Custom Playback Resolution in Premier 5.5

[Tom Daigon]

Im not familiar with any options like that in Premiere Pro.

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3

[Tim Kolb]

There isn’t any way to create custom fractional resolution values…

However, keep in mind that scaling and decode math is all about how easy the calculations are to make.

Most frame sizes are even numbers so 1/2 and 1/4 resolution decodes are easily calculated. If you start making fractional scales that make sub-pixel calculations necessary, you’ll create scaling workload that won’t be proportional to the size reduction (1/3 resolution could very well create a more processing-intensive operation that 1/2 resolution).

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Troy Gordon]

Yeah that totally makes sense, Thanks Tim!

Any suggestions on optimizing playback of native 4k files in premiere without changing playback resolution?

[Tim Kolb]

Do you have a 4K monitor?

I think many people seem to be concerned about this, yet for the most part users are viewing on a 2K at the very best, or more often an HD display.

What is your computer’s configuration?

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Troy Gordon]

I’m one of those people, I have an 27′ imac i7 with a 3.4 ghz quad core with 16GBs of ram and a 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6970M video card. The screen resolution is 2k (2560 x1440).

I know i won’t be able to watch it in true 4k. I just want to know if theres any other way (besides transcoding footage) to make the native files playback smoother when editing and not have to change the resolution quality to 1/4. So really this isn’t even a question about actually resolution its more or less getting the R3D files to run optimally in premier.

[Tim Kolb]

With a somewhat limited (16 GB of RAM is a good call) hardware config and no CUDA card, you won’t be very flexible with RED 4K footage.

There is a tremendous amount of scaling involved with decoding, de-bayering, and then displaying RED R3D footage and with a single proc working alone, you’ll be pretty limited on how fluid your playback can be at higher fractional resolutions.

(…not to mention that if your footage isn’t on a fast Thunderbolt connected drive at the very least, you could start to see drive readback limitations.)

RED footage is a load for a workstation-class machines…an iMac (even one with 16 GB of RAM) is going to be challenged to do that sort of heavy lifting.

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Tom Daigon]

As an example of what Tims talking about, my system handles Red 4k very well at 1/2 resolution playback. Here is the configuration…

Tom Daigon
https://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
2 x 3.2 ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Kona 3
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid (745 MBPS)

Tom Daigon
Avid DS / PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
Mac Pro 3,1
8 core
10.6.8
Nvidia Quadro 4000
24 gigs ram
Maxx Digital / Areca 8tb. raid
Kona 3