Known Participant

Incorrect Preview Scaling when program monitor's set to 1/2 & 1/4 resolution. (Images & Masks)

Forum|Forum|12 days ago
July 14, 2026
1 reply
152 views

I've encountered a rendering/preview issue that appears to affect certain resolution elements when the Program Monitor playback and paused resolution are set to 1/4. (or the lowest possible resolution)

When scaling a PNG above 100 the preview becomes inaccurate compared to how it appears at Full resolution. As the scale increases (around 130% or higher), the image begins to behave as if Uniform Scale is disabled, appearing visibly stretched.

The issue becomes significantly worse when Film Impact effects are applied. the image's position is also shifted incorrectly.

At **1/4** paused resolution & Edge Glow effect applied. (Ex-Film Impact effect)

Steps to Reproduce

Import the attached PNG (or the provided sample project/assets).
Place the PNG on a sequence.
Increase its Scale above 100%.
Set both Playback Resolution and Paused Resolution to 1/4.
Compare the image to how it appears when the Program Monitor is set back to Full resolution.

Additional Tests

Test 1 - No Effects

Scale the PNG above 100%.
At 1/4 resolution, the preview no longer matches the Full-resolution preview.
Around 130% scale, the image appears stretched, almost as if Uniform Scale has been disabled. (only during playback)

While playing and pausing around ¼ preview resolution. (no effect applied)

Test 2 - Native Premiere Effect

Apply Gaussian Blur (Legacy).
The scaling issue remains, but the image position stays correct.

Test 3 - Film Impact Effect

Apply a non-native Film Impact effect (for example, Edge Glow).
In addition to the scaling distortion, the image position shifts unexpectedly and may move partially or completely outside the frame.

Test 4 - Third-Party Effect

Apply a third-party effect such as S_Blur from Sapphire.
The preview becomes incorrect at any reduced Program Monitor resolution (1/2, 1/4, etc.).
The image again appears as though Uniform Scale is disabled.
Returning the Program Monitor to Full resolution immediately restores the correct appearance.

Test 5 - Masks

In vertical videos, masks also appear to shift position once the scale of the mask exceeds 100%.

I will provide the footage. please mask the person and scale the mask above 100 at ¼ paused resolution.

Summary

At reduced Program Monitor resolutions (especially 1/4):

The image no longer matches its appearance at Full resolution. (when scale is 100+ )
Scaling becomes inaccurate.
Around 130% scale, the image appears stretched as if Uniform Scale is disabled. (only during playback)
Some third-party effects exaggerate the issue.
Film Impact effects also cause the image position to become offset. (In Both 1/2 and 1/4 resolution)
Masks in vertical clips may shift position when the image is scaled above 100%.

Switching the Program Monitor back to Full resolution immediately restores the correct appearance.

Additional Notes

I have attached sample footage and images because I could not reproduce this issue using standard 1920×1080 PNGs or videos. This suggests the bug may be related to the source asset's resolution.

However, I can consistently reproduce it using the assets I've attached. This makes me suspect the bug is related to the source media's resolution or dimensions rather than scaling alone.

Please try reproducing the issue using the attached media rather than replacing it with your own test assets, as the problem does not seem to occur with common resolution files.

System info
Application: Premiere Pro v26.3
OS: Windows v10.0.26200, RAM: 31.82 GB GB, CPUs (logical): 24
GPU: Rtx 3060 Ti Nvidia Studio Driver ver. 610.62

reference-footage.mp4

KatieToo

Community Manager

Hi @BeratGL

Welcome back to the Premiere forums, good to see you again. Thank you for providing such a detailed bug report, your setup, and including those files. It’s very appreciated. Our team is going to investigate these issues you’re having with images/masks scaling, resolution playback, as well as the film impact effects. And as an update, we were indeed able to recreate these issues!

Also noting that Full Resolution seems to be a workaround presently on this.

I’ll provide an update with any new information on this, or if any further questions come up.

Thanks for your time on this, and hope to help!
Katie

BeratGLAuthor

Known Participant

Hi @KatieToo, I believe I identified the root cause of the position offset bug when film-impact effects are used. It only happens with elements that are lower resolution than the sequence. And you can create this bug without external footage, using premiere only elements such as color matte or bars and tone.

For example:

Create a 2160p (3840x2160) sequence.
Create either Color Matte or Bars and Tone but create them in 1080p resolution. (or in any resolution that is lower than the sequence’s resolution.)

Scale the element above 100+ and add a film-impact effect on it (wonder glow in my case.)
Preview the footage in different preview resolutions. (1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc.)

When you do these the position offset bug occurs. Weirdly enough, if we create the same elements in the same resolution as the sequence (which is 3840x2160) this bug doesn’t not occur. So it’s safe to say it’s triggered when the clip is lower resolution than the sequence it’s on.

As for the other bugs, I still don’t know what triggers the one that happens without any additional effect. However, the image i used was a very common square ratio 1000x1000 image i downloaded from the internet. And i saw some reddit posts on r/premiere that gets the streched playback when working with iphone footage etc. So the range of materials this bug occurs is not niche at all. It might also differ in behaviour with what the sequence’s resolution is. If i were you, i would test footage that this bug happens on different sequences and resolutions.

As for the masking bug i showcased in my report. It even happens at full resolution if ‘scale to frame size’ applied on the clip. So it means it will also effect the rendered output and not a simple preview bug anymore. I think you guys dropped the ball going from 26.0 → 26.2 and it seems to be getting worse from there. I hope some of the information may help engineering team to fix some of these bugs. Have a nice day!