slow editing on cs4 premiere

[maplewood]

hello

I have a laptop and I installed cs4 on it (32 bit)
it is running very slow

(it is ok with one single time line, but i need to work with 3 timelines and it moves like a snail or not at all)


my computer ability is attached in a pic.

helppppppp pleaseee...

thanx

[aedipuss]

what type of video? also, laptops are never a good idea for editing. yours is only a pentium 2 core, not very speedy. a tower with good cooling 4 hard drives, gtx570 video card or better and an an 8 threaded i7 might be a good purchase. if you can afford cs4, an editing station should have been purchased also.

[maplewood]

thank you.

those are HD files.

it is a trial version of CS4.
(I don't have enough to buy a new machine)

isn't there some program that jams it - and if I will take it off it will allow me to edit properly?
or is it a lost case?

[aedipuss]

no the computer doesn't have the cpu or gpu for editing. especially if you are trying to edit avchd file. about all you could try is to convert the videos to an easier to edit format, maybe use a lossless codec. but then you probably don't have the hard drive space to hold them.

[maplewood]

actually, this is a very good idea.
are you saying that if the files are AVI or MPG, it might do the job after all???

(or an other file type you'd recommend that will allow the processing)

[aedipuss]

an intermediate codec conversion may help ease the load. some lossless ones are - dnxhd, huffyuv, lagarith, etc. the file size will be 10 - 100 times as big though.

[maplewood]

true, I will need more room for that.
Thank you very much for the help!!!

[budwzr]

Switch to Sony Vegas Movie Studio and it will run much faster.

Anything Adobe is bloatware. They use some Macromedia-type fakakkta GUI that eats up all the ram just to start up, then the user's work product gets sent to page file memory (HD virtual memory).

Some people think the faster PC you need means the software must be really powerful, but actually well written efficient software doesn't need so much horsepower.

I don't know how Adobe managed to put out a Mac version of Premiere either, unless it's a stripped down version. I guess the Macheads wouldn't know anyway, right? Hehehe, just kidding, I LOVE those little Mackies, they're so cute.

But compared to PC's, Mac's are even less capable, that's why they had to switch to an Intel chip in the "Power" Macs, but they're still underpowered in hardware terms.

For more info Google: ADOBE BLOATWARE

Or to see all the complaints on the Adobe forum: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/428133

Hope this helps.

[turk690]

IMHO, the biggest sin this laptop is guilty of will not be that it's Pentium or 32-bit, or that Premiere CS4 is called on to squeeze it, but that I bet there's only ONE wretched hard drive groaning under all that work. Maplewood, find out if that laptop has eSATA; attach an external HDD to this port, and put all media files in this HDD. This step alone should alleviate some of the slowness. No, USB drives DON'T count, NEVER will. But why stop there? Anyone only even slightly serious about Premiere and expects it to live up to its touted abilities should, with very few exceptions (ALL of these with that magic eSATA port), not be caught dead using it on a laptop.

[maplewood]

Ok
I am now running on a bran new pc

Windows 7
Service pack 1
AMD phenom(tm) II X4 840 processor 3.20 GHz
Memory: 4.00 gb
64 bit operating system


And it stil can not work more than one time line

Something is really wrong here!!!!!!!!

[aedipuss]

use mediainfo on a typical source file in text mode and copy/paste the results here.

[maplewood]

You mean right click on one of the sources while I'm in premiere?
It has no "mediainfo" option on right click

[edDV]

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/MediaInfo Under View, select text and post result.

I suggest you downsize your video to 960x540 or 848x480 MPeg2 to fit that CPU and hard disc. That will give you some idea how the program works.

If you invest in a new laptop, make sure it has i5/i7 CPU with two internal hard drives or a single drive + an eSATA port. A tower would be faster and cheaper.

[maplewood]

here are the stats:
-----------------------------

General
ID : 1 (0x1)
Complete name : C:\projn\00006.MTS
Format : BDAV
Format/Info : Blu-ray Video
File size : 3.99 GiB
Duration : 26mn 23s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 21.7 Mbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 24.0 Mbps

Video
ID : 4113 (0x1011)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Codec ID : 27
Duration : 26mn 23s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 20.4 Mbps
Maximum bit rate : 20.9 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Interlaced
Scan order : Top Field First
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.394
Stream size : 3.76 GiB (94%)

Audio
ID : 4352 (0x1100)
Menu ID : 1 (0x1)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Mode extension : CM (complete main)
Codec ID : 129
Duration : 26mn 23s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -384ms
Stream size : 72.5 MiB (2%)

[maplewood]

anyone?

