Updated to Media Encoder 22.4 , now I cannot "interpret footage" (120fps proxy workflow)

[Jayke5E7C]

As my subject line says, I updated to 22.4 and now I do not have the option to "Interpret Footage" (it's greyed out) after I send my footage from Premiere Pro to Media Encoder. If you aren't familiar with the 120FPS workaround, I interpret 120fps footage to 23.976 in PP and in ME so I avoid the 60fps issue. I have now downgraded to (22.3.1) until there is a solution. Really hurts my workflow.

[Robert Regan]

Same problem. I use 50fps material shot on FX9 and A7S III and frequently make proxies and interpret to 25fps

Please address Adobe, this is just one of many problems that never seem to get improved. As someone else said leaning closer and closer to moving to Resolve each day as Premiere increasingly can't be trusted on a daily basis for professionals that need to deliver work.

[Wytse5ECC]

Same here: very dissapointing to find out that such a simple and essential workflow all of a sudden doesn't work anymore in Adobe Premiere. It is frustrating and it left me as a professional editor stranded.

[Fergus H]

Thanks for reporting this. We're looking into it. 

[Robert Regan]

Thanks for the response.

Premiere 2022 seems to have a lot of issues. It doesn't import FX9 and FX6 material in Slog3 correctly either and the user has to manually change the colourspace to Rec709 instead of Slog3 or a LUT is always applied, and looks really blown out and wrong.

Pleased to see Premiere 2021 works on Apple Silicon now, I've reverted back to 2021 apps, but many of the freelancers I work with are continually frustrated by Premiere Pro's unreliable performance, I know quite a few people that are already learning Resolve in order to move over to it, as it performs a lot better, and more reliably.

I also have persistent render and export issues which don't seem to be resolvable even when having Adobe remote into my system and work on it.

Thanks

Rob

[Philbird]

I'm glad I've seen your message, Rob.

I've come to this page because I'm having trouble with the Interpret Footage issue - however, I'll be working with some Slog3 from an FX6 tomorrow for the first time, so this is a helpful note to read. Could I ask - is it advisable to revert to Premiere 2021 to avoid the Slog 3 issue?

[Wytse5ECC]

"Thanks for reporting this"? My goodness, we are professional editors and we pay a lot of money for software. We just want to get our stuff done, we have tight deadlines and we have bills to pay. All of a sudden our essential workflow doesn't work anymore leaving us stranded. I just spend 2 hours wondering why, and luckley found this threat to find out I'm not the only one in trouble. And all you have to say is: "Thanks for reporting this"? Thank you Adobe.

[Robert Regan]

Does Adobe have an update for the people in this thread?

All the best

Rob

[Fergus H]

I completely understand the frustration about this. Robert or Wytse5ECC: are either of you available in the next hour (between 4 PM PST and 5 PM PST) to get on a phone call with me to discuss this issue? I'm the product manager for Media Encoder and seeing what you're seeing would be very helpful. 

Thanks,
Fergus

[Connor E]

Hey Fergus,

I am having the same problem and am trying a workaround for this. I would be available to chat today if you are available.

[Wytse5ECC]

Certainly Fergus, feel free to give me a call.

[AnderKazmerski]

I am available to call/screen share so you can see the issue I'm having with this - if it helps. Shoot me an email if you'd like - ander@floatinghomefilms.com to set it up. Thanks!

[BroughtWhat]

Thank you Fergus! Any updates on this? It's so odd to me that Adobe would remove our workaround solution without providing a real one. Why would interpret footage be disabled on proxies sent from PP to ME?

[Fergus H]

See my other post further down. Removing this ability was not intentional. I'm also not sure if we were aware of the way in which it was being used. 

[deniseh3245857]

Has there been any resolution to this issue re: the Sony FS6 and Slog3 footage? We transcode all of our files from the native Sony MXF file to ProRes files and when we bring the ProRes files into Premiere, we're unable to clear the applied LUT that's blowing out the footage. The only way I've been able to clear it is in the native MXF file. I guess alternative plan is to revert to earlier versions of Premiere, but it seems like this would be a major issue that should have already been resolved.

