Interlacing/digitized frames when scrubbing through an exported video

Question

Hey there, Premiere recently updated on my macbook to the 2025 version, and I've been experiencing this issue ever since with exported videos where every few frames look crazy and broken. It doesn't happen in the video while it's playing, but if I pause or am scrubbing through frames to pull a screenshot I notice it every few frames. I've played with sequence and export settings to match everything, and it's always happening no matter what settings I change.

Anybody know what the solution might be? It's happening no matter what kind of footage, frame rate, etc. is used for a project.

Screenshots below are one frame to the next, along with sequence settings.

PaulMurphy · Answer

Scrubbing artifacts like this often occur with Long GOP codecs like H.264 or H.265, which store only some frames fully and use others as references. This can make frame-by-frame navigation choppy.

To avoid this, export with mezzanine codecs like ProRes 422, DNxHR, or GoPro CineForm. These store each frame fully, making scrubbing smoother and more accurate. While file sizes are larger, playback and editing are much easier.

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