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If I have a choice, what’s the fastest codec to use?
I edit a lot of HD footage I capture from my DVR. I can export the 1080 HD footage with virtually any codec. I’ve noticed a lot of lag with certain codecs in Premiere, so I know someone must’ve discovered the best codec to work with to avoid lag – meaning I’ll hit the space bar, the audio starts playing but the video is frozen on 1 frame for a few seconds. Same with scrubbing.
I have a 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xenon Mac with 16GB of memory. Most of my footage is on a firewire 800 drive.
THANKS!
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11 Replies
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H.264 Proxies.
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Thanks – could I get a specific or two? I’m a Final Cut guy, proxies aren’t really in my vocabulary…
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I would get a faster hard drive – Firewire 800 is your bottleneck. Since you’re on a Mac I would use Pro Res or Avid DNxHD.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Downtown Long Beach, California
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1680680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 -
Thanks for the response. I put everything on the main hard drive – still get the awful lag. FCP never lagged with the same drive, but I can’t imagine it’s the hard drive. Any other ideas?
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Nicholas,
Why transcode? Use the native format and drop the playback resolution to 1/4.If you do want to transcode, I’d stay away from QuickTime until Premiere Pro CC comes out on Monday. QuickTime will have much better performance at that time. Right now, I’d go with DNxHD or Cineform.
Cheers,
KevinKevin Monahan
Social Support Lead
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Systems, Inc.
Follow Me on Twitter! -
Thanks. I can’t use the native because I’m using an eyeTV HD box to capture from my DVR and Premiere won’t recognize their native format. That said, I export it as an H.264, which is the eyeTV’s native format but I get the most ridiculous lag.
If I switch to my text edit app for a few seconds, then back to Premiere, I literally have to wait 5 or 6 seconds for Premiere to catch up and play the video (the audio plays and the playhead moves, the video just doesn’t catch up.)If you could give me any other insight, I’d cry from happiness. I’m about to throw my new, very fast computer out the window….
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[Nicholas Hauselman] “If I switch to my text edit app for a few seconds, then back to Premiere, I literally have to wait 5 or 6 seconds for Premiere to catch up and play the video (the audio plays and the playhead moves, the video just doesn’t catch up.)”
Earlier you said you’re playing video from your main hard drive. Should never do that, even with FCP. You want your media on a dedicated drive or RAID.
We edit in every codec under the sun and the only times we get lags with Premiere Pro are ProRes and GoPro native footage. That’s all playing off a 100TB server. And we’re editing with iMacs, Mac Pro and a Dell tower.
No media is stored on the local computers.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaFoul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People. -
Right – I always have my footage on my 8 TB FIrewire 800 drive – which never gave me issues in Final Cut Pro. I was desperate to try anything, so I put the footage on my main drive to see if that would help – someone else earlier told me the firewire drive was the bottleneck. So it seems that it’s not where the footage is stored, since the issue might even be worse now… :O
Is there any other issue I’m not thinking of that would cause such awful lag using H.264 footage in Premiere?THANKS!!!!!!
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[Nicholas Hauselman] “Is there any other issue I’m not thinking of that would cause such awful lag using H.264 footage in Premiere?
“As long as you’re following proper media management practices in Premiere Pro (which are different than FCP) you should be good to go. Honestly don’t know what else to offer without knowing your setup.
I also use an 8TB FW800 RAID at home on my 3 year old iMac. I only see lags with GoPro and AVCHD footage on that system and when I have a lot of filters applied.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaFoul Water Fiery Serpent, an original documentary featuring Sigourney Weaver. US & European distribution by American Public Television
MTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People. -
It’s so strange. I’m really at a loss. I’ll try and get Adobe support, I guess. It’s basically an unusable app the way it lags like this….
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