Stuttering playback video and audio

[ebenabbaan]

Brand new M4 Macbook Pro, fully spec'd out (128GB RAM), even playing proxies I have stuttering in both audio and video. Newest version of Premiere (25.1). This will be footage from a Osmo Pocket 3, Canon c300 mk3, my Panasonic S1H... it's all like this.

I've tried going to Preference/Audio Hardware, and setting the default input to 'No Input' and this doesn't help.

You can see what's happening here:

https://vimeo.com/1069712653/a95354d9d4?share=copy

[Sumeet Kumar Choubey]

Hi ebenabbaan,

We're sorry to hear about this. Are you experiencing these jitters only during the timeline playback, or does it also appear in the export?

Thanks,

Sumeet

[ebenabbaan]

No it is just when I'm in Premiere. And it's killing me! I have to play edits back multiple times as I evaluate timing. It seems to get worse over time.

[Carlos Ziade]

what are your video preview settings in sequence settings?

[Peru Bob]

Try Preferences > Audio Hardware and set Input to None.

[ebenabbaan]

As I mentioned I already tried Preferences > Audio Hardware and set Input to None. I was really hoping that would worked as it did for so many other people!

And my ProRes proxies, while the do increase JKL responsiveness going forwards and backwards in the timeline, still stutter just as badly when simply playing a sequence (even at 1/4th and 1/8th quality).

I'm attaching a screenshot of my sequence settings.

[Carlos Ziade]

what proxy format are you using? try Prores

[ebenabbaan]

The proxies are ProRes.

[Sumeet Kumar Choubey]

Thanks for the details! Are the media files saved internally, or are they saved on an external or network drive?

-Sumeet

[ebenabbaan]

On an external SSD.

[Peru Bob]

How is the SSD connected?

[ebenabbaan]

Firewire. And its a good cable; copy speeds are fast like lightning. Im truly perplexed

[mark_7127]

Firewire?

Have you run an actual speedtest on the drive? (AJA System Test for example)

You have an adjustment layer above all your shots and not sure if you have any effects on the audio tracks... your timeline shows yellow at the top, what happens if you render the effects?

How do shots play in your source monitor?

You are running two separate browser applications, media encoder and mail while you are playing back.

[ebenabbaan]

Just ran the AJA System test; the internal HD is much faster than my external SSD. However, copying media to my internal HD, disconnecting the externals, and relinking media to the local copy did not improve anything.

Match framing media to the source monitor does play better, which you might expect if there are no Lumetri color effects/LUTs applied. But when I create a new sequence from a clip, and do not apply any effects/LUTs/filters and it's just the original Log footage in the timeline, it's still Yellow and plays back with stutter.

[ebenabbaan]

I meant Thunderbolt! 😂

Still having this issue and it's killing me. Editing is unbearable.

[Peru Bob]

@ebenabbaan 

Sorry, I missed that.

[ebenabbaan]

All good! Didn't mean to sound testy!

[Richard van den Boogaard]

That is a big bummer, especially with the latest and greatest Macbook alive...

Just to rule things out:

1. Can you try to create a new project and import the old one into the new? Does this help?

2. Can you try to copy the clips used in the sequence to your local drive, disconnect the SSD, have PPro relink the footage and see how performance is then?

3. Can you try to reset preferences?

Please let us know if any of these methods provide some relief.

[ebenabbaan]

None of these do! Just replied above...

[ebenabbaan]

What's odd is that even my ProRes proxies stutter on playback in the Timeline (though not so much in the Source Monitor). Maybe it's something with my Timeline settings? Except the sequences I create are based on the clips I have... so confused.

[mark_7127]

It is weird that your proxies would stutter in the source monitor. Trying to think of things I would try...

(turn on "Show Dropped Frames Indicator" in both source and Program viewer -- just to double check playback .)

Does this happen if PP is the only application running?

Maybe uncheck "High Quality Playback" might help.

The PP app is not overlapping off screen or has another window just slightly overlapping the display?

Delete cache files.

Trying using a specific percentage rather than "Fit" for viewer size.

Check Memory settings.

In playback preferences:

Turn off Mecury Transmit if it is on.

Make sure Primary Audio Device is Adobe Desktop Audio (or what you usuallly use)

Timeline Preferences - turn off timeline playback scrolling

Project settings>General check the video rendering and playback

Apple updated new video formats in Software Update recently might check to see if you need to update them.

[ebenabbaan]

I did just update to 25.2, and it's giving me this warning. When I disable all video tracks it STILL stutters with just the audio (no red/yellow/green bar above timeline when I do this).

[ebenabbaan]

I/O buffer already as high as it can go btw, and no specialized audio effects on clips at all.

[mark_7127]

Does your sequence audio sample rate match your footage sample rate? And does the preferences audio hardware sample rate match that?

[ebenabbaan]

Yes. Everything is 48000 Hz.