Premiere Freeze/crash when export

[Bob Spez]

P.S. Jeff,
I reread your post and saw you did not say you could export a 3 hour 200GB file in three hours. My mistake. You just said you could export it quickly. So my first question would be how long does it take you to export a 200GB 3 hour video?

Extrapolating my current speed of 20 minutes to export a 4 minute video, it would take me 5 hours to export a 1 hour video, or 15 hours to export a 3 hour video. If your export times are substantially faster than mine, then please answer my other settings and configuration question when you have the time. Thank you.
Bob

[Samuele Latino]

Here I am with some results; last night the first thing I did was replace the video card and try to export. Opening the PC I noticed something I had not thought, that is the dust. The computer it’s packed, and the video card fan especially had blocks of dust, which probably did stop the fan and causing system failure.

To be safe, however I tried to replace the card, an Nvidia gts 450 (MSI), I tried to export 2 times a movie, 1920×1080 30 minutes, exporting it in H264 as the source and one more in H264 but at 720p, and all this with the acceleration of the GPU. Premiere, albeit very slowly, exported all over with no problem, then tonight I left export a 720×576 movie 7/8 hours without the GPU, but unfortunately Premiere crashed (and accurate, only Premiere, the rest of the computer worked). Now I’m trying again to export the same movie using the GPU, we will see how it will end

Parallel I attached the GTX 750 in the other pc and tried to export a movie with Premiere CS6 as 720×576 as 2 hours in wmv, no crash and exported without problems. Now I’m trying to export the same thing from Premiere CC 2015, so far no problem, when it end will let you know.

Honestly I’m very confused, apparently the problem is not the video card, most likely is just the dust that has accumulated, but this situation leaves me very puzzled, especially on the export operation of Premiere; for example, what components use? How it use them? And above all, how works the export with the acceleration of the GPU?

In any case, forgive me if I did not do all the tests that you proposed, unfortunately these days I have a lot of work, so right now I’m trying to get rid of it and then analyze it all, right now I just need that exports me these videos in some way and as quickly as possible

[Samuele Latino]

First of all thank you for the advice!

I admit that we went a bit savings, we mostly tried fast economic components but in any case it must be said that apart from the export with Premiere else works beautifully, considering that I can do as well montages 4k without problems. About overclocking honestly scares me a little tap values, initially pc gave me a lot of problems just because I left the default values, turned off continuously or BDOS without ever touching a PC, while the actual values (and specifically, my goal is not to make the fast pc, only that it is stable, so the majority rather than increase them went to reduce them) works beautifully.

Surely later I try this too, now as though they are now workload to end and I don’t want to risk being completely without PC. Still I have a curiosity, why do you say that with a i7 Premiere works better? It is a matter of processor structure or something else? Maybe later I might consider replacing it, so I would like to better understand how it works

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Bob,

My system is close to 5 years old, Intel Core i7-2600, 16GB RAM, GTX 470 graphics, external USB 3.0 G-Tech 4TB GRAID drive in RAID 0 mode for video.

I work with 1080i HDV, AVCHD and ProRes source files normally and export as AVI, MPEG-2 DVD, or H.264 for most workflows. Nothing really takes too much longer than realtime to export basically, if not faster than.

I’m not going to go into specifics on all my formats and settings because frankly it doesn’t matter – my system isn’t broke, we need to talk about your system and why it takes so long to export. I export a variety of sources to a variety of formats, so there is no magic formula.

If you are simply putting clips on the timeline, cutting them up, adding some transitions or titles, etc. and then exporting, 4 minutes ought to take just minutes to export. Not 20 minutes, not 4 hours. I will say that Video Denoiser plug-ins take a crazy long time to render on any system, but you didn’t say you are using that software.

I very seldom render anything on the timeline – I’ll leave it red or yellow, as long as the video plays for preview and I can see what I’m doing, I disregard the colors. The video must be rendered anyway during the final export to format of your choice, so pre-rendering in timeline just means you are doing it twice.

https://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2011/02/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars.html

Having GPU rendering enabled in Premiere (with appropriate graphics card) can speed up certain things. With CC, look under File > Project Settings > General and see if Mercury Playback is set to GPU or Software.

