Choppy Playback of Blackmagic ProRes in Premiere CC

Hi there,
I'm editing a friend's short film, shot on the Blackmagic Cinema to ProRes files. In standalone Quicktime, outside of Premiere, the files play seamlessly, but in the Premiere CC project, Source and Program Monitors, the clips are choppy/frame-dropping, even at 1/4 resolution.
I've edited countless shorts and features on this system - Canon 5D, 7D, Scarlet, C300 - and I've never experienced choppy playback. Any advice on how to nix this? Quicktime is fully updated, and, like I said, the files play perfectly in actual Quicktime.
Thanks!
Stephen

Hi SDCone,
SDCone wrote:
Me, too. But as soon as I re-synched the project and moved back, the
choppiness stopped. Like clockwork. I have found that, since updating to
CC, I am using PP 6 more often.
As tough as that is to take, I appreciate your feedback.
Have an awesome weekend,
Kevin

Similar Messages

  • Premiere choppy playback after update

    Greetings,
    I'm having a rather bizarre issue which has just came about recently.
    I've been running PPro CC successfully for six months without issue. After the most recent update to 7.2.2 I'm having choppy playback both in the source and program monitors. I'm editing mostly AVCHD from a Panasonic HMC80 camera. The choppy playback occurs regardless of resolution or frame rate. I even tried a standard DV file and that too is playing back not smooth. Changing the playback resolution to 1/2, 1/4 etc.. makes no difference.  Changing from Mercury software to hardware makes no difference. I tried creating a new project as well as clearing cache files, previews, etc.. and still have the problem. As a last effort, I re-installed my OS, and re-installed Creative Cloud and Premiere. The issue is still present. My hardware cannot be the issue as I've been editing successfully before. Nothing has changed except for the Premiere update. I've read elsewhere that others are experiencing the same issue. Any thoughts?
    Windows 7 Home
    Premiere Pro CC 7.2.2
    i7 [email protected]
    8GB RAM
    NVIDIA GT 425M

    Im having the same problem. Didnt show up until after the 7.2 update.
    Major lag on one specific spot in the timeline, and muting all tracks makes no difference on the lag.
    I cleaned my project file, caches, downgraded playback resolution, tried the mercury playback function. Nothing. Now the choppiness seems to bleed into the rest of the project until it is all so slow and unplayable. I'm having a harder time finishing this project as time goes on.
    almost same specs
    windows 7 home
    Premiere CC Pro 7.2.2
    Intel i7 2670QM
    Nvidia gt 630m 1gb vram
    8gb ram

  • Why am I getting such choppy playback?

    Long time reader, first time poster, I'll make this short and sweet. Here are my specs:
    Imac 27"
    3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
    24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB
    1TB internal Fusion drive SSD
    I am working in a fairly big (1TB footage) 4k mixed with 2k project. It's a 3 simultaneous camera shoot, so I need to multi-cam. I have two external WD Caviar Black 7200rpm drives. I also have a Lacie 1TB Thunderbolt drive available.
    Because the final output will be 1080, but possibly 2k in the future, I decided to import all the RED footage natively (as opposed to transcoding to prores 1080). All my sequences are 1920x1080, with multi-cam nesting in 1080 as well. Ram is allocated to 20GB Premiere, 4GB other.
    No matter what I've tried, I always get choppy playback in the project...especially with multi-cam activated, even at setting my resolution to 1/4. What I've tried:
    All Media on WD 01 drive...Project, Cache, Preview, Scatch on WD 02 drive...Internal SSD for OS and Apps: Terrible performance
    All media split between WD 01 and WD 02...Cache, OS and Apps on Internal SSD...project, preview, scratch on WD 01. I also tried the same thing but with the project, preview, and scratch on my Lacie 1TB Thunderbolt and internal SSD: Slightly better than all media on 01 drive.
    At this point I feel like I've tried every variation of where the MEDIA, Cache, project, and Scratch/preview files go but nothing seems to give me smooth playback consistently. I'll have brief periods where it's very smooth, but then choppy soon after. I'd understand if I were trying to edit in 2k or 4k, but all my timelines and nests are 1080. Even if I pre-render the sequence, it barely helps. Is it possible I need more RAM, a better GFX card, better external drives? Help?!
    EDIT: Premiere 2014 updated to latest version. No big apps running aside from Premiere. All my drives have at least or close to 50% space available.

