Something weird is going on with Braw on my Timeline

Report · Feb 20, 2023

Hi there,

I'm having some trouble with slow braw playback on Premiere Pro. I'm working with a 6K Braw 5:1 on an HD timeline and have downloaded the Blackmagic Raw plugin for Premiere Pro. My computer build includes an

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090,

AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16-Core Processor,

64GB (3200) RAM.

The playback on the timeline is really slow, and some things just don't work. It's strange because the playback on the source window is fine, but it's slow on the timeline. I also noticed that the playback seems to be better when the sequence settings are at 6k rather than HD, though it's still not great.

Interestingly, when I use DaVinci Resolve on the same computer, the playback is fine. I did a Blackmagic RAW speed test and got 93FPS on 6k 3:1, 8k 60FPS, and the Disk Speed Test showed that read and write is okay up to 12K DCI 60.

My CPU maxes out at 70%, and my RAM is at about 50%. GPU is at about 12%, but my disk isn't reading anything which is weird.

It even plays back smoother in just the normal Braw Player. Any idea why this is happening?

Thanks.

Report · Feb 20, 2023

Sequence Settings - Video Previews - Preview File Format: try QuickTime

Codec: try Apple ProRes

You can also go for a proxy workflow or if your final export is in HD, encode your

footage to HD before editing (but i don't think this will preserve raw data needed for grading).

some other suggestions:

if you are grading on Resolve, finish your proxy workflow base editing on Premiere Pro,

link to original, then export as EDL to migrate the edited project to Resolve (better do this without

applying any effects from Premiere Pro, just cutting)

Report · Feb 20, 2023

Sweet, I gave those a try but realised it was the max render quality and bit depth that was causing it.

I didn't realise these would have such a large effect on the playback?

Report · Feb 20, 2023

check this out by the great Jarle Leirpoll:

https://blog.frame.io/2021/06/07/premiere-pro-max-render-quality-max-bit-depth/

Report · Feb 20, 2023

So why does turning these settings on slow down my computer so much?

Report · Feb 20, 2023

No clue why turning those on/off affects your playback. I've got a 3960X/128GB of RAM, 2080Ti, OS on one Nvme, all cache files on another. Similar to yours, really.

And use the Autokroma BRAW plugin.

4k BRAW in multiple tracks plays back fine for me in Pr with the listed options on ... I always have them on, as Jarle is quite correct about them. And I get similar playback to Resolve on that desktop also.

So ... wondering what the hay is gone goofy on your rig, that's ... not good.

Neil

Report · Feb 21, 2023

Hello,

If you enable "max render quality and max bit depth" in the Sequence Settings and also set your playback to "High Quality" (right click on the playback Monitor), then Premiere Pro will not ask the same settings to the BRAW Importer for the playback.

In BRAW Studio (should be the same in the Blackmagic RAW Plugin), it is going to ask a render with higher bit depth (from 8bits to 32bits). So each color of each pixel will be generated on 32bits, which makes the buffer 4 times bigger. So it involves more performances needed to generate/copy/process image buffer, and also more memory (RAM). That's why you have a big performance change while using those settings.

The importer needs to :
- First : generate the image. It can do it on the CPU or GPU (for that I don't know what the Blackmagic RAW Plugin is doing ..) On BRAW Studio (in Windows only for now) you have an option to use the GPU in that part.

- Second : fill the image buffer to Premiere Pro. Premiere Pro here only accept CPU Buffers, so if it has been generated with GPU, it will need to be converted to CPU (copy). If it has been generated with CPU, sometimes there is no copy needed, sometimes yes (depending if the CPU Buffer generated is exactly the same than the CPU buffer requested by Premiere or Not : pixel format, rowbytes, scale,..). That's why it is not always better to use GPU.

Also performance depends on how the importer is implemented (copy optimized or not) and other cases (implementing parallel decoding to use all your CPU cores, how "image requests" can be cancelled by Premiere Pro if needed, how memory is managed, etc..). We hope Premiere will update its internal engine and external plugins API to unlock GPU buffers given directly by the importer plugins. It could improve performances when working with good GPU hardware.

