PPro 2.0, another blunder by Adobe at DVinfo.net

Kevin Janisch · June 12th, 2006, 10:55 AM

Don't get me wrong, PrPro 2.0 was more than a worthwhile upgrade (the interface has streamlined my workflow tremendously) but Adobe has costed me a full 12hr day of editing because of their "Generating Pek" files nonsense.

I already generated the Pek files already on over 5000 clips overnight a couple of weeks ago. My entire project along with media files resides on external drives, so all temp files, preview files are in the default "on same drive as project" setting. Well, I move my external drives to another machine (long story) and fire it up and low and behold the project is now RE-GENERATING the pek files. This is beyond me as they are already there, and PrPro is actually placing the new Pek files in the same directory. So unless the files name of the Pek files is based on some string in the computer name, there is no reason for this, and if it is doing this, shame on Adobe. I wasted a whole day waiting for the Pek files to re-generate. I know you can work while it's doing this, but I'm not chancing it. Adobe needs to give the user the option of generating the Pek files at import, at use, or not at all. Ridiculous.

Kevin

Chris Barcellos · June 12th, 2006, 11:43 AM

So are you saying when you open a new project, Premiere has to generate peek for all 5000 files on your system.? If you are using 5000 clips for a single project, then that is a file management problem. That would mean you are importing files for the particular project. Why would you do that ? You should be only importing files you are going to use in the particular project. Sounds like you are telling the program when you are setting up the project to access all files, and that is operator error, I would think.

Kevin Janisch · June 12th, 2006, 11:58 AM

Chris,

There is not a file management problem on my part. If I have 5 clips or 5000 clips, what is the difference? PrPro 2 should not be re-generating Pek files it already generated regardless of what computer the project is being opened up on. It is not a new project. The same project that was being worked on on computer A was then later opened on computer B using the same external hard drives with the same drive letters.

As far as only importing the clips I'm going to be using, that's a matter of personal workflow. I have over 75hrs of footage, which equals about 5000 files (half are the 3rd + 4th channels of audio in .wav format), I deemed it more efficient to capture all of the footage, categorize it, and then select the best of the best based on side by side comparisons categorically then to capture something based on if I could remember if it was better than clip 308 that I captured 3 nights ago.

Kevin

Ervin Farkas · June 12th, 2006, 01:45 PM

Kevin,

I suspect a preferences screw-up. I've done a project on my desktop, saved it onto a USB hard drive and opened it on my laptop. I don't remember having this problem...

Kevin Janisch · June 12th, 2006, 03:00 PM

Ervin,

There must be a preference setting I'm missing because I checked that when it was generating the Pek files and the scratch disk setting for all files was set to "Same as Project". I double checked where it was putting the new Pek files and it was in the same directory where all the old files already resided. Dunno. Thanks though.

Kevin

Chris Barcellos · June 12th, 2006, 03:36 PM

My son in law was doing a fire academy video on a USB harddrive I provided. He would work on it at the academy, then bring it home and work on it with my system. He had the same thing occur- everything being regenerated, because the program seemed to see it as a whole new drive. He only had about 4hours of footage, and it took a long time to go through that process. Does anybody know what is actually going on with that process ?

Kevin Janisch · June 12th, 2006, 04:07 PM

Alright guys, I did a quick documented test to put this to rest. I created a test project named: "Peak Test 01.prproj"

I imported 2 .avi files. (1.avi and 2.avi) The .pek files were created by PrPro and placed into a Media Cache Files Folder named "Peak Test 01.MACC" in the same folder as my project.

I saved the project.

I then did a save as "Peak Test 02.prproj"
I then did a save a copy: "Peak Test 02 Copy.prproj"

As of now only one folder exists in the Media Cache Files Folder (where PrPro stores the .pek files), "Peak Test 01.MACC".

So as of now the project in front of me is the "Peak Test 02.prproj". I import 2 more .avi files (3.avi and 4.avi). The peak files are generated by PrPro and a new folder is created under Media Cache Files named "Peak Test 02.MACC" which only contains the 2 new .pek files for 3.avi and 4.avi. So obviously PrPro doesn't make a copy of .pek files, but rather has a link to other .MACC folders.

