CS4: AVCHD performance

Hey, guys.
I'm looking to overcome some performance problems with playback and I suspect many of you have already fought these battles. I'm running a reasonably decent box - 32 bit Vista, 3 gigs of memory, dedicated SATA hard drive for data, dual core 2.4 ghz AMD processor, NVidia card with 512megs onboard memory. I'm working primarily with footage from a Panasonic AG-HMC70P, which shoots exclusively in AVCHD, and that's where the trouble begins.
If I have a simple, one video track playback of an mts file, it plays fine. Adding even a couple of additional video tracks, however, causes the output to freeze for spells or play back in a jerky manner, even with playback quality set to draft or automatic. The CPU gets slammed, as one might expect.
I've done a fair amount of research on optimizing the PC itself, but in the end I think for any non trivial project AVCHD is just more load than the mules can pull. And honestly, it's more load than I really need. I know that AVCHD is a demanding high def format, and in truth I could live with SD for most projects as they end up going to standard DVD, the web, or Windows Media files for PCs.
I'm thinking that one approach would be to convert the high def .mts files to some uncompressed standard def file format as the initial step of any project, and then importing the standard def footage into Premiere to work with. I know that would decrease the load on the program considerably. However, I'm not sure what the best format would be for this approach, or if there are actually better ways to go about this.
Premiere is an excellent program and I'm sure if I get my process optimized it'll do a fine job. For those of you working with AVCHD, particularly if you aren't going to high def output with your projects, what's your approach to workflow and decent playback performance? Your insights would be most appreciated.
Many thanks,
Chris

Premiere's "native" SD format is DV AVI type 2 with 16bit 48khz sound
I used to use CS3 with that kind of file (digitized from analog 8mm tapes via Pinnacle Dv500 card) to produce home movie DVDs
I now have a 64bit computer and CS5 and work directly with AVCHD... which I down-rez to DVD (don't know anyone to inflict share my DVDs with who has a BluRay player) and it all works gread http://forums.adobe.com/thread/652694?tstart=0
Since I don't convert AVCHD to AVI before editing I really don't know which program to use... but this list may help
Tools to Convert to DV-AVI http://forums.adobe.com/thread/415317?tstart=0
I have NOT used the products below, I only forward due to other mentions
Convert http://premierepro.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:How_do_I_convert_my_files%3F
Edit Vob http://premierepro.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:How_do_I_import_VOB_files_/_edit_a_DVD%3F
Convert your files to DV-AVI Type II with 48KHz 16-bit Audio
Or, if you want to edit a divx file, start at http://www.divx.com/
To edit WMV http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/default.mspx
and http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
$99 http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1175714228541#tabview=tab0
$99 http://www.womble.com/products/mvw.html
$90 http://www.magix.com/us/movie-edit-pro/ plus $5 Ship
$80 http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html
$75 http://www.videoredo.com/en/index.htm
$70 http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html Converter
$40 http://www.daniusoft.com/dvd-ripper.html#135
$40 http://www.deskshare.com/dmc.aspx Digital Media Converter
$20 http://www.topsoftwareol.com/product/Video/Video_Converter_Standard.html
$00 http://www.squared5.com/ MPEG Streamclip Converter
$00 http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html Multi-Converter
$00 http://www.virtualdub.org/ Mpeg to AVI Converter

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Thanks for all the help thus far.
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We did (years ago) purchase Main Concepts product for video. I thought that became redundant once Adobe started including their decoders within the their products. That is why I initially believed that there was a problem with the installation of the Adobe Production Premium product.
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Does this seem like a reinstall issue for Production Studio CS4?
Recently, I am finding that I am ending up with more Mac based camcorder captures for editing. A lot of times these people have a consumer or low-end prosumer camcorder and a Mac laptop or whatnot and consider themselves "videographers". These people do not know how to capture in any other format than to "plug it in and capture" and many times don't have any idea about CODECs and formats. Many times, its the AVCHD format that has issues. I can either spend the money on a card (or whatever) reader and and attempt to capture it myself, or get my system updated to corrrectly read these (which I would prefer).
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I just purchased a Panasonic AG-HMC40U video cam. I am using a Sandisk 32GB extreme SDHC card. I did a shoot where I shot for two one hour sessions turning the camera off once and then on again between the two sessions. I have a Dell Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920@ 2.67GHz 12GB ram, 64 bit with Win 7 home edition. I put the card into my computer and saved the complete set of files to a folder on the computer.The files on the card are divided up into 26 minute sections which seems odd since I turned the camera off and on only once during the session. I import the stream files into Adobe CS4 Prem Pro. What I notice is at the end of each segment there is a dropped audio and visual frame. Not good when recording someone singing! I can overlay the visual with shots from another camera but the audio is not replaceable in live shows. This also happens with my other Canon Vixia...but I figured it was the camera..now I know its not. It happens with other SDHC cards as well.
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if its just one "red" frame..at each "segment" , you can cut that one frame out when you see it. and it wont hurt your timing etc or sync...when sound and video is still linked. ( in other words that one frame is cut out for both video and sound)
I tend to think its the fat32 thing ( mac ) vs NTFS ( pc ). dont be bummed ...happens even with pro dailies and stuff from fcp and avid to dvd dailies and is just one of those things you can fix ( cut the frame out ) ...pretty fast and easy to do.

