The crapshoot of a laggy final .mov file

[Dotted 8th note]

I do not understand why sometimes I get a video that I 'export and share' to my hard drive initially being laggy and other projects works just fine and dandy. Every video is me sitting in a chair with a chroma key background. I initially thought the projects that were laggy, were because my video card was taxed or something....when I'd wake up the next day and export the project to a .MOV file, it played back OK. So, I figured my latest project video would do the same so I uploaded it to youtube , and it is laggy! I'm not adjusting any settings...what could cause this? I have Windows 10 pro, Ryzen 7 2700X CPU, Radeon RX570 video card, 16 megs DDR4 memory , combination of SSD and mechanical drives....I don't get it....why is there this total crapshoot as to whether the video is going to be laggy or not?

[Dotted 8th note]

Forgot to mention...it is laggy in the .prel file , before the export....

[Dotted 8th note]

and yes, I have the infamous 'yellow-orange' line above the timeline, which Adobe premiere equally famously doesn't tell you about when you're new to the software or more importantly, give you any indications on how to fix or correct whatever it is that may be 'optimized'....Help!

[Steve Grisetti]

What do you mean by laggy?

Do you mean that the timeline doesn't play smoothly or that something is wrong with the rendering process or the output?

You say it's laggy on YouTube. Can you post a link to it so we can see the lag?

Also what version of the program are you using and what device was used to shoot your original video?

[Dotted 8th note]

I don't have it up at the moment, at work..but the box says Premiere Elements 2020 CSGN, if that helps...shot with an iphone 8...Like I mentioned earlier videos, shot with the same iphone had the same lagginess (slowed down motion , ie- my hands etc), then one morning , I'd open up the program and it would run smoothly. I never understood what changed to make it better...This one however, is laggy as is  the original Adobe file and also when exported to a .MOV file, and also when the .MOV file is uploaded to youtube. It was not , however , laggy when I first played it in a media player before importing it into premiere, as the original shot in front of a makeshift green screen with the iphone...here 'tis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eun5Ddyvb0U

[Steve Grisetti]

My guess is that the program is having trouble processing the MOV file. And if that's the case, the easiest solution is to convert your iPhone videos to standard MP4s before you use them in Premiere Elements. I know you'd rather not do that, but doing it will likely resolve your issue.

But try it as an experiment. Convert your iPhone video to an MP4 using Handbrake, open a new project and create a brief version of your video and output it. Is the laggy playback still there?

This video shows you how to convert your video using the free download Handbrake.

[Dotted 8th note]

thanks, I'll give that a go

[Dotted 8th note]

I got it working now, thanks. Re-creating the same good chroma key effect ( I did watch your video on that) was likely due to me not realizing I had two and sometimes three instances of it on the main video , as I was tinkering to try to re-create it like the original video. The lagginess is gone now too as an mp4. My only last thing to try to remember going forward , is how to be able to minutely move an added audio track forward or backward ever so slightly to sync with the video...it seems to want to default to the timeline markers

[Bill Sprague]

Apple likes to use a codec called "HEVC" or "H.265" because it reduces file size.  The downside is that it intensifies the computer processing load for editing.   Other than buying a more powerful computer, or even a powerful Apple computer, the easy solution is to set iPhones to record in "Most Compatible" settings.  I don't have an iPhone so can't post an image of the exact setting screen to do this.  

[Dotted 8th note]

You'd think though, an 8 core CPU at 3.3ghz per core should be way more than sufficient...That is, I suppose, if Premeire can take advantage of multi-threaded or make use of multi-cores simultaneously to process stuff , or however that works

[Dotted 8th note]

The other major bummer converting the video off the phone to an MP4 in handbrake, is having to redo the editing , including the intro and it's letter fx, getting the chroma key to look right again, which frankly, is also a crapshoot to get to work corretly, since there is no definitive step by step in Premiere's linked help page that was of use. At least for me...sometimes the background blend was awful, blanked out the main video entirely and 10 other things, then I'd try it again (really needs to be a clear cut, step by step for this) and lo and behold it looks good. Never sure what step or thing I did differently to make it work.