Proxies not working properly with CUDA

[Vissa]

Hello everyone!

Been having this problem for a while, and because of that I can't update to the newest version of Premiere since they disabled choosing to work with "Mercury Playback Engine Software Only"

My workflow have been creating proxies and storing them in a external sd (Samsung T7 Shield - 2TB), while I keep my footage in an internal fast SSD. My footage is in 4k, my cliente records in OBS and then send it to me.

If I use "Mercury Playback Engine Software Only", the playback is smooth, no problem at all, both in my proxies and in my timeline. But if I change to GPU Acceleration the playback becomes horrible. Anyone know why that might be happening?

Usually I have to edit the project using "Mercury Playback Engine Software Only" and then when its time to render I change to CUDA because it's faster

Every new Premiere update I try updating to see if something fixed, but so far nothing. I have been using version 25.1

Any help would be appreciated

Some info about the file I recieve accourding to MediaInfo:
General Format: MPEG-4
VIdeo Format: HEVC
Frame rate mode: Variable
Color Space: YUV
Color Range: Limited

I know variable frame rate is not ideal, but any reason for that to not work with CUDA and then disabling CUDA seems fine?

How I create my proxies:
Using the preset "ProRes QuickTime Proxy" and setting to a Quarter frame size

My PC:

Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K (3.20 GHz)
128 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

[R Neil Haugen]

I'm wondering if the VFR part is the trouble?

Premiere doesn't actually convert VFR to CFR when you make proxies. Have you tried simply batch converting the media in HandBrake or ShutterEncoder to CFR, then import to Premiere and make proxies?

It's a pretty fast operation in either, really.

The other thing is there is absolutely no reason for them to be using VFR in OBS ... there are tons of OBS users like me who do not use VFR, but export from OBS in CFR.

So you might want to suggest offering help and advice to the client.

[Vissa]

I'm wondering the same. I need to check his setting on OBS, because is definitely not on purpose that he is recording in VFR. I saw people commenting that can happen if OBS remux. MediaInfo can also give a false positive about VFR, but I'm not sure about that, that's what I learned today.

Our media is pretty large, a lot of 4 hour files, so trying to convert in ShutterEncoder and HandBrake gave me as estimate of a lot of hours per file. Not sure if I'm doing anything wrong there, but that's what I got.

What's weird is that the footage works well if I'm not using CUDA.

[R Neil Haugen]

The 'not using Cuda' thing sounds like your computer has a pretty spiffy iGPU unit ... and/or processing for the media.

Yea, check on their OBS settings ... I simply use the mp4 even though it says "if the app shuts  down while recording you can't use the audio" ...as that has never happened in over 5 years of pretty heavy usage. 

[IanB_360]

Hi @Vissa 
Could you share the project file and any media you have with us? We would like to take a look at this and see if it is in fact the footage. I will message you and you can feel free to file share anything you have with us.
Here to help.

Ian

[Vissa]

Hello Ian! 

The footage is pretty big, but I can upload that to a drive to send it to you. I just started a new project so I guess is a good time to check that.

The playback is faster without CUDA, with our without proxies. And with CUDA the playback get's worse using proxies.

[Vissa]

Hello again Ian, I have the files uploaded to a drive, I'm waiting now for you message so I can send it to you