To finish, if you have any issues with the Blackmagic RAW Plugin (Performance or other), BRAW Studio (the other "BRAW Importer Third Party plugin") can be used with all the Blackmagic RAW plugin features for FREE and you can test your actual project with it thanks to our "Project Conversion Tool" ! Only special features are part of the Premium license and can improve your workflow in Premiere Pro and After Effects. You can find all the difference between both plugins in this article.

Best,

Nicolas from Autokroma

Report · Oct 31, 2023

I am having this problem and I am do not understand the work around? Should I not use the BRAW color presets if I am working with low resolution proxies? Can someone help me with a solutions. I am working with 6k BRAW using the GEN 5 Metadata the director gave me. I am using proxies for editing and my sequence is quicktime - ProRes Proxy - its a 5 camera edit. Should I not use the Metadata?

Report · Nov 01, 2023

I think we'd need @Nicolas from Autokroma to help with that ... hope he's 'around' today.

Report · Nov 01, 2023

I am having this problem and I am do not understand the work around? Should I not use the BRAW color presets if I am working with low resolution proxies? Can someone help me with a solutions. I am working with 6k BRAW using the GEN 5 Metadata the director gave me. I am using proxies for editing and my sequence is quicktime - ProRes Proxy - its a 5 camera edit. Should I not use the Metadata?

Hello,
I'm not sur to well understand your issue, but let me try to sum up.

You are working with BRAW files and suffer from slow playback when playing your sequence
You have checked your Sequence Settings and you have NOT set "max render quality" and "max bit depth" (otherwise it's normal !)
Still in you Sequence Settings, you have checked that "Video Previews" is set to QuickTime - Apple ProRes
You are working with Generated Proxies (ProRes Proxies right ?) and you ask what is the best workflow when working with BRAW and Proxies

So for the playback performances, it can be a lot of things, related to our BRAW Studio plugin or Premiere Pro.

First please check the Sequence Settings as I said above.
Second, set your Playback Quality to 1/8 : Paused AND Playing (you can have such settings when right clicking on the playback).
If it does not help, then indeed working with proxies should help you.

About working with Proxies and BRAW files, there is one important thing to note :

Once your proxies are created, the BRAW Settings (Exposure, ISO, etc..) that you can find in the Source Settings will be "burned" into the proxies. So if you change one of those settings after creating the proxies, you will not see the change on the proxy, and you will need to switch to see the original files to see them (and maybe get back to bad performance playback so). So you have several choices : grade first then after this create proxies OR make proxies for editing and at the end switch to the original files for final grading OR a mix : make a first Grading before creating proxies to get closer to a normal image, and finish some details at the end while switching to original files. If you really need to change settings at the middle of the editing, you can still re-create the proxies.

Note: if you have any trouble, you can contact us on our website (it will be easier for us to answer by mail directly) : https://www.autokroma.com/contact

Best,

Nicolas from Autokroma

Report · Apr 19, 2024

I'm having the same problem, but am on a M1 Max macbook pro with 64GB memory. I've got a more-than-capable SSD driving things, no FX (though the raw is graded), and maximum depth and render quality are set to OFF. Even if I lower playback resolution, it still stutters.

This wasn't happening, even on a lesser machine. Hard to check sync without proper playback.

Using the latest version of after effects as of this posting date.

Report · Apr 19, 2024

Crucial data: are you using the freebie BM plug-in or the Autokroma one?

Report · Apr 22, 2024

I don't believe I've installed any plugins at all. I thought Premiere could read braw natively. Is this not so? Is there a plugin you'd recommend? Is one better than another?

Report · Apr 22, 2024

Premiere can't work directly with BRAW. You need to install either the freebie from BlackMagic, or Autokroma's one. The Autokroma folks now have a freebie of their own I think.

I gave up on the BM freebie as it was always screwing up, and I'd download a new version, it would sorta work. Finally went with the Autokroma one as it simply ... works. With some very useful options.

Report · Apr 22, 2024

Then I must have the Blackmagic plugin installed, and yeah... doesn't work
well at all. Guess it's time to upgrade. Thank you! I didn't know another
option was available.

Report · Apr 22, 2024

Sometimes this feels like if it ain't one thing, it's another ... yea.