So let’s talk about your workflow – what are the specs of the source footage? Any special effects or filters added in sequence? What format are you exporting to? A screen shot of Export Settings can be very helpful in spotting potential issues.

Oh, someone asked about the AMD vs. Intel thing. There is an Instruction Set included in Intel chips that AMD lacks, which Adobe uses to speed things up, plus Intel chips are generally faster anyway from what I understand. But everyone recommends Core i7 for Premiere, that’s the norm for best performance.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Samuele,

First off, get a can of compressed air and blow that computer out thoroughly. Nothing kills performance like a clogged up overheated system. I take mine outside, you don’t want it all blowing around in the house.

I believe you built the system yourself – after installing Windows, did you go back and install SPECIFIC drivers for motherboard, SATA, USB, etc.?

Windows puts in generic drivers, but if you go to the site of the motherboard maker, they will have specific drivers you can install. Download the latest versions and run them and that can help performance.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Bob Spez]

Hi Jeff,

Based on your comments and the fact your system is not that different from mine I decided to do some testing with my Adobe CS6 Premiere Pro 64 bit software.

My desktop is an HP Z200 Desktop Core i7-870 @ 2.93GHz (over clocked to 3.07GHz), 16GB DDR3 RAM, 1TB HD, Windows 10 Pro 64bit, ATI FirePro V4800 Graphics Adapter with 1GB video RAM. I export my files to a USB 2.0 500GB pocket drive.

For the test I used as an input file a one minute video clip of me panning across my CD cabinet and the walls around it. This input clip was an mp4 file, 1920×1018, 24fps, bitrate of 3700kbps, with mono sound.

The first thing I did was export it to an avi file set to same settings as input. Like you, I exported this 1 minute file in just 58 seconds. A tiny bit faster than real time.

However since I prefer H.264 mp4 file output, I exported it to that format.
The export time was 93 sec. or 155% of real time. The output file was 34 MB,
1920×1080, bitrate of 4700 kbs, with stereo sound, 1 minute long.

The next thing I did was export it with the media encoder, and you were correct, the media encoder was no faster than the export button, it was a bit slower at 105 sec, or 175% of real time.

For the rest of the test I incrementally added the type of Premiere Pro effects that I usually use, exporting the file each time with an additional effect added to the ones already on the timeline. They were all Premiere Pro effects, no third party plugins. I did not pre-render any of the effects. (Normally I would pre-render effects as I add them to see how they will look on the exported file.) The output file size and properties remained the same.

This is where the added export time increased the 93 seconds it took to export the one minute file to H.264 mp4, with no effects added..

1. Cut the sequence into 5 segments. Added 4 film dissolve transitions and a dip to black transition at the start and end of the video.
Export time increased to 2 min. 56 sec (293% of Realtime).

2. Zoomed into different parts of the frame on 4 of the 5 segments.
Export time increased to 3 min. 6 sec (310% of Realtime).

3. Adjusted the lighting (ambient lighting and spotlight) on all 5 segments.
Export time increased to 5 min. 38 sec. (563% of Realtime).
Adjusting the lighting produced the largest incremental increase to the export time.

4. Did color grading with the Fast Color Corrector on all 5 segments.
Export time increased to 6 min. 10 sec (617% of Realtime).

Thank you for your reply, it encouraged me to figure out what was causing the increase above Realtime for my exports. Based on these tests, it seems it is the adding of Premiere Pro effects to the timeline. It also appears my system is set up and functioning properly.

Bob

[Bob Spez]

Hi Samuele,
Regarding your question on the intel i7 processor. In my reply to Jeff I mentioned that my system used the i7-870 processor at 2.93HHz, overclocked to 3.08GHZ and 16GBof RAM. I have heard that the i7 worked well with with Premiere Pro CS6 64 bit, which I had. I also am using Win10 Pro 64 bit OS.
I should add that my desktop, a used HP Z200 with a ATI FirePro V4800 Graphics Adapter with 1GB video RAM, was not an expensive system It only cost me $250 on ebay 6 months ago. I added 8GB of system RAM I had from my previous desktop to bring the system up to 16GB of RAM.
If you look at the tests I reported in today’s answer to Jeff, you can see that adding Premiere Pro effects, especially adjusting the lighting, caused the biggest encrement in export time. A one minute 1920 x 1080 24fps mp4 file took just 93 seconds to export with no effects to H.264, 1980×1020 mp4 file. When I cut the file into 5 segments, added 6 transitions, zoomed into different parts of the frame on 4 of the 5 segments, changed the lighting on all 5 segments and did color grading on all 5 segment, the export time went up to 6 minutes and 10 seconds.