I now do a "save as" and name the file "Peak Test 03.prproj".

All of this is on an external USB drive. I move the drive over to another workstation. Here are the results:

1. I open "Peak Test 01.prproj" -> all is good, no generation of .pek files. Its reading the previous .pek files, great.

2. I open "Peak Test 02.prproj" -> once again, no generation of .pek files.

3. I open "Peak Test 03.prproj" -> PrPro generates a .pek file for both 3.avi and 4.avi and creates a new folder for them to reside in.

This is interesting as both 3.avi and 4.avi .pek files already exist in the "Peak Test 02.MACC" folder where the .pek files are stored but yet it regenerated them AGAIN as if it never saw them. The linking is off somewhere when saving copies or doing a save as. In my case I had 8 project iterations as PrPro kept crashing and saving recovery projects, hence the save as (also the reason why I'm using a different machine now). So through 8 versions of my project, the linking by PrPro 2.0 is faulted, thus regenerating .pek files. I'll be putting in an error report to Adobe.

Kevin

Kevin Janisch · June 12th, 2006, 04:21 PM

If I would of known this yesterday, I would of shut down premiere and copied all of the .pek files in the other verison .MACC folders and put them in the current project version. This would of taken care of it. So for all of those in this predicament, try it, I bet it will work.

Kevin

Roger Averdahl · June 13th, 2006, 03:26 AM

Maybe the problem can be solved if you go to Edit > Preferences > Media and click on Browse and then move the Media Cache Database to the external drive you are moving between the two systems.

/Roger

Kevin Janisch · June 21st, 2006, 12:10 PM

Haven't tried moving the database, but I would seriously advise anyone to have a dedicated drive for the .pek, conformed, video preview, etc (scratch disk) files as this will save you from a serious headache. If you need portability, use an external drive and be sure the drive letter is the same when you move it.

Kevin

June 12th, 2006, 10:55 AM	#1
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	PPro 2.0, another blunder by Adobe Don't get me wrong, PrPro 2.0 was more than a worthwhile upgrade (the interface has streamlined my workflow tremendously) but Adobe has costed me a full 12hr day of editing because of their "Generating Pek" files nonsense. I already generated the Pek files already on over 5000 clips overnight a couple of weeks ago. My entire project along with media files resides on external drives, so all temp files, preview files are in the default "on same drive as project" setting. Well, I move my external drives to another machine (long story) and fire it up and low and behold the project is now RE-GENERATING the pek files. This is beyond me as they are already there, and PrPro is actually placing the new Pek files in the same directory. So unless the files name of the Pek files is based on some string in the computer name, there is no reason for this, and if it is doing this, shame on Adobe. I wasted a whole day waiting for the Pek files to re-generate. I know you can work while it's doing this, but I'm not chancing it. Adobe needs to give the user the option of generating the Pek files at import, at use, or not at all. Ridiculous. Kevin

June 12th, 2006, 11:43 AM	#2
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	So are you saying when you open a new project, Premiere has to generate peek for all 5000 files on your system.? If you are using 5000 clips for a single project, then that is a file management problem. That would mean you are importing files for the particular project. Why would you do that ? You should be only importing files you are going to use in the particular project. Sounds like you are telling the program when you are setting up the project to access all files, and that is operator error, I would think. __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

June 12th, 2006, 01:45 PM	#4
Ervin Farkas Inner Circle Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Atlanta/USA Posts: 2,515	Kevin, I suspect a preferences screw-up. I've done a project on my desktop, saved it onto a USB hard drive and opened it on my laptop. I don't remember having this problem... __________________ Ervin Farkas www.AtlantaLegalVideo.com

June 12th, 2006, 03:36 PM	#6
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	My son in law was doing a fire academy video on a USB harddrive I provided. He would work on it at the academy, then bring it home and work on it with my system. He had the same thing occur- everything being regenerated, because the program seemed to see it as a whole new drive. He only had about 4hours of footage, and it took a long time to go through that process. Does anybody know what is actually going on with that process ? __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

