Program monitor keeps going black in Premiere Pro CC

[Jon Bradford]

PC - Premiere Pro CC - AMD Fire Pro (13.101-130604a-158071E-ATI)

I'm working on a project and the program monitor keeps going black in Premiere Pro CC while I am working on the timeline. I've got like 28 GB of memory alocated to the program and just updated the latest driver for my video card. No clue why this keeps happening, but the only way I can get around it is to restart. When I go to close down the program freezes and I have to shut it down in the system preferences.

Under a crazy deadline if you can help? Thanks

[GameRaveTV]

You can add Mac to it, too. Bought into Adobe CC yearly plan...and now I can't edit videos. Unless I'm doing a documentary about a power outage...while being in it. >_>:;

Premiere CC 2015

iMac (27inch - Mid 2010)
3.2 GHz Intel Core i3

16 GB Memory

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB

OX Yosemite 10.10.5

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi GameRave,

iMac (27inch - Mid 2010)

3.2 GHz Intel Core i3

16 GB Memory

ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB

OX Yosemite 10.10.5

Your iMac is 5 years old with a significantly underpowered processor and unsupported GPU for the Mercury Playback Engine GPU acceleration. This all on a current version of OS X. I wouldn't call this the most stable configuration.

You might want to consider updating your computer system.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Keith Moreau]

GameRave's system may be underpowered, however this identical problem is happening with the latest and most powerful systems... There should be enough information in this thread for the developers to have a clue what's going wrong... Please fix it! Thanks very much!

[GameRaveTV]

Hey guys....so I think I may have found a "quick fix". I've done it twice now and it's been fine both times.

As soon as your video goes black, simply click the Eyeball icon off/on of the layer the footage is on. Presto, the video stays on permanently.

It looks like it's not a rendering problem, something is triggering a visibility toggle - my video clips always went dark at the same time (around 30 seconds in).

Also curious, I have multiple layers with green screen in effect - when the video "goes black", simply toggling that one line's eyeball icon brings all layers and everything back.

[Houpla]

Yes, you are right GameRaveTV. Toggle the eyeball AND turn off CUDA.  I have a GTX 780 running Nvidia web driver 346.02.03f01. That fixed my problem completely.  Unfortunately no Cuda.  What is with that?  Please look into this Adobe,

[addedit]

Having the same problem with my Mac.  Playback is fine in program window but when I hit stop the screen goes black.  Funny thing is I'm working with 3 video layers and this happens with layers 1 & 2.  But when I stop the playback on a clip in layer 3, I see picture like normal in program.

[Keith Moreau]

I have a Mac, reported this problem months ago. An update didn't fix it. Black video on playback. Restarting Premiere Pro 2015 sometimes fixes it, sometimes rebooting, sometimes running cocktail then rebooting. I can't rely on CC 2015 to edit without this happening. Adobe, I believe this problem is prevalent enough and has been in the product since it was released. I have to go to CC 2014 to edit... I'm seriously looking into another NLE... after 5 years with Premiere Pro.... Too bad...

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello Keith,

Adobe, I believe this problem is prevalent enough and has been in the product since it was released. I have to go to CC 2014 to edit... I'm seriously looking into another NLE... after 5 years with Premiere Pro.... Too bad...

Sorry for your issues. Please give us this feedback in a bug report here.

Thanks,
Kevin

[rocky19460712]

The workaround I found on WIN8 with an NVIDIA card for 2015 was to switch from the current workspace to another and then back to the original workspace. Screen pops back, but this happens each time PP is started no matter which project is loaded. Not a true fix, but faster then restarting or rebooting.

[MJames261]

I have the same issue. It has been increasingly more frequent since the last update. The program monitor goes black, but I can still track & listen to audio just fine. No errors are reported in the log file and it doesn't matter if I'm running multiple Adobe products or not.

System Specs:

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-1620 (8 cores @ 3.7GHz)

Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit (SP-1)

Quadro K600 (Driver Version 353.62)

500GB OS Drive

256GB Cache SSD

32GB RAM

Thanks,

[MrBarkan]

I'm on a Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch 2.3ghz i7 16gb of RAM NVIDIA GT 750M running on OSX 10.11 and have the same issue... I'm sure it's something with CUDA... i've had issues with the Adobe+CUDA combination since forever really. Not sure why. I thought about taking the MBP to the Genius Bar at Apple and get the motherboard replaced, but apparently it happens on PCs as well.

