MP4 Editing on MacBook Pro (2016)

Question

Hey fellow creatives,

Back in January, I purchased the 13' 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. I spent close to $3,000 on this laptop, and I specifically purchased it for video editing. Every possible specification on the laptop has been maxed out. I've got 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, the best i7 processor available, and the highest end graphics that Apple included in that model.

When I purchased it, this machine was going to be my main editing rig. Since I was a Final Cut Pro user at the time, it was perfect. 4K rendered quickly, I didn't have to use proxy media, and export times were a breeze. Since then, I have made the jump to the Adobe CC suite, and have had nothing but trouble. I'm hoping you all will be able to help me out.

I shoot on the Sony A6300 for most of my videos. The files are .MP4 files, and I typically shoot either 4K at 24fps or 1080p at 120fps. When I bring them into Premiere Pro CC 2017 (I'm using the latest version), the videos are almost impossible to work with. Scrubbing the timeline is extremely laggy, playback is awful in every project, and even when I have my settings at 1/8 (for 4K) and 1/4 (for 1080p), the issue is not improved.

I have found a temporary workaround, but it is cumbersome and I can't keep filling up my external drives. What I have managed to do is take the .MP4 files from the Sony A6300, run them through Adobe Media Encoder, and transcode them to ProRES, resulting in huge (sometimes up to 500GB) .MOV files, which I then import to Premiere Pro CC. If I edit with these .MOV files, Premiere has no issues, and I can productively work on my projects.

I thought that for some reason, my expensive hardware was at fault, and to test this, I used Bootcamp to install Windows 10 (64-bit) on my MacBook Pro as well as the primary install of macOS Sierra. To my surprise, working with the .MP4 files in Premiere through the Windows OS was smooth, and provided the same performance as the .MOV files on the macOS install.

Since the hardware is obviously not at fault, it has to be software / driver related. Is there a solution (besides creating proxy media or encoding to .MOV) for Mac users? I have a lot of projects to complete and do not have time to be transcoding hours of footage.

If any of you have experienced this issue when working with .MP4 files in Premiere on a Mac, please share your advice or workflow. Thanks for the help in advance.

R Neil Haugen · Answer

Sounds like you're running long-GOP media ... which is by nature hard on the hardware for playing back within an NLE. I don't understand the details of the various OS/hardware/software compatibilities, but I do know it can vary from rig to rig a lot.

I've adapted to the PrPro proxy workflow rather easily ... if it's a small group of media I need to import/ingest with proxies, I can do that while checking emails & such. Or a coffee or just walk down the hall a few minutes to get the bod up & out of the chair I spend hours in. More media, I'll plan ahead and do while at lunch or a meeting or something. Big projects ... I import/ingest those at the end of the day so when I come in the morning, they're all done and waiting for me. So I never 'feel' any time problem with doing this.

There are some folks around "here" with a ton of expertise on the hardware/software/media interactions ... such as Bill Gehrke, SAFEHARBOR11, and RoninEdits ... perhaps one of them could have some advice.

Neil

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded