Optimizing Premiere Pro CC to work with a 4k Monitor

[DMH79]

Can someone tell me how to work on Premiere Pro CC 2014 (currently 8.2) on a 4k monitor with scaling set at 100%. If I don't scale anything then all the text and icons and everything is WAY too small.

Photoshop seems to have a handy 200% scaling feature which works and looks great. But what about Premiere? I thought the latest version (8.2) was "optimized" to work with 4k monitors?? Doesn't seem like it. I see I can increase the font size in the project panel but that's about it. It needs to be scaled to 150-200% ...BUT... if you do that, then the vertical scrolling on the timeline gets all screwed up and does not work.

4k rez screen looks great and all but without scaling things are SOOOOO tiny! Help!

[DMH79]

Does anyone use a 4k monitor on a PC? How do you "scale" it so that it's workable and not so small yet functions normally in Premiere CC?

[DMH79]

DMH79 wrote:

Does anyone use a 4k monitor on a PC? How do you "scale" it so that it's workable and not so small yet functions normally in Premiere CC?

Might Premiere Pro be usable with a 4k monitor in the next version of Premiere Pro soon to be released? Right now, I can't figure out how to scale it to a usable size on my PC running 8.1

[nagol5178SN]

You do what you do on a Macbook Retina display. Set it at a lower resolution, the icons and programs will then get bigger, like a 2560x1440. That's what I'd do on a 27 inch. For other sizes I'm not sure.

You may then ask, "But then I'm not seeing 4k. resolution." You switch back and forth, if you want to see your video play in 4k, change it and then go full screen and watch it. But while you're working on it, you don't need the display to be set at 4k resolution.

Mac nor Windows have really made their operating systems look right on 4k yet because not many have them. In the future, basically everything by default would be higher resolution, therefore making it bigger, such as an icon on your desktop.

The Macbook Pro retina display for example, it is NOT set to full resolution, not does it even give you the option to without downloading a tool to hack it. But what retina does, is doubles the pixies. So it'll show 1400x900 and it looks like any other 1400x900 display, as far as size of icons, programs, etc, but the pixels are doubled so its sharper.

Now Apple has already made the option available, where if you have a 4k monitor, you can set it to something like 2560x1440 so everything is big and normal sized, but the pixels are doubled, making it a retina type of display.

I don't know if PC has that option or if there is a program for that option, that would make it sharper and you could still see everything. But even if PC doesn't have the doubling option, just scale it down because using it at native 4k might literally hurt your eyes. I can't use my macbook at anything past 1400x900 or it'll be too small. Yet the resolution is over 2k.

[MarkWeiss]

I tried to use my 4K monitor as a primary, but I couldn't get my Wacom Intuos to even see that desktop. I ended up making it the Adobe Monitor 2, and show 4K at 1:1 pixel ratio on it.

[Jim_Simon]

How large is your screen?

[DMH79]

Thanks for the responses. My screen is 28". Asus 4K Monitor. PC running Windows 8.1 with 6-core CPU and GTX970 GPU, etc. etc.  Interesting that Photoshop has that "experimental feature" of scaling the program 200% which worked great when I tried it. Why can't Premiere. I'm running at 2560x1440 for now. But that makes me wonder what good is a 4k screen then?

[Jim_Simon]

My screen is 28".

Ah, there's the issue.  At 28, you'd probably have been better off with a 2560 x 1440 monitor.

[DMH79]

JSS1138 wrote:

My screen is 28".

Ah, there's the issue.  At 28, you'd probably have been better off with a 2560 x 1440 monitor.

Can I ask you why 28" is the issue? Seemed to be a common size for 4k monitors.

[admbsims]

Hopefully you are running windows 7. I have the Dell Ultrasharp 4k monitor,  and what I have done is go into control panel in Windows and then Display (in the appearance and personalization). Once you are in there, you can see a few options on the left. Click on "set custom text size (DPI)". There you will see a measure scale with inches on it. Find a ruler (measuring stick) in your home, and scale the inches on the screen to the same size as your ruler by grabbing and dragging the scale on the screen. For instance, mine is set to 193% and everything looks perfect now. However, there will be programs who do not have the DPI option. Photoshop, you have to go into the program preferences -> experimental features and check the box that says "scale UI 200%", then reopen the program. Anyways, I hope this helps. Hopefully you are running the monitor with 1.2 DP connection for 60hz also. This is a good temporary fix until all programs and operating systems adjust their settings to run on 4k displays.

