Premiere Elements 2021 freezing

[sparky112]

Hi All, First time posting in APE forum.

I am having an incredible amount of trouble using this product.

1st, I have copied a number of VHS tapes with more to be done using K world DVD maker2 to a hard drive, moved them to ssd and on the advice of Adobe chat , converted them from mpg to m4v because all the mpg files had severe jitter etc, using HandBrake. These converted files are still located on the  Sandisk SSD

I then open APE and add the video( in expert mode), move it to the timeline, and even though it has an orange line above it , it will still play after hitting the play button, sometimes.If I pause the play and then try to restart it, It is frozen and won't move.  If  I return the playhead to time 00:00 and then try to render the render the Video that too may freeze. I thought adobe programs should work!!

I have also updated all drivers from Driver Easy and then also from the manufacterers website with the assistance of  Adobe online chat

For photography I use Photoshop, Lightroom, and Photoshop Elements and have little trouble with those.

The details of my laptop are included below

Processor            Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7500U CPU @ 2.70GHz   2.90 GHz

Installed RAM    16.0 GB (15.9 GB usable)

System type        64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch   No pen or touch input is available for this display

Edition  Windows 10 Home

Version 21H1

Installed on        ‎9/‎28/‎2020

OS build               19043.1165

Experience          Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3530.0

--- OpenGL Info ---

Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation

Renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M/PCIe/SSE2

OpenGL Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 471.68 27.20.100.8681

GLSL Version: 1.20 NVIDIA via Cg compiler

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I am wondering if I need to add more RAM

Cheers Nick

[Steve Grisetti]

Wow! All that converting gives your video lots of opportunities to go wrong.

What settings did you use for your conversion with Handbrake?

Better yet, take the MP4 you output from Handbrake and open it in the free download MediaInfo. In MediaInfo, set View to Text and then copy the text of this report and paste it to this forum. It could offers clues as to why the file is choking the program.

[sparky112]

Steve

Thank you for your quick reply.I hope this all makes some sense

See below the mediainfo data

General
Complete name : E:\0011 VHS Video Tapes\converted m4v\Fraser Island-1.m4v
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (mp42/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 122 MiB
Duration : 9 min 14 s
Overall bit rate : 1 848 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2021-08-25 23:41:24
Tagged date : UTC 2021-08-25 23:41:24
Writing application : HandBrake 1.4.1 2021081500

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 9 min 14 s
Bit rate : 1 678 kb/s
Width : 712 pixels
Height : 476 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.165
Stream size : 111 MiB (91%)
Writing library : x264 core 163 r3059 b684ebe0
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=2 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x1:0x111 / me=hex / subme=6 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=0 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=6 / lookahead_threads=1 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=1 / keyint=300 / keyint_min=30 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=30 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=22.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / vbv_maxrate=20000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / crf_max=0.0 / nal_hrd=none / filler=0 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2021-08-25 23:41:24
Tagged date : UTC 2021-08-25 23:41:24
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 9 min 14 s
Source duration : 9 min 14 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 161 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 10.6 MiB (9%)
Source stream size : 10.6 MiB (9%)
Title : Stereo
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1
Encoded date : UTC 2021-08-25 23:41:24
Tagged date : UTC 2021-08-25 23:41:24
mdhd_Duration : 554752

thanks

Nick

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm concerned about that odd resolution and aspect ratio: 712x476. That's so non-standard that Premiere Elements will not be able to match the project settings -- and that's probably what's causing the lagging.

You took your video through a number of conversions, so I don't know which caused this. But if you can get this to a more traditional aspect ratio -- say 640x480 -- and a standard H.264 codec and 30 fps constant frame rate, your issues will likely disappear.

Using a device like the Diamon VC500 to digitize your tapes will give you this right out of the box with no conversions necessary. I have a tutorial on YouTube that shows you how to do this and which settings to use.

[sparky112]

Steve thank you for your advice.

I have had a look at the files that I’ve been producing both as MPG and also as MP4.In the cyber link program I I have the quality profile settings at MPEG-2 video and not avi. The next setting gives me a choice of DVD HQ, DVD HQ fast, DVD SP and DVD LP and I have chosen DVD HQ . I then can see a details window , In this window I can see that it will be an mpeg 2 codec, a bit rate of 8000000, and width 720, and height of 480, a GOP pattern of BBIBBPBBPBBPBBP, audio codec Dolby digital audio bitrate of 224, and a frame rate of 29 .97. It also tells me that it records in ntsc format using a fine encoding technique.  On the box that this device came in, it says that  it has video resolutions ntsc 720x480 @30 FPS and pal720x 576@25 FPS.

When I open Handbrake and load a video to be converted it says that the source is 720 x  480 (640 x 480), 29.97 FPS, with a fast 1080p30 preset, h264@ 30fps AAC stereo but then the size at the bottom of the summary list says 714 x 476 display.

AAHHHH I have just seen the dimensions tab , with the resolution and scaling options to allow up scaling and I can bring my scaled size to 720 x 480 & this happens when I allow upscale as opposed to the optimal size option which will  give me 714 x 476 THEREFORE  I presume it will give me a better final result ……….I’ll try this tomorrow unless you steer me in another direction

It seems that the handbrake application was  causing the strange dimensions for the files because I hadn’t seen the details I have mentioned above. 

I hope you can make sense of all this

Cheers

Nick

[sparky112]

Steve thank you for your advice.

I have had a look at the files that I’ve been producing both as MPG and also as MP4.In the cyber link program I I have the quality profile settings at MPEG-2 video and not avi. The next setting gives me a choice of DVD HQ, DVD HQ fast, DVD SP and DVD LP and I have chosen DVD HQ . I then can see a details window , In this window I can see that it will be an mpeg 2 codec, a bit rate of 8000000, and width 720, and height of 480, a GOP pattern of BBIBBPBBPBBPBBP, audio codec Dolby digital audio bitrate of 224, and a frame rate of 29 .97. It also tells me that it records in ntsc format using a fine encoding technique.  On the box that this device came in, it says that  it has video resolutions ntsc 720x480 @30 FPS and pal720x 576@25 FPS.

When I open Handbrake and load a video to be converted it says that the source is 720 x  480 (640 x 480), 29.97 FPS, with a fast 1080p30 preset, h264@ 30fps AAC stereo but then the size at the bottom of the summary list says 714 x 476 display.

AAHHHH I have just seen the dimensions tab , with the resolution and scaling options to allow up scaling and I can bring my scaled size to 720 x 480 & this happens when I allow upscale as opposed to the optimal size option which will  give me 714 x 476 THEREFORE  I presume it will give me a better final result ……….I’ll try this tomorrow unless you steer me in another direction

It seems that the handbrake application was  causing the strange dimensions for the files because I hadn’t seen the details I have mentioned above. 

I hope you can make sense of all this

Cheers

Nick

Ps I posted this last night but it wasn’t there this morning. I’ll try again

[sparky112 · Accepted solution]

I was on-line with Adobe Chat this morning. I have 2 GPU's in my laptop NVIDIA  and Intel. I had to dissable the NVIDIA and use the Intel one , I also then had to uninstall, restart, and reinstall APE and it now seems to be working

Thanks for your assistance

Nick

[Peru Bob]

I have also updated all drivers from Driver Easy

By @sparky112

It would be better to update drivers directly from the hardware manufacturer's site.

Driver update applications have been known to create performance and stability issues.