Now in 10.11 and Premiere 2015.0.2 a new issue has surfaced: when I switch from CUDA to OpenCL whichever frame I'm paused it goes haywire, going normal only on Play.. but if I export that crazy colored frame exports it like that. Something with CUDA+OpenCL+Lumetri?

[matthewp76963315]

Same problem here, ever since updating to OS X El Capitan. Wasn't having this issue prior to that. Now it's the same thing being reported by everyone else - black screen in any timeline, only DSLR footage and text layers on the timeline. I have to quite every 10 minutes or so because of this...usually Force Quit because once this kicks in, Premiere won't quit with the normal command. I'm also in CUDA mode, not OpenCL because of the widely reported pixelation issue happening in PP when running OpenCL. I will test with Software Only rendering and see if that produces better results.

Premiere Pro 2015.0.2

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

OSX 10.11

2.6 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

[adamp72582112]

Hello All,

I get the same problem after fresh installation of my system, I opened the project on which I was working before the installation, It wont show me screen,

Then I updated all my video plugins like Apple Quicktime, Thanks LORD after this update my problem resolved.

Thanks & Blessings.

[matthewp76963315]

Has there really been no solution yet to this problem? I have to restart my projects every 5-10 minutes!

[Jay Bellissimo]

OK. Here's a workaround I stumbled upon.

Open the Reference Monitor [Window>Reference Monitor]. That's it.

Something about having the Reference Monitor open sends the video out to my HDMI connected "2nd" monitor. I just keep it open and buried underneath other tabs. Hopefully the Adobe folks can deduce something from the fact that having the Reference Monitor open sends video out and closing it immediately makes it go away.

Good luck!

Thanks,

Jay

Software Version

Adobe Premiere Pro CC

2014.2 Release

8.2.0 (65) Build

System Specs

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

2.8 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 MB

OSX El Capitan 10.11

[JBPDW]

That workaround works for me Jay, but only when my Thunderbolt Display is connected! When working with just my MacBook Pro on it's own it doesn't!

This is clearly software related as the monitor in After Effects CC 2015 works perfectly.

I find it hard to believe that this problem was first highlighted 2 years and 3 months ago! Adobe are no longer offering advice or appear to be making any attempt to fix it!

Software Version

Adobe Premiere Pro CC

2015.02 Release

9.0.2 (6) Build

System Specs

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013)

2.7 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 1024 MB

OSX El Capitan 10.11.1

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi JB,

I find it hard to believe that this problem was first highlighted 2 years and 3 months ago! Adobe are no longer offering advice or appear to be making any attempt to fix it!

Creating a forum post usually results in no action except help from the community. For the team to take action, you must file a bug report. File bugs here.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello Jay,

Hopefully the Adobe folks can deduce something from the fact that having the Reference Monitor open sends video out and closing it immediately makes it go away.

Let us know by filing bugs here.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Broadhaven]

Guys, GameRaveTV's solution works. U just click the visibility icon a couple of times, and it fixes

[Kevin-Monahan · Accepted solution]

Hi Jonathan,

We haven't seen a response from you since you created this thread. Please do let us know if you fully solved the issue. For others on this thread, a few things have been helpful in solving the "black screen" issue.

