VIDEO DEMO: After Effects preview playback stutters, freezes & skips frames. MacBook pro 2019

[jamesm46355552]

Tried posting this before, but no-one replied. Trying again. See the video below. This problem has basically made AE unusable.  Specs etc & tried so far below the video.

Computer specs: 

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)

2.4 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9

64 GB 2667 MHz DDR4

AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

running the latest version of catalina & after effects, although problem existed on earlier versions of both. 

Did this in 30fps, although I usually work with 24fps. In theory playback should be smother in 30fps so this was to give the programme the benefit of the doubt. 

On the vid, you'll see the preview screen is expanded to 125% or so - this is just so that it's easier to see the problem on the recorded video. It's just as bad in 100%.

64gb ram, with 56 dedicated to AE & nothing else running on the computer.

Tried: 

fast drafts with full amount of texture memory (6132 mb)

Adaptive resolution

Full resolution

turning off / on rulers (this was a fix in other AE versions for similar problems I think)

mucking around with the amount of RAM 

turning off / on pretty much every AE function possible

Deleting all plugins (I only have Motion 3 & lines creator anyway). 

Adding / removing motion blur

viewing at 1/8th of the resolution

turning down bit rate of comps from 16 to 8

re-installing my entire machine from scratch & running this with no other apps on the computer

Turning off wifi, bluetooth mouse & keyboard

having the compuer plugged in / not plugged in

moving the cache folders, clearing the cache folders, increasing cache size to innordinate proportions

Phoning adobe several times

posting on this forum several times

Asking my dog how to fix it, as there's a better chance of a response from her than there is from anyone at Adobe, who clearly don't see this as an issue they have to bother dealing with.

Genuine point. I run a small team of editors / animators. I'm up at 4am dealing with this as it's so severly delayed a project we need to get out of the door (issues with PP as well. don't get me started). We give Adobe around £7k per year, refunding our team for various adobe licenses. The only reason I'm sticking with it, is because some of our clients also use Adobe. However, I'm at the point where I'll simply tell the team that we don't touch Adobe anymore & they need to retrain on other tools in order to keep working with us. I'm sure there will be workarounds for the client issue. 

OK, this is minor for Adobe, but for me to be genuinely considering this is massive. I used to love Adobe products. Now I can't stand them. And this would be a very painful decision to make for our business. I bet I'm one of many business owners / directors thinking the same thing. Ultimately if Adobe keep being complacent creatives will start to make similar decisions - en masse.

[allen24]

Your problem just might be Catalina. I'm still on Mojave, and I did not upgrade because I was told by several people that Adobe and Catalina don't play well together, yet. I was also told by customer support that they will be releasing a new after effects shortly… 17.1. Hopefully that will be Catalina compatible and perhaps will solve your problem. In the meanwhile, why don't you just roll back to an earlier after effects?

As far as premiere Pro goes… My advice would be to start learning resolve 16.2.  

[jamesm46355552]

Thanks very much for that. Will try rolling back to an earlier after effects.

[jamesm46355552]

Resolved. Installed After Effects 2019. No lag, stutter etc. Works beautifully. 2020 is not compatible with macs - well not mine anyway. 

To Be clear, i'm still running Catalina.

Thanks very much to Allen24. Legend.

[allen24]

You are very welcome. It seems with every iteration, it's getting worse. Keep using premiere, but start to learn Resolve 16.2.

If Adobe keeps going the way they're going… Nothing will work pretty soon. LOL. Resolve is harder to learn, but it's performance is pretty amazing. Doesn't hurt to know both.

[jamesm46355552]

Yes good point. Will learn resolve!

[e.motion]

Well...in computer terms, Catalina is ancient history. I'm on Big Sur and have no issues with the Adobe suite - so far. 

I opened a Premiere Pro project that I did a year ago, it took about a miunute to open and then another minute to settle down and show me all the clips and then I had to play through it a couple of times before it seemed normal.

So then, using the XML, I opened the same project in Resolve. It opened immediately, no waiting on clips and it played back smoother then it did in Premiere.  I am so over Premiere. I see no reason to use it whatsoever. There's nothing I need to do in it that Resolve doesn't do better.

Now After Effects...thats a different story. And I find the new vewrsion to be much faster and so far no problems with it. 

Look, we all know the problem. The real problem. Adobe needs to throw out the old code and start from stratch! Why they don't is beyond me. Sure it takes time and money - but they have both!  They are so short-sighted. 

[Estebee]

Would you reccomend upgrading to Big Sure for AE, then?

On a general point, Cavalry is fast replacing AE for many of my tasks, but it's not quite developed enough to fully say goodbye to Adobe for motion graphics.

[e.motion]

Absolutely!

And start learning Resolve 17.4 - its got a big learning curve but it is wonderful.

[Estebee]

Ok - I might give it a go then - on my laptop at least, see how it gets on.

Aye, I'm lucky to not have to use premiere too much ro get my projects done - but I will have a look at Resolve for sure. Been meaning to - downloaded it months ago and haven't gotten around to it.

[e.motion]

Well start with the free version...spend a few weeks learning it and if you love it, then buy it. The paid for studio version is faster and uses more of your computer power, but the free version is still very good, and good enough to see if you'll like it. Watch youtube videos on how to get started. Its not as simple as Premiere, but once you're using it, you will be very happy that you did. And the paid for version - you pay once ($300, I believe) and never again! Includes updates forever. 

[jamesm46355552]

Just an update on this. I've just downloaded the latest copy of AE, and yet again Adobe has not addressed this problem. 

Surely this is a big thing and worth them spending some time on? 

[Estebee]

Oh, man.  I found this thread because I've recently paid an arm an dleg for macbook pro top spec to complement my imac.

This does NOT happen on my 5K imac (or not that I've noticed) on 2019 or 2021 AE.

This is AWFUL - just familiarising myself with using a laptop and did the same - a circle scaling and moving.  It's unusable.  I'm hoping that using 2019 on this macbook will fix the issue.  Will report back if so, but just wanted to add the info that it *seems* to be specific to macbook pro (or maybe small screen) and catalina.

By the way, whilst not quite a replacement yet, I'd reccomend checking out Cavalry app.  I use it to complement AE at mo, but when this sort fo thing happens it's going to accelerate my transition away from Adobe.