PP Seems very slow! Sony footage in particular

Report · Dec 05, 2023

Hey Guys

First time posing here so hopfully someone can help (adobes virtual assisstant kept ending the chat before i actually got any help)

So heres the issue,

Im a professional Freelance editor. I use PP daily and rely on it.

I have a high end edit suite windows based computer which is my main editing comp, I also use a M1 Pro macbook pro for location editing.

Edit suite specs

- AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX 32-Cores

- RAM - 128GB

- Drives - m.2 Firecuda 4tb 7300mbps X2

- Motherboard - ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WIFI
- Audio interface - Universial Audio Volt 1

PP runs way smoother on my Macbook. Almost to the point where its scary, where as on my edit suite I have frequent crashes, memory leaks generally bad performance. Even just scrubbing on the timeline feels laggy on my edit suite. where as the macbook its sharp and responsive.

For some reason Sony footage in particular is a massive issue in the edit sute, I cant even play it without having to proxy first. This started early in 2023 and has gotten progressivly worse.

Ive scoured the internet, tried every possible remedy and setting. Nothing is helping.
Does anyone have any ideas? or am i right in thinking the PP is just way more suited to Apple rather then windows?

PS - everything is up to date. windows / PP / Studio drivers

Report · Dec 05, 2023

What specific Sony Files are causing you trouble? and from which Sony camera? For us, anything that comes in on these newer Prosumer (FX3 type) cameras that record Long GOP MP4s, has to be transcoded to an edit-friendly codec. Newer Macs may playback better, just by being able to quickly decode the Intra frames.

Report · Dec 05, 2023

Appriciate you getting back to me!

Specifically FX6 footage, but ive had issues with FX9 and FX3 footage. FX9 seems to be more stable though.

Report · Dec 05, 2023

Yep, That's exactly what it is. As for the 6 and 9... I believe they are both MXF files. (edit-friendly) However, there are two types of codecs these cameras record, XAVC-I and XAVC-L. If they shoot XAVC-I (Intra Frame where each frame is individually encoded) you should be fine. XAVC-L (LONG GOP) can be problematic as an edit-friendly codec. This doesn't get you out of having to transcode unless you can ask the DP to shoot with the bigger cameras to stay away from MP4s and or LONG GOP file types!

Report · Dec 05, 2023

I think Shane has a good response. I'm also on a 32 core Ryzen, and of course ... we don't have the Intel hardware for long-GOP decoding, do we? Oh well.

Some of that Sony AVCHD, especially in larger framesizes, is notably long-GOP, and is a right royal pain unless proxied or t-coded.

Report · May 22, 2024

I have a similar setup, Ryzen 9 5950x, 128gb DDR4, RTX 3090, but the issue seems to persist with Sony footage. I can edit my BRAW 6k footage no problem, but as soon as any Sony footage pops in, it stutters and won't play back even at 1/8 resolution without chopping or stuttering.

I heard on another post in these forums that the AMD chipset seems to have issues with the way Sony wraps their footage. Not sure how that helps us at all but just something to be aware of. For the time being I just have to proxy these files while everything else with even greater bitrate/depth runs fine (for the most part).

If you think of a solution let me know. Perhaps there's some driver from Sony that can help with AMD? Maybe we need to be chatting with the AMD folks to see if they can render a CPU driver to assist? Not sure but it's frustrating, especially having a really gnarly rig.

Report · May 22, 2024

A fair amount of some Sony codecs is actually in H.264 "long-GOP" formats. Which is the hardest media to use due to needing to decode/decompress and store to RAM/cache up to thirty or more frames just to get the next frame created for playback.

8k RED raw footage is normally a lot easier on the CPU/system than the 4k and high bitrate long-GOP clips. Because each frame is an actual, complete image frame. Not just a data set of pixels that change.

So it would be interesting to test some of your clips. If you could pass on one of the gnarly ones, I'd be happy to test on my rig.

Report · May 22, 2024

Hi @CJCARNAHAN

Sony has always given me pain. Be it C, or FX, or A7 series.

On windows as well as Apple devices.

I think the main issue, and mostly overlooked, is the recording codec.

(Bad DOPs, who don't care about setting a proper codec, basically are showing the middle finger to the editor, should be punished, lol.)

But jokes apart, I always transcode Sony footage before editing (after checking the recording codec).

Proxy doesn't really work thoroughout the project, if your recording codec is not edit friendly.

I think, even to display your footage in 1/8th resolution, the CPU has to do a LOT of work thanks to non edit friendly codecs and preference to "storage saving" and not performance.

Sony=Transcode. That's my mantra mostly.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Yash