• Reboot the computer: try to do this a few times a day.
  • This helps reset, refresh hardware items, especially the RAM cache, which you need for intense timelines.
• Perform regular system and program maintenance:
  • update drivers
  • make sure you meet system requirments
  • run any disk clean or disk utility to clean permissions
  • trash preferences
  • do a clean removal of media cache (make sure all projects are closed first: File > Close all Project, then choose Edit > Preferences > Media Cache and then delete ALL cache files by clicking the bottom button and then click OK).
  • Make sure all folders having to do with Adobe and Premiere Pro have permissions set to Read and Write.
  • If you are doing more 4K now, maybe you need a better GPU, for example.
• If your computer is a laptop, is underpowered and/or outdated (especially your CPU and GPU), and does not meet system requirements, it will exhibit the "black screen" issue. Consider updating your components or switching to a newer computer.
• If your computer is newer and has components that are well in spec (core i7, 2+ GB VRAM for your GPU, etc.) and you get the "black screen" issue it is likely to do with:
  • Too many video effects and you have overloaded your GPU VRAM. Use the "Render and Replace function here to get better performance in this section of the timeline. You can also remove video effects at the location where the screen goes black, but most people prefer to render and replace or "mixdown" effects. 
  • You are using 4K footage and your system is not powerful enough for that workflow.
  • You are using 4K footage and are editing in a HD sequence, so scaling is occurring, which is a GPU process. This reduces available GPU cycles from other processes.
    • If HD is the intended output, you might consider transcoding footage from 4K to HD before you begin editing in the project organization stage of your production or create HD proxies.  See documentation about transcoding on ingest.
    • Your GPU drivers are not updated. 
      • This is mostly a Windows tip. Download the current drivers from the manufacturer's site.
      • Mac does not have video driver issues as they are automatically installed with a supported version of macOS.
    • Your GPU control panel on Windows is incorrectly set.
      • Check the requisite control panel. There may be two GPUs and the control panel has the wrong GPU enabled for high quality graphics capability. The control panel for your GPU might be pointing to the more underpowered GPU of the two.
      • Even though you may have a significantly powered GPU, it may be an older one that doesn't support the drivers for a new version of the OS.
      • The GPU is problematic, in general. You can rule out GPU interaction. Choose File > Project Settings > General and set the Renderer to Mercury Playback Engine Software Only. It's very slow, but reliable.

Other workarounds include:

1. Toggle Track Output (the eyeball) off then on again. (note: this may take a few tries)
2. Check for OS updates or roll back the OS.
3. Rolling back video drivers to previous versions of video drivers
4. Rolling back to an earlier OS
5. Rolling back to an earlier version of Premiere Pro
6. Not video effects intensive sections (those with a lot of video graphics, titles, color correction, etc.) and then use render and replace.
7. Avoid Long GOP codecs, like H.264. Transcode to editing codec or create proxies.
8. Turn off Hardware Decoding in General Preferences.
9. Use a smart rendering workflow where you render the timeline to ProRes as you work - and then export to ProRes using previews.

I will mark this post as the correct answer and will add any other solutions users may have to this thread. Send me a PM if you think your solution should be mentioned.

Thanks,
Kevin

[evan.fotis]

Since switching to software mode seems to be the only solution that works effectively, I have a question. In a project where within PR, the Mercury Engine was disabled, and then the render was sent to queue for AME, would AME use Mercury Engine to render it faster, better even if the Premiere project was set  in software only mode?

[GregTR]

This solution is still a cop-out. I have an i7 2.7GHz with 12GB RAM and the only thing that is "old" is an ATI Radeon 5450. I don't even have an nVidia card, it's an ATI and I experience the same blackouts as everyone else on a Windows 10 computer. It is definitely a GPU accelerator issue but I'm reluctant to invest in a new video card when others reported issues with those as well. Software acceleration is stupid slow, this issue simply needs to be fixed properly, it's been going on for 2 years and you still can't get it right.

[jerodkdunn]

I'm currently running OS X 10.11.1 and CC 2015.1. This issue has gotten worse for me since the 2015.1 update. It used to only happen when I added Lumetri effects, but now its a constant whenever I need to scrub the timeline. This is hardly a hardware issue, as I used Premiere for at least a year before the problem began occurring.

[Keith Moreau]

Hi Jerodkdunn

Have you tried the very latest update? Some improvements as I can see. I also upgraded from 10.9 to 10.10 and did install a new GTX 980ti card and for whatever reason I'm not seeing the 'back playback screen of death' as often although there are still some weird things including kernel panics while running PPro. But not as before...

-Keith

[jerodkdunn]

I'm running the latest software on all fronts. I have OS X 10.11.1 and CC 2015.1. Honestly, never had this problem before the second to last CC update.