Premiere Pro working with text INSANELY SLOW with no CPU\GPU load

[AndrewTheGreat]

Hi, a couple of days ago I posted a message about the Write-On effect being insanely slow in Premiere Pro 2023.6. I was told this effect did not support GPU acceleration and was absolete (though this does not explain why it used to work perfectly on a Core-i7 4770 plus 32 gigs of ram and a 6-gig GTX 1060 in Premiere 2019 and cannot work in Premiere 2023 on a 13700-4080-64Gb plus SSD).

Ok, right now I'm working on a video comprising 4k training footage plus on-screen explanatory messages. It is literally a 4k footage on one track and from 1 to 7 text layers created via the text tool above. No effects, no color correction., nothing. By the way the video specs:

Type: MPEG Movie
File Size: 607,57 MB
Image Size: 3840 x 2160
Frame Rate: 60,00
Source Audio Format: 44100 Hz - Compressed - Stereo
Project Audio Format: 44100 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo
Total Duration: 00:01:40:32
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1,0
Alpha: None
Color Space: Rec. 2100 HLG
Color Space Override: Rec. 2100 HLG (Scene)
Input LUT: None
Video Codec Type: HEVC 10 bit 4:2:0

Just below you'll see a video of the process I'm struggling with. As you will see from the moment I select a text layer or select the text inside the text layer or type anything instead of the text inside the text layer passes from 1-5 seconds. Premire Pro does respond during this time - I can choose other tools and move the timeline or the windows, so it does not hang or something, but the whole text layer system inside the software does. Those lags are also present when I try to move the text layer or change its scale (both in the effects properties and essential graphics panels). You'll notice the pauses (during them I move the mouse from side to side).

At the same time my CPU or the graphics card show up to 10-15% of load max as if they do not take part in that. @jstrawn can you comment on this situation? What is happening with Premiere Pro? Why does a text layer even show any lags on a powerful machine? And why is the timeline always yellow? Always. Even if you simply open up a 1080p footage it is yellow, not green. It all started from the 2023.2 and now I cannot even work with texts. Should I use Ae for making a text message appear and disapper on the screen, really? The thing even a cellphone app does without any lags...

Win10, Nvidia Studio Driver 236.99

[R Neil Haugen]

@RjL190365 would be the one with the best data on the processes here. But on many rigs, 4K 60fps long-GOP is a bugger to work with. And James could give some help on the graphics, but I know from experience graphics are often one of the heavier loads on the system inside Premiere.

So ... 4k 60fps 10 bit long-GOP combined with up to seven layers of graphics. From what I do know, unless you've got exactly the right chips involved, that's going to struggle at times at the least.

And yea, that's annoying as all heck. But then, I work for/with/teach pro colorists, most of them with hardware makes yours and mine look totally anemic ... and most of the colorists t-code any long-GOP stuff, especially 4k/60fps, prior to working it for a color grade. Just automatically.

Neil

[jstrawn]

@AndrewTheGreat Can you send me a direct message with a project? Please keep it as simple as possible... Eeven just one Graphic + Test if possible. Whatever the minimum is you need to see the problem with.

We also can't tell what Font you are using in the video. What font is that? Do things improve if you use a different Font?

[AndrewTheGreat]

Hi, Neil.

This is what happens if you switch the track with all the video footage off and even activate the global FX button

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b66Lhtn3OtgLW8QF3KjJgpF0IlHXzq9t/view?usp=sharing

[AndrewTheGreat]

Hi, @jstrawn 

Don't know how to do it properly. I've tried to move a part with the text to a new sequence and there there are no lags. So then I moved all the materials from the original sequence to the newly created one and got the lags. I then started to delete parts of materials and saw that the lags gradually become less obvious. The problem is that the whole video consists of 9 lessons with half of them having explanatory texts like I showed in the video so I have to have those layers in the video.

This is how it looks now

The stacked layers are all texts plus a timer I created in the Essential graphics panel. So I tried removing all of tthe timers  but the lags don't go away so they are not the culprit.

And I have simple essential graphics transitions I created that consist of 3 sequential color mattes animated by position and crop so they appar one by one. Tried removing all of them too and the lag does not go away either. 

So everything is made inside Premiere Pro, no external plugins or effects are used. The amount Premiere Pro and my 13 gen CPU should handle easily. 

I have also tried toggling off the first track with all the video footage and simultaneously switch on the global FX mute button leaving the texts and those animated layers only and this is what happens:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b66Lhtn3OtgLW8QF3KjJgpF0IlHXzq9t/view?usp=sharing

So even WITH the video OFF there are lags whitch proves Premiere Pro has problems working with its own text and essential graphics engine (or what is it called)

Ok, I removed all the videos and sound. Only the texts and animated layers. The lag is still there though not as crazy https://drive.google.com/file/d/19CHzZJs_8uf0-Mz2SG8Q7v6cn4TjeGIZ/view?usp=sharing

[jstrawn]

Thank you for the test project @AndrewTheGreat . I opened it and saw a huge amount of Text Layers, all in different Graphics and Tracks across the whole timeline. I also saw a lot of missing third party effects when I opened it (see image). You are really pushing beyond the limits of what Graphics in Pr were ever designed to do. They are all live vector items with keyframes (even when not animated) so they all take a hit on your processing power. They may not cause your system resources to spike way up (because individually, each text layer is pretty light) but it's really hard for Pr to draw it all over and over again as you move or edit text layers.

As for the solution, I think you have already shown by your own testing that removing Graphics and their Text Layers will cause things to speed up. So whatever you can do to consolidate and flatten layers will probably help a lot. Maybe try exporting a sequence of Graphics to a file format that supports transparency and then just lay that exported media on top in on track. Or you could perhaps try doing the Text & Graphics things in Ae and then import the comp with Dynamic Link into Pr. But my guess is performance may get bogged down that way as well.

[AndrewTheGreat]

Ok, thanx for the analysis. Is there a chance Premiere Pro will some day start  handling those vector layers like After effects or other software do? Will it be optimized in some way?

[jstrawn]

I really have no accurate way of answering that. Your request has been noted. I'm not sure how Ae would even handle all those live layers without flattening anything. It would be interesting to know about though if you end up going that direction.

[MForceX]

So I am facing the same issues for a 20-minute project with a lot of text descriptions. Premiere takes 3-5 seconds response time, so I just type and wait patiently for it to get updated. I had worked on an earlier project that was longer but never had any issues with the text lagging, and I just realized that it must have been because all the text in the earlier project was nested. Each text was placed in a nested sequence because of the track matte effect I had on them. That way Premiere did not have to process a bunch of text contained in the main timeline, instead each text sat comfortably in its sequence. So I think you can try nesting stacked text layers into separate sequences so that Premiere can process them individually rather than together in one timeline.

[mackdacre]

You will need to go to into Sequence in the menu bar and untick "Selection Follows Playhead." I think this happens with text editing because you end up with so many separate short clips or something. For whatever reason Adobe invariably suggests everything except for this even though it is the real solution.

[R Neil Haugen]

"Adobe" doesn't come on here very often. Unless someone has a staffer badge, they're users. Like me.

And yea, for that issue the two first things are playhead follows selection but also ... set audio hardware default input to None. Speeds up playback especially on a lot of Macs at this time.

[sachag37368285]

'set audio hardware default input to None.'

Wow - that's just floored me. My editing session (with Text) has just sped up about 10x as a result. Playhead follows selection still on.

[jstrawn]

@R Neil Haugen ""Adobe" doesn't come on here very often..."

True, but you know we're trying to change that, at least a little. Feel free to (at)jstrawn me when you see something that may really benefit from some staffer attention. I'll get to it whenever I can. Also, many of you users tend to know your parts of the app as well or better than I do, so thanks so much for doing what you do here.

[R Neil Haugen]

James, "we" regulars are certainly aware that the forum is getting a LOT more staffer time than it used to, and very, very pleased and grateful!

That said, still ... most threads don't have staffer time, nor really, do they necessarily need more. As yea, between the regulars here, there's a TON of precise, and correct usage, knowledge given out daily.

Still, there are things you staffers can have access to knowing we users simply can't. Such as internal bug filings, how some specific action works against another in precisely detailed ways that we have to ... approximate from experience, so to speak.

Which is why we are always so thrilled when you, Dacia, Wes, Trent, Annika, Matt, Eric, Fergus, so many other staffers ... do pop in!

We all learn then ...

[Seraphine35851082hgtm]

Try using this, copy your timeline (1 master timeline)

Open new project

Open new sequence and paste the copied timeline in the new sequence that will solve your lagging problem

Just check the size of your previous and new project 

[Jefry2688698595ge]

Responding to this old thread:

I have seen this issue as well when you get a sequence with lots of text, such as a long documentary.

A workaround that I have found is to mute all layer with Essential Graphic items (eyeball on the left side of timeline) and create or edit an Essential Graphic item on an empty layer at the top of the sequence layers.  Once you are happy, move this item down the the layer where all your text lives and unmute the graphics layers.

Jef