Buying CS4 Production Premiere for PAL

P

pmk396

Well-known member
After a lot of researching, I have decided to bite the bullet and get Adobe CS4 Production Premium (it comes with Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop which I'll probably need). The reason for choosing CS4 instead of CS5 is because my operating system is Windows XP (SP3). It don't think CS5 will work with XP.

I have looked around online for different prices and have found varied results ($800-$1500). I am concerned at the fact that I am a PAL user (I'm based in Ireland) and if I was to buy Production Premium from the US, would the software still work for me? If not, can anybody recommend where I could get PAL compatible Production Premium software for a reasonable price??

By the way, my footage will be in AVCHD format, so would I lose quality/resolution when rendering the footage on CS4 Premiere Pro?
 
There's not quality loss, it's a matter of different workflow. While CS4 can technically read AVCHD files, it is much slower than CS5's Mercury Engine, so it is preferable (if not almost required) to transcode to another format such as DNxHD for example.
 
I'd get CS5 if I had the specs on my PC to do it but unfortunately I simply can't afford to update my operating system to Windows Vista or Windows 7 as well has having to buy the Adobe software in the first place.

Does anyone know if theer is a difference between Adobe software bought in the US and Adobe software from Europe (NTSC or PAL) or is software all the same across the board??
 
Going with CS4 over CS5 when editing AVCHD just because you don't want to throw a 64 bit OS on it is beyond comprehension. You'll be wasting your money if you go CS4, because you'll soon wish you had CS5.
 
I appreciate you advice guys but I have a numeber of programs such as ProTools LE which is an audio editing program and that can only run on a 32-bit OS at the moment. It'd be a case of weighing up the pros against the cons for me.
 
A lot of 32 bit programs run just fine on 64 bit systems. There is a legacy mode in Windows for this. Depends on system drivers though. Some definitely don't play well.
 
DO NOT GET CS4 JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE XP.
Also Razz is right, 32 bit programs run on Win 7.
You are wasting your money, just save a bit and get Win 7 AND CS5.

While Ive used XP with sp2 for a long time, it was stable and reliable.

I tried 64 bit XP but a lot of programs don't run well on it.

Win 7 is ok. Just turn off a lot of its whistles...
 
Last edited:
I know what you mean guys but I have already checked in out with the manufacturers of Pro Tools that it doesn't run on Windows 7. The current up-to-date version is only running on Windows 7 on a trial basis at the moment (it hasn't been fully tested). To get this up-to-date version of Pro Tools (v.8.0.4) will cost me an extra $200 when I'm perfectly happy with the version I have at the moment (v.7.4).

The more I think about it, the more I realsie how much this is all gonna cost me to upgrade; cost to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 (64-bit), the cost to upgrade to the up-to-date version of ProTools, the cost to buy Adobe CS5 Production Premium and as well that I'll probably have to upgrade the specs on my PC (eg. extra RAM) in order for these programs to work.

I know I must accept that eventually I'll have to move on from Windows XP because sooner or later, it's gonna become obsolete. I just afraid of the time, effort and money that this is all gonna cost me. I reckon that it could be another year to two years before I can afford to get these upgrades done. And as well as that, I'm trying to save up for my wedding.
 
Wedding? -well , I just got married(again) last year. Having said that, all bets are off.

pmk396 -- heres a reasonable advice, save your money and work with what you have for the moment. If you have to, then invest wisely in something that will go a long way.

Anything you can buy today is technically obsolete anyway.
 
You really should consider dual booting or getting another PC. Pro tools is fickle in Windows Vista/7, so if that's part of your workflow you will want to keep your old XP PC around.

We ended up buying a few Mac Pros for our audio guys here since they needed Pro Tools for their workflow and it was terrible on Windows. These same guys have a second system running Windows for all their game development tools that only run on Windows on the same desk with a KVM switch. It's the ideal solution.
 
I really appreciate all the replies guys. Thanks very much. I just wanna take note of what Demistate said about dual booting or just getting a separate system if I wanna keep my old desktop system that I use for Pro Tools. I know a lot of people advise against using a laptop for editing software but I got a Dell laptop earlier in the year (that I use from time to time on the road with work) and I think the specs on it are above your average laptop (maybe even better than the specs on my own desktop system). But I was wondering, if I was to get Production Premium CS5, would my laptop be capable of running it with the following specs?

> Intel Celeron (R) dual core processor; T3000 @1.8GHz
> Memory (RAM) 4GB
> Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OS
> 250GB hard space

I'm not exactly technically minded when it comes to system specs, and from reading the system requirements for CS5, I'm not exactly sure whether or not my laptop would be up to the task of running it. If it's a case that it's something simple like that I need to upgrade the processor, it's definitely something that I would consider.

Any suggestions/advice??
 
I've just got my CS5 production premium package from here , nothing wrong with it. It's just download only, working like a charm, official full version. Just 235$
 
Last edited:
pmk396 said:
I really appreciate all the replies guys. Thanks very much. I just wanna take note of what Demistate said about dual booting or just getting a separate system if I wanna keep my old desktop system that I use for Pro Tools. I know a lot of people advise against using a laptop for editing software but I got a Dell laptop earlier in the year (that I use from time to time on the road with work) and I think the specs on it are above your average laptop (maybe even better than the specs on my own desktop system). But I was wondering, if I was to get Production Premium CS5, would my laptop be capable of running it with the following specs?

> Intel Celeron (R) dual core processor; T3000 @1.8GHz
> Memory (RAM) 4GB
> Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OS
> 250GB hard space

I'm not exactly technically minded when it comes to system specs, and from reading the system requirements for CS5, I'm not exactly sure whether or not my laptop would be up to the task of running it. If it's a case that it's something simple like that I need to upgrade the processor, it's definitely something that I would consider.

Any suggestions/advice??
Click to expand...

PMK,

Your laptop's spec is "ok". Its not a "slow"(in quotes since its subjective) laptop per se, if you use it for DV editing on a software running, say, edius. or maybe vegas.

It is NOT ideal for editing HDV on an adobe NLE. -but it can sputter along. Single stream, cuts only. I know edius will run on these spec.

It is NOT even close to ideal if you use it for a 64 bit OS running CS5 and editing AVCHD.

Technically speaking, your laptop spec as of TODAY is considered BELOW average.

Also Vista is not a very "ideal" OS for this kind of work. I'd prefer Win 7 as a more reliable and stable os for NLE work.

A barely passable system spec for todays NLE needs would be

-at least an i5 processor. (i7 is ideal)

-With more than 4 gig. Though 4 gig would or might get you by for short projects.

-in order to appreciate the gains made by CS5 in its development you need a PC setup with an nvidia GPU with 1gig RAM. (or 768 at least, to run mercury engine)

If you use your laptop, with those specs to run CS5, honestly, you will be disappointed. A cost effective solution is a custom built PC. NOT a laptop.

Now heres something for you to consider, if you use EDIUS instead, you might just make it run on lesser specs than what CS5 requires.


Ted
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the feedback Teddybear. Based on what you just said, I think that my best option is to just buy a new up-to-date desktop hard drive (with the right specs for CS5) that I will only use specifically for film editing using CS5. I'll keep my current system as well for all other things like Pro Tools, internet and other programs.

Lumiere, as for the price of that software.......... that is unbelievable!! I know you said that it downloaded ok for you and works fine, but in the back of my mind, I suspect that there must be some sort of catch for getting Production Premiere CS5 at that price. Did you ask any question or make any enqueries from the seller as to why the software was so cheap??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top