[aedipuss]

well to repeat myself you need a high end computer. i7 2600k 8 threads, 64bit os. 16gb ram, top notch video card gtx570 or above, at least 3 fast hard drives. even then editing 1080 avchd is slow going.

and adobe cs5.5

[poisondeathray]

it is a trial version of CS4.

The CS4 trial version doesn't even support AVCHD or h264 blu-ray, how are you opening it ?

As aedipuss says, you need faster hardware, more drives

Or you can do what people have often done in the past; either a proxy workflow, or use an easier editing intermediate like cineform

[maplewood]

why would you answer something that is not true?

1.
a trial version is the exact program like the purchased one.
where's the reason in that? you get a full version and it is a trial - But you can enter a serial number and it turns imediatly to a non trial version. meaning- you had the full version But for a limited time.


2.
as I said - I am working on a stripped bran new powerful tower
(and It has a legit premiere cs4)


it still does not play more that one track

help!

[maplewood]

+ the guys that lend me the work station can go cs5 - no problem.
the question is will this sort the issue?

(or shoul I go Avid and thats it?)


here's a picture of the system Im on now

[edDV]

Ok
I am now running on a bran new pc

Windows 7
Service pack 1
AMD phenom(tm) II X4 840 processor 3.20 GHz
Memory: 4.00 gb
64 bit operating system


And it stil can not work more than one time line

Something is really wrong here!!!!!!!!

It is the h.264 codec that consumes your CPU power. On that machine, the conversion of video to Cineform intermediate codec (Cineform Neoscene $129)* should be enough to run two simultaneous video streams in preview without pegging the CPU**.

Nest issue, you haven't explained the disk system configuration on the AMD machine. First issue is to separate the video drive from the OS drive. You will get better performance if a third drive is added so that each video track plays off separate drives. This minimizes disk seek delays.

In summary, to edit two simultaneous video streams (i.e. both streams are playing to the screen simultaneously), you need both an efficient hard disk system and an efficient video codec to compensate for insufficient CPU power.


* be aware that conversion to Cineform intermediate codec will increase file sizes 4-6x.

** If you are still pegging your CPU even with the more efficient codec, then you must pre-render for preview.

[maplewood]

wow this is getting heavy
not with the operating system drive and if so, it is prefered a seperate drive and a codec

why is it like that on premiere?????????? seriously

I am used to working with Avid and before that with Vegas. and it was never like that. I realy wanted always to work with premiere, I had no Idea it is so unfriendly

I guess I will be going back to Avid.... dam

[poisondeathray]

1.
a trial version is the exact program like the purchased one.

Not for CS4. Because of h.264 licensing issues some features were disabled. The CS5.5 trial is unlimited

Editing performance is like that for all NLE's. Vegas is just as bad. The problem is the source format, and your hardware setup

Avid might feel smoother - but you don't edit AVCHD natively, you transcode to DNxHD. But DNxHD will be smoother on all NLE's , not just Avid. You'll get slightly better performance with cineform

CS5.5 is better if you have a supported Nvidia CUDA enbled card (mercury playback engine GPU accelerates some transitions & effects), but requires more resources (bloated, more ram required). Your hardware might still not be enough

[edDV]

wow this is getting heavy
not with the operating system drive and if so, it is prefered a seperate drive and a codec

why is it like that on premiere?????????? seriously

I am used to working with Avid and before that with Vegas. and it was never like that. I realy wanted always to work with premiere, I had no Idea it is so unfriendly

I guess I will be going back to Avid.... dam

Premiere and Vegas attempt to edit h.264 directly. This requires a high performance CPU. Alternately a digital intermediate codec (e.g. Cineform) can be used to speed things up.

AVID and Apple Final Cut Pro force the use of a digital intermediate. DNxHD (MJPEG) or Cineform can be used with AVID and AIC, ProRes422 or Cineform with Final Cut Pro.

Your issues are mostly insufficient hardware or disk system relarted. This is compounded with double video tracks.