How do I make Premiere CS4 faster?

roxics

roxics

Veteran
So I just cut my first project on Premiere Pro CS4. I've been a Vegas editor for the last 9-10 years. Previous to that I used Premiere 5 for about a year or so, but it was garbage back then in my experience.

I am liking Premiere Pro CS4 now that I'm getting used to it and learning all of its ins and outs. But it just will not play back the footage in the timeline without skipping most of the frames. Vegas will play back nice and smooth. But I'm getting playback speeds of about 3 to 4fps with Premiere. If I can't watch the footage in the timeline playback in real time, it makes it even harder to edit.

I have a Dell core2quad @ 2.4 GHz with 4GBs of ram running Win7 64bit. My video card is old and nothing special. Just enough to give me dual monitors.
This is my work machine, so getting a new machine requires going to IT, begging and usually being told "we'll look into it" followed by months and months of nothing until I ask again and the process repeats.
Most of my footage is usually HDV and sometimes AVCHD which is converted to Avid DNxHD at 75% quality 1080 or 720p.

How do I speed up playback? Will Premiere Pro CS4 take advantage of a better video card? I know CS5 will when it comes to AVCHD, but will CS4 when it comes to DNxHD or Mpeg2? I might be able to get a new video card out of IT. But that would be about it. If it would even help.

Any other suggestions? Maybe workflow or codec suggestions?
 
First off, make sure you have the lastest update for CS4. Transcoding to an easier codec can also be helpful if you're willing to do so and have the software.
 
CS5 does not just help with AVCHD it helps with any codec because the GPU does the FX while the CPU handles the decoding. You can do cuts ony editing with AVCHD using your system if your are in high quality preview mode. With native HDV you might get a few filters and transitions to work in highest quality but you might want to switch to draft quality. Your system may also have some underlying issue that we are not aware of.
 
Cassius said:
First off, make sure you have the lastest update for CS4. Transcoding to an easier codec can also be helpful if you're willing to do so and have the software.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression DNxHD was an easier codec on the system. Easier than AVCHD anyway.
 
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