PPro CS5 GUI on mac really jerky

[yuki.P]

Moving clips around on the timeline of CS5 on the mac is like playing Russian roullette; you never know where the clip is actually going to fall. It's like the interface has a refresh rate of 5fps or something. It seems to take forever for clips to snap against each other, and this lag causes the user to think something is wrong and then move the clips around more than necessary.

Please please tell me that this will be addressed in a point release. I don't want to have to pay to upgrade for a solution to a problem that should never have made it to a full release.

[Keith Moreau]

Lasvideo, are you using 10.7.x with your Mac Pro?, Buralhan, have you encountered the Lion / Premiere Pro eyedropper problem? This is the one reason I'm not sure I want to upgrade. I use the eyedropper a lot for keying and color correction, it seems like a nasty bug that makes a lot of effects unusable. Thanks for any insight.

[lasvideo]

Keith, Im on 10.6.8 of OSX . Im in no rush to go to 10.7 since my system runs great and I have no need for FCP XXX.   If I upgarde in the future it will probably be to a PC. Apple is EOL with me.

[Cutwithray]

I would love to try this out, but since there is no news from Blackmagic about driver updates, I am stuck for the time being. I have another machine coming with Lion Pre-Installed and from what I have been told there is no way to go back to Snow Leopard because of the new firmware in the machine. The only way to run Snow Leopard is to run it in virtualization. I will post my results in a week or two. Hopefully by that time there will be a new driver from Blackmagic that supports 5.5.1

Ray

[Powered_by_Design]

I dont have a MAC but it seems like this timeline work-around is at least a step in the right direction.

Are there any changes if you un-dock the panels ?

Or use the ~ and use full screen ?

GLenn

[SAVP Edit 1]

Hey guys this is great news. A big thanks to all who have contributed. I am at home for the weekend so will try it out at work on Monday.

If this really is the source of the problem then I can't see why the talented guys at Adobe won't be able to find a permanent solution.

Great stuff. The thought of maybe going back to PC's did not really fill me pleasure.

Now I'm excited!

Alex

[SAVP Edit 1]

BTW I just tried this on my brand new 27" i5 iMac at home and lo and behold the same problem occurs when expanding the timeline out, (if you have the timeline at the default size there is not really a problem) to a point, and then when it gets so big that the greyed box thing occurs, suddenly the response is very snappy.

Basically I'm getting the exact replica of Paul's Part 5 video.

Cool Bananas!

[Shawn4G]

I have a Mac Pro 8 core machine running all the latest updates and have this same problem.  I acutally just put in a bug report to adobe about it. I edit with my entire second screen as the timeline because I get massive timelines with many graphic layers and audio layers.

[Guest]

2010 Mac Pro, 12 GB of RAM, SSD HD, and I have the same problem as well. Clips seem to take a loong moment to move with the cursor.

[Cutwithray]

I just ran a quick test on a fully loaded MAC Tower against a PC that was a fraction of the cost and has no storage subsystem. Editing Canon 5D raw h.264 clips. The PC is so razor sharp and responsive compared to the very sluggish MAC system. I realize we have the laggy issue that is part of this problem, but also the capture card as well. This is an all dialog driven edit and using the JKL features with the capture card on the MAC are simply non-existent. It simply is a joy to edit on the Win 7 system and a very sloooooow process on the top of the line MAC. If I didnt need ProRes and Final Cut on a daily basis, I would seriously be eyballing the Win7 system.

Hopefully Adobe will take some additional time to optimize the MAC version and also get together with their hardware partners. We need help.

MAC

OSX 10.6.7

12 Core @ 2.93GHz

SSD

32GB Ram

Quadro 4000

Fibre SAN

Blackmagic Decklink Extreme HD

Dual 24" Monitor

PC

Win 7 64

i7 950

SSD

12 GB Ram

GeForce GTX 470

30" Monitor - (Runing 1920 x 1080)

[Guest]

Dear Todd, Adobe 'Official' & 'Unofficial' Forum Users, and other Adobe Employees:

You have been very helpful .. and reasonable .. whereas I have been upset and demanding.

Now the cat is out of the bag regarding the poor performance on high end Macs on your Forums regarding Premiere Pro .. and issues that have been driving me nuts for months ( Since JAnuary ) have surfaced. ... Wait till they find the one that erases all the dynamic links! ( Check my other posts )

Now Lion has opened the door to more problems .. while Adobe has yet to solve the Snow Leopard issues.

What is Adobe going to do?

