[Rick Connolly]

Vince it only cut down the crashes dramatically, it has NOT solved the crashes fully. I still experience them, and despite phone calls to Adobe I have no solution to preventing them.

Thanks for your help

RC

[Rick Connolly]

Vince,

You did give me an idea by your questioning. I might have been using the wrong project template, so I opened a new project and carefully selected the matching template for the video that was shot…ie. 1080i 29.97 FPS etc, and then openind it and started importing the clips.

Like magic everything worked! No more vid problems and my crashes in the Project window are a thing of the past!

If this is the real problem, then Adobe needs to fix this, so that novices like me who open the wrong template with the video, should be warned that we are not using a compatible setup instead of simply crashing the system.

I hope at least this helps others who might be having simialar issues.

Any other revelations you might have, I would like to hear, but it looks like this might have been solved, with your help of course!

Rick

[Rick Connolly]

Vince thanks for the response.

I can’t imagine that could be the problem, but here are my specs…let me know what you think.

First let me say that upon having this problem when I first installed the app, I reformated BOTH my systems and reinstalled new fresh copies of XP Pro on both of them, and then did clean installs of PP CS4 and yes they are legit apps.

Both systems are running fresh copies of XP Pro service pack 3. Video drivers were updated to most current NVIDEA to see if that would correct problems.

BIOS on boths systems updated to latest versions also to see if it would solve issue.

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

Page files were adjusted to Adobe recommendations.

This PC has MS Office, Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop and a few other minor utility programs such as WS_FTP etc.

Both these systems were used by me prior to PP as intense Stock Trading platforms and graphics work, and I had zero problems. It is only Adobe PP CS4 that has given me issues.

Also. the only time I have problems is with Adobe PP. I do not have any issues when using Photoshop, Dreamweaver or Office apps.

Given the issue is on 2 seperate systems that have slightly different configs, I have to point the finger at Adobe. Inparticular the number of crash issues that is evident across the internet with people using Adobe PP, I have to think that there are some serious issues remaining in this rollout.

What video card are you using? I might want to try installing a new video card in one system to see what happens.

My files imported are as follows:

File Path: X:Raw DataPaulHVR0_0003_2009-08-19_010651.AVI
Type: AVI Movie
File Size: 3.4 GB
Image Size: 720 x 480
Pixel Depth: 32
Frame Rate: 29.97
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz – 16 bit – Stereo
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz – 32 bit floating point – Stereo
Total Duration: 00;16;47;29
Average Data Rate: 3.4 MB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.2121

AVI File details:
Contains 1 video track(s) and 0 audio track(s).

Video track 1:
Size is 3.37G bytes (average frame = 117.18K bytes)
There are 30209 keyframes.
Frame rate is 29.97 fps
Frame size is 720 x 480
Depth is 24 bits.

It is shot on a Sony HVR-Z7U directly to digital card, which is then transfered from the CP Flash to the PC.

Shot HDV 1080i

Also, the clip only works once that RED line appears above the clip on the Timeline. If there is no red line, you cannot see the video.

Finally let me add that these are FRESH imports, and have not yet been changed in any way. In other words they just came off the CF Card on the cam, to the Hardrive of the PC and were imported into a new project onto the timeline. It is at that point that I am unable to see the clips without going through the scenerio at the top.

Thanks, look forward to your response.

Rick

[Rick Connolly]

It gets FUNNIER!!!

Ok….and this is NOT a joke!!!!

I perhaps have made a major breakthrough for all my editing brothers and sisters who are tormented by Adobes bug plagued software.

Not a fix, but a workaround to keep some of your hair on your head.

Playing with the clips that do not have the red line above it, I have discovered through trial and error the following method of bringing your clips to life.

1) place on the time line.

2) for the clips that are black in the window click on them once to see the frame in the program window.

3) now that you can see it, now click on the frame in the window, and while holding down the mouse button (like to drag) take that frame and “shake” it back and forth quickly with your mouse as if you are shaking a rag doll.

Don’t ask me why this works, but it does.

