[Merlin Vandenbossche]

Same advice as everyone else: no more updates mid project.

Adobe only supports three versions of Mac OS at every time. Generally I like to stay middle road when it comes to OS. Right now this means Ventura for Mac OS. This way I wont fall out the boat whenever a new cycle of updates for Premiere is dropped. It worked out fine for me since.

I do like to explore new features frequently though. This new release bringing the enhance speech, next one probably the label colors and marker improvements. Those are things that do matter I believe. I also find the 2024 versions to be stable on Apple Silicon. And usually more bugs are fixed than created. The foregoing beta program has really improved feature sets and bug behaviour a lot for new releases. General rule for me though: I always stay within a year cycle which does not require a project file update. And I always stress test a new update with common tasks before fully commiting. When updating: always clear cache and reset preferences before going into a project. Creating an entirely new project in the new version and copying over all assets and sequences has also worked wonders for me in assuring stability. These are things you could try to remedy your odd behaviour. A full clean install of OS and apps might be an ultimate solution too.

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

It is an interesting question that pops up almost every year for me as well. Its pace of development, the good performance, the one-click-away to dedicated color/audio tools… And yet every year the jump just isn’t happening. Reasons differ, but for me it’s been coming down to this:

A/ As a tool purely for editing it still isn’t as ‘good’ as what I am used to (in my case Premiere Pro). I don’t like its approach to trimming (having to toggle on/off ‘modes’) and there are several key commands I can not bind to my keyboard that speed me up. Some of this is probably muscle memory I can re-train (or I train for new techniques). But it does not change the fact that it would slow me down. Speed of operation is about much more than the export-speeds and the real-time playback every youtube video always goes on about.

B/ It would be almost impossible to enlist the help of others or finding extra talent. This is by far the biggest hurdle I experience. I lead a team of 5 editors doing broadcast content. And while I am generally open to trying new things and putting in time to learn, not everyone can or will follow equally. The same is true if I need to attract freelancers to work with us: telling them Resolve is the tool of choice would just harvest plenty of frowning. It’s market position, where I am from, is just non-existant. The true quality of a tool alas does not always equal its place in the ‘traditional market’. This is often true for Apple’s more than excellent FCP X too by the way.

C/ I would just exchange old problems for new ones. Every software has its hiccups, and for the tools I use now, I at least know what they are. Switching to Resolve will pose new issues I need to iron out, hoping I won’t encounter a ‘show-stopping’ one. Again: it will take time to adapt and many projects just don’t have enough luxury for it.

So for the time being, I am content keeping to Resolve as a solution for workflow and for advanced color grading and finishing. If a project were to pop-up that I can do completely in isolation (like a short-term commercial for example), I might consider moving into it to test it out. In the meantime I keep recommending it though to everyone looking for a great NLE or to students I meet (as no one can argue with the free-price point).

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

.cfa files are only created when importing compressed audio. It does this to replace that audio with an “uncompressed” version of it as a helper file. This will happen for instance by importing mp3 or m4a files or when importing an mp4 from a camera like a gopro which records compressed AAC as its audio codec. It will not happen with uncompressed linear pcm audio in for instance AIFF or WAV files or a quicktime ProRes file which often also has linear pcm audio.

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

The ability to output to any external monitor was actually added to the (paid) studio version of Resolve in v16.1:

https://www.toolfarm.com/news/update-blackmagic-design-davinci-resolve-beta-16-1-innovative-new-features/
Support for a full-screen viewer on an additional display on DaVinci Resolve Studio

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

Sorry to hear you’re having troubles. I have been cutting UHD ProRes 422 footage easily on the same machine (iMac 2015, 32 GB RAM, i7, M395X GPU). Even just today. I am not on Mojave however. (but High Sierra)

I would first recommend two things to troubleshoot any possible underlying issues with the software:

1/ Clear your preferences and plugin cache on a brand new empty project: do this by holding ALT + SHIFT while double click – opening the project file. It will ask to reset your preferences and then reload all the plugins, effects, decoders etc. Be aware that your preferences have been reset, so you need to run through some of those again if you had changed them from the default. (including re-activating your custom keyboard setting)

2/ Manually delete the cache folders, so PPRO needs to rebuild the library and cache files in your project. Do this manually and not using the preference menu in the application. This way you make sure they are also deleted for your active project and not just for the currently unopened ones. Here you can find the folders: /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common

Some useful information: https://screenlight.tv/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-adobe-premiere-pros-media-cache

3/ You can also try creating a brand new project and re-importing your old one. If your project ‘survives’ across multiple versions of CC, this is always recommended.

