[Andy Prada]

Ok you have quite a processor intensive, complex project here and a computer that, quite frankly, is a bit of a mess. It’s a bit like buying a mustang and hiring a cart horse to pull it to get you where you wish to go.

You have a reasonably fast PC with 12Gb RAM. Yet you operate 32bit which can only use 4Gb max. (Mmmm!) Out of that 4Gb – Windows uses a hefty chunk and Premiere simply cannot handle more than about 1.3Gb without becoming unstable. I know because I’ve tried.

You have a Quadro FX 3500 which is excellent yet it is wasted on CS3. You are trying to work HD Mp4 through external USB drives that, at best, work efficiently with DV but not much else.

I think you might be a little unrealistic here. An ugrade to CS5 will cost you $399. Vista 64bit or Windows 7 64 bit another $150. This may seem like a lot but it will seriously improve your editing capability and might earn you money by saving you valuable time.

As an adjunct: Every time Premiere loads it has to handshake with all the sequences and thumbnail all the media. 17 sequences, me lud! I rest my case.

[Andy Prada]

It’s probably not hanging…just thinking long and hard where you might have put the directory. Go for a cup of tea and see if it responds. Normally Premiere responds fairly quickly that scratch discs are unavailable and sets to default. c/ something or other.

If your computer is struggling (you don’t tell us your specs) it might just take a little more time for it to come out of sulk mode.

[Andy Prada]

To be honest, I’m probably not going to give you a solution, just a troubleshooting tip. You’ve indicated that this happens whether using CS4+Decklink or natively through your Mac Pro. The common denominator seems to be your apple codec, not a probable issue with CS4 (which would be of concern to this particular forum).

Try un-installing the apple software completely and then re-installing. Also, check the read me files – you might have to install things in a certain way. Also make sure your Quicktime version is compatible with the intermediate codec.

Weird things happen with software.

[Andy Prada]

Or if you don’t have a lifetime to wait you could try using the luminance portion of the signal (and a subtle soft edge crop or garbage matte) to luma key out the brightest portion of the offending video.

I have to say, this doesn’t always work but you’ve not got much too lose by trying.

a.

[Andy Prada]

As a freelancer I use FCP, Avid and PPCS5 for Corporate and Broadcast – but I’m based in London.

I prefer CS5, have my own system but I’m always happy to work on whatever the client so deems fit to ask me to work on.

I suspect your college chose Avid because it definitely gives you an advantage over and above PPro in the freelance marketplace – most facilities will have Avid, fewer I suspect would have PPro. Having good skills in the former will help earn you money as a freelancer. You might get a bit hungry relying on the latter – at least in London and the UK anyway.

But I chose PPro for my own system because it really is so flexible and in CS5 guise, is right up there amongst the best. The ability to seemlessly link photoshop,encore,after effects etc is still unique in a marketplace that sees a merging of creative skills – graphics, editing etc.

[Andy Prada]

I presume you’ve rendered the audio file before playback and that made no difference.

If you still have problems after trying this try converting it to a more Premiere friendly editing format like WAV using Media Encoder. (If Premiere can play the sound ME should also)

I suppose we should all remember that MP4 is heavily compressed and Premiere CS4 has a whole load of stuff going on in the background not least attempting to marry up all the ProcessCoordinatorServerthingmajigs. Chucking MP4 at it probably doesn’t help.

This may seem arduous but try it anyway. Try a small portion of the audio to your satisfaction before you waste a shed load of time batching it all.

[Andy Prada]

Keep us posted Patrick..it’s always good to hear solutions as opposed to endless problems. Of course, what we didn’t discuss was any effects loaded onto the HDV clips. This will also slow down immediate rendering time at least. In such a case it is critical to have your settings set to export using preview files. Otherwise the whole deal has to re-render as it’s exporting…very sloooooow!

[Andy Prada]

Patrick, my apologies..my sleepy eyes have suddenly registered INTEL MAC in your post.

Forget my bumblings over WINDOWS.

But my basic premise remains – the bottleneck for CS4 is still in terms of the way it uses resources. The fact that it takes so long for ME to work suggests this and I would try my suggestion to alleviate in any case.

Again apologies!

[Andy Prada]

I forgot to add that you should update CS4 to V 4.2.1 and also make sure ME is the latest…every little helps!

[Andy Prada]

Your computer would seem to be very light on spec to be working on such a large HDV project. I recently moved up to CS5 from CS4 using a Corei7 12Gb Ram PC setup. HDV works fine now because CS5 is fully 64 bit and uses memory completely differently. On the basis that windows will keep 2Gb for itself you are asking your dual core to process some pretty hefty chunks of mpeg with only 2Gb max free for CS4.

OK, that’s my opinion of your setup, how can you alleviate your bottle neck?

My experience is that ImporterprocessServer + MediaEncoder + Pproheadless + Premiere itself are all competing for resources. Look in task manager if you don’t agree.

Try this….before exporting to Media Encoder from the Premiere timeline, open Media Encoder independantly from either the task bar or start menu and let it load. Then switch back to Premiere and export your sequence(s)

ME often stalls completely or takes an age to load because of the memory bottleneck. This seems to alleviate it.

Try this first and tell us what happens.