Premiere Pro CS6 having some serious issues with NVIDIA GTX 285

I started on a job today shot on a 5D and didn’t have time to convert to ProRES, so I decided to cut it in Premiere Pro CS6 to save conversion time, plus since I have a compatible PluralEyes to sync off camera audio. It took a bit of time to do the sync, but after I watched my footage and then began cutting, but Premiere Pro could not have been more unstable. I crashed over and over, and was losing time and work. So much that I tried exporting to quicktime, but it was just going to take too long to render the timeline so I could edit.

I found this thread on the Adobe Forums, and found my exact problem.

I’m on a MacPro 4,1, Lion 10.7.4, CS6.0.1, 32GB RAM, GTX 285 with the latest nVidia and CUDA drivers.  I am seeing 2 primary issues:

 

Lots of Serious Error crashes.  This happens without any noticeable pattern – sometimes with the title tool, trim monitor, or simply just scrubbing the timeline.  It seems to happen more frequently with Dynamic Links in the timeline.  Also, I believe it is happening more often (or maybe exclusively)  with the MPE GPU option enabled.  I think in Software Only mode, it may not be present, although further testing required.

 

Also, I am having an issue where Pr will display black only in the source and program monitors, unless I click around the timeline and will get flashes of images.  This is remedied by changing over to Software Only for the MPE.  It seems to be worse if Safari is running.

I was having the same issues exactly, and have the same system setup, but with only 24 GB of RAM, and am running Mountain Lion 10.8.0. I kept having to trash my prefs which worked for about 5 minutes before I crashed again.

So I decided to remove the GTC285 and put in my QUADRO FX 4800. It is old and slow, but still pretty decent. I installed it about 2 hours ago, and Premiere Pro has been rock solid afterwards.

This shows it is either an NVIDIA driver or CUDA issue, or something in the Premiere Code with the GTX 285, as with the QUADRO FX 4800 it is running like a dream.

Adobe and NVIDIA need to fix this fast, because this is a major issue. If it was not for me having a spare video card I would have been SOL, as I have to finish this project and fast!

UPDATE: Had one crash after 3 and a half hours, but I have been saving now, back to the old paranoid saving all the time. Still unbelievable the difference with the different video card!

UPDATE AGAIN: And crashed again! OK, so not rock solid, but still much better than it was with the GTX 285.

Red Giant has released Trapcode Suite 12

Trapcode Suite 12 from Red Giant on Vimeo.

Check it out at Red Giant, where it is $899 or between $99-$499 for an upgrade.

The new upgrade includes Trapcode Mir a brand new motion design tool.

Trapcode Mir from Red Giant on Vimeo.

It now includes 105 Particular/Shine Guru Presets from MoGraph artist David Vinson.

And maintenance updates for Lux, Echospace, Particular and Form.

The Guru presets help, but this doesn’t seem like much of an overall suite upgrade for the price, especially if you already have the guru presets! I mean a new app, that you may or may not use, and no update to the rest of the suite, and the upgrade costs the same as buying the app. Red Giant obviously included the Guru presets to make this seem more worthwhile, but at $99, it seems a bit much when all you get is a maintenance release for all the apps you know and love.

Blackmagic Design released DaVinci Resolve 9 Beta and a new Manual

DaVinci9Beta

You can download it from their web site right now. It is available for Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems.

They have had a significant user interface re-design, automatic 3D eye matching, multi layering timelines, additional xml support, log grading, 16 channels of audio, automatic audio sync, and the ability to have multiple frame rates in a single sequence (if you click a check box). You can read the press release or just download it now.

I built a DIY PVC Tabletop/Skate Dolly with help from DIY Photography

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Here it is in all it’s Glory, a bit different than the one they show, but perfectly adequate and can’t wait to start using it. It seems to roll pretty smoothly.

Check out the article and instructions by Martin Taylor at DIY Photography.

Now I tried following his instructions directly but at Home Depot I could not find a few of the pats, mainly the 4x connectors and the 4 x 3″ risers threaded on both ends (though now I am thinking maybe they are in the sprinklers sections instead of the PVC section).

Anyway, I did it with a couple of pieces of 3/4″ PVC pipe and a hack saw. My cuts weren’t straight, but when I glued them in they were perfectly straight, so it worked fine. It is a little bigger than his example (I had to get connectors for the caps since my 3/4″ didn’t have threads on the ends). And I had to get T parts without threads on the bottom, as I didn’t have the threaded extensions. Luckily having a bigger wheel base might make it a bit more stable.

Also I would change the screws to 1/4″ and 2 inches long instead of 1.5″ long. You could make them smaller with washers, and you could put more washers to make the whole thing more stable. These screws worked, but didn’t leave much space, and I had to shave the whole in the top piece to allow the screw to stick out at all.

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And I had gotten my scooter wheels years back to build a dolly (actually got 8 of them) at the dollar store for $1 for 2. Wish I had bought more now! Overall including a hack saw, the parts, the wheels, the pvc, screws and the glue cost me around $32, but that was with only $2 for wheels, and it could be more like $20. Looks like you can get them at Amazon for $4.99 with $5.34 shipping, though hopefully that would cut down if you ordered more than one set, though not sure. And this obviosly still needs a head, but you can get this one at Amazon for $12.99, or this one with a quick release plate for only 22.95.

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Am already thinking of building a low mode one, that would only go straight (this one can turn either set of wheels) byt taking out the elbow pieces and just going to the middle T, and that way the camera would be lower.

MacMatrix Updates SideEffects to work with Mountain Lion

MacMatrix has updated SideEffects which combines SIMBL and and ColorfulSidebar to return colored icons to OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. The best part is having your custom drive icons back (as they really do help you hit them).

The only thing that did not work for me was the finder restart added to your Users startup items, and I had to use my own I made with Automator, but I am back to color icons.

SideBar
Don’t these look so much better, and I love my custom icons as well!

I am still have some SIMBL crashes though, but have been in contact with the creator to see if we can clear them up, as I love my color finder icons!