Premiere CS5 Mercury Playback Engine: Note of Caution

1. designcbts
   Member

   

    Although Adobe is touting their Mercury Playback Engine, I found my system incapable of utilizing it. 

    I purchase a high-end laptop with an NVIDIA Geoforce GTX 285M graphics card.  I thought it was on the list of "certified" graphics cards from Adobe...it is not.  The GTX 285 is.  If I hope to take advantage of the Mercury Playback Engine, I'll have to either modify the "cuda supported cards" file within my Premiere folder or try a hack.  Although the hack seems to be enjoying a great deal of success, it will cost any chance of customer support from Adobe.  They've taken great pains to declare this on their forums, where the hack is being discussed. I strongly doubt that Adobe will push forward to make any video cards backward compatible.

   So, I am left with a decision to make.

   The bottom line is you should pay close attention to which graphics card you're purchasing when buying a new laptop (or desktop for that matter) specifically for CS5's Mercury Playback Engine.  

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. composite1
   Moderator

   

   Yeah,

   Adobe's not too 'friendly' to getting things to work with their software they didn't have a hand in and can't charge you for these days. There's only a couple of companies that even make laptops you can run CS5 with so your warning to others is valid. I love their products but had terrible experiences with their so-called 'customer support'. You're better off on the Adobe forums anyway. Hacks are double-edged swords in that they may work but usually cause problems elsewhere including invalidating warranty's. If you think you can live without customer support and want to try the hack....

   H.Wolfgang Porter, Composite Media Producer
   Dreaded Enterprises Unlimited, Inc.
   http://www.dreadedenterprises.com

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. designcbts
   Member

   

    At this particular time, I'm content without it.  I've been astounded with the performance of my laptop - but I haven't asked too much in the number of tracks I use...

   Posted 1 year ago #

4. blit
   Member

   

    Hi

   How about the best of both.

   Try the hack - easy with many great reports.

   Need customer support?  Just reverse the hack and use customer support.

   The "Hack" is just a few words in a text file.

   Yes, you may be unsupported in some special case directly relating to Mercury.  You can always switch back.

   But you may have said it best "At this particular time, I'm content without it." 

   It should be about editing, not computers.  With or without seems like a win win for you.

   best regards

    

    

   Posted 1 year ago #

5. WSanford
   Member

   

   I have a GTX 260 card, so I had to use the "Hack" to enable the engine. I'm not sure I understand the non-support for using the "Hack" since its pretty much just adding the card to a list of cards in a file and can be deleted at anytime. Don't see how it really amounts to a hill of beans.

   As far as the Engine itself, its just a tool to allow play back of footage and effects that you normally would have to render first. In reality it still plays those type of items back at a lesser quality and you would still want to render the timeline before output to double check.

   Its a time saver while working much of the time but not always. Mostly from what I see, when I add effects or graphics I spend less time on them but thats about it. The speed I get from being 64 bit now and with CS5, I really could work without it, so I don't see the value of it that some do.

   Also it doesn't let me export to tape while it is enabled for the commercials I have to send out for one network I deal with that only takes tape at this point. It may do more for the guys editing in RED ONE or something of the like.

   Posted 1 year ago #

6. composite1
   Moderator

   

   WSanford,

   That's some good info about workflow pro's and con's with the MPE. Thanks for putting that up.

   Posted 1 year ago #

7. WSanford
   Member

   

   Yeah nothing is perfect. I really noticed the quality difference when I got my NEX-VG10 last week and started editing in AVCHD. It speeds me up on rough cuts but I'll render to see better detail in the end for fine tuning things.

   For me the biggest benefits to going to CS5 have been the size and speed of my After Effects projects now. Thats opened up far more doors than the MPE for me and color finesse is awesome. 

   Posted 1 year ago #

8. designcbts
   Member

   

    I think "Blit" put it best "It should be about editing, not computers."  I'm still leanrning many of the basics - and I've been at this a number of years.  The more I use Premiere, the better I get!

   Posted 1 year ago #

9. henny ram
   Member

   

    I have the Nvidia GTX295 great card but it can't playback on a hdv recorder device

   i can capture oke and i can export to tape oke, but i want to see my movie on the timeline all so in de recorder

   of sony HVR-M25E is this  the problem of the card????

   Posted 1 year ago #

10. henny ram
    Member

    

     Hi friends
    I do not work with a laptop, but with a workstation from high kwaliteit.en've tried everything to get the video card to work on the recorder from Sony HVR-M25E.
    notice that the DV output from the card as easily as working with HDV.
    The only thing I want is when I play the movie using the timeline as including the HVR-M25E Sony arrives and then I can with Sony HVR-M25E send to LCD TV

    Posted 1 year ago #

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