PPro CS5 GUI on mac really jerky

[yuki.P]

Moving clips around on the timeline of CS5 on the mac is like playing Russian roullette; you never know where the clip is actually going to fall. It's like the interface has a refresh rate of 5fps or something. It seems to take forever for clips to snap against each other, and this lag causes the user to think something is wrong and then move the clips around more than necessary.

Please please tell me that this will be addressed in a point release. I don't want to have to pay to upgrade for a solution to a problem that should never have made it to a full release.

[shooternz]

You are talking about an issue that no one else has ...so you need to look at your hardware and your system setup.

Most of us experience a fluid , snappy predictable response.

[yuki.P]

I am using a dual processor 2008 mac pro with 24GB RAM.

Playback of material is fine. It is the actual interface that feels really unresponsive. It's not like the whole thing hangs, but it always feels like it's a few milliseconds behind and trying to catch up. It is most noticable when dragging clips along the timeline.

Has nobody else seen this? Shooternz, do you edit on a mac?

[Todd_Kopriva]

What version of Premiere Pro---i.e., have you installed the recent updates? What operating system? What kind(s) of source footage? What other software are you running? Do you have any third-party effects or codecs installed? Tell us about your computer hardware.

[yuki.P]

I am using CS5 with all updates applied, on a mac pro:

Intel Dual Quad core
24 gb DDR2 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, Dual monitors

OSX 10.6: Snow Leopard

I mainly edit Canon 7D movs, but I am seeing it even on SD DV sequences. It doesnt seem to be a problem with the type of footage, it's just that the interface itself is really laggy. Drag a transition onto a clip and it takes a few milliseconds for the interface to catch up, by which time you are thinking that something is wrong and have tried moving it around a bit, and then it suddenly snaps onto the next clip instead.

Same with moving files around on the timeline. You select a bunch of files and try to slip them a frame or two, but the interface isnt refreshing fast enough so it's like you always have to wait a beat; first you click and select the files, wait half a second, then start moving them, and then confirm that the interface is correct by waiting to see if they are still moving or not, and then release the button to drop them. I'm not talking about waiting seconds, like waiting for a web page to load, it's milliseconds, but it's definitely noticable.

[John T Smith]

Win7 here, and no problems noted with AVCHD files... what is your drive setup?

My 3 hard drives are configured as... (WD = Western Digital)
1 - 320G WD Win7 64bit Pro and all programs
2 - 320G WD Win7 swap file and video projects
3 - 1T WD all video files... read and write

[Flexy]

I couldn't agree more CS5 on my 2009 12 core 28 gigs of ram Mac has painful timeline lag.

[yuki.P]

Yes, I'm tempted to do a screencast to show how bad it is, if the frame rate of the recording would be fast enough to actually capture it properly.  I get the sneaky suspicion that a fix to this will be sold to us as a new feature in a future costly upgrade.

More examples:

The playhead wipes out the thumbnail on the clip as it moves over it.

Snapping is so late that the clip jumps all over the place often overwriting other clips because you release the mouse buttong 'at the wrong time'.

I wonder if I upgraded my graphics card it would make a difference, or if it really just is CS5's fault.

I have a nvidia Geforce GT8800. I read the reviews of the nvidia cards on Ars Technica and they always get terrible reviews. Maybe it's worth sacrificing cuda for stability with an ati card?

Flexy, what graphics card are you using? Did you upgrade to 5.5?

[Flexy]

My system spec is

Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro5,1

Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz

Number Of Processors: 2

Total Number Of Cores: 12

L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB

L3 Cache (per processor): 12 MB

Memory: 28 GB

Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s

Boot ROM Version: MP51.007F.B03

SMC Version (system): 1.39f11

SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f11

ATI Radeon HD 5770:

I have not yet upgraded to CS5.5 as I don't think it is released yet

I use a BM decklink HD extreem capture card.

I am going to try installing CS% on windows 7 on my bootcamp to see if this

solves the problem

[Todd_Kopriva]

> I have not yet upgraded to CS5.5 as I don't think it is released yet

CS5.5 software is available for purchase.

[AtonMusic]

shooternz wrote:

You are talking about an issue that no one else has ...so you need to look at your hardware and your system setup.

Most of us experience a fluid , snappy predictable response.

uhmmm...

I am having this issue VERY much. In fact, I wrote a whole post about it two minutes ago...

My hardware is top-knotch and so is my cuda-accelerated graphic card.

PPRO (Region-Dragging in Timeline) is NOTHING like fluid. You start dragging a clip and PPRO is so concerned about snapping to this and that, that the user has NO idea of where to let go of the clip..

