My PRE8 Chronic Crashing Work-around

[RJ Johnston]

The problem I am having with chronic crashing and not being able to start the trial version of PRE8 has something to do with hardware acceleration. The problem is so severe that even DirectDraw acceleration has to be turned off.

In Windows XP Pro SP3, moving the troubleshooting slider (in Advanced display settings on the Troubleshoot tab) to the "Disable all but basic acceleration" tick fixed the crashes I was having. It also fixed the problem I was having starting a new project or opening an existing project in the trial version.

Troubleshoot.jpg

The problem with this setting is that playback is not smooth unless the timeline is rendered. The setting has to be changed back if I use other apps that require DirectDraw.

This might be related: I can't get the video stabilizer to stabilize. All that effect does is zoom in.

[JohnnyO]

RJ:

Thanks for the tip. However, at some point you have to ask if this workaround is worth it. Especially since you need to put out $100 for the package.

I have been using MAGIX MEP 15 plus steadily for the last few months now. It is musch more stable that PRE and offers lots of cool stuff. I can't remember the last time the package crashed.It is also just as powerful as PRE, in some cases even more powerful. I actually like the interface much better than PRE, now that I am used to it.

[RJ Johnston]

I can now move the troubleshooting slider back to normal.

Just read on the Adobe forum that some users were fixing all their problems by back-peddling to an earlier version of Quicktime. While it hasn't fixed all my problems, going back to Quicktime 7.3.1 fixed the problems I was having with chronic crashing.

I also noticed that the Video Stabilizer, the one that comes with PRE8, now actually stabilizes.

Edit: The Video Stabilizer "sometimes" stabilizes.

[JohnnyO]

Just read on the Adobe forum that some users were fixing all their problems by back-peddling to an earlier version of Quicktime. While it hasn't fixed all my problems, going back to Quicktime 7.3.1 fixed the problems I was having with chronic crashing.

I guess you and I are in the minority when it comes to keeping Quicktime up to date.

I will give PRE8 another try after I go back to Quicktime 7.3.1. I will search for the older version on the Quicktime web site

[Jayell]

Just read on the Adobe forum that some users were fixing all their problems by back-peddling to an earlier version of Quicktime. While it hasn't fixed all my problems, going back to Quicktime 7.3.1 fixed the problems I was having with chronic crashing.

Is that only for V8? My newly purchased of V7 seems to crash relatively often. I'm on Quicktime 7.5.5.

[Bob]

I'm on Quicktime 7.6.2 and everything is stable. Of course, I don't have Premiere Elements 8.

[JohnnyO]

I had Quicktime 7.6.4 and everything with PRE7 was stable. I went back to version 7.3.1 and PRE8 still crashes.

I have never has such a problem with any previous version pf PRE. PRE7 is very stable on my PC and I will stick with it. I also use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 15 PLUS without problems.

PRE8 does not like my PC. So therefore I do not like that piece of junk. Finally a video edior came out which makes Pinnacle look good. I think it was a conspirecy. Mike came over from Pinnacle to destroy Adobe. He is doing a very good job.

[RJ Johnston]

I had Quicktime 7.6.4 and everything with PRE7 was stable. I went back to version 7.3.1 and PRE8 still crashes.

I have never has such a problem with any previous version pf PRE. PRE7 is very stable on my PC and I will stick with it. I also use MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 15 PLUS without problems.

PRE8 does not like my PC. So therefore I do not like that piece of junk. Finally a video edior came out which makes Pinnacle look good. I think it was a conspirecy. Mike came over from Pinnacle to destroy Adobe. He is doing a very good job.

Did you uninstall 7.6.4 before installing 7.3.1?

I thought that by installing 7.3.1, the setup would uninstall 7.6.4 automatically. But after I still crashed, I went to Add/Remove Programs and found that there were two installations of Quicktime. I uninstalled both versions, rebooted, and then installed 7.3.1.

[JohnnyO]

RJ:

Yes, I uninstalled quicktime 7.6.4 before I installed 7.3.1.

I first tried QT 7.6. It would not allow me o install it without first un-installing QT 7.6.4.

So with each version I tried I did a clean un-install first. Even rebooteed even though it was not necessary.

I don't think I want to make any mmore effort with this package.

[RJ Johnston]

JohnnyO, PRE8 is still difficult to use on my machine, even after a clean install of Windows XP Pro SP3 and all updates.

[Chris B]

One wonders if it's the Intel graphics card. Prel8 (as most of them) like to use hardware rendering. Perhapse Pewl8 assumes certain features to be present. Intel's cards are often lacking in driver support for some of the more advanced features (and even some "basic" ones by today's standards). I assume that this is a laptop you're running on - and as such you don't have a lot of card choice. However disabling hardware acceleration might correspond with disabling the buggy/lacking bits of Intel's driver.

[RJ Johnston]

One wonders if it's the Intel graphics card. Prel8 (as most of them) like to use hardware rendering. Perhapse Pewl8 assumes certain features to be present. Intel's cards are often lacking in driver support for some of the more advanced features (and even some "basic" ones by today's standards). I assume that this is a laptop you're running on - and as such you don't have a lot of card choice. However disabling hardware acceleration might correspond with disabling the buggy/lacking bits of Intel's driver.

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 desktop, and it has Intel 82865G onboard grahics.

Now that I have installed an earlier version of Quicktime, I don't need to disable hardware acceleration.

[JohnnyO]

I feel like I had a fight with a software package, and I lost.

[Steve Grisetti]

By the way, how does one go about "rolling back" to a previous version of Quicktime?

[Chuck Engels]

Uninstall the current version and then install a previous version.