    Recommend you take a look for disc layout & such over at the Tweaker's Page ...
    Tweaker's Page ...
    http://ppbm7.com/index.php/tweakers-page
    Basically they recommend just the program file on the system/OS disc ... and then putting things on other drives as per the needs of the "asset" ... some need very fast connects, a couple only mostly fast connections.
    Footage is mostly a one-way read-only operation, and export out is mostly a read operation, so those can at need be on somewhat slower connections as long as they aren't on the SAME drive over a slower connection. Such as say one of the PNY 128Gb high-speed USB3 flash-drives into a USG3.0 external port on your computer. I've adapted this from one of the other users, and it works fairly well for my 1080p footage. I export to one of several drives I've got in external boxes connected via USB. It's adequate, though not blazing.
    Everything else ... project files, database, previews, cache ... there's a TON of read/write work going on constantly during playback with these. So 7200 or faster "standard" drives or SSD drives, connected internally via SATA-II or better, or external via eSATA-II and Thunderbolt connections are needed. None of the Firewire nor USB2/3 connections available have near adequate sustained read/write speeds to work in the massive testing they've done at the above mentioned site. The "burst" speeds claimed by manufacturers are achieved on the absolute most ideal set-up with the um ... right size? ... of data packets to get the best numbers. They aren't usable numbers for heavy and constant read/write demands like the Adobe DVA's through at the machine.
    Remember ... during playback ... PrPro "reads" the source footage including when to jump in & out of every clip, throws in all your instructions for editing, color changes, transistions, effects, EVERYTHING ... and on-the-fly builds the image you see in the playback monitor. It doesn't make something for it to just 'read' from disc, it does this on the fly. Even when you make previews for a section of a timeline, any change you make ... those previews are outdated.
    Which is why we all need machines that both have pretty solid hardware off the mobo, AND plenty of high-speed disc connections. Best case is say a 4/5 disc array of 2Tb discs in RAID 0 or 5 for the project files, d-base, cache, & previews ... and that can maybe even have media (original footage) on it.
    Neil

  • Playback with Blackmagic Ultrastudio Express Thunderbolt

    Hello,
    I'm using a MacBook Pro, a Blackmagic Ultrastudio Express Thunderbolt, and Premiere Pro CC 2014.  Under preferences I've set playback to BlackMagic playback.  When I connect a monitor to the ultra studio express I can get playback from the sources but not from the program.  I'm trying to output a green screen composite.  I've got the composite completed in the program viewer within Premiere, I've rendered the effect, but it won't play out to the external monitor.  But if I double click on either tracks on the timeline, they will play out to the external monitor.
    Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks,
    Herb Forsberg

    To my knowledge, if CC is up to date, it's up to date.  I checked and there are no updates.  Thanks.

  • HD video has choppy playback on timeline

    Equipment:
    New MacPro 2 X 2.93 GHz 6-Core intel Xeon
    12GBs Ram
    Nvidia Quadro 4000 2048 MB video card
    Software 10.7.2
    Video Card:  Kona 3 with 9.0.3 driver & 9.01 premier plugin
    Videodrive:  7200 RPM 2 TB internal (not the system drive)  remaining space about 750 GB
    Adobe CS 5.5 software
    I just switched from FCP 7 to CS5.5 including a new computer which I perceive is optimized for CS 5.5.  In playback my audio is choppy and dropping out some of the time, then if I stop and start the payback it will be fine, or sometimes there is no audio.  doesn't seem to be any consistencey in what will happen the next time I start playback.  On the timeline is a 1080i ProRes file I finished in FCP 7, then imported the video & audio file to Premier to make a couple of last minute changes.  Program is 50 minutes long.  I have the sequence setup as Kona 1080i compressed.  I imagine I have missed something very basic here, but don't have a clue what it could be.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?
    Thx...Jim Watt

    John,
    I don't really think it's applicable in this particular situation.  I have just switched to PP for FCP-7.  All my FCP 7 shows are mastered in ProRes and this last one of course was too and it's the one I had to make a small change in.  I didn't see anything in the post you referred me to that suggests that PP cannot/will not play back proRes material.
    At the moment I'm screening DVCPROHD 1080i material and I'm having the same problem with choppy playback/freezes and lost audio in the viewer.  I saw a post that came from Walter Biscardi for audio setup and followed that, which did seem to help a little, but the problem still exists.  This is what i did...
    Audio...set preferences in Premier to "built in output" and also set audio mapping to same, set audio hardware to "built in output"  with caches at 1024
    set computer preferences audio output to Kona card...
    So I think this is some sort of setup that I have missed since I get identical problem with ProRes and DVCPROHD.  Any other sugestions will be most appreciated.  I'll give AJA a call tomorrow if I can't find a fix on the forum.
    thx...jw

