Premiere Pro – Playback issues – no image where image should be ?

[Jon Doughtie]

What container/codec files does the Mavic 2 produce?

System:
Dell Precision T7600 (x2)
Win 7 64-bit
32GB RAM
Adobe CC 2017.1 (as of 8/2017)
256GB SSD system drive
4 internal media drives RAID 5
Typically cutting short form from UHD MP4, HD MP4, and HD P2 MXF.

[Hugh Fenton]

Hi Jon,

thanks for your reply. The Mavic 2 Pro codec is ;
HEVC 10 Bit 4:2:0
Mpeg4
3840 by 2160

Cheers, Hugh : )

[Jon Doughtie]

Hmm. Just as an experiment, have you tried transcoding the footage to an essentially lossless codec and tried working with that? Like one of DNxHD codecs or something along those lines.

Curious if getting it out of that highly compressed codec would relieve the pain. Even with your system, that is a LOT of work for the CPU to decompress.

System:
Dell Precision T7600 (x2)
Win 7 64-bit
32GB RAM
Adobe CC 2017.1 (as of 8/2017)
256GB SSD system drive
4 internal media drives RAID 5
Typically cutting short form from UHD MP4, HD MP4, and HD P2 MXF.

[John Heiser]

Sweet though your system may be, sometimes original media are just too darn heavy to work with smoothly in their original form. You don’t mention what codec you’re shooting with on the A7s or the FS7, or if this is HD, UHD or 4k, but you might look at: 1) transcoding your media to an I-frame codec like ProRes or DNx; 2) the proxy workflow, specifically designed for smoothing out editing with heavy media; or 3) simply reduce your playback quality while cutting.

Here’s an interesting video from Colin Smith about having realistic expectations from your system. His audience is largely YouTubers and such, but it’s good information:
https://youtu.be/LSj68RBgb2A

John Heiser
Senior Editor
o2 ideas – Birmingham, AL

iMac Retina 5k, 27-inch, 2017
4.2 GHz i7, 32GB RAM, Radeon Pro 580 8GB
G-Speed Studio TB-2 12TB RAID-5

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[Hugh Fenton]

Thanks Jon. This is a good point. And I’m happy to try this.

We’re working with FS7 and FS5 and Sony A7S footage aswell as the Mavic pro footage.

The thing is we’ve turned proxy mode on within Premier and we’re trying to edit with proxy mode on and the resolution at 1/4 of the quality and it’s still doing it. Doesn’t proxy mode within premier mean that we’re working with pro res footage i.e. it doesn’t matter what the actual codec of the footage is as you’re working with those proxy files? Or is it somehow not true proxy’s?

[Hugh Fenton]

Hey John,

thanks for posting this. I watched the film and I think we have been working off an external drive. I’m going to try the project on a 2tb SSD and see if that makes a difference.

Converting all of the files of this project (800gb) into lossless proxy files could be challenging because of harddrive space. I always back everything up onto two drives. So if the proxy’s on this project take up 1.6tb then I’m using two 3tb drives which is about $250 worth of space for one project.

We’re working with 4k footage. Sony FS7 is mxf0p1a codec.

But we did also use proxy mode within premier as oppose to creating proxy’s using media encoder ourselves? So shouldn’t that help?

Cheers, Hugh : )

.

[Jeff Pulera]

Proxies are really just lower-quality “temporary” files that stand in for the original files during editing, with the original source clips then being utilized as the source just for the final export.

The difference with transcoding your footage to something more easily editable before you start editing is that the new files are full-resolution, full-quality and will be the only files used throughout the entire process. The original files are never used in Premiere at all.

Two different things entirely

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers