Cineform helpful for AVCHD in Premiere???

O

Oaken

Active member
My PC is starting to slow down lately when I have larger videos to edit. I recently did a 2 minute HD commercial with multiple graphics and After Effects files and my computer is crashing when rendering. I got a final render after 5 or 6 tries but it took over 3 hours. That seems exsessive for a two minute video with some basic graphics, 108024p video and some green screen keying.

I was considering getting Cineform as I heard it can make editing faster and smoother but I'm not sure it'll help. I have a Quad core, 6gb RAM, CS4 and I import AVCHD files from my Panasonic HMC80 and Nikon D3100.

Any advice on this, whether to buy Cineform, or any other ideas would be helpful. I'm going to upgrade my RAM to 8gb, and maybe look into partitions for my 1TB internal HD. I also use 2 iTB externals for backups. I'm only using 20% of my HD currently and I try to never have any more than that at anyone time.

Thanks!
 
Cineform is a good choice for CS4 and a quad core
Dont partition hard drives it will slow things down.
Get some extra internal drives. One is not enough if that is the case.
 
AVCHD is less than 3MBPS so any hard drive will work OK but you could defrag your hardrive. Cineform is an easier codec for the CPU to play back than native AVCHD. Using AVCHD for green screen work is not wise. If you just edit native AVCHD with cuts only your Quad Core would work just fine. It will not have enough CPU horse power to do green screen work in realtime using native AVCHD. For you Cineform might be needed but if you have CS5 investing $80.00 in an inexpensive GT 240 with DDR5 RAM might be a better option than buying the Cineform codec.
 
The system isnt crashing, just freezing. And only when rendering usually. I am converting the AVCHD files from the Panasonic HMC80 with included software that makes AVI files. So I'm actually editing in those most times. I don't have CS5 only 4 but would that GT 240 still help? And I'll look into adding another slave drive if I Have space, thanks!
 
Freezing not normal. Solve it.

The GPU will not help anything in CS4, only in CS5 and only with certain effects. Normal playback isn't accelerated.
 
Well, I understand its not normal, hence the question on how to fix it. I looked up my specs and it looks like I have four RAM slots with only 1gb in each, so I'm not sure if that could be an issue. I could double that to 8gb pretty easily. My graphics card is the G92 and this is the processor:Processor, Q6600, 2.4, 8MB, Core Duo Kentsfield, G0
I'm guessing my system is just too slow. But if it'll help I can put in RAM and a new graphics card if there is one someone recommends for a PC with windows 7 and CS4. I would think my system should handle only two minutes of footage, even with some AfterEffects and chroma keying. Also I'm applying a look from Magic Bullet to the whole project. Maybe thats the issue there?
 
I have a similar system to yours: Q6600 w/ 8gigs of ram and a non-CUDA card

the difference between native AVCHD and Cineform editing is night and day. AVCHD is workable, but very sluggish, especially at 1080p.

Cineform is actually quite smooth, with realtime playback on many effects if you drop the playback quality to 1/2 or 1/4.

Cineform all day every day on an older system.
 
Wow really? Thats good to hear. What about the converted AVI files from the original AVCHD? Is cineform still better in quality than converting to AVI?
 
Cineform is fine. If you have CS4 it mght be your best bet because even my i7 will not allow for realtime green screen effects using natvie AVCHD. There are some free codces like Cinefrom but I have not used them.
 
Ya I removed the Looks then it froze and told me it had issue with the keying, so then I tried some things and got a final render after 4 hours. It's still hit or miss. I got the trial of Cineform and I'll play with that and see what happens. Thanks though!
 
Cineform can be a good solution when the CPU simply isn't powerful enough to run your media in real time. But a slow CPU won't cause crashes, it'll just be slow.

Your system shouldn't be freezing up. I'd work on solving that first.
 
Really? Hum, well that sucks. Any ideas on where to start with something like that? I'm fairly handy with computers but I would have no idea where to even start on that. I run all the basic disc cleanups and defrags. I use Norton 360 to take care of most maintenence which usually works just fine.

I ended up breaking the video into 15 second pieces and rendering then putting it back together. Also I forgot I was using the Magic Bullet Denoiser, so I took that off too. I was able to get a final render after it was all said and done. The Denoiser definately slows things down dramatically but not sure if that was causing the failed renders. It would give me a different reason each time, keying, Looks, etc. So it's hard to pinpoint. Thanks everyone for all your help!
 
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