Premiere Pro Adobe Encoder Crashes w/ 16:9 (1.2) Stills?

I recently upgraded from Premiere 6.5 to Premiere Pro 1.5. When I try to
use the Adobe Encoder to Export a widescreen (16:9, 1.2 Pixel Aspect Ratio,
NTSC) project to any of the MPEG formats, the export always crashes at the
point in the timeline where it encounters still images that have a 1.2 par.
It will not always crash at the first frame of the still image but it never
makes it through the entire 5 second still. When the crash occurs, it
locks up my entire computer and I have to do a warm reset to reboot. I've
tried several things to get around this problem. I've tried different image
formats, including, PSD, GIF, TGA, etc. I've tried creating 1.2 par images
within Photoshop and then importing them into Premiere. I've also tried
importing square pixel images and using Premiere's "Interpret Footage"
command to force conformance with D1/DV NTSC widescreen 16:9 (1.2). Neither
method prevents the crashes. The Adobe encoder will successfully export
this same timeline as non-MPEG files, such as Windows Media, Real Video,
etc. The "Export-->Movie" command will also work to export the timeline as
DV (NTSC) and I can then use Adobe Encore DVD 1.5 to transcode the exported
clip without any crash. Also, if I change the stills in the timeline to 0.9
aspect ratio pixels using "Interpret Footage", then the Adobe Encoder will
successfully export the timeline to MPEG. As one would expect for such an
export, the video portion of the timeline (which has a 1.2 pixel aspect
ratio) appears as widescreen and the still portions appear in 4:3 aspect
ratio. Can anyone explain why I can not use the Adobe Encoder to export to
any of the MPEG formats in cases where the timeline contains stills with a
1.2 pixel aspect ratio? Obviously, I'm also hoping that someone can suggest
a 'cure' for this problem. TIA, Mardon

 

You've updated Premiere to 1.5.1 using the updater on the Adobe website,
right....?

If that's been done and it still crashes, I'd wager this is one for the
Adobe tech support crew.
You bought the software - you're entitled to support - and I'm sure Adobe
would like to hear about this problem.

In the meantime, unless someone else here has seen this problem (and you've
documented it quite well BTW) I think you're stuck with waiting on a
solution from Adobe and using Encore for the final transcode.

Good luck!
C.j

 

This is only a comment that may provide a clue to a solution,
or may not. I have no experience with Premiere.

You describe your still as a "5 second still". When I deal with
stills in TMPGEnc DVD Author and elsewhere as a feature of a
DVD a still image is constructed within one GOP. This would
normally mean it is a "1/2 second still".

Luck;
Ken

 

Thanks for the feedback. I had not updated to v1.5.1 because I thought that
it's sole purpose was to provide HDV and I'm not into that. However, after
reading your comments, I installed the v1.5.1 update. Unfortunately, it did
not fix the problem with crashes caused by MPEG exports of timelines
containing 1.2 par stills.

Thanks for the compliment but now I feel 'guilty' for not disclosing my
hardware. I didn't mention in my OP that I'm using a PC that's grossly
underpowered compared to Adobe's minimum specs. I omitted this information
for fear that it might cause people to automatically jump to the conclusion
that my hardware insufficiency is the cause of the problem that I described
in the OP. I'm skeptical of that being true because all of the other
features of both Premiere Pro and Encore seem to work OK (albeit my
transcode times are agonizingly long, as is to be expected.) I'm using a
single P3, 600MHz CPU with 1GB memory. I do have lots of free disk storage,
much of it 160 SCSI. My OS is Windows XP Pro sp2. Anyway, I've now
revealed all my 'secrets'. If underpowered hardware were my problem,
however, I find it hard to believe that it would only manifest itself in
such a specific way as system crashes caused by Adobe Encorder MPEG exports
with1.2 par stills in the timeline. Any comments?

 

I'd be skeptical that's causing the problem.

If you were *missing* some resource (eg: a particular control or chipset)
the software might refuse to run.

My gut tells me it isn't your hardware but what do I know? I'm still using
PremierePro 1.0 on a P4HT... <shrug>

I agree the problem seems too specific to be related to hardware.

GET ON ADOBE'S CASE!

C.

 

For anyone who's been following this thread, I've uncovered some more
information which I felt would best be covered by a new post. The subject
is: "Will Someone with Premiere Pro 1.5 Help Test Something?"