Does Premiere Pro have a Hard Time running projects with Footage over a certain amount of hours?

[BobbyDaKidd]

I've been streaming and recording using OBS studio and in order for me to be able to utilize the footage without all of the overlays while still having them on stream, I have a plug-in. The plug in allows me to record camera and screen seperately. The recordings go into the folder as "game record" (where only the game audio and game screen is picked up) and "main record" (where everything on screen and all audio sources are captured. ) 

So if I film for 1 hour I technically have to import 2 hours of footage. This is causing me to import double the amount of footage and depending on the project, that is upwards of 30 hours. 

I already have a ton of RAM, I clear cache every so often, I run PP as Admin, I use proxies, but I still run into hangups or freezing. 

Do I need to reduce the amount of footage I'm putting into Premiere? Do premiere projects have a soft cap on the amount of footage you can work in one file? I don't really know, but that would make sense if that was the main issue I'm running into. 

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi @BobbyDaKidd,

Thanks for the question. As I understand it, you are wondering if placing more lengthy clips into the timeline might hurt playback performance. The answer is: yes. 

Premiere Pro timelines play back best with individual clips that are of a reasonable duration. Generally, once duration is longer than a minute or more for any single clip, it's going to take more and more RAM to keep timeline performance smooth. The longer the timeline, and with clips like these, you need more robust computer components: CPU, GPU, RAM. with multiple fast HDs. 

Since you are editing footage you previously streamed, it is likely VFR (of a variable frame rate), as well, which makes it even harder for a computer to handle that footage - proxies and/or transcoded footage can help with this problem and is the remedy. It sounds like you are already doing that. 

Finally, you might want to look at "Productions" where you can create separate "mini projects" which are joined together as a single master project. That way, you can have one project with your footage in it, another for your sequences, and maybe others for music, or graphics, or for backups. 

Let me know if the advice helps or if you need further assistance. Sorry for the frustration.

Thanks,
Kevin