  • Choppy Playback when using the PLAYBACK feature in preferences

    I've been running into an issue since the PPro CC 7.1 update in October where Premiere will play footage just fine until you tell it to send a signal out to another monitor. Before hand everyhting played fine in the Program and Playback Monitors. Now whenever switched on it plays back choppy constantly. Doesn't matter the footage format.
    To further explain -- I have a 3 monitor setup 2 for editing and a thrid for preview playback. All of this runs via my Retina MacBook Pro and has worked fine since PPro 6.0. Never had any slowdown and its been one of my favorite features in PPro.
    So when this update came around I ran into the playback issues mentioned above. So I just keep playback switched off and just leave the third monitor barren... figuring it was a bug (?) I waited and saw a few updates, but nothing that fixed said problem. Though with each update and bug fix I've eagerly gone through the same exercise of trying out this feature once more. Again, nothing has changed... However I found out this evening, that when using my three monitors and suffering through the playback, that I can tell monitor to toggle to full screen and instantly my playback monitor has corrected itself and the two play in perfect sync (quick note the program monitor is choppy when not in full screen mode and trying to playback with the third monitor). I can toggle on and off during this playback and when on its fine, the moment its off, its choppy again. Absolutely bizzare. And to some extent makes my playback monitor somewhat useful agian... albeit in a very tedious fashion.
    The point is, I'm at my wits end again here. I've seen plenty of choppy playback post, but nothing quite like this. I've tried to clearing caches, and preferences, even did a unistall/reistall tongiht... and I'm coming up with the same issues in the exact same places. But ultimately I am no closer to finding a proper solution to this particular playback issue. Aside from doing a clean install of the OS and all my software, though I'm not sure its worth it just yet. Even if its my last resort.
    Has anyone run across playback as bizzare as this? Did you find a solution? Is there a post I've missed? - Thanks
    Specs --
    Macbook Retina Mid 2012
    16 GB Ram
    MacOS10.9.1
    Premiere CC 7.2.1 (4)

    In the iPhoto preferences set Mail as your email client
    LN

  • Choppy playback/rendering for one camera in a multicam sequence

    Any help is appreciated with this weird, specific problem...
    I have a sequence (let's call it "MAIN") which contains many separate multicam sequences (let's call them "M1" through "M5").  Each of these multicam sequences is made up of footage from two cameras, a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon C100.  All footage in M1-5 was shot sequentially, and neither camera changed settings, although the cameras recorded with different settings from each other.  The 5DIII recorded at 1080p 23.976fps.  The C100 at 1080i 60Hz.  This footage makes up all the assets in my project panel and they have no special media interpretation.
    Here's the problem.  Everything looks/plays fine until I get to M3 in my MAIN sequence.  When I switch to camera 2 (the 5DIII), the playback in the program monitor looks about half the framerate of the original footage and all of my other sequences.  Camera 1 plays smoothly.  Camera 2 in any of the other multicam sequences plays smoothly (while in MAIN).  When I open up M3 in the timeline, it plays smoothly.  When I open up the original video in the source window, it plays smoothly.  Everything plays smoothly but camera 2 in M3 (in MAIN) in the program monitor.
    I rendered a clip of MAIN that has M3 cam 1, to cam 2, back to cam 1.  Camera 1 is smooth, while camera 2 plays back at about half frame rate and looks interlaced.  So this is a real problem and not just some display issue.
    The interlaced look of the render made me think there's some sequence settings that were off, whether they were in MAIN or M1-M5.  However, the sequence settings of M1-M5 are all identical, and the sequence settings of MAIN are not affecting any of the other multicam sequences.
    I tried restarting my computer and deleting my cache.  No dice.
    Premiere Pro CC
    Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
    HP Z820 w/ 2 x Xeon E5-2630
    128GB RAM
    GTX-570
    Addendum: After playing around with sequence settings a bit, but after resetting them to be all as they were, now M2 is giving choppy playback on camera 1, while camera 2 plays smoothly.  What in the world is going on here?

