Visual Analysis should not be an option but an action

[Boyd P]

The new visual analysis tool seems great, haven't had much time to mess around with it but can see the uses.

But it feels really annoying that it is a setting and not an action. If I want to import some clips/assets and not have them be scanned I need to turn off the analysis software wide. If further along in the project I do want some clips imported/analyzed I have to turn it on for everything, needlessly having it scan things I don't need to have scanned.

For now this will result in me turning off the visual analysis and probably not using it at all.

But if I could just select the clips I want analyzed, click and button and have them scanned? That would be great!

[mattchristensen]

@Boyd P Thanks for the feedback. One of the reasons we designed the feature this way is that in most cases you don't know ahead of time what you'll later on want to search. If you go to search, and realize you didn't analyze a clip, now you have to go find that clip and wait for the analysis. Or worse, you forget that you didn't analyze it, then you just don't see the results, and assume you don't have that shot.

All of that said, I hear you that there can be some situations where you really do have a bunch of material you know you'll never want to search, and it's annoying that it still gets analyzed. One option for you is to leave the analysis turned off in Premire Pro, but then use Media Encoder (Beta) to analyze only the clips you want. Media Encoder will do the analysis and save it as small .prmi files next to the media. Then you import those clips into Premiere Pro, and you'll be able to search, but only those clips that came in with analysis.

You can read more about this new workflow here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-media-encoder-beta-discussions/now-in-beta-use-media-encoder-to...

Let us know if you're able to give that a try, and how it works for you.

(Note: you can install Media Encoder (Beta) via the Creative Cloud application, and it will install side-by-side with the 2025 version of Media Encoder. There's no issue with using Media Encoder Beta to analyze, and then importing into regular Premiere Pro 2025)

[Boyd P]

Ah, good to know that there at least is an alternative workflow! The fact that it works in media encoder makes me think, would it be possible to add an action to send the clips from premiere pro into media encoder (somewhat similar to the proxy process?), workflow wise it is just nice to open Premiere Pro and stay there as much as possible, but of course I know my workflow might not be like other people's worklfows.

Will mess around with it in the future

[Ann Bens]

I dont need analyzing footage:

So yes for me it would be an option which would be default off.

[mc_finney]

I like this concept - media analysis as an action. Or i'd at least love the ability to pause the analysis in the progress window as a whole (rather than having to pause on each individual file) and then resume it maybe when i step away to do something else because it definitely slows everything down within premiere. Even though i have the option selected to have the the anaylsis metadata saved as a sidecar, it seems very final (and/or inefficient) to have to uncheck the master setting if i want premiere to pause on media analysis. Like i will inevitably lose the metadata for things that were in progress or corrupt them in some way. 

[Sami Succar]

For now this will result in me turning off the visual analysis and probably not using it at all.

By @Boyd P

Right on point!

As long as it's a global setting, it won't be tested/used enough.

[Boyd P]

2 months later and...

Feature turned off and never used. The time loss from lower performance during analysis (not every work environment has the privilege of the latest and greatest machines) on existing systems was just too much. 

Also of note the amount of people who asked me: "hey my edit is so slow is something wrong with the network/my computer/the software?" and every single time it was because the analysis was running without them knowing about it or how to turn it off (little bit of user error, I admit) but it does make me wondsr how many complaints of bad performance these past months were just people that didn't know the analysis was running...

Yes, media encoder can run it with watch folders, this feels like a more logical default way of working and would be the only way I would recommend peope work with this. Maybe if they have enough time in their day to ingest their footage and drink around 5 cups of coffee while waiting but otherwise....