While shaking it, after a few seconds you will see the RED LINE magically appear and you can stop and let go. At that point the cliop is now usable in the Program window.

Unfortunately if you are having problems with the SOURCE window, this does not help, and if you take that click and drop it in your SOURCE Window, it will likely crash it.

If I find a simialar way to get the SOURCE working I will post it.

Anyone have a theory what is going on????

Perhaps by shaking the video, the bits and bytes come lose and then fall into the window!!!

Adobe are YOU listening???????? Are you embarrased?

[Rick Connolly]

Ditto on that brother!!!!!

I respectfully disagree with the other poster….I think it is very helpful to vent from time to time. If you want to talk about a waste of time, I’d say relying to the post saying it is “a waste of time to vent” is in fact….a waste of time.

These vents ARE important in posts, becuase they are searchable….and as a former developer, you can bet that Adobe sees these and cringes, and it has an effect.

Obviously you do not want the entre forum to become vents, but a few sprinklings here and there let others know that they are not crazy!

And yes….this is about the most unstable software that I have ever had the experience to work with. Simply no excuse. I’ve been trying to get through to Adobe phone support for 3 weeks, calling every few days, and the lines are JAMMED!

Let’s hope they have some major updates coming soon!

All in all, as you learn more and more, you find ways to “finese” your way through a project to get arround the many issues. The crashes are by far the biggest problem.

Cheers!

[Rick Connolly]

Ditto, I work with a lot of titles and all I do is open make the change and click close….no saving…nothing, and it is updated immediately on the timeline.

To create a new title with the previous one, I simply copy and paste then change the name and add to timeline.

Now…if I could only stop my crashes in the preview window, I would be laughing!

[Rick Connolly]

Frustrated…I tried calling Adobe again for support. I was onhold for over an hour before I gave up.

Obviously they have their hands full with problems.

I’m working in DV 720×480….given the extra probs that are occuring in full HD. A shame since we shoot with a Sony HRV-Z&U in full HD onto a digital flash card. The resulting video file is an .avi which is transfered to the PC.

Yesterday I struggled all day to get video to work in the source monitor after suddenly the source stopped working for no apparent reason.

Everytime I tried to drag a clip from the timeline to the source so that I could drag back video only, the moment I dropped it on the source monitor, or tried to open in source, the program either hung for a minute then crashed, or just crashed right before my eyes.

Eventually…I was able to get the source monitor working again, by opening an audio file and editing it in the source. After that, I tried dragging video and like majic it began to work again.

One thing for sure using Adobe….you learn to save every time you do more than 1 minute of work!

I tell you if they dont do something about this soon, my next mini doc is going to be on “using Adobe CS4 and the Perils of doing so”.

That will make a great Youtube video for Apple marketing of Final Cut Pro!!!!

Again…..bottom line…for anyone who might say…you need to tweak this or that, or feed the mice a diffent grain…..this is an expensive package, I’m using it on top notch industry standard equipment….and therefore, one should expect it to reasonably operate.

As a technical person who has developed software, there is no excuse for an application to act in this manner, except to say it is full of programming holes where the app does not intercept errors.

Obviously Adobe has done a very poor job in stabilizing their product.

[Rick Connolly]

There seems to be some inherent problems with CS4.

No matter what I do, it continues to crash unexpectedly, but over time I have found some common themes.

The most prominent problems are as follows:

1) import an .avi file and drag to timeline. Sometimes the monitor will stay black and if you click play, you will hear sound, but no video.

I’ve learned that by clicking with the mouse in the monitor a few times will make the video show up. On one click the video will show up but be “frozen” and not play. A second or third click in the monitor box will suddenly bring it to life.

2) At this point if I wanted to take a portion of my clip and drag it to the source monitor so I can drag back the audio only…..well when I drag the click onto the monitor, there is a 50/50 chance that CS4 will crash instantly.

3) another odd problem I have is now and then I lose mty sound mixer and all sound will stop (soundmax digital audio). When I try to open the volume control it says “no mixers installed, go to your control panel and install mixer….yada yada”

The only way to fix this is to reboot and all is well again. I’ve updaded the Soundmax to the latest drivers and still the same problem. This does not happen as frequently as the crashes which are so annoying that I cannot see continuing using CS4 in the future.