[DMH79]

Thanks for your response. I'm running Windows 8.1 so the Display settings aren't set up like that. I tried enlarging text and also I scaled things in the display settings and everything looked great while running 4k resolution (yes, at 1.2DP 60Hz). BUT the issue was...Premiere.  It would not work correctly when things were scaled. The timeline became erratic and mostly unresponsive so I had to switch back to 1440p. I did use the Photoshop Experimental 200% feature and it worked great. Sadly, Premiere doesn't have that.

Any other ideas?

[bwone]

I just had this same issue but just recently got an update from Adobe and now Premier Pro works fine with my 4K display.  (Perfect timing as I just signed up for CC three days ago)

Apparently it is in the October 2014 release. https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/whats-new.html#updated_UI

Seems that when you sign up for Adobe you don't get all the updates at first maybe?

[walkerbuzzbell]

I have yet to see any confirmation of this - can anyone say that when EDITING on a 4K monitor the Premiere User Interface and UI FONT's, WINDWO UI, etc.,  - not the content you create in the bins - - scales up to be useable on 4K monitors?

Thanks

[studiopeters]

I am running Adobe Premiere 2015.1 on a 3840x2160 display, a Dell UP3216Q.  I am using Windows 7 scaled to 133% with "Use XP style DPI scaling" checked.  Everything looks good, very usable.

[ana_bee]

Didn't you encounter that very annoying problem with timeline zooming with mouse scroll wheel?

BUG: Alt+Scroll to Zoom with 4K Monitor on Windows

I have the same monitor as you (Dell 32" 4K) and it the bug makes using premiere very uncomfortable!

[davidpayne1981]

I just can't believe we're 2-3 years down the line with this and adobe have made NO attempt to rectify this crippling bug

[davidpayne1981]

i'm not sure if anyone else experiences this also but when set to 4k resolutions and exporting in adobe media encoder i am unable to simultaneously edit. Nativating and moving around the timeline is hugely slugging and jerky where as if I set it to 1080p resolution, navigation is smooth and I can edit fine.

I'm considering selling my 4k monitors and going back to 1080p as premiere is just not made for 4k which is madness considering its a video editing suite!!

[ana_bee]

While I completely agree that Premiere Pro is deinitely not ready for 4K monitors, you have to take into consideretion that in the problem you described it might actually be your computer causing the lags, due to the lack of processing power needed to encode 4K resolution video. Other reason could be not fast enough drive, or connection if you're using external drive to store your media. 4K encoding needs around 4 times more data to transfer, so it's likely that the whole bandwidth gets eaten up by this, and there is simply not enough left for you to keep editing the same media on your timeline.

I hope that helps, and that ADOBE WILL FINALLY RESOLVE THIS OUTSTANDINGLY FRUSTRATING SCALING ISSUE!

[davidpayne1981]

the issue is ana_bee, I'm not editing 4k footage. I'm editing 1080p footage in a 1080p timeline with my monitors displaying premiere pro in 4k resolution. I also have the video on a lightning fast PCI-E ssd and the cache files on a dedicated similarly fast m.2 ssd so it's definitely an issue with premiere (unless it's a faulty component but they're all brand new after an upgrade and have been fully tested)

[Jim_Simon]

NO attempt to rectify this crippling bug

I maintain that the only purpose of higher resolution is more screen real estate.  If you want to use a 4K monitor, make sure it's at least 32" or larger.

[davidpayne1981]

32" or not, you'll still be frustrated every minute of your editing day thanks to this mess of a bug

[Jim_Simon]

What bug exactly?  Looking back to the original post, the issue is that the monitor is simply too small for 4K resolution, but the software is working properly.

[davidpayne1981]

this bug Jim

BUG: Alt+Scroll to Zoom with 4K Monitor on Windows

[Jim_Simon]

Got it.

That's not the issue for this thread, though.

[davidpayne1981]

Jim it is exactly the issue mentioned in the original post at the end (the vertical scrolling)