Adobe CS4 and EX1/EX3 files?

[EIREHotspur]

Has anyone bought the new CS4 Suite and do you have any reviews on how it handles with the Ex files as opposed to how CS3 worked?

[Ian Smith]

I have the Master Collection CS4 but have only just finished installing it (PC version). But I'm a Sony Vegas user. May look at Premiere but I bought it mainly for After Effects and Photoshop (was cheaper to upgrade to the Master Collection than buy standalone versions/upgrades).

If there's something specific you want to know let me know.

[EIREHotspur]

Thanks a Lot For that Ian

I read somewhere that AE CS4 Now supports Ex1/Ex3 files natively like the update to Premiere CS3 did...can you confirm?

One thing I'd love to know for a start is The Blu Ray Menu options in Encore...I have Casino Royale on Blu Ray and love the Horizontal Pop-Up Photo Thumbnail Menu for the chapters....can Encore CS3 do this sort of thing? The example on the Adobe site doesn't do it justice I feel.

Master Collection has so many fantastic new features but I suppose the biggest question is how stable is it with dynamic link and what spec would take advantage of this because I am going to upgrade and get a new desktop for it early next year.
I have a Dell M90 with 4 gig ram at the moment and performence is not bad but I want a good system. I realise this is a lot like asking how long is a piece of string.

One thing I am very curious about too is the compatibility now of CS4 for Windows Vista.
I hate Vista but to take advantage of more RAM I think I may ahve to bite the bullet with the new workstation.

[Ian Smith]

Can't really comment on Encore - it's way down on my list of "things to learn", but I'm running Vista (but 32 bit not 64 bit) and can confirm that raw EX1 clips seem to import into Adobe After Effects with no issues.

I ran Design Standard CS3 under Vista and had no problems - seem to remember that CS3 was the first "officially supported" Vista release so not sure what problems there were supposed to be with Vista (other than the fact it's a pretty crappy O.S. and XP with SP2 is far more stable and usable).

I'm running a Dell D820 maxed-out (4GB) laptop with Vista Ultimate.

[tomk358]

I've used raw EX1 files straight into CS3 and CS4. It works under both. The CS4/vista system was quite a bit slower, not sure of the exact system specs, but it had a faster processor than my CS3 system (which is XP Pro SP2, Core2duo @ 2.4ghz, w/2gb RAM).

Both systems could play cuts-only one stream just fine. As soon as you add multiple streams, or do any color correction it slows down significantly. Exporting to WMV, QT, H264 or Flash was very slow. The Vista/CS4 system performed worse for sure, but I don't think they had much more than 2GB RAM on it.

Neither was coming off a RAID, but both used 90%+ of the CPU for playback, which you can see why it choked on more than a single stream.

Turns out working with mpeg4/AVC/H264 codecs are VERY processor intensive as compared to the Mpeg2 that is inside DVCPro HD.

-Tom

[MitchLewis]

Anyone use EX1/EX3 files in After Effects CS3 on the Mac? (Leopard) I'm hoping they will drop right into After Effects just like any other movie file. (crossing my fingers)

[Ian Smith]

Anyone use EX1/EX3 files in After Effects CS3 on the Mac? (Leopard) I'm hoping they will drop right into After Effects just like any other movie file. (crossing my fingers)

Why not download the free 30 day trial and see for yourself? (I'd do it myself but my trial expired a month ago and I only have CS4 now)

[MitchLewis]

Sorry I wasn't more clear....my bad.

We have After Effects CS3 right now, but we're planning to buy an EX3 soon. I want to make sure I can use it with our current work flow. We're spending a lot on this camera and associated equipment, I'm hoping we don't have to spend more right now buying additional software. I'm sure we'll buy CS4, but not right away. Thanks! :)

[EIREHotspur]

Well it seems as someone else stated elsewhere that Adobe is a machine hog and is like a Bus parked across a street in rush hour traffic.

Why don't they concentrate more on performance enhancements instead of little improvements here and there.