As I had maentioned in past posts, these are installed on 2 seperate HP XW6200 workstations with 4 gig and dedicated drives 1 Tera on one system and a 500 gig raid on the other.

One system is totally dedicated, and the other has MS Office apps installed. Both systems have the same problems.

I am of the opinion that this has something to do with systems that might be using NVIDEO Quadro cards. Looking over the thousands of posts across the net, the video cards seem to keep coming up….so I dont know if that is a common denominator or not.

Regardless, this is expensive software and I think it is a shame that Adobe is not responding to an obvious wide spread issue.

Any ideas would be appreciated

[Rick Connolly]

I’ve tried everything….the funny thing is I was using it the other day and worked on a large project and everything went great, except that I had to reboot from time to time when I sensed things were slowing down.

Today I opened the same project and now I have the freezing of the monitor again when I drag the video from the time line. Can hear it but cannot see it. After “playing” around with the OUTPUT option on the playback monitor….suddently the video pop’d up and then I could see it. But then the menu that was on the screen didnt entirely go away and I was left with a partial menu on the screen. I then tried to drag the timeline video to the SOURCE monitor and the whole thing crashed.

I dont know what the hell Adobe is doing, but there is no way you can have these many problems without them knowing. As I indicated I had reinstalled twice on two different systems with different hardware setups and same problems. This is not some Dell clone, these are HP x6200 workstations with 4 gig RAM and a terabyte disk space in one and hundreds of gigs in the other.

Bottom line….a software package especially this expensive should not be having these issues.

I’ve sent the crash reports and contacted Adobe and nothing back from them at all.

Any advice I would appreciate it.

[Rick Connolly]

I have a simialar problem. This is a new fresh copy of Adobe CS4 installed on a dedicated dual processor HP XW6200 workstation with 4 gigs of RAM and 90gig 7500rpm SCSI and a terabyte SATA that I use for storage of data and as the disk paging file.

I had the same problem on an identical system when I first installed, then I reinstalled fresh on this system where I had the same problem. I then completely reformatted and reinstalled fresh again.

The problem happens nearly every time I use Prem Pro but I found the following patterns.

1) After importing, I found that rather than open into the source window, if I dragged from the preview directly to the timeline, and then dragged from the timeline to the source window, it would avoid the lockup.

2) Nevertheless after a while, if I were to switch between various media files enogh times when editing, the window might freeze…in fact you will see a partial piece of the video or even the menu “stuck” in the source window with no way to clear it. Once this happens the only way of fixing it is to exit Adobe and then start it again, where it will open up perfectly and you can continue.

Before this happens, often the window might go black and then you can hear audio but you get no video. Once it gets to this point, the only way is to shut down the app and reopen.

Sometimes you have to reboot the system.

Given I this seems to be a problem on this PC and the other system it leads me to believe that this might be some sort of “bug”. While both systems are HP xw6200s they have different hard drive systems, and they have different mem configurations.

I am highly technical, and I have gone over everything I can think of that might affect the system performance.

As I indicated I this is the 2nd install on BOTH systems and each time I built new partitions and reformated the drives fully.

Video on one system is NVIDEO Quadro, and on the other system is a high performance ATI board.

Given the problem is the same on both systems yet has different setups, leads me to believe again that there is some sort of bug.

Occasioanlly I get a fatal error that causes Premier Pro to close suddenly with an error that it cannot identify.

I am up to date on all Adobe updates and I run XP Service pack 3.

This is very frustrating…you feel that you are always waiting for the other shoe to drop,

Ohh by the way, I had no problems with any other software prior to the Adobe installations, and I was using autocad, and other video intensive programs.

The only other software installed is Microsoft Office on one system, and on the other is another version of MS Office. Office was installed on one system long after I was having the problem.

I hate to say this, but somedays I wish I went to the APPLE route!

Any ideas would be appreciated.