Now, I have turned off snapping, in order for me not to take a hammer and smash in my monitor and my own head out of sheer frustration of how ppro jerks about the clips I am trying to position.

Dont have this ODD behavior in AVID or FCP !

In fact, I have NEVER used ANY app where I had the feeling of having a tough truck parked on my hand while moving the mouse !

[jeremy d.]

I get the sneaky suspicion that a fix to this will be sold to us as a new feature in a future costly upgrade.

No. We don't even know if there's anything to fix.You are definitely having an atypical experience.

It would help to know if you're still seeing this at different zoom levels, and if you're also having a lag -- however brief -- if snapping is turned off.

[markjpoggi]

Jeremy,

Please see my post at the (as of this moment) end of this thread.  We're experiencing the same issue.

Regards,
Mark

[needles27-5wuo1M]

I had a temporary increase in timeline fluidity after a restart, but it didn't last long.  The same issue occurs with the suggestions of using Bars and closing the program monitor.  I have another issue when I click on a clip in the timeline, it sometimes takes up to 3 seconds for the program monitor to update. (Editing with H.264)  It looks like I may be having larger issues here than this thread is addressing. 

This can't be how it is supposed to be, right?  All I heard coming over from being a FCP editor was how fast PPro and the Mercury Engine are...but my experience so far has been the exact opposite - to me it feels like editing in molasses at every turn.  (Sorry to repeat myself)

I am going to check with support about my issues and report back anything I can find.

Thanks to everyone.

[Flexy]

Turning off snap makes no difference. CS4 premier ran so much better on my 4 year old HP!

[Flexy]

And another thing when opening a still image in the source monitor it is black. You have to place the image on the timeline then click it to see it.

[the_wine_snob]

What is the format of the still image?

IIRC, you mentioned that they are 3000 pixels, but that is within the allowable specs. for PrPro - depending on your computer's capabilities.

Good luck,

Hunt

[Flexy]

Tif and JPG

[the_wine_snob]

Thanks.

Both formats are fully supported, and if they Import fine, should display fine. One will run into issues, if the images are CMYK, or 16-bit, etc., but those issues will show up, when attempting to Import. Not your issue here.

My guesses would be a display driver issue, or the BM Decklink card and maybe its driver, but those are just guesses.

Good luck,

Hunt

[yuki.P]

Flexy,

It's disappointing to see that you are seeing the same problem with an ATI card. I was hoping that my cheap nvidia card was the problem, but it would seem to be the software.

Snapping makes no difference to me either, although the symptoms are like if you had a really bad snapping problem. Drag video clips onto the timeline and then trying to move them around really quickly and the clips only appear to move around in like 20px increments because the lag is so bad. I am becoming an expert of dragging and dropping really slowly.

[gambit6781]

I have the same problem.

2010 Mac Pro

2x2.4 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

12GB RAM

ATI Radeon HD 5770

Consistantly editing 1080 24p footage stored on an internal RAID drive seperate from the drive with the OS.

All updates installed for Premiere Pro.

Jerky editing and playback in the timeline from the day I installed Premiere.

I use Premiere at the office on the Mac Pro, but Final Cut Pro on a 5 year old Macbook Pro at home. Editing in the timeline on my Macbook Pro with Final Cut Pro is much smoother than on the new Mac Pro.

Would be great to find a solution.

[Flexy]

Tried removing the ram that came with the machine just using the upgrade off 24 gigs of ram to see if maybe there was a conflict and a booted using command option "P" "R" to clear the memory with no success. My machine just seems to be running slow. Dragging files from finder to Premier takes a long time and thumbnails take forever to generate in Premier. Adobe says that it is my Mac. They also suggested I get an Nvidia card. I am aware that the Cuda drivers on this card will help with real time rendering but not sure if they will sort the timeline lag problem Buraiham does your Nvidia card have Cuda drivers for Mercury acceleration?

[yuki.P]

No, my card is a cheap nvidia one, so it does not do cuda accelaration. But as I understand it CUDA only does encoding/decoding tasks and so shouldnt make any difference at all to the user interface.

It's important to be clear that we are all experiencing perfect playback of our files on the timeline, and Premiere is working fine. It's just moving files around on the timeline that is so laggy.

[AtonMusic]

buraihan wrote:

Moving clips around on the timeline of CS5 on the mac is like playing Russian roullette; you never know where the clip is actually

Please please tell me that this will be addressed in a point release. I don't want to have to pay to upgrade for a solution to a problem that should never have made it to a full release.

CS5.5 is exactly the same as CS5 in this regard !

[Jeff Bellune]

Please don't post for the same issue in multiple places.  To keep the discussion centered here, your other post has been deleted.

-Jeff