No Playback, Delayed Playback, Choppy Playback, and Crashing - HELP!

[Gabe520]

I am having a very hard time with my current project.  The project was created in 2021 and auto update must have happened forcing me to the current version.  One night it was working flawlessly... I went to bed and the next day when I opened the project it started to act weird.  Since then - I have experienced major playback issues.  When I try to playback after opening the project, I get a dialog box, "Rendering Required Files".  The box appears for 3-6 seconds.  The progress bar does not advance or show any movement - and then it goes away.  After that, the video takes 10-15 seconds (sometimes longer) to play.  The play button turns into the stop button and when I try to click the stop button, nothing happens.  When I try to play again, the dialog box doesn't appear, but I still have the delayed playback and choppyness.  I can't scrub the timeline without PP being choppy and lagging, or just crashing, and sometimes the preview screen is just black with only audio playing. 

- All the media I am using is 4K from a Lumix GH5 using vlog, Zcam using Rec709, and a few clips from a cell phone. 

- I have made and attached proxies to all the files as well as rendered the files prior to this issue starting. 

- No plugins have been applied to the project. 

Current stats:

Win 10

64 GB RAM

i7 - 6700K

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

PP v.22.2

I have Case Number: ADB-23392096-M4J0 witih support, but they have not been successful on any fix attempts, which have been (not in this order): 

- disabled global FX

- delete media cache

- change playback resolution 

- create new project and import project 

- uninstall - rename files (old) and reinstall. 

- reinstall older versions and import project (two different versions)

- changed playback from CUDA to software

- unchecked Media playback encoding/decoding 

- updated graphics card

- updated windows 10

- changed audio input to NO INPUT

- disabled GPU / enabled GPU

- created new project with lower resolution settings and import project

Nothing has improved the performance.  In fact, all attempts to make it better, made it worse.  Much worse!  I'm pretty desperate here.  I have this project I am working on and a deadline.  If anyone has a solution, a workaround, or any input - I'm listening!  Thanks in advance. - Gabe

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Geeper,

Sorry for the hassle. First of all, it is possible to reinstall version 15 and finish your project there? Sounds like you've tried most everything else. If you've done significant work in the current version, you can export a FCP XML and try that.

FYI, your computer is a bit under the minimum system requirements for editing 4K video, especially that 10-bit GH5 HEVC footage. Is it 4:2:2? If so, you need a brand new intel CPU, not one from the Gen 6 era. A more powerful GPU would also be recommended. Version 22 may be a "bridge too far" for your computer, perhaps. Hope the advice helps.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Gabe520]

Hi Kevin,

I've tried version 15 as well.  That didn't work.  I haven't tried exporting to an XML though.  Thanks for the feedback. 

[Gabe520]

Hi Kevin.  I tried to export to XML, but keep getting translation errors on the export.  I'm not tottaly sure what that means.

I know my PC needs a refresh, but... My PC has been able to handle all the 4K video I've been tossing at it for a few years with no issues.  All of a sudden, one day it's fine, the next day it's not, after the upgrade.  As you suggested, going to version 15 "should" have corrected CPU performance issues since 22 is beefier.  Could there be an Adobe file left over from the upgrade causing this, or a duplicate file?  Maybe the tech support person I was talking to missed something?  

I am probably being annoying and I apologize, but I am truely desperate for a fix.  I haven't been able to show any progress to my client for 4 business days and I'm running out of time. 

[Michael Grenadier]

This should clean up any vestigal files causing issues

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html

and no need to apologize.  As long as your polite, I don't think anyone will have any issues...

[Gabe520]

Thank you!

I'll check out the cleaner tool.  I appreciate the help.  

[Gabe520]

I think I found an issue.  I didn't realize the scratch disk location was not set.  It's the same disk as the source file.  I usually have a dedicated scratch disk for projects.  I think switching will help a little bit - but I'm not sure if doing this in the middle of a project will cause any issues, or if PP will create new files in the new location.  Can anyone provide some insight on that scenario?  Thanks in advance!! 

[Michael Grenadier]

smartphone footage is always variable frame rate as far as I know and that can cause intermittent and unpredictable issues...  That's the first thing I'd fix...  Here's how to confirm the diagnosis and fix it

use mediainfo to determine whether your source is variable or constant frame rate
https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download
if it's variable use handbrake to convert to constant frame rate setting the quality slider in the video panel to maximum
https://handbrake.fr
and here's a tutorial on how to use handbrake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=xlvxgVREX-Y

[Gabe520]

It's not VFR video.  That was one of the first things I checked.