Merge to HDR in PS CS4 broken

Question

I'm using Photoshop CS4 as part of Creative Suite CS4 on a MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard.  When executing the File>Automate>Merge to HDR command, the program crashes with the following error: The command "<unknown>" is not currently available.  This error occurs at the very end of the script, after it has successfully imported the individual images into layer and has created the merged image.  A screen shot of the message is attached.
It seems to have crashed in the course of processing the exposure information.  If I click OK the image simply disappears.  I would really appreciate suggestions on how to troubleshoot and correct this issue, since one of my HDR workflows is now completely inoperative!  Thanks!
Peter

Answer 1

ChrisThanks for checking into the problem, I really appreciate you going to
the trouble of taking the photos.  It appears we are doing the exact same
thing.  I'm also using a tripod and since i cant bracket through 9 shots i
have to roll through the shutter changes which gives a slight mis-alignment,
I always use a tripod.
I dont have any plugins, this was a new upgrade, hdr never worked for large
images from day 1 with CS4 (worked fine in CS2).  I had a horrible time
installing, nothing worked, it crashed, stuff missing etc.  The first 2 days
of the tech support nightmare was just trying to get it installed or to
recognize my old serial #. Finally someone there said uninstall everything
(5th or 6th time by then) and you must install acrobat first then the rest
of CS4....? He then said that it was a known issue for installing on
WinXP-64 ! Not well known.
Once it was "working" I noticed there was no pdf output and hdr didnt work -
so another day at tech support, on hold and given the runaround because no
one there had a clue how to fix either problem. They would give me the wrong
answer, hang up and close my case!  A lot of my correspondance from those
cases is missing hmmmm?!  Oh, if only those calls were really being
recorded, i would pay for a copy of those! course you'd have to edit out the
16 hrs i spent on hold!  Anyway, I found that i was just missing the output
module, found that out on someone's blog. Tech support didnt know that ?!
HDR was replicted, but no response. Included below is my last ticket which i
will not close and they will not answer.
I did more tests myself, all using align with a group of 9 images shot as
jpgs sRGB 5616 x 3744 (so they are only about 6-10 MB each)
using 3 of the 9 images (center, and 2 extremes) it took 1 min
using 4 images: 4 min
using 5 images: 7 min
using 6 images: 18 min
using 9 images:  gave up after 45 min (had to crash out, can't cancel)
I shrunk the images down to 3600 pixels and tried all 9 and it completed in
29 min (see attached)
I monitored the task manager and saw that the memory usage was only about
1/2 available (4 G ) and all 8 processors worked through most of the align
function
Since I was able to do all 9 at full size in CS2 in a couple of minutes, and
you can currently do 10 at about the same or less, then the only differnce i
can see is that my CS4 is WinXP-64 and my CS2 was the 32-bit version ?  Can
I also install CS4-32-bit?  or even my old  CS2-32-bit on another drive?  I
shudder to think of going through that installation nightmare again.
Thanks,
Pete A
Case #0181230176
Updated
Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:42:33 PM PST
Opened
Friday, October 16, 2009 12:37:58 PM PDT
Status
Open - Pending Adobe Response
Product
Photoshop Windows Vista
  Support contract
Adobe Support Program
Subject
Merge to HDR Error
Notes & responses
Notes from Customer
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 8:36:04 AM PST
still waiting, is anyone looking into this?
perhaps someone there could take the time to tell me whether this bug is
being looked at or whether you plan to do nothing?
where are my other posts between this one and Nov 2?
Notes from Customer
Monday, November 2, 2009 8:20:33 PM PST
still open