AE CS5 Crashing with Zero Denominator & Strange Situation errors

Question

Good afternoon!
In AE CS5 for OSX, we've started observing a strange behavior:
- I have an AE project w/ footage loaded, including a Quicktime movie rendered out of another app (e.g., a 3D app)
- I need a change to the movie, so I re-render it from the 3D app, replacing the existing movie.
- In AE, I get impatient and click Reload Footage while the movie is still being re-rendered.
In past versions of AE, I got an error (unrecognized file type) but AE continued to operate.  With CS5, I get a series of errors:
"may be an unsupported format" (expected)
"zero denominator in ratio addition"
"zero denominator comparing ratios"
"zero denominator converting ratio denominators"
"After Effects Error: Strange Situation"
Even after the movie finishes rendering, I keep getting the errors and clicking OK keeps presenting errors.  Have to force-quit AE to get on with my day.
Is this a bug?  New in CS5?  I understand that I'm trying to do something "wrong" by loading a piece of footage that's invalid, but shouldn't I just get a polite "that piece of footage is no good", the ol' test-pattern, and be able to keep working and come back to it when it's ready?
Anyone else run into this?
--Rob

Answer 1

but shouldn't I just get a polite "that piece of footage is no good", the ol' test-pattern, and be able to keep working and come back to it when it's ready?
In theory yes, but as I just explained in another thread, 64bit AE vs. ye olde QT is full of workarounds and limitations due to Apple not seeming to care at all. That and the differences in 64bit file access on a more general level may lead AE to wrong conclusions. I'm sure it's a bug of sorts plus perhaps your 3D app (Cinema 4D?) could also do better by closing and re-opening the file from time to time so at least some parts are accessible instead of keeping it permanently open. For the time being, simply use image sequences...
Mylenium