[Jon Doughtie]

You mentioned earlier that a 120 minute film in “ok quality” is about 700MB. What settings were you using then to get that result? Why not just re-use those settings?

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

Pretty much normal behavior on many NLE’s, not just Premiere Pro. Timeline renders aren’t meant to be permanent, just to make playback on a variety of timelines possible on a variety of computer setups. To eliminate it within Premiere Pro, simply create the keyed composite shot with some handles, set in/out points, export it, import that to the bins, and drop the comped shot in your timeline.

If it is chroma key, I often get superior results using After Effects to comp the shots. Once saved, I can go back into that AE project and make alternate versions later if I require them.

Nature of the beast.

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

Hi Tom, we need more information about your computers, OS and version of Adobe software. It’s just guesswork otherwise.

Did any changes/upgrades/updates/other software installations coincide with the failure of keyframe previews?

BTW, I encourage folks to put all the pertinent info in the signature, so you don’t have to repeat it in post after post. (See below).

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

What version of Adobe CC?

Did you import using Adobe’s Media Browser?

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

More information would be good, like computer specs, OS, version of Adobe CC, etc. Otherwise it’s all pure guesswork.

Max Render Quality is primarily for renders of re-sized content, otherwise it mostly just adds time to the render.

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

Not a Mac user, so cannot speak into that part of it.

If it were me, I’d try rolling back to CC2018. Everything I hear about 2019 is still too buggy for my tastes.

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

Time to contact the actual facility where the screening will be held. Perhaps they will have more information.

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

There’s lots of changes between your previous OS and Windows 10. And Premiere Pro 5.5 is pretty long in the tooth.

This simply may be a situation where Premiere Pro 5.5 doesn’t know what to do with a generation of video card that didn’t even exist when 5.5 was released, or fundamental changes at the OS level.

I don’t think 5.5 offered render hardware acceleration. But if it did, try switching that off and going to software only. You can also try outputting to a series of still, like PNG. That can easily be reassembled into a clip with After Effects.

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

First thing I ask about is the audio file format. If it’s mp3, I always convert to WAV.

PPro will certainly let us place mp3 on the timeline. But in my experience, that doesn’t mean PPro “loves” mp3.

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.

[Jon Doughtie]

This is just my preference, and it is too late for this project. It may help in the future, though.

With that many different sources/file types, step one for me would be to render out all raw footage to the same intermediate codec – a high-level ProRes, Cineform, or (in my Windows world) one of the Avid DNX flavors.

Then I would have put the original footage to the side and edited/finished with all the intermediate codec materials. It requires a lot more disc space, but could well have eliminated all the headaches you had. Sorry you had to go through that.

JMHO.

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.