Customer Reviews

Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a faithful Adobe products user for more than a decade now, and yet I find it is still difficult to rate this product as high as I would like to. Adobe seems, in my opinion, to knowingly toss out imperfect software, then struggle to provide updates to fix issues that should have been handled prior to release. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is not a bad product, it just could have been better.

The problems are somewhat minor, but frustrating none the less. The biggest issue for me is the random crashing. I find myself hurrying to complete a segment or sequence so I can save it and move on. Yes, there is an auto save feature, but it also has its own set of issues so I don't use it. The crash isn't a freeze or "blue screen of death"...the program simply closes without any notice and you lose all the work since your last save. My system is an AMD 64X2 Dual Core processor, 8 gigs of ram and a 1.5 TB main program drive. All of my data from my projects are on additional drives, separate from the main drive as recommended. I am running WinXP Pro SP3. So, although my system exceeds the minimum requirements set by Adobe, I still experience issues that may be related to either the OS or system design and it is maddening.

One issue that may indeed be the main culprit is that Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 was the first of the series to be optimized for use in a 64 bit environment, yet designed to run in a 32 bit system as well, or so they say. A jack of all trades is a master of none as Adobe may have realized when it released the new CS5 version. System requirements for the newest release indicate a dual core 64 bit processor and OS only.

I am so familiar with the Adobe work flow and interface that I am unlikely to switch now but rather continue on...like working to make a bad marriage better. But these issues should have been handled prior to release.

An upgrade from CS 1.5 and it speeds up work dramatically. Works extremely well on a 64bit Vista machine. Importing video from an Xacti is a problem as they do not all come in correctly. I use ConvertXtoDVD and create .avi files that then work very well in Adobe Premiere. Other imports work very well.

We were using Adobe Premiere Pro v.2 and the upgrade was well worth the reasonable price.

I have no reason to doubt this upgrade will work beautifully. However, I failed to read the "System Requirements" before purchasing because I've NEVER had to so very, very seriously upgrade my computer for a mere "upgrade". I mean like doubling the capabilities of my current computer.

In a word, I will have to buy an entirely new computer in order to use this product. I cannot return the CS4 upgrade, I don't think. I opened it and tossed the packaging and tried to install before the software stopped me cold, saying it would not load itself on my inadequate system.

Maybe in a year, I'll re-do my review and tell you how great his product is. But that will have to wait.