Time Magazine just featured a Apple / Adobe article that was spot on regarding Lion and the non-functional Adobe suite.

http://techland.time.com/2011/07/22/adobe-os-x-lion-is-buggy-adobe-reader-not-compatible/

Be it as it may that Apple and Adobe's professional proprietary war concerns Flash and HTML5 .. this has nothing to do with the 'suite' .. save for Apple's embarrasing reviews of Final Cut X.

Adobe should seize this unique moment and support Mac users like they never did before!

Adobe needs to make a official statement. Hire programmers. Or things are bound to only get worse.

I have a case report into Apple Senior Tech that I have yet to reply to // cause I was waiting for some relief from your Forums.

I have been waiting for replies from Adobe tech regarding many bug reports and posts .. and I get nothing.

Regardless of your continuous "Post Bug Reports Here:" to Forum users ... it obviously does not suffice, and response from tech direct is unacceptable. The call center is a joke for professional users .. not that I am one .. but in one month I seem to know more about it than the foreigner at the call center.

Sorry to be so determined .. but I am a unsatisfied customer looking for a solution to the only software option I have .. with an approx. $9,000 investment in a terribly disappointing suite.

Please respond.

[needles27]

I second the post by Pharther.  MacPro user, recent switcher from FCP, bought into the new system with a big investment, and I am completely dissatisfied so far with the performance, the bugs, the (mostly) PC-centric view in the forums and the complete lack of help from tech support so far.  There are big issues with editing with CS5.5 on a MacPro, and with the big push to get switchers from FCPx, it would be nice to see Adobe help make us early adopters (the early switchers) sing Premiere's praises with a smooth, working editing environment.  For now, I advise all Mac owners to steer clear for the time being.  I don't mean to be too negative, just letting Adobe know that some of our issues feel like they are on the back burner.  I see how amazing the Adobe editing platform can be, and my frustration comes from not being able to experience it fully, yet.

[Butch2oc]

Just to let you know, I placed this issue with Adobe sometime ago, and sure, it would be great to see this issue fixed but I would like to say that

Adobe tech support have been very keen to get on top of it. All in all, their support has been great and they always respond.

I emailed the person who handled my case and got a response back straight away.

The response:

"The bug is being looked upon by the engineering team.  You can keep the bug number handy. It’s “Bug # 2881825” .

I don’t have details about when will it get fixed as it’s a higher level decision"

I can only imagine what may be involved in solving the issue from an engineering sense, but at least they are on to it.

Even with this issue (and it's workaround) I still think Premiere is far superior to FCP.

Have faith, it's a great product and will only get better.

Cheers

[Cutwithray]

Hey Wil & Todd,

Still waiting to hear if we found the problem yet and how we are going to fix it. I would hope a point upgrade is in the works sooner than later on this MAC GUI bug.

Can anyoneone from Adobe comment on this. Its been since July 15th since Wil commented on the bug. Quite a while now with no word.

Thanks

Ray

[Paul_Joy__UK_]

I agree, it would be nice to have some kind of update as to the progress of this. For me the laggy timeline thing is just a small part of the general lack in performance that premiere achieves on the mac. Adobe have taken such huge strides forwards with CUDA enhancement and realtime playback etc but there's some very basic GUI issues on the mac version that PC users are not experiencing.

I'm working on a project today that envolves a lot of DSLR footage and the way Premiere takes ages to display thumbnails in the project window is driving me nuts. It's not using the CPU, the memory or the hard drives so what exactly is it busy doing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzbJ_CcHN4o

I'm striving forward through the pain in hope that someone at Adobe can help us but the lack of responce about all the mac performance issues on the forum isn't exactly filling me with confidense at the moment.

Message was edited by: Paul Joy (UK)

[Todd_Kopriva]

We're working on fixes for several performance-related issues. We'll give an update when we have something useful to say.

[Guest]

Thanks Todd.

1.) Check Multi Camera Editing.

2.) Check Mouse Click Double Click Drag Etc ..

3.) Watch Activity Monitor ( Especially the Multi-Processor Option ) to see what processors are being used and what are not during intensive tasks .. such as Stabilizing and other effects.

4.) Check I/ O drive performance.

5.) Check Audio playback while starting / stopping video clips in single sequence / dynamic linked sequence / multi camera edits ... sound sometimes does not

6.) WARNING: I have found a bug in using dynamic link between PP and AE. Most other Mac users have yet to discover it. If you do not address this there will be major problems down the road.

