Choppy preview and timeline playback elements 2021

Report · Jun 08, 2021

hello! I just bought adobe elements 2021 and tried to edit a short video. My laptop specs are

alienware 14 running 64 bit windows 10
intel core i7-4900Q CPU @ 2.80GHZ
16 gig ram
nividia geforce gtx 765M

I cannot seem to get the clip preview to play smoothly. Even after lowering the quality. I did manage to edit a clip and once rendered and exported the video plays perfectly in its exported format. The unedited video also runs with no issues in multiple media players, (this is actually what I used to review the clips while editing as the preview window was too choppy to tell if the video was smooth or shaky) At no point other than when I am rendering the video does my gpu or cpu ever clock over 50% and always seem to have lots of ram available. I checked to make sure my GPU and CPU drivers were updated.

The stuttering playback occurs all the time regardles if I use footage from my go pro, samsung s8 or my dji mavic mini.

I ahve also tried the work around I found on here about turning the default audio hardware input to "no input" with no effect.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks

Report · Jun 08, 2021

I have found that you have to render every time you make the slightest bit
of any change weather it be a fade in or out, volume adjustment or effects.
I also have Premiere Elements 2013 but it does not require rendering as
much. Whenever you see an orange line above the timeline it requires
rendering. Sometimes I have to reboot the program. It us very annoying.

Report · Jun 09, 2021

Media players are players, Elements is a movie editor: big difference.

Your machine is way under powered to run Elements properly.

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-elements/system-requirements.html

Report · Jun 09, 2021

Have you tried changing "Timeline Render Quality". In Edit > Preferences > General?

I edit with a Lenevo laptop with similiar specifications. My standard is 4K footage from a Pansonic camera, DJI Pocket 2 and Samsung phone. Editing is smooth. Could there be a mismatch between your source footage and project settings?

Report · Jun 09, 2021

Thanks for the reply, yes I do have the timeline render quality set to low I think its "draft quality" which is only one of the two options I have, the other being high quality. What do you mean by mismatch between source fottage and project settings? as in fps or simply resolution? My project settings are 1920 x 1080 and 60 fps and the footage I seem to have the most lag on is the 4k 30fps and 4k 60fps... Should I be converting my files to all the same format prior to importing them to adobe? Sorry if thats a super noob question. Thanks again for your help

Report · Jun 09, 2021

I shoot almost all 4K30. I ignore the choices offered at opening a new project. The first clip on the timeline will be a primary example of what I have the most of. That will set the project to match. In my case I get a "UHD" or "4K" project. The preview 'engine' does not have as much work to do. And, editing is smooth.

I don't do it often, but it should work if you put a 1080p clip in, but there will be a yellow line above it saying "render me now or I will be jerky".

If the desired goal is a 1080p output, do that at export.

For future work, try to get you cameras all set to the same resolution (4K or 1080) and frame rate. Mixing them is like the cause of your choppy playback.

Report · Jun 10, 2021

Thanks again

That seems to be the issue I ahve tried starting a new project and just useing one resoultion and frame rate and it works just fine!

Report · Jun 11, 2021

Thany you Dale5EEB for replying that you have a solution to your problem.