Bob

[Bob Spez]

Samuele,
Like many questions asked here, you may not have gotten an answer but you have learned which things did not cause your problem, and the discussion prompted you to find the dust problem. If that was the problem, then maybe heat was the issue. Do you have your desktop tower in a spot where it can get air from all sides (except the bottom)? Anyway, it seems like you are making progress and have had some success already, congratulations. These discussions often start us thinking in ways that bring us to our own solutions.
It is great that you have a lot of work. Are you a profesional video editor? Bob

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Bob,

Good idea with the testing. Your Core i7-870 processor came out in 2009, so unfortunately in “computer years” that makes it pretty old. I believe that was considered “First Gen” for the Core i7 series, with my 2600 being just Second-gen.

From personal experience, I saw a big jump in performance with Premiere going from First to Second-Gen processors. Not so much with later processors, but that first jump was the big one (they build Premiere editing workstations where I work, so I get to try out the different models).

Also, Premiere CS6 does offer the “Mercury GPU Acceleration”, but not with the Firepro card. If you want to invest a small amount to help your editing and export performance, a compatible nVidia-based card would do wonders for you.

Consider adding a GTX 750 or 760 card for instance, little over $100 or so. Keep in mind these cards cover TWO slots, so you have to have an empty slot below the PCI-e slot where the GPU goes, and also need a decent power supply to feed it, maybe 400-500 watts min.

I can pretty much guarantee that a Mercury-compatible card will provide noticeable results for you. You want a card with at least 1GB of DDR5 RAM. You might think then that getting the latest 4GB card might then be better yet, but the system has to be balanced – you have an older motherboard and processor, so the full power of a higher-end card would never be realized. Thus I’m suggesting a lower end card more in line with the rest of the system.

The last thing is that Premiere CS6 has an “approved card list” and these GTX cards will not be on it and would not by default be utilized. However, you can modify “the list” to add your card so that Premiere will use it.

https://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

One more issue I just realized – do you only have a single internal drive in the system? Adobe, or any NLE for that matter, always recommends a dedicated fast drive just for video – media should not be on the C: drive since that is being used by Windows and apps and they will slow down access to video clips.

You mentioned exporting to a USB 2.0 drive and that is definitely a bottleneck!! If you have space to plug in an internal SATA drive, that would be a good idea for under $100. Should be a high-performance drive like a WD Black (7200rpm, 6Gb SATA, 64mb cache).

Or….consider a new computer. A better-quality Core i7 system with nVidia graphics and such is going to run closer to $2k, however I do find sub-$1K systems online that would do the job and be light-years faster than what you have now.

For instance, Dell has this for $899 – Dell XPS 8700 Desktop Tower, Intel Core i7-4790, 16GB memory, 2TB Hard Drive, NV GTX 745, Windows 10

This would definitely work for Premiere, even has the GTX graphics. I’d connect an external USB 3.0 drive for video storage. I used to buy from “Dell Outlet” years ago and always saved a lot of money, maybe look at that as an option.

If you are a hobbyist and can’t justify a PC upgrade, then at least do the GTX card, you will be very glad you did, night and day difference in Premiere behavior when you enable Mercury GPU. And think about faster storage if possible.

Thanks

Jeff

[Samuele Latino]

Hello Jeff,

Motherboard drivers were installed, however in the end the problem was not even the dust, after approximately 2 exports, blue screens again. In the end doing some internet search I read that the hard drive that I had for many people gave problems, so I tried to replace it, I installed Windows 8 and I was able to export what I needed, plus it seems much faster than before. Next week I’ll be more relaxed probably I’ll try to put a bit under pressure to see what holds up, but right now it seems that the problem is solved! So thank you all for the help!