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magnus atom
magnus atom
Participant
December 19, 2024

P: H.264 exports appear glitchy when scrubbed in QuickTime Player or Preview in macOS 15.1 or newer.

  • December 19, 2024
  • 27 replies
  • 3752 views

[Moderator: Updated title for clarity and making searching easier. This issue also affects Premiere Pro and Media Encoder.]

 

A month ago I updated my 2021 MacBook Pro to the latest Mac OS Sequoia 15.0.1 and that's when I began experiencing render issues when rendering H.264 from After Effects (2024 & 2025) or Media Encoder (2024 & 2025). The render plays back okay but when I scrub through, but when I scrub through the timeline, in AE, Quicktime, Frame.io, etc, I notice every 4th or so frame has terrible artifacting.

I've been able to work around this for a month by sending ProRes LT to my clients, however now a client is asking for a H264 so I'm stuck trying to figure this out or encode it on an old MacBook that still has an older MacOS version. 

 

If it helps at all, I've noticed when turning Audio Off when rendering through Media Encoder, the problem goes away, but obviously that's not a real solution. Anybody else have this issue and found a fix?

 

I'm sadly debating just buying a new MacBook at this point but not even sure that will solve the issue.

    27 replies

    Fergus H
    Community Manager
    Fergus HCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 15, 2025

    Hi all, 

     

    This issue has been fixed in v25.2 of our products. Thank you for your patience and thanks for reporting this issue!

     

    Regards,

    Fergus 

    E
    EW_TPN
    Participant
    April 15, 2025

    At high bitrates it doesn't matter to much.  But at lower bitrates Software will give you better results vs hardware.  The general rule of thumb is Software for quality and Hardware for speed.

    D
    DAVID 640
    Participating Frequently
    April 15, 2025

    Somewhere I read that using Software encoding fixes it. It does, so I do that. But I've also read that Software encoding is not as good. Adobe, please fix thius!

    A
    alexandre_2086
    Participating Frequently
    April 15, 2025

    Yes. 

      S
      Scott.C.
      Inspiring
      April 14, 2025

      Did this fix make it into 25.2 including media encoder? 

      M
      mayjain7130546
      Participating Frequently
      March 11, 2025

      Hi all,

       

      The fix for this issue is now in beta versions of our video apps. We are not suggesting you use beta versions in production but if you would like to test the fix, you can try the beta. 

       

      Thanks,
      Mayjain

      A
      alexandre_2086
      Participating Frequently
      March 10, 2025

      The Beta released seemed to solve the issue. You'll have to port over your presets and change your keyboard shortcuts though.

        Fergus H
        Community Manager
        Fergus HCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        March 7, 2025

        @Brett37091033ni8q My apologies: I was not suggesting that you use the beta for production work, merely providing it as information. I've clarified my post.

         

        That are multiple workarounds to this issue available right now but we know that workarounds are not a fix and I apologize for the inconvenience. Adobe's Customer Care organization is the right path if you're looking for a refund. 

         

        Regards,

        Fergus

         

        Fergus Hammond  |  Principal Product Manager, Premiere Pro  |  Adobe  

        B
        Brett37091033ni8q
        Participant
        March 7, 2025

        @Fergus H Thank you for the reply.

         

        As you're aware, none of us working pros can upgrade to a beta or initial release of Premiere or AE until some of its new bugs are patched.

         

        How about a refund on Creative Cloud until the software is working as advertised?

        Fergus H
        Community Manager
        Fergus HCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        March 7, 2025

        @Brett37091033ni8q We know the cause of the issue and know what we need to do to fix it. We expect the fix will be in the next release of our video products (the issue also affects Premiere Pro). It's likely we will have a beta version of After Efects & Premiere Pro with the fix next week. (I offer that information not as a suggestion that our customers should use a beta for production work but simply as information and to those who might like to check the fix for themselves.)

         

        @alexandre_2086 if you're having a different issue with exports - it sounds like for you they are failing entirely - I would suggest that you start a new thread describing the issue. The issue in this thread has a very specific symptom, only visible in QuickTime Player or macOS Preview. 

         

        Regards,

        Fergus

         

         

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