    The LEDs were reflecting on the book that the GoPro was on but I got it to work with a garbage matte using a frame grab with the lights off and including the book. It worked a treat! But I am going to remember the dark grey matte thing; less is more and all that. Thank you for your input, much appreciated. Ooh and as for multicam syncing I just nested the composite shot and used that as a single camera source.

  • Choppy playback with mxf files...

    Hello.  I have been working with Premiere Pro CS3 for quite sometime until just recently.  Then last week I installed Windows 7, then Premiere Pro CS5.5 along with various updates.  I usually work with DVCProHD (Panasonic), 720p, 60p.  I just started working on a new project and playback is very choppy, whether the footage is rendered or not.  Everything else works fine.  My computer (purchased in 2008) has Dual Intel Xeon 5150 (10.64 Ghz total), 4GB DDR2-667 FBDIMM RAM (4x1GB), and an ATI FireGL V3350 256MB PCIe Video Card.  I am using a dual monitor set up as I used to do with Premiere Pro CS3 and Windows XP (with no problem before I went to CS5.5).   I checked the settings for the Mecury Playback and it seems to show that it is selected but also grayed out (can't be changed to anything else).  Anyone have thoughts on why the choppy playback?  Even Premiere 6.0 never gave me choppy playback  like this.  Thanks in advance.

    > Exactly how much RAM is Premiere Pro CS5.5 able to use at maximum?
    All of it. That's one of the reasons that we ported Premiere Pro to be 64-bit.
    Are all files of all types giving you choppy playback, or just some? If it's only some files, then tell us as much as you can about those files.

  • Choppy playback after upgrading hardware

    I've recently upgraded from a phenom 965 and 7gb 1333 gb ram, to an i5-2500k with 16gb 1600mhz. Otherwise everything is the same, i just reinstalled windows and premiere pro after the upgrade. After the upgrade this error, or annoyance, occured. Here's all the specifics:
    -Premiere pro CS5.5.2 v/latest updates
    -Windows 7 pro (fresh install v/important updates)
    -h.264 in mp4-container
    -no error messages
    -very choppy playback after "jogging". When theres a lot of movement, the picture becomes very "stuttery" and "pixelated" in that area.
    -no extra codecs or similar is installed.
    - hardware:
       -nvidia gtx 560 v/latest drivers
      -i5 2500k @ 4,6Ghz
      -16Gb 1600mhz xmp ram
      -7200rpm 500gb source hdd
      -5200rpm 120gb scratch disk
      -Agility 120gb ssd OS and programs
    I have tried using 1/4 playback, using ssd as scratch disk, installing and uninstalling extra codecs but none of it made any difference. The cpu or ram never exceeds 50% capacity when the problems occur. 

    But wouldnt the cpu reach 100% capacity before it starts being the bottleneck?
    Only if all the other components supply data fast enough that the CPU can run flat out. If the CPU has to wait for other components to catch up, CPU load will be less than 100%.
    If you race alone on a track and there are no other contestants (components) in the race, you can go flat out at 100% of the speed, but if the track is filled with many other contestants (components) from a local old-age house, your speed will drop significantly.

  • Audio waveform causing choppy playback

    Having issues with nearly all Premiere cc 2014 (8.1) timelines where playback with audio track expanded to show waveform causes bad, choppy playback. As soon as i collapse the audio track playback is perfect. Not very useful when cutting interviews and needing to see waveforms.
    Running a late 2013 mac pro 3.5ghz 6 core intel xeon e5 32gb ram all footage stored on a lacie 6tb thunderbolt.
    Any fixes or help appreciated
    Thanks

    Everything's on the internal drive - a 320 gig 7200 rpm WD.  Still has ~120 gigs free.  The thing that's really getting me is that when I unplug the USB audio adapter, the video playback is fine.
    There is an external drive for TM backups, but I just unplugged that to see if it was part of the issue and it doesn't seem to change anything.

  • Reverse Speed Causing Choppy Playback

    I am using CC Premiere Pro 2014 and am getting choppy playback when I reverse the footage. The footage is slow and jumpy. The footage is mp4 shot at 24 fps. I have rendered the clip and still get the same results. Using a new souped up Mac and have cleared the cache so computer isn't the issue. Any way to fix this?

