Encore CS4 Missing Frames/Stops Starts and Blue Screen Crashes During Playback

Question

I'm opening Premiere Pro CS4 with the default presets of HDV Capture, HDV 1080i30 software only mode. I'm capturing from my Canon HV20 using firewire HDV out 1440 x 1080. All goes well during the editing process but when I Dynamic Link and playback in Encore CS4 I observe dropped frames or stop and starts in Encore timeline sequence. At times I may even crash Encore with a Blue Screen. While still running Encore I can go back to Premiere Pro and play the timeline sequence with no issues. I will mention that I have the Matrox RT.X2 installed. But when starting a project I'm doing software only and disabling RT.X2 hardware playback. If I remove all effects in the timeline sequence and then Dynamic link to Encore the playback is normal with no effects. I did exported the Premiere Pro CS4 project using Adobe Media Encoder CS4 with a setting of MPEG 2 Blu-ray 1440 x 1080i 29.97 High Quality. I than import this MPEG2 back into Adobe Encore CS4 and it plays without dropping frames or hang-ups.
Build
Case: Coolmaster-830
Op System: Vista Ultima 64 Bit
Edit Suite: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Line Upgrade
Adobe Premiere Pro CS 4.0.1 update before installing RT.X2 Card and 4.0 tools
Performed updates on all Adobe Production Premium Products as of 01/12/2009
Matrox RTX2 4.0 Tools
Main Display: Dell 3007 30"
DVI Monitor: Dell 2408WFP 24"
MB: ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 Intel X38
Display Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 Toxic ver.
PS: Corsair|CMPSU-1000HX 1000W
CPU: INTEL Quad Core Q9650 3G
MEM: 2Gx4|Corsair TW3X4G1333C9DHXR DDR3 (8 Gigs Total)
1 Sys Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB
Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
2 Raid 0: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Using Intel's integrared Raid Controller on MB

Answer 1

Try to remember this:
Encore "Tries" to playback from premiere pro.  If you have a full set of previews available, it will play those, but you are probably seeing a lot of dropped frames and choppy video if your previews in premiere are set pretty low.  What you can do to combat this--in my experience--is export your video from premiere into a whole file in full format (in a non-lossy format with full frames, and in it's proxy equivalent;  I use Prores LT for many projects, and export that as a final output from premiere), then have that encode in an h.264 format (which will maximize smooth motion and quality playback).  Now... ...In your encore project, you should be outside of your original formats and in the intermediary that encore will recognize, so you should have it "Locate transcoded file".  Once you have done so, it will playback that movie in the preview.  I've done it.  With CS6 and 4gb ram with a vidcard at 256mb and a core2duo 2.16ghz, it plays fine.  With CS4 the encoding takes a while, and if you go to dvd, even longer for compression to work properly.  I use Compressor to output AVCHD .264 stream and an AC3 file.  When I locate the transcode for BD, I locate the .264 file first, then I get asked for the AC3 file.  This allows me to import them both, and have Encore encode them into the transport stream without transcoding.  I use Distributed processing to get the job done quickly, as I have minimal access to several computers and have connected them by that method for a Render Farming setup.  It works well.  With a hardware based device playing back your files, you won't see the same performance in Encore.  It has to make two hops already to get to your video, and adding a third (goes from encore to Premiere, then to codec, then plays normally;  third step is to external hardware, which eats up processing like crazy when it has to come all the way back to an encoding output to screen through encore, adding more steps for the system along the way) really can slow down the performance in Encore.  IF you take the Steps out by encoding a finished playback stream, Encore will handle it quickly with it's own processing.  It really does work well.  If you don't like it, make your changes in Premiere, then re-encode with your hardware and make an h.264 file for encore again.  You can use AME, but you'll always get standard Blu-ray (old file-stream format; lesser res and quality).  You can use Compressor to make AVCHD which allows for 264 output that is PSF or progressive that is interpreted as simultaneous fields (fake interlace), or even solid progressive formatting for AVCHD compatible players, and you can render-farm it to speed up the encoding process.