"How can we improve Premiere?" list now has over 2700 entries... mostly bug fix requests...

[vanlazarus2013]

When I was first told about this resource, my curiosity was piqued.  Direct interaction with the development team....  Being able to detail exactly what I felt needed to be addressed in Premiere.  Sounded like a great resource.

But a few months later, and it just looks like another bug database filled with endless tales of woe..... I'm guessing nearly half of the 'feature' requests are customers begging to have a critical bug fixed.  Yet no-one at Adobe seems surprised nor gravely concerned. 

And on a side note....I really hope Adobe isn't considering porting Premiere to Linux before they address the majority of the terrible bugs in that list that Windows and Mac users are experiencing!  I realize that everyone has their favorite feature they want, but the most important feature is stability... and Premiere hasn't had it for years.

I just opened the Creative Cloud desktop app and there is another version of Premiere ready to install....  Instead of an excited emotion, I feel one of dread and fear... concern that this new version will kill my productivity in some new and extremely frustrating way.  This is not an unrealistic expectation..... it happens all the time with Premiere updates.  Clicking on the 'What's new?' link brings up this extremely detailed list of changes:

"Adobe Premiere Pro CC (13.0.2) adds support for exporting Apple ProRes on Windows, performance improvements, and bug fixes.  This update is recommended for all users."

This last jewel of advice is contrary to what is given by Kevin Monahan, who states that no editor should ever upgrade their editing software mid-project.  Since my projects take almost a year to complete, that means I can almost never upgrade, so what's the point of CC?  Sure, I'd love to have the ability to export ProRes files in Windows.  Sounds great.  But not if it means I suddenly can't export or import media, or use my GPU!  Actually, Premiere is so broken right now, I think I will take the red pill.  It can't get much worse.  I'll see you on the other side....

Stability with Premiere has steadily degraded since the CC model was implemented with seemingly monthly updates.  I wouldn't mind the update frequency if Premiere was stable.  Is anyone at Adobe questioning the current system they've implemented for development of the CC suite, Premiere in particular?

[R Neil Haugen]

You've got a number of misconceptions there.

First ... for 'historical' records, they leave all filings on the UserVoice system there, they don't delete/remove anything. So the vast majority of what you see that are say bug things are 1) multiple reports of similar bugs that 2) were fixed perhaps long ago.

Some of them are of course either recently filed (and not fixed yet) or the several long-term issues that do exist.

That is also the same forum for "ideas" ... requests for different new features or changed behaviors. ALSO never deleted, even if the item is changed. So many things there are not bugs at all.

If you go through this, there are engineer responses in quite a number of threads. They do not respond to all threads as there's only so many engineers ... but they do look at them. I think it would be a good idea if they had a "been read" marker of some kind showing after someone on staff has looked through a post.

Many bug filings of course are concerning the same issue ... so if you've got say 200 posts on one issue, by the time they've checked with a couple or three users, they may have all the information they need to schedule time for a fix. At that point, additional filings by users are perhaps like someone hitting the elevator call button twenty times.

There are several reasons that multiple filings DO help enormously. First is the data for how wide a bug is affecting the userbase. Second is to see if there are variants of gear, media, or setup that are affecting a bug. Third is to get the data "up" to the senior managers that determine the engineering needs and time budgets for the various apps.

So ... that is a repository of information, not a constantly updated source of current issues.

Neil

[vanlazarus2013]

I like that this list is historical, and never meant to imply that all of these issues mentioned are outstanding and that there are not MANY duplicates..... but I still find it disturbing how many people are encountering show-stopping bugs.... We're not talking about little trivial UI wish list requests.  We're talking: 'I can't export my project' issues.  Those kinds of issues prevent people from using the fundamental tool that Premiere so often brags about on the website.   Perusing Adobe's marketing for Premiere on their website is disturbing.

Crashes are happening for many people EVERY DAY, sometimes EVERY HOUR.  I just had 5 crashes this morning trying to render a simple sequence with 20 intermediate files.

Since posting this message I've since discovered the 'resolved' and 'completed' status pulldown options to view what has been addressed from this list, which is useful.... but notice only about 140 out of 2700 issues posted are classified, with only 53 labeled 'resolved' or 'completed'.  That's 53 out of 2700... or 2%.   It doesn't feel like even one person at Adobe is working on curating and monitoring this list every day.  There should be a team just working on this list alone.... and I'm not talking about the engineers, I'm talking about people that categorize, prioritize, and respond to clients.  Can Adobe just spend a few hundred subscriptions from clients each month on this list?

I see some posts in this list dated as early as July 1st, 2018.... so we're at least 6 months in, with 53 posted issues resolved.  There is probably hundreds of unique bugs in the code currently.  Forget features.  Lets focus the effort on fixing bugs and get Premiere stable... If a conservative estimate of 300 unique bugs are outstanding, at this rate, we're looking at 3 years to make Premiere stable.  And that's if old features don't get broken with new features added (at the rate they have been in the past).

On a plus note, I upgraded Premiere to the latest version and was able to finally render my project.  Haven't done any editing yet so unsure if other issues exist.  Still amazed how slow the editing experience has become in Premiere.  We have games that update millions of polygons and textures on our computer at 90fps and yet Premiere can't move a few thousands of boxes around at more than 2fps.  It's unbelievable.

[Warren Heaton]

vanlazarus:

Have you tried a clean install with just your OS and Premiere Pro?  We're long past the days of that being an absolute requirement of a digital video workstation, but if you're experiencing a significant number of performance issues, that's the go-to place to start troubleshooting.

Of course, once you have a stable system (hopefully with all the software that you need for your day-to-day tasks), definitely upgrade with caution.  I maintain a bootable backup to make getting out of messy updates as easy as possible.  I avoid the ".0" updates and wait for the ".1" and ".2" versions.  Also, I always uncheck "Remove old versions" whenever possible so that I have the version I'm used to (and all too familiar with whatever quirks it may have) as well as the newest version.

-Warren

[vanlazarus2013]

Warren, don't you find it unfair that you're paying $55 USD a month for professional software, with which you have to jump through all these hoops in order to use?  Are we professional editors or a software beta testers?  Is this the expected norm with subscription online updated software?  Because if is, I want to go back to the days when makers of software had to get it right BEFORE releasing it.

I've subscribed to CC for over 4 years now.  At roughly $50 USD a month, that's over $2400 USD (or $3200 CAD at today's exchange rate).  Shouldn't the software given in exchange for this cost be reliable and efficient?

[Warren Heaton]

If I used only the Windows version of Premiere Pro, I would be holding fast and firm to CC2018 hoping for better stability so that I could finally use an all ProRes workflow.  At the same time, I have to clients that have recently switch to Windows from a decade plus of Final Cut Studio and are fine with every last quirk and crash of CC2019 to be able to continue with ProRes from start to finish.

I usually work on macOS, and while the 2019 release isn't perfect, it isn't nearly the challenge that Premiere Pro is on the Windows side (the odd behavior with Speed/Duration changes on video clips in the Timeline - namely that the clip boundary doesn't extend as it used to - is enough to make you want to cringe just a little bit).

I don't know if the release was rushed or what, but it's probably the most challenging one to work with out of the gate (not counting the failed launch of After Effects 3 for Windows, I think it was finally "right" with version 4).

As far as freelance clients go, I have two that are still with CS6, a few that are CC2014 or 2017 and then the rest are CC2018.  I have them all installed concurrently on my machines, taking up valuable drive space!

As for the cost, sure I wish it was cheaper, but for something I use to make a living off of, $53/month isn't so bad for Premiere Pro (I use a lot), After Effects (I use a ton), Audition (I use a little), Photoshop (I use a lot), Illustrator (I use a lot), Animate (I use some), and Media Encoder (I use a ton), I think it's a deal.  Oh, and Adobe Fonts?!?!?  That library was upwards of $6,500 on it's own and now we have access to it all.  Maybe, if I could change anything, there would be a $10 mix and match option.  So users could pick 3 to 4 applications for $10 a pop.

One could certainly give Resolve a try, especially now that Fusion (compositing) and Farlight (audio) are integrated, it could be the very best deal in town.  I have it installed, but rarely have time to "kick the tires".  I also have a few clients using Final Cut Pro X, yet you can count me in with those still morning the loss fo Final Cut Pro classic.  It's been ages since I've had to cut in Avid Media Composer, but I'd jump back on it in a second if needed.  Of course, Avid is a good example where it's just the OS and the software and nothing else.

[R Neil Haugen]

I'm with Warren but ... on my PC, it's been stable as a rock on a huge flat surface. So many of the queries I deal with here on the forums are actually Macs ... and I can't replicate the issue. I've had some major Pr bugs in the past, but currently ... pretty solid.

I use Pr, Ae, Au, daily ... then some Lightroom & Photoshop weekly, some Illustrator occasionally. And some Prelude and still SpeedGrade on occasion. At the 'old' prices, no way could I have afforded all that or come close to justifying everything.

Naturally you will find some large number of bug filings ... you got any idea how many people use Pr daily? How many thousands of people? Across multiple OSs and an immense array of hardware & media. Yea, there's some bugs, there are gonna be bugs.

I do some in Resolve, mostly color but some working the other tools. Awesome color, the editing is ... meh ... to me, but some love it. Pr runs a bit better on my Pc with the same media for color work or editing. Others ... it's reversed.

I also work and communicate with a number of colorists, so I hear about the Resolve bugs also.

They're tools ... just tools. Use what works for your and your gear/needs.

Neil

[megacinn]

perfect ..totally agree

only one additional comment:

If anyone has seen patrick palmers interview during last years IBC show on RedShark .. that explaines everything.

After telling a few more or less interesting new features he immediately switched to his most exciting new notable CC19 news.

The news about characteranimator.

You could see his enthusiasm in that presentation.

Showing this in a pro-media channel says everything.

Which pro has ever used this childish toy in a reallife production !?

That explaines that adobe is going the same way as some other companies ,aiming at the massmarket for semi's and quantities .... not quality for pro users anymore.

But there is one difference: They try to treat anyone in terms of the financial side as super-pro.

Let's see how long that works.

In our case ...he /they failed