These steps may help to boost your performance again, these things do sometimes get messed up. If it all doesn’t, there may be a lot of other factors at work:

– Are you working with H.264 or H.265 source footage? This will always be ‘more difficult’ to playback and especially to ‘scrub through’ (it is the nature of the codec). Especially at UHD resolutions. And especially if it is in VBR bitrate. Lot’s of folks have wrong expectations about this codec in their workflows.

– Is your storage setup fast enough? Playing back 4K high bitrate UHD ProRes for example from an USB 3.0 external drive may cause hiccups, so can drives formatted in file structures like exFAT. Sometimes you do just need a RAID or SSD.

– Maybe your computer desperately needs that format and fresh install of OS and applications. I do it at least once a year, it helps enormously.

Just a few things and questions for you to go through… I wish you all the good luck!

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

I see you have an Nvidia GPU in your system. Compared to CC18 the 2019 release has changed some support concerning CUDA acceleration. It may be the 2019 version is not ‘talking’ to your GPU correctly anymore and you need to update your drivers. It would explain the render bar going red instead of yellow. Especially if you experience your issues on clips with many effects on them. With H.264 codecs it could also help to enable the Hardware Decoding in the preferences.

But first go to the Nvidia driver page and ensure you have the latest drivers:
https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Reboot, make a clean CC19 project, check your Mercury Playback to be CUDA (Project Settings) and import your old project into this freshly created one. See if this helps. Good luck!

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

The bug about adding metadata to multiple clips should be fixed if you are on version 12.1.1 or 12.1.2.

As you can read in this bug fix list:
https://helpx.adobe.com/be_nl/premiere-pro/kb/fixed-issues-premiere-pro-apr-2018.html

We had that bug too for a long time, when adding ‘camera label’ to multicam shoots. We used Prelude as an alternative to add this data to the quicktime files in batch at the time we had the bug. I can confirm it no longer is an issue in premiere pro itself now, since our 12.1.2 installation. Maybe try a fresh install? It seems like good practice to first get rid of the ‘old code’ and reinstall the fresh one, rather than just update it.

Merlin

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

Are you using the function to display ‘duplicate frame markers’ (under the wrench icon top left side of timeline)?
Using these color markers to display duplicate used media on a timeline is known to slow down the UI’s performance. Maybe try turning it off.

You can also try resetting the workspaces or using a default workspace. (under the ‘window’ tab)
Sometimes custom built workspaces slow down the UI as well. Try using the default ‘editing workspace’ as a test, is it still slow on the iMac’s display? Maybe try rebuilding your custom workspace from scratch.

Kind regards and best of luck,
Merlin

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

Thanks for the tip, Trent, but alas. I’ve tried this suggested workaround, but no result. I’m making the clips offline and relinking with and without ‘align timecode’.

Funny thing is, after forcing media to go offline, the clips remain greyed out and do not show media offline (just remain the same black output). But elsewhere in the timeline, a second instance of the same clip would go offline/online with the relink just fine. Maybe this happens only to clips that are originally coming from the same mediaclip but are spread out over the timeline?

Maybe the handles are causing the problems here? I could try getting rid of them the next time when consolidating. We are basically doing a consolidate like this to give us the flexibility to change graphics and overlays at a later stage if needed. The handles are not necessary per se, but just seemed like an extra failsafe.

Merlin

[Merlin Vandenbossche]

Craig,

I had no direct need for an audio input/XLR mic in our facility, so for sound we eventually used the direct audio output of the computer (new mac pro 2014) with a split cable to both speakers (a cable that splits from mini jack to 2 x male jack, like this: https://www.bax-shop.nl/jack-jack/devine-va5015-jack-3-5mm-stereo-2x-jack-male-1-5m-verloopkabel). From a professional audio POV probably not the best setup, but more than adequate for our speakers/editing need.

For video output we now use the Blackmagic Mini Monitor over thunderbolt to SDI. Thunderbolt connects the Mac Pro to an SDI monitor. A decklink card is a similar solution for older mac pro systems using PCI-cards.

In terms of delay: none that we have noticed so far (or at least so minimal it is not noticeable), using the mercury transmit. Under preferences, playback, you can send the video-signal using the mercury GPU-accelerated engine to any external monitor or full-screen secondary monitor or even set a delay in case you do need one. Best to test it out first.

greetings,
Merlin