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I am not sure if this is correct but here is what I am doing....
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2. Copy "Private" folder which contains ALL of the info stored on the card from the camera.
3. Paste the "Private" folder on my HDD
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5. Highlight all the clips and right click and select "Import".
I have also tried just navagating to the Folder on my HDD that contains the "Private" folder and dragging that into Premiere and all the MTS files are imported and I get an error for unsupported files for all the rest of the files.
This screen shot shows the folder structure just incase you are not familiar with it.
[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll34/pebalsamo/Folders.jpg[/IMG]
The next two screen shots are from the Import failure message that I get when I just drag the entire folder into Premiere.
[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll34/pebalsamo/ImportFailure1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll34/pebalsamo/ImportFailure2.jpg[/IMG]
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CS4 Photoshop Performance leaks

Hello,
I have several problems with our business clients and photoshop.
After working on some files, pc or photoshop extremly slows down. So mouse is stopping or moving layers need seconds. Working is not really possible.
We've tried all Adobe Hint, Systemoptimizition, performance tuning in photoshop, with/out opengl, .... clearing profile.
Now we have adobe default settings and problem is still there.
PSD Files about 30MB or 100MB with ~ 60 layers.
Machine configuration:
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-> INTEL XEON X5450 (3.00GHZ, 1333FSB
-> 2 GB RAM
-> HDD: C:\ 2 x 160 GB RAID 0; D:\ 160 GB
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-> Windows XP SP 3, all updates
-> newest DirectX
-> newest graphic driver
-> Windows pagefile -> c:\; photoshop pagefile -> d:\
System is up to date.

wrong, you only "lose" RAM that way when you start hitting the memory allocation limit. It goes like this, windows 32bit can access 4gb of memory, out of that you substract the video card memory and the pagefile and what's left is the maximum amount of RAM that a 32bit windows OS can see, usually around 3.2gb He has only 2gb of ram total so he won't lose RAM unless his video card has more than 1.5gb of memory.
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404439.html
The available RAM shown in the Performance preference automatically
deducts an amount that is reserved for the operating system from the
total RAM in your computer.
In the Performance section of the preferences, it's called Available Memory, not Total System Memory, that's why you see less than 2gb there. Try some of the tips in that Tech Note, see if any of them help. Also, you didn't mention this, do you have the 11.0.1 patch for Photoshop installed?

After Effects CS4 AVCHD Render Problem (Film ruckelt)

Hallo,
ich konnter vor 1 Woche ohne Probleme avchd Dateien importieren und normal rendern. Leider habe ich plötzlich Probleme.
Egal welche Einstellung ich vornehme ruckelt das Video jede Sekunde.
Kann mir jemand helfen?
Danke

Paar mehr Infos währen nett.
Genauere Fehlerbeschreibung. Wie gehst du vor.
Auflösung?
Framerate?
Progrssives oder Interlacetes Material?
Was dir halt alles so einfällt damit es uns leichter fällt zu Antworten.
Gruß
Christoph

What's hardware should upgrade for Using Premiere CS4 to editing (AVCHD)m2ts file?

What's hardware or software should upgrade for Using Premiere CS4 to editing (AVCHD)m2ts file?
1st question: when i try to do editing by using Premiere CS4 AVCHD sequence timeline, the edting monitor seems not smooth (like wearing goggles) & delay, and when i use AME to encode m2ts file (which not yet edit) to AVI file (about 1 hour), it take 2h 13min to finish, is it normal?
2nd question: i use mpeg2 HD 1440 file to do eding, the edting monitor also not very smooth but better than using m2ts file, after editing done, i try to encode these mpeg2 HD 1440 file (which edited about long 1 hr) to a New file mpeg2 1440 X 1080i HQ or even mpeg2 Pal DV HQ file, the encoding was not runthe encoding after wait for half an hour. How many hours it take usually????
3rd question: i use m2ts file video file to export as a Bitmap, 1 frame 1 picture bitmap, it take long time too, about 1 or 2min to finish encoding, if i export more than 1 picture, it take even more time, i have experienced it, 3 or 4 pictures need about 10 or 15 min to finish encoding. i used to using mpeg2 HD 1440 file (which edited file) to export frame as picture, it not run the encoding at all. WHY ????
i'm new in Premiere CS4,so i got many question about Premiere CS4, usually i use Premiere Pro 1.5 version
my computer is: Intel (R) Core (TM) 2 Duo CPU
                         E7400 @ 2.80 GHz
                         2.80 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM
                         Graphic Card: ATI Radeon X1650 series
                        2 Hard Disks in my computer (C Drive is 300 GB (not sata) , D Drive is 500 GB sata)
4th Question: Premiere CS5 & Premiere CS4 which one is better ???
5th Question: What's different ATI Radeon and NVIDIA Card, which is better, which u suggest to. What is different Graphic Card and Video Card ?? Should i install HD Video Card ????

I don't think a core-2 will work very well with AVCHD... you need at least an Intel i7 920... or whatever is current
My CS5/AVCHD 1st Impressions http://forums.adobe.com/thread/652694?tstart=0 includes a link to the computer I built... since the GTX 285 is no longer sold, I would now go with a GTX 460 or whatever is the current "best bang for the buck" - AND I would buy 4Gig-by-3Sticks memory to be able to expand from 12Gig to 24Gig if needed
For my home hobbyist, family movies (which means that I am not trying to recreate Star Wars with video effects or many layers) AVCHD editing is "as smooth as spreading warm butter on hot toast" (also the MP4 video from wife's Flip camera)
My 3 hard drives are configured as...
1 - 320G WD Win7 and all programs
2 - 320G WD Win7 swap file and PPro projects
3 - 1T WD all video files... read and write

AVCHD or HDV for Premiere Pro CS4?

Hi,
I have a P4, 2.8Ghz, 2G Ram with XP Pro. I hear rumblings that AVCHD is kinda a nightmare with Premiere CS4 in terms of playback stutter. Ultimately I want the least frustrating editing experience I can have with PPCS4. I'm prone to punching my desk if things get too bogged or buggy while dealing with software so I guess my question is this: Would PPCS4 be happier with AVCHD or HDV given my system?
Thanks,
Matt.

Matt,
I had a heftier machine than that and AVCHD was completely unworkable. As mentioned, you need some serious horses if you're going to do HD.
Based on a lot of excellent advice here (meaning solid, useful info even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear) I bought a heftier box and CS4 / AVCHD works just dandy now.
If you can't afford a new box, I'd convert your footage to SD and work in that format, or you'll have bloody knuckles from punching your desk all day.
And I second the reference to John, Hunt and Harm posts on hardware matters with great enthusiasm.

AVCHD in Ae CS5 is a sad joke.

Ok! AVCHD footage is playing perfectly in Premiere cs5 due to Mercury.
But no Mercury in AE C5 makes scrubbing the CTI such a difficult task!
And don't think my 8 core workstation is to blame.
The strange thing is that RAM preview is reeealy fast! (at last 64bit! )
So whats the point if after editing in Premier I have to render out to some other more AE friendly format instead of using my Pr project in Ae.
Even if only wanted to do some compositing in AE I would have to use something like Cineform compression before importing in AE....
This is so sad Adobe...
We waited a lot of years since the first 64bit processors for Ae to finaly catch up.
Are we gonna wait some more for decent AVCHD performance in Ae?
The Mercury playback could be the end of the time and space wasting workflows like cineform/prores.
But only if it existed in AE!
Whats the advantage of a tapeless workflow for AE cs5 user working cameras like Sony NX5 or AX 2000 if we get stuck with files that need to be
rendered with a different codec in order to be usable?
Is there an alternative workflow that I am inaware of ?
I have to admit I love Ae but some things are so disappointing I am starting to think seriously about alternatives...

After Effects isn't a real-time program, like an NLE.You shouldn't expect scrubbing to be smooth in After Effects; it's just not what After Effects does. It's not what any compositing and visual effects program does.
AVCHD is a long-GOP format (i.e., to decode each frame,After Effects has to get information from multiple surrounding frames). Playing these back therefore takes more time than is the case for formats that contain all of the information for a frame within that one frame.
After Effects CS5 has made a lot of performance improvements, but they mostly affect RAM previews and rendering to final output, which are the two features that can take advantage of Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously mutliprocessing.
There are a lot of tips for getting After Effects to work faster for various purposes here: "Improve performance"

Adobe CS4 Design Premium Compatability

Hello,
My daughter is required to use Adobe CS4 Design Premium by her School. I will have to buy a new laptop for this purpose. In this regard, I have few queries:
Most laptops come with Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) OS. Since the Adobe website states that this program is certified for 32-bit, I am not sure whether CS4 could perform perfectly on Vista 64-bit platform?
If the answer to the above is yes, then I intend to purchase a laptop with specs of Intel Duo 2 Core T6500 (2.1 Ghz 800 FSB 2MB Cache), 4GB RAM DDR2 800 MHz, display 1280 x 800, and 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive. Is this hardware sufficient to run CS4?
I am a layman as far as technology is concerned. I called up Adobe technical support 2 times: first time they said it wont work and second time they said it will work!!. I am totally confused. Since this means a significant investment to me, I request help and guidance from anyone on this subject.
Thanks,
AlokSaap

As you realize, the sky is the limit in terms of how you can configure a system. You could literally spend $10,000 on a new production PC but that certainly would not necessarily buy you any advantage unless you had particular needs that could take advantage of the extra juice that such a pricey configuration provides.
The problem with your request is that it doesn't say really what the typical user of these 2 to 3 new production PCs will actually be doing. For example, are they doing simple web page design in Dreamweaver with occasional entry into Photoshop to edit low resolution images for web display? Or are they jack-of-all-trade designers with windows open in InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator simultaneously dealing with graphically very complex and large files? Dedicated to graphics work or are there half a dozen browser windows plus Outlook (or some other e-mail client) open simultaneously?
Personally, I tend to “over-configure” on the basis that if I buy high quality systems not quite at the bleeding edge, but closer to the leading edge, I'll have a system that has a useful lifetime of at least four to five years although Adobe does “allow” its engineering employees' systems to be replaced every three years. I am currently running on a Dell Precision 5400 workstation (current model is 5500) with dual Xeon Quad Core 3ghz processors, 8GB of memory, two 15000rpm SAS (serially attached SCSI) 300GB disk drives, a DVD+/-R burner, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, and an nVidia Quadro FX 1700 video card driving a Dell 3007WP 30" monitor (2560x1600pixels). I have a very pedestrian Dell keyboard, but a Microsoft 8000 Bluetooth mouse. I do run quite a bit of stuff on this system using it as the hub in my office for running backups of other systems (to a bunch of IEEE1394-attached external drives), running InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop often in parallel, running tests against a development copy of the Adobe PDF Print Engine running on my system, as well as having e-mail and browsers open at all time. This system is running Vista Ultimate SP2 64-bit. This is really overkill for most users.
What you can get away for your users with of course depends on the tasks they will be running per my questions in the second paragraph above. Without those answers, some generalities:
(1)     Unless you are doing heavy video work, you really don't need more than one processor. A single processor at approximately 2.5 ghz or better with either 2 or 4 cores will do fine in most cases.
(2)     Memory is relatively cheap and will enhance performance more than almost any other resource you can buy today. In conjunction with that, go for either Vista 64-bit or Windows 7 64-bit (stay away from XP 64-bit like the plague). Why? Even though only Photoshop currently has a 64-bit version that can take advantage of 64-bit processing on its own, the 64-bit OS supports more than 3GB of memory and as such allowing larger amounts of real memory, you avoid the tremendous amount of disk thrashing that goes on as part of virtual memory paging operations when a whole bunch of applications running concurrently are competing for a small amount of real memory. I personally recommend 8 GB of memory in conjunction with Windows 64-bit as a minimum, even on new notebook systems!
(3)     Disk performance is also key, especially if you are dealing with large data files. As such, 10000rpm Serial ATA or 15000rpm SAS (serially attached SCSI) drives make a tremendous, noticeable difference in performance. However, high performance disks are quite pricey, especially the SAS ones since it is now a limited, specialty market. (For new notebook systems, avoid anything other than 7200rpm drives - the difference in cost for a 5400 versus a 7200rpm drive is quite small now. I just bought a new 500GB 7200rpm drive to update my notebook system - the cost of the drive was less than $150.)
(4)     You don't need a smoking video card (those things that cost upwards of $500 to $1000) to support the Adobe Creative Suite unless you are doing extensive video work or playing high performance video games in your spare time. Typically, a mid-range video card that supports very high resolution (such as 2560x1600) will be fine. What you don't want, either on a desktop system or a notebook computer, is an “integrated display adapter” that shares memory with the CPU. Typically, such video support appears on low end desktop and/or notebook computers - avoid like the plague!
(5)     For desktop systems, I'm partial to large, high resolution monitors even though my vision is quite good. I'm dealing with graphic arts and I need/want both high resolution and real estate. Although these 30" 2560x1600 monitors are relatively expensive, with reasonable care, they can last for years. I have one such monitor that is now in its fifth year with no degradation of quality. Cost per day is very low to keep your eyes from going crazy and to make your work more efficient. Once you use one these babies, you can't go back!
(6)     No preference on motherboards. That decision is generally made for you if you order a system from a major vendor. I personally am not into build-it-yourself systems. Not that I can't build those, but quite frankly, my own time is worth something and my biggest problem is having enough time to do everything I want. I get no particular pleasure in DIY computer building.
More if you give me more specifics about the usage profiles for the systems you will need to purchase.
          - Dov

[CS4] Clipping Mask issue (bug?) - Beachball when I try to select masked group

I have a somewhat complex compound path (1400 points) that I've duplicated several times and clipped. I want to make a second copy of this clipped set of objects. When I try to select the group that contains the clipping mask (with the selection tool or in the layers palette) illustrator chugs for over a minute. Once it's done chugging and I have my group selected I hit copy and paste. It chugs for another minute and then does nothing but deselect my group.
I saved the file down into CS3 format and opened it in CS3. I have no trouble with copy, paste, select, scale, or anything when I'm in CS3 - no slowdown at all. I saved the file in CS3 and opened the CS3 format file in CS4 and I still have the beachball/chug problem.
I'd like to note that the trouble begins only when I apply the clipping mask. I can select all those objects and copy/paste/rotate/scale/whatever until I apply a mask and then I can't do anything to them. The clipping mask itself is rather simple - only 26 points.
I'm on a G5 with 8gigs of RAM and over 30gigs of available space in my scratch disc. Any advice or any other users who've had this problem?

No that is not true and you know CS 3 does not come close to CS4 in performance and if I were you I would download the trial, although I have feeling you do not have the resources to to actually run the program and that has you quite miffed,
Perhaps the next release will finally release you, so long!
Tracy I found that there s a setting that is on by default in CS 4 that would make things go a bit slow and always has if selected by the user.
Clearly a mistake I would think but for some reason the default settings for the raster effects is 300 ppi as opposed to 72 ppi which really many times will eat up the memory no matter how much you have, and Illustrator can only use a limited amount of RAM something like 2GB, so that the amount of RAM is not the issue and the scratch could be as wide open as possible but it still will choke.
It may not have the resource to as in your case make a review. So I would try setting the document raster image effects setting to 72 ppi and then when outputting it change it to 300ppi or tell the printer to do so.
Hans I am sure you will now be relieved to find out that CS4 is behaving as it should with the right setting.
Enjoy the trial it is free. You are going to love CS 4.
I am mistaken Tracy and Hans CS 3 also has the default setting at 300 ppi I should have checked first.
Yes Hans this might be an issue that is a strike against CS4 on large complex projects
I am certain it was good idea to change the clipping path behavior. The question is how big or complex does the file have to be before this happens.
Hans you should still try the trial and see for yourself. Of course if you don't have the resources it might be difficult to load the trial.
I would still try changing the setting to 722 ppi and changing it for output after the work has been completed.
Yes I think you found and important bug.

Premiere Pro CS4 V4.0.0でのavi DVテープ出力が映像が真っ黒です.

Premiere Pro CS4 V4.0.0でのavi DVテープ出力が、後ほど再生すると映像が真っ黒となってしまいました。
今まで、CS4ではAVCHDは、編集・mpeg2・HDVのDVテープはうまく作成出来ております。
初めてCS4で、avi 4:3の編集を行った結果です。何か、打つ手がありますか？
V4.1.0でも結果は、同じでした。CS3やPro 2.0のavi 4:3は、正常に出力されております。

ｃｓ３とｃｓ４が共存しているのでしょうか？（同一pc内ということで）
其の場合は、すべてのヴァージョンをアンインストールして
cs４単体にしてから書き出しを行ってはいかが・・・・？
ｃｓ４は再インストールとなりますが・・・・・！！
また、４．１で作業を行うほうが良いでしょう。
特に日本語バージョンの場合・・・・・
pro2とcs3では、スクラッチディスクやMediaキャッシュ等の扱いが変わらないが
cs４から其のあたりが少し違っています。
それと、dvデバイスの設定は行われているのでしょうか？
その辺も分からないので詳細な環境も入れてみてはいかが？
ちなみにこちらでは何にも問題なく書き出し出来ています。
素材は、ms_dvキャプチャーしたものではあるのですが・・・・・
そもそもプレビューにてアウトしてみることが出来ます。

CS4: AVCHD performance

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