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Phil-D
Phil-D
Participant
July 19, 2020
Answered

Premiere Elements 2020 choppy video after project saved

  • July 19, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1045 views

For the past 20 weeks I have been editing our pastor’s sermons using Premiere Elements 2020 (folder is labeled as 18?)

Yesterday I discovered that if I save a project, when I re-open it, the video looks choppy, almost animated.  I thought perhaps it was just a problem with the timeline previews but when I exported a section to MP4 (H.264), the exported MP4 video was also choppy.

I discovered that if I keep the project open until completion and then export, the video appears fine.

To test if the project or video was corrupted, I started a new timeline with raw video from the previous week which had been fine. Same result – everything is good while the project is open but once I save and close the project, when re-opened, the video is choppy. Tried additional video footage with the same result.

No Project Settings or Preferences have been knowingly changed.

Laptop specs: HP Spectre, Windows 10 v1909, i7 10th gen / 16GB RAM / 500 GB SSD / nvidia GeForce MX250 (not set as default for Premiere Elements)

The videos are all iPhone movies. I have attached the detailed video specs and project specs in a txt file.

 

MPEG Movie
Image Size: 1920 x 1080
Frame Rate 29.97
Source Audio Format: 44100 Hz - compressed - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 44100 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0
Alpha: None
Video Cidec Type: HEVC 4:2:0
Variable Frame Frame Rate Detected

 

Project settings:
Edited Mode: DSLR
Timebase: 29.97 frames/second
Frame Size: 1920 x 1080
Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
Fields: No Fields (Progressive Scan)
Display Format: 30 fps Drop-Frame Timecode

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bill Sprague

HEVC is a CPU nightmare due to the extreme compression.   Making it worse is the variable frame rate used by iPhones.  If it were me, I would start shooting with a different iPhone setting ("Most Compatable"?) and convert the H.265/HEVC to fixed frame rate H.264 with the (free) program Handbrake.   

 

It may also be that your computer is running low on disk space and memory is being used by background apps. 

2 replies

HOTELECHOMIKE
HOTELECHOMIKE
Inspiring
July 20, 2020

Rather than "uninstall-install" (which I have never had to even try over 6 years of PE usage) I would follow whsprague's suggestion of using Handbrake to convert the H.265/HEVC to fixed frame rate H.264 and trying the resulted converted clips in a NEW project.  Its possibly just too much work for your CPU to process the compressed data "on the fly".

Phil-D
Phil-DAuthor
Participant
July 20, 2020

@HOTELECHOMIKE and whsprague,

 

I have used Handbrake before for other purposes, so I'll give it a try. Is there a loss of quality when converting from H.265/HEVC to fixed frame rate H.264?

Phil-D
Phil-DAuthor
Participant
July 22, 2020

Reporting back in.

 

Converting the HEVC h.265 video to h.264 using Handbrake and then using that h.264 file in the project seems to have resolved the choppy video after save problem.

 

I matched the output FPS to 29.97 and selected Constant Framerate along with Lossless Quality. This took about 47 minutes for a 30-minute clip and resulted in a file size 2 times the original. To my eye the quality of the video matches the original footage but there may be a barely perceptible audio sync issue – not 100% certain on that.  The finished mp4 exported from Premiere Elements resulted in the same size as the original export.

 

It’s a bit inconvenient to go through this extra step, but I want to thank everyone who participated in this conversation. Your help was invaluable.

 

I will continue to wonder why the HEVC worked flawlessly for 20 video projects over 5 months, but that may be a question that will remain unanswered.

 

Best wishes to all.

 

B
Community Expert
Bill SpragueCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 19, 2020

HEVC is a CPU nightmare due to the extreme compression.   Making it worse is the variable frame rate used by iPhones.  If it were me, I would start shooting with a different iPhone setting ("Most Compatable"?) and convert the H.265/HEVC to fixed frame rate H.264 with the (free) program Handbrake.   

 

It may also be that your computer is running low on disk space and memory is being used by background apps. 

    Phil-D
    Phil-DAuthor
    Participant
    July 19, 2020

    Hi whsprague,

    Thanks for the quick reply. I sincerely appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

    My 500 GB SSD has 222 GB of free space, so I have plenty of headroom and I keep background processes to a minimum to conserve memory even though I have 16 GB of RAM.

    All I have to offer is that overused comment “It was working before” - then this started last night out of nowhere. And previously functioning projects are now exhibiting the same behavior. It seems very strange that as long as I keep a new project open, there are no glitches; saving and closing a project causes the choppy video.

    If there is nothing I can check within Premiere Elements, then I may just try an uninstall / reinstall.

    Thanks again.

    Ann Bens
    Community Expert
    Ann BensCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2020

    Please do not use text files. Just make a screenshot and upload via insert photos.

    Or insert text in post (as I have done for you).

     

    On a side note H.265 is a nightmare to edit > convert.

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