[Joe Chow]

Thanks for your reply, Kevin.
Actually the graphics card HAS 1024 MB VRAM. So it should have squeaked by. Plus performance didn’t dip until after November, so probably closer to a 7.2 update is when it failed to meet system requirements. I am also puzzled by how well everything still works in CS6. I don’t relish the prospect of spending hours to reconfigure existing CC projects in CS6 (supposing I CAN do that via XML) although the long export times in CC may justify the effort.
In any case, perhaps in future, there should be some big warning attached to CC software updates when system requirements are revised.
P.S. I did order a new computer – a PC laptop with a nVidia GeForce – GTX 770MX video card w/3GB GDDR5. Hopefully that’ll keep me going for another year or two, but in the meantime I have to finish these projects on the old MBP.

[Joe Chow]

I’m using a 3 TB Mercury Elite drive from OWC with a FireWire 800 connection. I’ve been doing the same thing for years, originally with FCP Legacy and now with Premiere CS6 and CC. But performance has deteriorated drastically only recently with CC. I actually did a test last week in FCP7 with the same project (9 minute ProRes Sequence with 1 cut and 1 filter) using the same footage, and again playback and output were far superior.
Just now since getting your reply, I took the same footage and opened it in a new CS6 project. Again, made a 1-cut-1-filter sequence, and playback was smooth and output far speedier. So it’s something to do the the CC update. Anyone know what?

[Joe Chow]

Oh my. I’d been using FCP Legacy since 1999 and didn’t know about this. How pathetic. Thanks for the tip.

[Joe Chow]

Yes. I have done so now. And you’re right. I did lose the plugins when I upgraded. The dumb thing is that Extension Manager still says they’re “enabled” when they’re not. Annoying. Another one of those Adobe “2 steps forward, 1 step back” things that they do. Thanks for your response.

[Joe Chow]

Unfortunately it’s not a FilmImpact problem, but an Adobe problem. And I posted to their message boards. Didn’t get as many responses as I did here.

[Joe Chow]

I just did the same thing. Originally I didn’t do so because I couldn’t find the ZXP for the plugins. Still, it’s annoying that the Extension Manager showed that the plugins were “enabled” when they weren’t.

[Joe Chow]

Oops. False alarm. I inadvertently closed the Queue Window when I sent the Export to Queue. That’s why it went missing. Sorry, people. I lose my bearings after 11.

[Joe Chow]

Thanks for your response. Turns out the thing to do, especially if it’s a complicated sequence and you’ve rendered a lot of effects before output (even if you were outputting without including preview files) is to delete render files for the sequence to avoid getting the “Media pending” message and waiting hours for the sequence to load. Sequences for which I have not rendered effects load pretty instantaneously.
You’re probably right that RAM might have something to do with it – I’m running on 8 GBs on a 2009 iMac. But I have read on other forums that this is a real issue that Adobe needs to address, instead of leaving it for users to find workarounds. I don’t render out complicated sequences for the fun of it, but so producer and clients can look over my shoulder and see the potential end result. So it’s pretty nasty to have to delete render/preview files and start over again every time I revisit a dormant project.

[Joe Chow]

My other sources tell me launching with Shift and Option keys will trash preferences and do the trick. But was under a time crunch, so I just reinstalled. That worked too…though I wouldn’t do it too often. thanks for the tip.

[Joe Chow]

Just a little more info on my problem. I was working on my iMac with this project. I’m running PPro5.5.2. Haven’t had problems with it up till now. I am a newbie to PPro and so far I’ve done test projects with it and today was my first full project. Basically I finished the edit and I was exporting to Media. The footage came from a FCP project and was in ProRes(LT), so I tried to export it to ProRes(LT) as well. The export reached 100% but the export window wouldn’t close. So after waiting for 10 minutes I force quit PPro, but found that I couldn’t launch it again. Not just the project but PPro itself. All other CS5.5 applications are running normally.
Since it was stored on a drive, I opened up the last AutoSave version of the project on my MacBookPro, did the couple of fixes that didn’t get autosaved, saved the project again, and tried to do another export. This time I changed the export format to H.264. Again, it went to the end of the export and stalled. I force quit again and now PPro won’t launch. Now I’m really stuck because both my computers won’t launch PPro.
Please help.