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Question

Random blurry clips in Premiere Elements preview and export

Forum|Forum|23 hours ago
July 16, 2026
4 replies
22 views

I’ve been regularly compiling short video clips into approx. 10 min videos using Premiere Elements 2025 (and ver 2022 before that). The source of the clips is varied, typically from trail cameras (1080 x 1920 @ 30fps or 1296 x 2304 @ 20fps ), occasionally from a pixel phone (sometimes 1080 @ 30fps, sometimes 4k @ 60fps), a Nikon Z8 (4k @60fps).

I normally drop in a 1080 x 1920 @ 30fps clip to set the sequence setting before dragging in the remaining clips. I usually output to 1080 or 720 at 30fps. Been doing this for years without issue. Something has changed. Starting a few days ago numerous, but not all, clips are very blurry in the preview window. Rendering does not help. If I export, the blur remains as in preview.

Premiere 2025, Win 11, Dell 3030, NIVIDA GeForce RTX 3050

Adding a single clip usually results in a clear preview, adding multiple clips results in numerous blurry clips but not all from the same camera or same settings (properties). Interestingly, sometimes a blurry clip will suddenly become clear. Occasionally I will see flickering or stuttering in preview and the final output. I tested using only clips from a single camera and I get the same results.

Everything works fine using the same files in Premiere 2022. I reinstalled V2025, no change. I’ve opened previously saved .prel files that previewed and compiled successfully and they display the same blurry issues on random clips.

Interestingly, there is a lot of chatter about Windows update KB5101650 causing issues with certain Dell PCs and MS has blocked the update on select Dell machines. Mine was apparently NOT blocked as KB 5101650 shows as installed on my machine. I’m experiencing none of the known reported issues with KB5101650.

Seems like it could be a problem with Premiere Elements, the graphics card, a CODEC. I cannot think of anything that has changed with my routine or my hardware. I have not knowingly changed any settings in Premiere Elements.

Thanks for any insight on this problem.

Joe W.

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Might want to update windows.

J

joe_0140Author

Participating Frequently

I forgot to mention that indeed if I use only a handful of test videos from my pixel phone none appear blurry. This supports your theory on codecs or non-std dimensions, but it does not explain why it worked perfectly for years and now it no longer does. Frustrating and time consuming.

Cheers,

Joe

S

Steve Grisetti

Legend

Your video is from “ trail cameras (1080 x 1920 @ 30fps or 1296 x 2304 @ 20fps “.

I’d say this is the source of your issues. This 1296x2340 at 20fps is non-standard is Premiere Elements is not able to digest and edit it. Your trail cams might also be using codecs that the program is having trouble with.

Likewise, Premiere Elements can not work with 4K video at 60 fps. Only 30 fps.

Trying creating a new project using only your 1920x1080 phone video and see if you see any of these same issues.

Ann Bens

Community Expert

Please post comleet comp specs and OS build.

Make sure your graphics card is on the most current driver (Nvidia studio driver) Install manually and clean install.

https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

Do a clean manually install

J

joe_0140Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you Ann and Steve. Some more info on what I’m seeing and what I’ve tried so far.

Occasionally these short (15 sec) clips will jump in & out of focus while previewing, especially if I pause the preview. Timing issue - it appears that when it does suddenly jump into focus, it also jumps back a fraction of a second. I did have the most recent version of GPU driver installed but I did a manual clean reinstall - no change. I also tried installing an older driver to see if it helped since everything was previously working - no help. I uninstalled/reinstalled PE (again) and things got weird. Instead of being way out of focus and moving from out-of-focus to in-focus, clips would either show normally of as a tiny thumbnail in the upper left corner of a green background - occasionally moving between that state and normal. I reinstalled PE (3rd time) and it’s back to out of focus clips.

The different clip dimensions and the trailcams using oddball CODECs both sound like possible issues BUT I’ve used this same computer (and others) and same trailcams to compile about 125 clips and month for about 10 years (~15,000 files) with no issues until this past week. So something has changed besides the files I’m using. I’ve processed numerous 4k-60 files, both stand-alone and intermixed with 1080x1920 w/o issues. Adobe appears to say the PE 2025 supports 4k-60. Moreover, my older PE 2022 continues to handle these mixed trailcam clips w/o issue. If I place a single trailcam clip recorded at 1080 x 1920 at 30fps, into PE 2025, there is about a 50-50 chance it will be blurry. If I include more files the likelihood of blurry clips increases. I can (and likely will) change all of my trailcams to record at 1080 but I don’t think that is going to solve my problems. I will continue to play with different scenarios and let you know if I stumble upon anything meaningful.

I would appreciate additional feedback if anyone has additional input or similar experience. Computer specs posted per your request.

Thanks again,

JoeW.

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