RAM PREVIEW ERROR: need 2 or more frames to playback

[John Miller]

It is interesting that this topic is 2 years old and the problem is still ongoing with no solution ..
I got this problem today ,unrelated to video codecs though ,unpredictable ,it does get resolved with restarting AE ,sometimes with restarting my pc ,I have a monster pc with 4 processors, 8 Gig RAMs with the dual video card and I am only rendering 2 seocnds in the comp and getting this nasty message
NEED 2 FRAMES TO PLAYBACK !

[John Rygielski]

This is what was causing the error for me: I use marker shortcuts for my in/out points and didn’t notice that my actual work area had gotten moved somewhere offscreen. Actually it had disappeared completely. I saw the markers, so I thought my workarea was set properly, it wasn’t. I noticed this when I went to another comp that wasn’t having the preview error and saw the work area handles and light gray bar in between the markers (CS4 Mac). I don’t know how my work area was changed or removed, but it was. I simply went to my markers and used the b/n hotkeys to reset my in/out points. Ram preview worked fine afterwards.

[Omid Abesta]

I have this problem too. ( with cs4 )

sometimes i change properties in “memory & multiprocessing” it will be correct. maybe i was casual!. but i do not know what i do when occuring this error.
my format is mpeg2.

another question: in your opinion will i have this problem with format of camera sony EX1?

i will work with EX1 in HD format (for chromakey), then transform it to sd pal.

my language English is bad. excuse me.

[Alvaro Calandra]

Hi I use AVCHD footage and this problem started when I enabled multiprocessing, CS4 Windows XP dualquad 4gb ram

Just disable this and get Nucleo Pro for multiprocessing, works fine

bye

Alvaro Calandra
Video & Sound Editor
ElCanal.com
598 2 4112018
598 99 171542
alvaro@cp.com.uy
http://www.elcanal.com/video
Soriano 1729 Piso 5 – CP 11.200
Montevideo Uruguay

[Adrian Winter]

I have been running into this error off and on for quite some time, most recently this morning. Since I had just created the project and was working with all image sequences I knew it couldn’t be a corrupt file or a codec issue. So I went about turning layers on and off trying to figure out what was causing the error.

For me the issue turned out to be time remapping. Frequently if I need to do a “hold frame” at the beginning of a clip, I will move the clip 10 or 20 frames ahead in the time line, enable on time remapping, and then drag the inpoint of the clip back to my desired start time. I had such a layer in this comp, and I found that when I disabled time remapping on the clip, my comp miraculously previewed again. As an aside, whenever I did this in the past, I never added another keyframe for “frame 1” at the new in point of my time remapped clip. From now on I will do so, and see if the problem comes up again. But given the nature of the error, “AE needs 2 or more frames to preview,” I wonder if the extended single frame in my timeline is what what screwing everything up.

I don’t know if my solution applies to everyone else who has encountered this error, but I figured I would post my “workaround” in case it helps anyone else.

best,

Adrian

[Robert Burroughs]

If you have any illustrator files imported in after effects, make sure they are RGB.

[Robert Burroughs]

I’ve also found turning multiprocessing off helps.

[Wilson Huynh]

YES THIS WORKS. where the bar that you move up and down to see frames ( in my case.) there are 2 yellow things near it. with a faded grey colour between them, thats called the work space. move the work space UP to where you want to preview up to. The work space represents how many frames your watching. So go ahead and move it, then PRESS PREVIEW. ;D

[Randal Radabaugh]

Hello-
I have AE CS4 and am just beginning.
This is a problem for me also. In fact, I have not been able to do a RAM preview since I installed it. It always states NEED 2 more frames,
regardless of file type.

Audio or Image or anything in comp. it is always need 2 more frames.

Some of the solutions I have looked at I cannot seem to do, because said preference does not seem to exist where it is stated.
However- I am goin to try a restart, but I doubt that does it,
since it has done this since I have installed AE.

Any more info would be helpful.

[Randal Radabaugh]

I do not see an edit key, but I don’t believe it. Restarting AE worked.