Stability Rating

[ColbyFulton]

I'd like to start a stability rating vote on every Adobe product. I feel like Premiere in particular is very unstable right now. It feels like it needs a major update to fix the numerous problems I encounter every day. Crashes, slow project loading, footage dropping out, clips going red mysteriously, sound glitches, sound dropping on clips, having to quit and reopen and restart my computer to get it fuctional again.

I'd rank it about 60% right now.

I'm on MacBook Pro M3 Max, OS 15.3, 96GB RAM.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hello @ColbyFulton,

Thanks for the post. I appreciate you sharing your test results. What kind of footage are you testing? Is it on an external drive? If so, how is it connected. I ask because I don't see such problems. Performance is largely dependent on the footage. These days, camera, mobile device, and drone manufacturers release file types that are more and more compressed, like 10-bit 4:2:2 HEVC, for example. Many computers can't even play back those files. So, perhaps I can help you with better performance. A quick troubleshooting step is to press Shift at launch. Delete the media cache. You might also try the new Beta which has performance improvements in the Timeline. Let us know how any further testing turns out.

Thanks,
Kevin

[ColbyFulton]

I've been using Premiere for decades. I've seen a variety of performance quality over the years. I know Apple is responsible for the hardware and system software you have to work with, but Premiere at the moment is a mess. I'm editing DJI drone footage in ProRes and 4K Canon R7 footage in MPEG-4. Some stock footage from Adobe. All on an external 2TB SSD connected directly using a USB-C cord. I'm open to the idea that the problem is this new M3 Max chip, as my Mac Studio M1 Ultra seemed to run Premiere a lot more reliably.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi @ColbyFulton,

Thanks for the reply. I hope a product team will help shortly. Is your Canon footage 4:2:2 10-bit? My hunch is that your performance issue might improve if you transcode that footage. Can you try a test? The new UI might be causing issues for you, as well. Are you using dual monitors? I hope we can help you find a solution for better performance. Sorry for the hassle.

Thanks,
Kevin

[ColbyFulton]

It is 10bit! You know what you're talking about. I appreciate your help. You think transcoding everything into ProRes 422HQ would help Premiere work better? 

[Kevin-Monahan]

I suspect it will. Long GOP formats take a lot of horsepower compared to an editing codec like any flavor of ProRes. I've always considered Long GOP originals a pain to work with. I like my  editing sessions to go smoothly without hiccups, stutters, or sluggish playback. I want that "buttery smooth" playback and will always create proxies or transcode.

As an editor, I prefer to get all camera originals to ProRes and edit and export with them. With ProRes files and render files that match those ProRes files can be used to create a ProRes master in a process called "smart rendering." Exporting via that method is very, very fast and reliable. You never have export problems with that workflow. It does require a lot of drive space, but you can recover that space when deleting the files after the master is delivered.

I hope the advice helps. Try a test and let me know if that smooths out your workflow.

Cheers,

Kevin