June 13th, 2006, 03:26 AM	#9
Roger Averdahl Major Player Join Date: May 2005 Location: Stockholm - Sweden Posts: 344	Maybe the problem can be solved if you go to Edit > Preferences > Media and click on Browse and then move the Media Cache Database to the external drive you are moving between the two systems. /Roger __________________ /Roger

June 12th, 2006, 11:58 AM	#3
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	Chris, There is not a file management problem on my part. If I have 5 clips or 5000 clips, what is the difference? PrPro 2 should not be re-generating Pek files it already generated regardless of what computer the project is being opened up on. It is not a new project. The same project that was being worked on on computer A was then later opened on computer B using the same external hard drives with the same drive letters. As far as only importing the clips I'm going to be using, that's a matter of personal workflow. I have over 75hrs of footage, which equals about 5000 files (half are the 3rd + 4th channels of audio in .wav format), I deemed it more efficient to capture all of the footage, categorize it, and then select the best of the best based on side by side comparisons categorically then to capture something based on if I could remember if it was better than clip 308 that I captured 3 nights ago. Kevin

June 12th, 2006, 03:00 PM	#5
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	Ervin, There must be a preference setting I'm missing because I checked that when it was generating the Pek files and the scratch disk setting for all files was set to "Same as Project". I double checked where it was putting the new Pek files and it was in the same directory where all the old files already resided. Dunno. Thanks though. Kevin

June 12th, 2006, 04:07 PM	#7
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	Alright guys, I did a quick documented test to put this to rest. I created a test project named: "Peak Test 01.prproj" I imported 2 .avi files. (1.avi and 2.avi) The .pek files were created by PrPro and placed into a Media Cache Files Folder named "Peak Test 01.MACC" in the same folder as my project. I saved the project. I then did a save as "Peak Test 02.prproj" I then did a save a copy: "Peak Test 02 Copy.prproj" As of now only one folder exists in the Media Cache Files Folder (where PrPro stores the .pek files), "Peak Test 01.MACC". So as of now the project in front of me is the "Peak Test 02.prproj". I import 2 more .avi files (3.avi and 4.avi). The peak files are generated by PrPro and a new folder is created under Media Cache Files named "Peak Test 02.MACC" which only contains the 2 new .pek files for 3.avi and 4.avi. So obviously PrPro doesn't make a copy of .pek files, but rather has a link to other .MACC folders. I now do a "save as" and name the file "Peak Test 03.prproj". All of this is on an external USB drive. I move the drive over to another workstation. Here are the results: 1. I open "Peak Test 01.prproj" -> all is good, no generation of .pek files. Its reading the previous .pek files, great. 2. I open "Peak Test 02.prproj" -> once again, no generation of .pek files. 3. I open "Peak Test 03.prproj" -> PrPro generates a .pek file for both 3.avi and 4.avi and creates a new folder for them to reside in. This is interesting as both 3.avi and 4.avi .pek files already exist in the "Peak Test 02.MACC" folder where the .pek files are stored but yet it regenerated them AGAIN as if it never saw them. The linking is off somewhere when saving copies or doing a save as. In my case I had 8 project iterations as PrPro kept crashing and saving recovery projects, hence the save as (also the reason why I'm using a different machine now). So through 8 versions of my project, the linking by PrPro 2.0 is faulted, thus regenerating .pek files. I'll be putting in an error report to Adobe. Kevin

June 12th, 2006, 04:21 PM	#8
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	If I would of known this yesterday, I would of shut down premiere and copied all of the .pek files in the other verison .MACC folders and put them in the current project version. This would of taken care of it. So for all of those in this predicament, try it, I bet it will work. Kevin

June 21st, 2006, 12:10 PM	#10
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	Haven't tried moving the database, but I would seriously advise anyone to have a dedicated drive for the .pek, conformed, video preview, etc (scratch disk) files as this will save you from a serious headache. If you need portability, use an external drive and be sure the drive letter is the same when you move it. Kevin