Good Luck

[lasvideo]

Pharthur  - "6.) WARNING: I have found a bug in using dynamic link between PP and AE. Most other Mac users have yet to discover it. If you do not address this there will be major problems down the road."

Ive done extensive work with PrP and AE 5.5 utilizing the dynamic link.  Me and another member of the forum bumped into something that at first looked like a major bug...but as it turned out it was more related to a necesary workflow when utilizing that function. Do you care to elaborate what you are referring to?

[Guest]

Yes.

If there is a "Linked Composition" in PP, one MUST open that "Linked Composition" first in Premiere Pro prior to creating another one in AE if the project was closed or PP was quit.

If you don't .. the almost all of the previous Linked Compositions will corrupt into the most recent one .. and there is no way to retrieve them.

There is no warning when this happens.

Info: If there is one dynamic link from PP to AE .. then the filename used to save it initially in AE is the key.

If you are asked for another filename while AE opens during your work session ( which should only happen when you shut down the program(s) or close the projects ) ... it is a sign that you need to open the first ( or any ) of the LC in PP.  There is only one filename used to create the dynamic link between PP and AE.

OK?

NOTE: Another part ...  once a clip is converted to a Linked Composition .. there is no way to turn it back ( Revert to Original is not a option ) I have no idea why one cannot do this .. obliviously overlooked at Adobe.

I lost a terrible amount of time and work trying to figure this out ..

[lasvideo]

Yes, I also found that after opening a project I  immediately highlight a linked clip and select "Edit in Originial" to open the associated AE Project.

From that point on I  link new clips to AE with no problem.

And yes. if you just selected a new clip and then selected Replace with AE Composition, it would create a second new AE project and use the same naming conventions that your first project used, thus confusing the hell out of PrP and not showing the correct images in the redundantly name linked clips.

Im not sure if this is really a bug or just a naming convention that demands a certain work flow. It took me a while to figure this out as well.   😉

There is no way to revert, but what I do is make a copy of the clip on the timeline and put it on Video Track 2 then disable it. That way I have the original if I need it. Quick and easy.

[Guest]

It drove me nuts.

There has got to be some poor bastard out there pulling his hair out who has no idea this forum issue ( or a solution ) exists.

It should be fixed.

[Guest]

Adobe's reply:

I tried to reproduce your bug, but was unsuccessful. I thought that the
issue might have something to do with the fact that you are making sub clips
from a single source clip. Or possibly that the in/out points for the sub
clips are referencing timecode values that are non-sequential (i.e., the
section of the source clip that is being used in the first two linked clips
occurs after the third clip). Now I’m thinking that your original assessment
of the clips being corrupt may be correct. The clips themselves aren’t
corrupt. I think somehow you got into a state where the Premiere project is
corrupt, and is referencing the incorrect After Effect projects when trying
to display frames for the linked comps in your sequence. How could that
happen? My guess is that somewhere in the production process, you
created/named one or more of the After Effects projects with a numerical
value (i.e., aeproject01.aep, aeproject02.aep). Unfortunately, there is a
known issue that occurs when using Dynamic Link between After Effects and
Premiere, where the Premiere project will only displays frames from the comp
that is from the After Effects project that ends in the highest numerical
value. The work around is don’t name your After Effects projects ending in a
numerical value, or use numerical values, but place the AE projects in
different directories on you local system. We are hoping to address that
particular issue in the next release of Production Premium.

[Paul_Joy__UK_]

Thanks todd, any update is useful at the moment.

[pur3forlyphe]

Can confirm i have this problem on my Mac Pro too, sometimes it can get to up to lagging 6 seconds before it places a clip, shame think i might get rid of Premiere and go for Final Cut Studio 3 which i can tell you is alot quicker , premier is a really broken app

[Cutwithray]

Premiere Pro is far from broken. Like all applications that mature over time and versions, you get new features and you also get some bugs. I can certainly accomplish all that I need to on a daily basis. What I can say is that this particuluar bug is really slowing me down and I am losing time over the course of the day. When I compare the PC version with the MAC,(I have both) there is no comparison, the PC currently is winning by a large margin.  I have the need for Final Cut and ProRes also on a daily basis and therefore must also use a MAC. To me I am platform agnostic and see both as tools in my belt to get the job done.

Adobe is aware of the issue and hopefully will track it down quickly and get a point update out to all of us in a short time.

Lets hope sooner than later,

Ray T

[Guest]

I have no PC to compare it to .. I have a very expensive Mac which should not such performance issues.

Hopefully there is something in the works. I have had issues since January.