Thanks,

Denise

[TommEckStudio]

I had the same problem and tried earlier versions of Media Encoder, but it turned out to be an issue with Premeire Pro. Uninstall PreP 22.4 and install v. 20. 

[Fergus H]

Hi all, 

I'd like to follow up on my earlier post to provide some more information about this issue and to confirm that we fully understand the problem. 

This issue occurs when working with high-speed footage that you'd like to display as slow motion. Some cameras have an option to do this in-camera: you choose the frame rate (e.g., 120 fps) and the playback frame rate (e.g., 24 fps). This footage, when played in Premiere Pro will play back as slow motion without any adjustment. Sony calls this "Slow & Quick"; Canon calls it "Slow & Fast". 

However some cameras don't support this option or the camera operator may not have used the options and instead just shot at a higher frame rate. In this situation, you'd use the Modify > Interpret Footage option in Premiere Pro to change the playback frame rate to achieve the slow motion effect. 

This works fine unless you need to create proxies for the footage. Premiere Pro does not do this correctly: the  Interpret Footage frame rate is ignored on proxies. (What we should do is create a proxy that is at the original frame rate of the footage and then apply the Interpret Footage frame rate to the proxy in Premiere Pro.)

The workaround to this is a trick with Media Encoder: 
1. Start the proxy creation in Premiere Pro. 

2. Switch to Media Encoder and stop the queue from processing. 

3. Select all the clips and use the Interpret Footage option to change the playback frame rate. 

4. Reset the queue status and restart the queue. 

This results in proxies that match the frame rate that was selected in the Interpret Footage option in Premiere Pro. 

This workaround doesn't work now, as the Interpret Footage option is no longer available in Media Encoder on clips that entered the queue via Premiere Pro's proxy feature. 

We're actively working on a permanent fix for this and, in the short term (i.e., this week) working on a different workaround for the original issue. There are a couple already but they have some downsides so we are working on testing and providing the right guidance. 

Stay tuned to this thread, as I will be providing an update before the end of this week. My sincere apologies for this problem. Candidly, it's annoying that proxies don't work correctly with the Interpret Footage option and for us to accidentally break the workaround for that problem adds insult to injury. 

Thanks

Fergus Hammond 

[Robert Regan]

Hi Fergus

That's bang on, we always needed to interpret footage and manually change the frame rate on slow motion clips for proxy, but that workaround has now been removed.

Thanks very much for the attention on this

If I'm overlooking anything someone please chime in!

All the best

Rob

[Lars5C7E]

Hi Furges!

Very much appreciated with this information so we know you are aware and working on it.

Cant wait to have the function back again which significantly will decrease my stress levels 😉 and have my normal workflow back again.

Keep up the good work!

All the best

//Lars 

[BroughtWhat]

This is an incredible reply. Thank you Fergus, sincerely.

[Brad Annis]

Hey,  I have been interpreting footage in media encoder for over a year now. Recently for about a week , its been greyed out everytime i try to interpret footage. Does anyone know why this may be ?  

[BroughtWhat]

Same issue. I used this function as a workaround for an off-speed proxy workflow. Now they've removed it? Adobe staff could we get some clarification on this?

[Fergus H]

I've merged two threads to put the conversation about this issue into one place. 

[daspook]

Hi Fergus, seems as though correspondence on this issue has gone quiet. Is there an expected timeframe for this issue to be resolved? 

[Fergus H]

Hi all, 

I'd like to provide an update on this issue, as I know it's very frustrating. 

First, the Media Encoder team is currently working on this issue, with one of our most senior engineers devoted full-time to investigating the source of the issue and fixing it. I do not yet have an estimate for a fix. 

Second, we have created a Premiere Pro panel as a short-term workaround to this issue. The panel automates creating a matching source / proxy clip pair where both the source media and the proxy media are using the correct frame rate (that is, the frame rate you selected via the Interpet Footage command). While the panel is definitely not a permanent fix, we hope that it will be useful. The next step is for me to meet (already scheduled) with a couple of customers from this thread to review the panel, its instructionss, and to make sure we haven't missed anything. Once that is done, I will post another follow-up here about how to get the panel. 

Regards,

Fergus

[BroughtWhat]

Amazing stuff, thank you Fergus!