video Card – Nvidia Quadra FX1700
On-board sound

Any project in Premiere (HD or SD) that gets marginally large crashes ALL THE TIME. Any by all the time I mean at least 15 – 20 times in an 8 hour work day. Crashes usually occur when in Titler, when copying and pasting multiple clips, or when saving. To lessen the amount of crashes, I have to minimize and maximize the Premiere window prior to each save.

AME runs unbearably slow. I run an identical machine at home, but with CS3, and files export significantly faster. AME also crashes a lot, especially when batch processing. AME is also the computer world’s biggest resource hog.

Also, dynamic link with AE also causes a lot of problems including crashing. The files also become unlinked every time I re-open the project in Premiere. I have given up on dynamic link and just export and import the old fashioned way.

Any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Aaron Cadieux

[Aaron Cadieux]

I’ve had the same problem, and posted about it. No easy solutions as far as I can see. The bigger the project the more confused Dynamic Link gets. I’ve encoded videos and sent them to clients not realizing that DL has swapped comp references without my knowing. The result has been videos where you’re hearing one person’s audio on a greenscreen clip, but you’re seeing someone else. I just stopped using DL and rendered out of AE and imported and replaced in Premiere. It was a pain in the butt, and took up a lot of time, but the project crashes less now, and takes way less time to render now that the files are self-contained and not part of DL.

-Aaron

[Aaron Cadieux]

Because CS4 is trash (if that’s what you’re using).

[Aaron Cadieux]

Todd,

It’s funny you mention compression issues. I send spots out of here on a regular basis that look very clean, and the quality is very high. We distribute most of our spots using DGFastChannel. The files we provide DG look fantastic, but once I see them on the air, they look TERRIBLE. There is definatley some re-compression going on with television stations. It’s very frustrating to see what should be a high-quality spot on the air that ends up looking like crap. Most of the time the compression results in a washed-out look with boxy pixels making up the image. It sounds like your situation isn’t quite as dramatic.

-Aaron