Premiere 4 stability problems

[efarnstrom]

Problems in getting the program to install seemed to be solved by: copying the install disk to the desktop; then disabling all the start ups; restarting the computer; disabling my security suite; reinstalling the program from the desktop.

I was successful in created a video of about 25 minutes with video clips, stills, transitions, menus, and scene menus. I also tried it with a theme, but was unable to see most of the thumbnails in the themes section. I removed the theme and revised it several times, rendered it, and previewed it with the menus. At this point I decided to change the ending to a credit roll. Went to edit, titles, and BAM! POOF! that was the last I saw of the program. I went to bed, discouraged once more.

Anyone else out there installing this program and getting it to work? Any ideas where to go from here? ATR, any other ideas??

BTW, I have a Pentium D CPU 2.8GHz, 2.79GHz, 3.50 GB RAM, XP w/SP2 with 33GB free space on the C drive.

[ATR]

When you went to change the credits, were you still in the Movie Theme mode? From what I have read, once you opt to do a Movie Theme, you can go back and change some of the features of that Movie Theme. So, I do not believe you are attempting anything that was not "written in the script", unless editing text in this feature specifically creates a problem. What happens if you edit everything in the Movie Theme except the credits? Crash?

I am still concerned that something in your project might be stressing out the project. Are you using stills or video? What are the pixel dimensions of the stills and the format of the video/audio? Did you get around to experimenting with size and content?

Have you tried taking this same project (which is not making it through the Movie Theme route), doing nothing fancy, and creating a DVD-VIDEO to see what happens with that share route.

I hope the above suggestions sound reasonable and will pin point the cause to a specific feature or an overall fault in computer and/or program.

Also, have you disabled nonessential applications that load during setup according to the Optimize Window XP Adobe TechNote?
Start
Run
Msconfig
Startup Tab, disable all
Services, check "Hide All Microsoft Services", then disable all
Close out and restart computer

To be continued...

ATR

[efarnstrom]

I feel that I have a good install after doing just that (however, not the disable Microsoft stuff).

I tried to recreate the error that shot me down the other nite. Too late to remember to make a note of what the error was at that time. So I used the same file and at the end of the sceneline clicked on edit>titles> found the title, and the error that appeared was the one that Microsoft wants you to debug or send an error message. I was not disabling start-ups to run the program. I belatedly remember having to run V3 without start-ups at the beginning, but hadn't done it all the time lately.

So, moving on: disabled start-ups under msconfig; restarted computer; opened Premiere.

New file: added 3 stills (1024x768 350KB jpgs), 4 videos - total 6 minutes.
Added 6 transistions by right clicking on the transition box in sceneline.
Edit> titles> chose title for rolling credits. Edited wording and changed fonts in the rolling credits. Checked Done.

I saved this as a new file, closed and opened the new file.

Clicked on Menus and chose the menu and scenes and had the program automatically add scene markers. Changed the text fonts and sizes.

Rendered the project. Clicked on Share and sent the file to my computer to be played on my PC with Adobe Flash Video.

All proceeded without any errors. Unfortunately, DUH...I don't have Adobe Flash Video.

So moving on.....I will try opening the file and saving some other way.

Success with a short video without any WOW effects except that WOW...no errors so far!

[ATR]

That definitely sounds like progress. Good systematic work.

Not so long ago, my computer went "out of control". The only way that the story had a happy ending was for me to do the Start/Run/Msconfig/disable all StartUp tab items PLUS disable all Services Tab items (key for Service tab items was checking off Hide Microsoft... before I hit disable all there. So, that is the origin of my suggestion.

Keep up the good work and thanks for the updates.

ATR

[Joe M]

Sometimes with problems like this it's a good idea to start with the basics.

Defrag.

Clean Windows Registry with something like Registry Mechanic. There are a lot of different programs you can use.

Make sure you have updated DirectX 9 and your video drivers.

[ATR]

Joe M

Thanks for joining the discussion and emphasizing an excellent point.

The suggestion about "disable all" Start Up/Services (hide Microsoft...) was one of many from an Adobe TechNote about optimizing Window XP for Premiere Elements. And, it was offered after other avenues were exhausted.

Your point is well taken...when troubleshooting, start with the basics. I went through the basics and more before I decided to try the suggestion mentioned above in that TechNote from Adobe. A systematic approach basic, intermediate, advanced is the best way. Another important concept is the same problem may not have the same solution for all...the one size does not fit all.

The suggestion that I gave in this post was to a troubleshooter who had tried just about everything.

Thanks again.

ATR

[ATR]

Yesterday I came across some rumblings from the Premiere Elements User to User Forum at Adobe. The rumblings were from Chuck Engels (most dramatic), Steve Grisetti, and some others.

I read the message as do not use Premiere Elements 4 (at present stage) to serious problems need addressing by Adobe. It is not uncommon for problems related to crashes while operating a given program. But, here they claim that, after spending hours on a project in Premiere Elements 4, it often becomes corrupt and you need to start again.

I have not seen reports of that at this web site. Any problems out there like that?

ATR

[efarnstrom]

Where I left you last, it seemed I could get a very, very short project to run with no WOW effects. This was running my system from a restart with NO startups, only McAffee security enabled. I added a few more clips and a short second audio to go along with the 3 stills and decided to render it. Well, about 60% rendered I got an 'out of memory' error. I have 3.5GB RAM, which I have optimized by changing the paging file size of my C: drive to the Adobe's recommended 1.5 times the amount of RAM. I have 30GB free on that drive. I am using the C: drive for the project files with the images coming from an external drive.

At that point I had to walk away from the computer very, very slowly.....

Yesterday, I reopened the file and it rendered completely. I guess the file isn't corrupted.

Funny thing. As you know, I bought this to get away from the bug that was bugging me in V3! I might just have to reinstall it.

Thanks for your continued interest!

[ATR]

Only very recently Premiere Elements 4 was being verbally buried especially in the Premiere Elements User to User Forums at Adobe.

It now appears that Grisetti/Engels has reconsidered after working together with the Adobe product manager to find the answer to the "file corruption" et al. issues encountered by them and some others.

Their findings, fix, and now recommendations for the product can be viewed in the following link. Check it out to see why or why not you may have experienced the same problems.

http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=1171

Any comments?

ATR