My computer not up to snuff?

[armisiano]

So I'm trying to edit something shot in full HD (1080p) in Premiere CS4, and I spent months saving for a new computer SPECIFICALLY so I could do this, and yet just basic cutting things together still gives me a choppy, sometimes VERY choppy playback while editing.

- I have an Intel 980X 6 core processor, 3.33ghz.
- 12GB of Ram
- 3GB Video card.

What's lacking here? This is so frustrating.

[Ann Bens]

CS5, 64 bits and a certified videocard is lacking.
If its Canon dslr footage H.264 in a mov wrapper CS4 can't handle this. In CS5 that is no more an issue.

[armisiano]

CS5, 64 bits and a certified videocard is lacking.
If its Canon dslr footage H.264 in a mov wrapper CS4 can't handle this. In CS5 that is no more an issue.

Yes it is DSLR footage. Okay. But. I'm broke. I can't afford to cough up $2600 for CS5. I can't really afford top cough up any more money, period.
- What do you mean when you simply state, "64 bits"? Please elaborate.
- What do you mean when you say "certified videocard is lacking"?
- If you were in my shoes, what do you suggest I do?

[Huy Vu]

Premiere CS5 is 64 bit, meaning that it fully utilizes all of the RAM in the system. 32 bit software is limited to using 4 GB at a time. So your 12 GB of RAM isn't being used at all. CS5 also has the Mercury playback engine which will further boost playback speed provided that you have a certified Nvidia card. So pretty much out of all the money you spent, only the CPU is seriously contributing toward preview speed.

The good news is that you don't have to spend $2600 to get Premiere CS5. Assuming that you have a legit copy of CS4 the upgrade cost is about $300. I would just return that graphic card and/or the RAM and upgrade. Also, the 980X is seriously a waste in term of price/performance ratio. You can easily return that CPU alone and get a slightly slower quad-core and be able to afford the CS5 upgrade and still have about 90% of the performance.

[Mike Harvey]

Yes it is DSLR footage. Okay. But. I'm broke. I can't afford to cough up $2600 for CS5. I can't really afford top cough up any more money, period.

The CS5 upgrade wouldn't be $2,600. You're looking at $600 if you have the production version, $900 if you have the master collection to upgrade from CS4. http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/stor...&promoid=FCRWM

It's not a matter of your computer, CS4 is really not up to snuff to handle a lot of DSLR footage. Also, it isn't capable of taking advantage of your video card (assuming it's an Nvidia card), so the amount of RAM or type you have is irrelevant. And, 64bit is going to be more stable and faster. In CS5 they moved to 64bit. CS4, while it will work on a 64bit machine (which yours is... assuming you're using a 64bit version of the OS), it still works as a 32bit program.

Frankly, your machine is a beast... but the particular version of Creative Suite isn't that great. All the horsepower in the world in computer hardware probably wouldn't change that. CS5 is about a gazillion times better than CS4 in handling DSLR/AVCHD/H.264 footage. Not that it does you much good after the fact, but if you had simply bought a quad core with a lesser video card and spent the difference on the CS5 upgrade, you machine would be eating your footage for lunch and wanting more for dessert.

About the only thing I can recomend if you can't cough up the money for the CS5 upgrade right now is spend the $130 on Cineform NeoScene and transcode it to Cineform's codec. http://www.cineform.com/neoscene/

[Jim Simon]

CS5 also has the Mercury playback engine which will further boost playback speed provided that you have a certified Nvidia card.

That's not entirely correct. CS5 has a software Mercury mode, which will help with playback. But the hardware Mercury mode does not help at all with playback, only with certain effects. Everyone who uses CS5 has the software mode by default. Those who want hardware acceleration, which again will NOT help with simple playback, needs an appropriate nVidia card.

[armisiano]

The CS5 upgrade wouldn't be $2,600. You're looking at $600 if you have the production version, $900 if you have the master collection to upgrade from CS4. http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/stor...&promoid=FCRWM

It's not a matter of your computer, CS4 is really not up to snuff to handle a lot of DSLR footage. Also, it isn't capable of taking advantage of your video card (assuming it's an Nvidia card), so the amount of RAM or type you have is irrelevant. And, 64bit is going to be more stable and faster. In CS5 they moved to 64bit. CS4, while it will work on a 64bit machine (which yours is... assuming you're using a 64bit version of the OS), it still works as a 32bit program.

Frankly, your machine is a beast... but the particular version of Creative Suite isn't that great. All the horsepower in the world in computer hardware probably wouldn't change that. CS5 is about a gazillion times better than CS4 in handling DSLR/AVCHD/H.264 footage. Not that it does you much good after the fact, but if you had simply bought a quad core with a lesser video card and spent the difference on the CS5 upgrade, you machine would be eating your footage for lunch and wanting more for dessert.

About the only thing I can recomend if you can't cough up the money for the CS5 upgrade right now is spend the $130 on Cineform NeoScene and transcode it to Cineform's codec. http://www.cineform.com/neoscene/

The Cineform suggestion looks like the most affordable route for me now. I checked out the site, it sounds good. Anyone have any experience with this?

[Ann Bens]

I like Cineform, use it all the time eventhough my machine with CS5 can handle all kind of footage.

[Denwa]

Have you disabled the INDEXING service? It is a HD i/o hog big time.

[Huy Vu]

That's not entirely correct. CS5 has a software Mercury mode, which will help with playback. But the hardware Mercury mode does not help at all with playback, only with certain effects. Everyone who uses CS5 has the software mode by default. Those who want hardware acceleration, which again will NOT help with simple playback, needs an appropriate nVidia card.

I'll rephrase, any time you just want to view your footage and not do anything else to it, the Mercury hardware engine isn't important (chances are if you can't play the footage properly at that point then your computer isn't good enough anyway). However if you want to apply any kind of effects or want to have multiple layers of footages the Mercury playback engine is very helpful.