huge performance drop on 4k timeline when I duplicate a project.

[davidpayne1981]

Mac v 23.5.0

Hi all. I have an M1 Ultra Mac studio and I'm editing h265 footage from sony a7siii.

Please do not suggest other codec's or proxies. This is a very specific question.

I have a timeline made up of hundreds of videos, audio files and timelines and although not 100% buttery smooth, playback and timeline navigation speed is pretty good for 4k source material. The best I've ever had with any machine I've owned.

However...

At the end of the project, I need to make a cut down trailer of the main feature so I always duplicate the feature timeline, delete a few audio tracks I do not like and then create a shorter version of that timeline. From this point on, the performance is broken. When I say broken, I mean broken. I am currently pressing play and having to wait 5-10 seconds before playback starts. I have tried toggling all fx's off (I have a lumetri colour effect with a custom lut applied, plus some audio effects on the sound). I have tried toggling the eye on ALL video tracks. I have tried muting all audio tracks. I have restarted countless times and now I've run out of ideas.

Something is very wrong and it all starts when I duplicate a timeline. Does anyone have any suggestions at all? This has been like this across multiple versions for years now.

[Carlos Ziade]

Make use of the 'Production' workflows instead of duplicating sequences inside the same project,

you can always have multi-projects workflows, so your main project, and another one for the cutdowns.

Try to change Video Previews settings in Sequence Settings to QuickTime or GoPro Cineform.

Are you on Software Only renderer or GPU Acceleration? check from project settings

[davidpayne1981]

I was set to GPU acceleration. Interestingly I was unable to change this back to software (I was going to do so to check if there was an issue with my GPU) as it was greyed out.

Ok I need to read up on production workflows by the sounds of it! Do you think duplicating the sequence is putting unecessary load on the software?

[Carlos Ziade]

i think it depends on the complexity of your project, that is why Adobe developed Production,

so that complex projects containing multiple assets flow smoothly between teams.

[davidpayne1981]

i just find it so bizarre that if I duplicate a project, the original one plays back and I can navigate it perfectly, but the 2nd one (even when I start deleting assets so it's actually a simpler project than the original) is a laggy mess. There must be a reason for this? Something to do with the duplication process...