Slow and noisy 480p rendering on MacBook M4 Max with Premier Pro

[Exciting_force5CAD]

Hello...

I have big problem with Premier Pro in my 3 days new MacBook M4 Max - 36GB RAM, 2TB SSD, 14-CPU, 32-GPU and 16-NE. 

I'm professional video editor, so I bought this machine for my everyday workflow. When I tested my MacBook today in Premier Pro for the first time I was really shocked... 3 days ago I created video only with footage from camera for review, on my computer at home with Windows. Today I want to render it, only for a review in 480p on hardware encoding in Premier Pro and the render really takes like 3-4 hours to render. It is like only 1 hour and 10 minutes long video only with footage and few texts. Yes... and I'm not even talking about the noisy fans. It is like Airbus on airport really... Why? It is only very easy render in 480p, not 8K footage. The MacBook also gets very very hot.

Before I bought this Mac, I read lot of several reviews about how it was the best machine for work, for video editors and like it was very quiet and now, I see the opposite... In Premier Pro Mac is really smoothly, but the rendering is not normal I think.

I normally edit in Premier Pro on my PC too. At home I created a project with 4K footage from DJI Osmo cam. Then I had go away, so I shared the Premier project to google drive on, then I downloaded on Mac with the footage. I opened it and make a few more texts layer to project, I waited for the cache audio files to download and export it for review. I only exported in 480p to make it fast and It took like 3-4 hours..

Thank you for your helps and tips.

[Averdahl]

What are you exact export settings?

[Exciting_force5CAD]

480p
HW encoding
H 264

Render at maximum depth

Use maximum render quality

[Averdahl]

For only a review version, skip Render at maximum depth and Use maximum render quality since both can add loooong time to renders.

Any effects used? All drone footage as source footage and if yes, what resolution?

[Ishan Y]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your poor experience. Could you share some details on the source files (format, codec, frame rate)? You mentioned in your post that you're working with 4K source files. Is your Sequence resolution also in 4K? Please also mention any effects you've used in your project and share your current Premiere Pro version.

Thanks,

Ishan

Please tag me (@) in your replies so that it notifies me and helps me respond promptly.

[Exciting_force5CAD]

480p
HW encoding
H 264

Render at maximum depth

Use maximum render quality


My sequence is in 4K, and i don't use any effects, only text layer. I tested like 4 versions of Premier, but it is the same

[Ishan Y]

Adding to Averdahl's recommendations, please reduce your sequence resolution if you don't plan on exporting your project in 4K.

Also, have you tried exporting the same project on your Windows system? If so, is there a big difference in the export time? 

[Averdahl]

IMHO, i would not recomend to change the resolution on the timeline if he edit in timeline with 4K footage source footage. It seems like he is editing 4K footage and Premiere Pro shall output 480p from a 4K timeline without problems.

...please reduce your sequence resolution if you don't plan on exporting your project in 4K.

By @Ishan Y

[Ishan Y]

Thanks for the correction. Reducing the sequence resolution shouldn't affect export performance in this case. 

[Ishan Y]

To add to my last comment, it's recommended that the sequence resolution be set to the intended delivery size. That preserves the processing time for all the effects, graphics, and color adjustments added to the Sequence. 

[Averdahl]

OT:
I have not seen those recommenadtions, but they come with several disavantages. Let´s say you edit 4K video and need to output for delivery 4K, 1080p, 720p it would be a workflow disaster to change the sequence settings from 4K to 1080p, from 1080p to 720p for outputting three files. And then back again. Some effects/position/scale etc can easy be off making QC a nightmare. I will always recommend a 4K sequence if the source footage is 4K. Edit in one resolution, output to many in a convinient and efficient way. But yes, more room for positioning/zooming in 4K footage if the intended output is 1080p is possible when editing 4K footage in a 1080p timeline. So there are always exceptions! 🙂

To add to my last comment, it's recommended that the sequence resolution be set to the intended delivery size. That preserves the processing time for all the effects, graphics, and color adjustments added to the Sequence. 

By @Ishan Y