Premiere Pro CS4 Mac Question

R

Rob55

Member
Anyone using an iMac to run Premiere Pro CS4? I've got a late '07 24" iMac with 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4GB RAM. Currently using an external FW800 1TB drive (RAID0) as the scratch disk. This setup seems to roughly meet the minimum requirements on the PremierePro CS4 website, but they don't tell you how fast the suggested multi-core processor should be or how much VRAM is required. I want to get into AVCHD but am not satisfied with the workflow in FCP 6.0.5. Since I have a valid license for Premiere Pro 1.5, I can upgrade to PPro CS4 for only $299. I tried calling Adobe, but they were relatively useless. The pre-sales customer service rep didn't know enough to answer my question and the so-called "tech support" person barely spoke english. They switched me to a product specialist, but said that they probably wouldn't help me because I didn't have a serial # for CS4. Of course I don't, this is a pre-sales question. After being on hold for 30 minutes, I gave up figuring that someone over here would know the answer. By the way, I downloaded the trial version, but due to licensing issues, Adobe disables the AVCHD functionality rendering the trial virtually useless. PPro CS4 seemed to run well enough on my iMac, but my understanding is that working with AVCHD becomes significantly more processor intensive. My only other choice is to cross my fingers and hope that Final Cut Studio 3 comes out after Snow Leopard in September and will have native AVCHD support like PPro CS4. Anyway, sorry about the rant. Any input or assistance is greatly appreciated.

Rob
 
My friend has an older Mac Pro (Dual 2.66 GHZ Core 2 Dual CPUs) and it could not play native AVCHD files. I have a cheap $600.00 dollar Quad Core computer that I built and it can play native AVCHD. If you shoot at 1440X1080 and drop it into an HDV timeline with the same resolution you can do cuts only editing in RT with out dropping frames. Trying to add effects will make it bog down big time. Assemble your clips on the time line and then add FX later.

AVCHD it hard on any system but a mere 2.66 GHZ Yorkfield with PPCS4 will let you do cuts onyl editing. PPSC4 has a much better titler and slow motion FX than FCP. I say invest in any cheap Quad Core PC (Yorkfield 2.66) and sell your Mac. My system costed less than a Mac Mini. I was suprised at how good the system works. I may post a video on youtube very soon.


I doubt you will be able to edit native AVCHD on your iMac but I can not say for sure. Try dropping the footage into a P2 timeline. It works on my PC.

I hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, selling my Mac is out of the question (too much invested in hardware and software at this point). I can work with AVCHD transcoded to Apple's ProRes422 and it seems to work well enough. I just figured I'd check and see if my iMac could run PP CS4 editing AVCHD. There are a lot of steps for the FCP workflow, but it's manageable. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that Final Cut Studio 3 comes out this fall and that it'll have native AVCHD editing (gotta keep up with Adobe you know). ;-)
 
Thanks for the input. It appears that PPro CS4 (specifically 4.1 or whatever the update version is called) will work on my iMac. I spoke to someone with an MBP with virtually identical specs as my iMac and they're able to work with the AVCHD files. Playback can stutter at times, but they are able to edit and export the files. I don't know how much more than basic editing they're doing, but at least it seems to be stable and workable.
 
Rob55 said:
Thanks for the input. It appears that PPro CS4 (specifically 4.1 or whatever the update version is called) will work on my iMac. I spoke to someone with an MBP with virtually identical specs as my iMac and they're able to work with the AVCHD files. Playback can stutter at times, but they are able to edit and export the files. I don't know how much more than basic editing they're doing, but at least it seems to be stable and workable.
Click to expand...

I am sorry for the confusion. My 2.13 GHZ Core 2 Dual can play AVCHD in real time in draft mode only. The 2.66 GHZ Yorkfield can play it back in high quality. Draft quality AVCHD looks awful because of the funky codec (GOP).

Sorry for the confusion. Your system will work but the image quality will not be that great.
 
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