Certain clips becomes pixelated and flickering in the timeline and in the export

[aminn75893596]

Certain clips become pixelated and flickering in the timeline and the export, while certain clips look okay. For example, Clip A in the table below has this problem.

Name	Width	Height	fps	Original	In Premiere Pro	Remarks
Clip A	480	480	23.98	https://imgur.com/YFLUbpb	https://imgur.com/yD2Yq6d	Looks pixelated
Clip B	296	480	23.98	https://imgur.com/CinZuWk	https://imgur.com/UiJiJfv	Looks good
Clip C	854	480	23.98	https://imgur.com/o7AvEnU	https://imgur.com/DDOaauc	Looks good

My sequence settings:

• General
  Editing mode: Custom
  Timebase: 23.976 fps
• Video Settings
  Frame size: 1920h 1080v (1.0000)
  Frame rate: 23.976 frames/second
  Pixel Aspect Ratio: Square Pixels (1.0)
  Fields: No Fields (Progressive Scan)
• Audio Settings
  Sample rate: 48000 samples/second
• Color Space
  Name: BT.709 RGB Full
• Default Sequence
  Total video tracks: 4
  Mix track type: Stereo
  Audio Tracks:
  Audio 1: Standard
  Audio 2: Standard
  Audio 3: Standard
  Audio 4: Standard

My Premiere Pro 2021:

• Version 15.1.0 (Build 48)

My System:

• Windows 10 Pro
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2120 CPU @ 3.30GHz 3.30 GHz
• Installed Memory (RAM): 8.00 GB
• System Type: 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor

My Export Settings (may not be relevant as the problem exists even in the project timeline itself):

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro 2021\Settings\IngestPresets\Transcode\Match Source - H.264 High Bitrate.epr" (one of the stock presets):

Preferences Settings:

Media > Default Media Scaling > Set to Frame Size.

I have tried to change the Default Media Scaling to "None" on a fresh new project but the clip still looks pixelated.

It seems like the only way I can get this clip in Premiere Pro without looking pixelated is by dropping this clip as the first clip into the Sequence and choose "Change sequence settings" to match the clip's settings. Doing this, however, will cause the other clips to be cropped out since they have a 16:9 aspect ratio instead of 1:1 (square) like this clip.

I can't seem to find the reason why some clips are having this problem while others don't. It seems to be a recurring issue for many projects.

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

[Joost van der Hoeven]

What is the codec of clip A?

[aminn75893596]

They all have the codec "H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc 1)"

[Ann Bens]

Update to 15.4.1.

The August release of Premiere Pro (version 15.4.1) includes a fix for an issue where using edit tools on clips can produce flickering in the Program Monitor.

[aminn75893596]

Okay, I'll try this and let you know how it goes. Thanks!

[aminn75893596]

Okay, I've updated to Version 15.4.1 (Build 6), but unfortunately, the same problem persists. 

I've attached the Clip A file if anyone would like to reproduce the issue.

[aminn75893596]

I've tried to attach the original clip in the comment above but it is not showing. Hence, an error while trying to post about an error. Meta!

[aminn75893596]

Here is a URL to the original clip Clip A 

[aminn75893596]

which you can download.

[aminn75893596 · Accepted solution]

Update:

It turns out, this issue may have been caused by my system not having enough graphics power to handle the software.

I fixed it by going to File > Project Settings > General, and then under 'Video Rendering and Playback', I changed 'Renderer' to 'Mercury Playback Engine Software Only'.

Before this, it was set to 'Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL)'