    System spec:
    Asus x58  P6-Delux
    i7-950
    12GB RAM(1600Mhz)
    1 System drive 500GB
    1 TB (RENDER+Project)
    2X1TB Raid 0 (For Footage)
    Nvidia GTX 570
    OS win 7 64 bit (Professional)
    PrPro CS5 (5.0.3)
    Media Encoder 5.0.1.0
    NO Extended Desktop (1 Display)
    Project Setting : DV PAL (4:3  1.097PAR) 48Khz Lower Field First
    Footage :20 Min DV PAL 4:3 1.097PAR 48khz  Lower Field First
    All Driver are update (cheked at the manufactor website)...

  • What configuration of the new macbook pro do I need to run FCS 3 without choppy playback.

    Yep, just wondering what configuration of the new macbook pro do I need to run FCS 3 without choppy playback or lagging.  I'm thinking about the 7200rpm, 2.2ghz, antiglare, 4gb ram, with 1gb GPU graphics card configuration

    Nothing wrong with the computer. Playback is dependent on the media and the drives.

  • More choppy playback issues

    None of the previous discussions have provided a solution, even though I followed all of their advice.
    I have a new project, started on CC2014 V8.2.0
    OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
    Macbook Pro I7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB
    Working on 1920X1080 sequence, *no* effects, absolutely none
    footage and project file  on external thunderbolt 2Gb Western Digital HD
    After playing the sequence for a few seconds, it starts to 'hang' and 'stutter' and will not play smoothly.
    I have:
    clicked "Maximum Render Quality" in sequence settings
    unchecked "Composite in Linear Color" (although it keeps checking itself back on)
    cleared all the caches, both within Premier, and using "WhatSize" app
    restarted, rebooted, re-everythinged
    Still will not play smoothly.  Any suggestions? Besides going back to FCX that is....

    1. two weeks ago I completed a project with footage from the same camera, on the same computer, with the same drivers, and had no problem, so I have trouble believing it's the Nvidia driver.
    2. I did turn off, then on, then off, then on, etc. the GPU acceleration, no effect
    3. Again, the same project I completed two weeks ago was from the same external HD (You're right, 2Tb, sorry) and again no problem.
    4. I upgraded to Yosemite just a couple of weeks after it came out, long enough ago that I can't remember exactly when, but again have completed many projects since without this problem.
    5. I can play the mp4 files on any other program smoothly, VLC, Quicktime, RealPlayer, etc. so it's not the footage.
    I went through the forums and tried every suggestion I  found, and it seems like there were indeed a lot of issues with choppy playback, and a lot of suggestions on how to fix it. None of the steps put forward have helped, and according to at least one of the forums I've read, that person was unable to find a workable solution. Starting from scratch seems pointless, since I just started this project fresh a few days ago.
    I really feel like in the latest update from Adobe something else got screwed up and I have no choice but to live with it until they decide to acknowledge it and fix it.

  • Choppy playback of AVCHD footage. 1920 x 1080 60p. Imported as optimized media.

    So I have some stuff shot on different days, same card, same camera, same settings.  1920 x 1080 AVCHD 60fps progressive, imported as optimized media.  I know my computer and external drive are able to handle this kind of footage. What is puzzling is that some clips with the same specs, play back very choppy (like unrendered media) and others play back wonderful.  What gives, I must be missing something obvious. Why would some clips play ok and others really badly?  I have double checked that everything (codec, frame rate, optimized vs. proxy) is the same by viewing stats in the events browser. Dropping these clips into the timeline does not show they need rendering, but if I output the clip as a master file, it plays fine. I have clips in other events that play great, with the same specs.  I am at a real loss. thanks gentlemen.

    Sorry, but I can't think of anything during import that would introduce errors that would cause  choppy playback. A momemttary loss of connection would be a problem but would typically corrupt the file and it most likely not play at all.
    If you hadn't said that some clips played (or previewed) perfectly smoothly, I'd suspect a hardware problem.
    Maybe someone else will have some better ideas.
    Russ

  • Video rendering and playback option greyed out on Premiere Pro CC 2014

    I cannot even click on the Video rendering and playback drop down menu as it is greyed out.
    I have a GeForce GTX 660 2GB card which should be supported as it has enough memory. I am on Windows 7.
    Would really appreciate if someone has a solution how to enable Mercury Playback Engine in this situation.

    Managed to fix the problem by downloading and installing the GeForce CUDA drivers as well as updating graphics card firmware.
    The Mercury Playback engine enabled itself in premiere after the updates.

Maybe you are looking for