Premiere CC 7.1 - Red frames in playback and export

[Nick_HE]

Having some problems after the 7.1 update.

In a variety of projects, on a variety of footage, we're experiencing random fully red frames (#ff000). Sometimes there are 1-2 frames in a clip, and occaisionally it's 80%-90% of the frames in a clip (this is less frequent). It has never been all of the frames of a clip.

This happens:

- On an undrendered timeline (you'll be watching an edit and you'll see a red frame - if you scrub back to it it'll still be there)

- On a rendered timeline

- In exports

Red frames that are visible on a timeline, are sometimes carried through to the export and sometimes not. Sometimes an exported file will display red frames that were not present on the timeline.

Red frames seem to be based on clips, not sequence frames. For example, in one of my exports, I had video footage with a lower third graphic over it. In one frame of the export, a red box appeared over the graphic, but the main shot was not affected.

This has happened to the following types of footage:

- .MTS (from C100)

- .MXF (from C300)

- ProRes 422 MOV

- ProRes 4444 MOV with alpha channel

Fixes that seem to work:

- If an export has red frames, re-export. Watch the new one like a hawk. Repeat until you get lucky.

- If a clip on a timeline has red frames, force a re-render via a Crop filter or similar

- Quit Premiere and reopen it

System/environment details:

- OSX 10.8.5

- Premiere Pro CC 7.1

- Mercury Playback Engine Software Only

- Often (always?) I-Frame Only MPEG sequence settings

- Much (all?) of the footage we've been working with has been on AFP shares via GigE with MTU of 9000

I haven't been able to confirm yet:

- Whether this ever happens with locally stored footage

- Whether this ever happens when Queueing to media encoder (rather than Exporting from Premiere)

- Whether changing to a QuickTime Desktop based sequence setting resolves the issue

Is anyone else experiencing this issue? It's frutstratingly un-testable, since it seems to happen at random. We'll continue to gather data points though and see if we notice any other trends.

Edit: Added additional system context

[Nick_HE]

@Adobe - Anything else you'd like us to test or try out to help squash this bug? It's really crippling our workflow - I've already lost enough man hours to re-renders and troubleshooting to pay for a year's subscription to creative cloud

[ivanengler]

yes, please ADOBE developpers, it's really time to react now - at least a statement that you have heard of the issue and that you are working on it. because, as nick said, it's crucial that we can render in PR and AE without red flash frames - and it's definitely a BUG and not user malconfigurations.

[nick g]

Agreed.

For now, is there any way to roll back Premiere to just 7.0?

[shy collective GmbH]

I would like to roll back, but unfortunetely AE won't run on Mavericks without the update installed.

Fact is it has to do with ProRes, mostly ProRes4444. It has nothing to do with Mavericks, I have these problems also in ML.

I'm facing another problem, that might be related to his one. Whenever I "collect files" for a project, I starts copying and then stops giving me an error.

It always stops while copying - guess what - ProRes-files. So there must be something wrong with the prores file handling.

What I don't get is, that we seem to be the only ones the have these kind of problems.

I tried to install a fresh osx with only AE 12.1 - and the error appears. So how can it be that it works on other peoples machines?

I think ProRes is not that special...

[AlexElkins]

shycollective wrote:

What I don't get is, that we seem to be the only ones the have these kind of problems.

I think we may be the only ones reporting it on this particular forum. It doesn't mean others aren't experiencing it. I've read other people posting about it on Creative Cow and here we have three Premiere installations and all of them suffer from the same issue. Bear in mind also that ProRes4444 isn't all that common - its usage is essentially limited to people who are:

• On Macs
• Working with high-end source material - Alexa namely, plus transcoded raw files for onlining/finishing. There aren't that many other reasons for ProRes4444 besides the alpha channel thing.

All that aside, I have so far found that clearing the media cache before exporting is a good workaround and as yet I've not seen any more flash frames. It's just a pain not being able to 100% trust your exports.

[shy collective GmbH]

Yes, I use this workaround as well and it works for me. Thanks for the hint.

As an EPIC owner and davinci operator, I use this workflow on a daily base and I expect it to work without any problems as it did for years now. Things like this can happen, but Adobe really should say something about it and deliver a fix (not a workaround) soon - cause that's what they told us when they released CC, that they can quickly update their products, when needed.

The next time they release an update I'll need to prepare a second system just to test this little update, just to make sure I can continue to work on my projects.

[AlexElkins]

shycollective wrote:

Adobe really should say something about it and deliver a fix (not a workaround) soon - cause that's what they told us when they released CC, that they can quickly update their products, when needed.

I completely agree. I've wasted hours since the update first troubleshooting and now having to watch every single export like a hawk to make sure things are safe to send to clients, not to mention the embarassment of having these flash frames pointed out by clients in the first place. Nobody is paying for that extra time spent doing this on projects except the editors/companies involved.

I'm a little disappointed that the standard response from Adobe when acknowledging a bug is to tell people to report it through their feature request page. Why? Do Adobe only fix bugs if enough people complain??

[GAntico]

I'm getting the same problem in exports, but the workaround mentioned earlier solved my problems and allowed me to deliver videos without red frames. Just manually delete the cache before exporting.

[Mr. Positronic]

No Hawk watching required.

Alex, I have been hawk watching for flash frames ... darn tedious when you have 5 half-hour shows to QC.... until I noticed encoder adds a small alert "!" in Encoder's Queue window Status column.  I clicked on that and it listed all of my flash frames by frame number.  They are file read errors.  I still haven't solved my problem, but at least I can track them down easily.

[AlexElkins]

Thanks for the info, I'll run all my exports through Media Encoder until we've got a definite fix for this. Good find.

I should also say that I've not yet spotted issues with Premiere Pro 7.2, nor since I started cleaning the media cache as advised earlier in the thread. As an experiment I'm going to stop cleaning the media cache before renders and see if it shows up again.

[AlexElkins]

Update: I've encountered the error again in 7.2 after not cleaning the media cache for a while.

[___Peter___]

I did the latest update yesterday but still red frames. This started with the december update and is not fixed in yesterday's update. The sound buzzes are gone, but the red frames are still there.

So I cannot export my projects. Please solve this quick.

__Peter__

[Videoeditors_hpm]

We also have the red frames in preview. In our Export they are luckily gone.

My workaround is to speed (cmd-J) the clip up and than CTRL-Z. Than it's gone. For the moment...

We are quite happy with Premiere CC but for the sometimes it feels as if we're all Beta testers...

Bart

EDIT---      We work with HD Sony XDCAM MXF files.

                    Import from Server with 10Gb connection on MacPro 2x2.4 6 core 12GB RAM. OS 10.8.5 Adobe CC 7.2.1 (4)

[___Peter___]

I can't get out anything without red frames.

I have to make huge workarounds including using my notebook with the old installation, which I DEFINITELY will not update. My only chance to keep working.

I am a big defender for this highly considered software against all the AVIDs and Finalcuts, but now my confidence is pretty damaged. I hope this will not be come normality to release untested versions every 3 month and overwrite working versions without a realistic chance to get back.

__Peter__

[Ali Jaber]

win 7 64, Red frames appeared when playing Sony XMF files

The problem started when I updated PPro to 7.2... I've installed 7.2.1, now been playing for 5 minutes: no red frames.. if it appeared again i'll post here

[Tim Kurkoski]

Everyone:

If you are experiencing red frames, either in playback in Premiere Pro CC (7.2) or in an output file:

1. Install the Premiere Pro CC (7.2.1) update.

2. Clear your cache and re-render previews for the sequence.

3. If those two steps fail to solve the problem, start a new thread in this forum.

Continuing this same thread which has an identified answer is not helpful, because if you have done #1 and #2 above you are not experiencing the same problem that this thread is about (red frames with ProRes files on Mac OS). When you start your new thread, include that you have done #1 and #2 above, identify the format of the source clips in your sequence, and note what OS you are using.

Thanks.

[___Peter___]

That's what I did.

1. Installed 7.2.1

2. All cache and preview cleared.

3. Started new thread an hour ago ... but noone replied ...

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1362652?tstart=0

__Peter__

[Guest]

any update on this getting fixed? this is really a big issue with our company... this make PP CC almost unusable and makes me think that there is not enough beta testing before these releases are going out. I am on the verge of canceling our subscripions and moving to another aplication.

We depend on software like this for our business and to make a living. This is not a hobby. Having no way of down grading the software is also an issue. we need a fix or we need to be given the ability to downgrade.

I like adobe and i like the products, but i am feeling more and more that Premiere is not stable.

ken

[EvilTwinAccount1]

7.2.1 update did not resolve the redframe issue for me. I will post in a different thread, but I'll just put this here too.

These frames occurr on with ProRes files on shared storage. These frames occur typically when I overwrite a file (like rendering out a new .mov from AE), it doesn't seem to update properly in Premiere Pro.

A few workarounds that I've noticed:

A: If you are not using Premiere, i.e. you replace overwrite a file in aftereffects, but just stay in AE the whole time until the render is done.

B: make sure the playhead is not sitting on the file that is being overwritten in the timeline. You will get a red frame where the playhead is resting otherwise.

[ooooobi]

Someone managed to solve the problem?

We still persists. (AVdn DNxHD)

Premiere Pro CS5 and CS6 flawless.

[tidyhouse]

Think I might have found a solution...

I have been having the same trouble in AE - red frames in playback and export and even just some layers displaying red in composites - but not enough experience with PP as yet.

Standard advice is to clear your cache but what has cleared it for me was to clear my conformed media cache manually.  Go to Library / App Support / Adobe / Common and then clear the folders named Media Cache and Media Cache Files.  I hope that helps you PP users too!

[___Peter___]

Anything new on this ?

We still have the red frames with XD-Cam Files. None of the workarounds helped. A solution from the manufacturer is more than due.

__Peter__

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Peter,

Send me a PM with your Adobe ID and contact info. I'll see what I can do to help you out.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Mark Mapes]

The 7.2.2 update released today fixed several issues that manifested as red frames. In the event that you continue to run into red frames after applying this update, I urge you to start a new thread specific to 7.2.2.

http://blogs.adobe.com/premierepro/2014/04/premiere-pro-cc-7-2-2.html? scid=social21455164

[___Peter___]

I had a XDCAM File that always produced Red Frames and Error in Media Encoder with 7.2.1.

I just tried again with 7.2.1. and it produced errors like expected.

Then I did the 7.2.2 update ... and now it works

"Don't celebrate just yet." but that looks promising ...

Let's see if it's really gone in everyday practice as it was said that it was already fixed in 7.2.1, which was definitely not the case.

Thanks!

__Peter__