Glitch and/or skipped frames in Premiere Pro

[Yost21]

Hi guys!  

I am getting glitchy frames AND skipped frames, in Premiere, both on playback in Premiere (both in Source and Program monitors), and within exports (example frames below).  The glitchy frames are intermittent, and may show up within Premiere, but not in the exports, AND vice versa... It is extremely frustrating, as this inconsistency makes it difficult for me to isolate the issue.  

I've tried some suggestions, such as 1. Use Media Encoder with the "Stop current item if decode errors are detected", and 2.  transcoding all of the raw footage into a high quality H.264 upon ingest.  Neither solves the problem.  I have also updated and reinstalled Premiere. 

I am using Windows 10, using 4K MP4's from a SonyA7sll. Happy to provide any other info that would be helpful. Examples of the glitch frames below: 

I've posted several times about this on multiple forums and have yet to find a working solution.  Any guidance here will be extremely appreciated. Thank you all!

[Averdahl]

Does the same thing happen if you just use the files produced by the camera, iow if you skip the transcoding of the source files?

[Yost21]

Averdahl -- thank you for your response.

Yes, it does still happen with the raw files.. On the current project I just started up, I skipped the transcoding and only created proxies upon ingesting.  The glitching is still occuring like normal during playback in the source monitor, program monitor, and in my exports.  The amount of glitching seems to vary... sometimes they will be infrequent, and other times it will get so bad that I almost can't even work. 

[Averdahl]

The intermittent part of it makes it harder. When it happens on the same place everytime it can often be solved by just manually deleting the Media Cache and Media Cache Database. I have had issues as well with mp4 files and have found that the importer in Premiere Pro is not as good as it should be. It can be flaky, to often.

Premiere Pro uses different importers for different media and sometimes one can get better results by just changing the filename from let´s say Filename.mp4 to Filename.mpg to force Premiere Pro to use another importer. I don´t know if that workaround works today, or what wrappers to use, iow .mpg, .m2ts, .ts, .mpeg.

Another option is to use HandBrake to convert the files. It´s worth trying with a couple of files.

FAQ: How to clean (delete or trash) media cache files?

[Yost21]

Averdahl 

I have cleared the cache (both within Premiere in preferences>media chace, and also manually in windows explorer, clearing all folderes media chache, media cache files, peak, PTX).. the glitch behavior is still very prevalent. 

I do have Handbrake.. which settings/codec do you suggest I try transcoding the raw files into? Also, is there a fast way to change all filenames? 

Thank you very much for your input!!!

[Averdahl]

For changing file names fast you can use the Batch Rename Tool in Adobe Bridge. (Tools > Batch Rename)

Before transcoding the footage i would have personally tried to start off with changing file names of a couple of files that are problematic to see if that helps. (.mov is another file ending you can try)

As for settings in HandBrake i would make sure that the frame rate, frame size match the source footage and make sure to select Constant Framerate under the Video tab. Start of with with a preset from the General section of presets. As a side note, i would never ever use HandBrake to transcode H.264 source footage to H.264 since that will degrade the quality and take more time. If you need to trandscode the files because the computer has problems handlig 4K footage, consider the Proxy Workflow in Premiere Pro.

For now i do indeed understand that the Proxy workflow is not an option because the glitches.

Picture from Adobe Bridge: