Playback start lag

[NadanPines]

Hi,

I'm using Premiere Pro CC 2020 and it suddenly started delaying the playback start.

I press the key, wait for a few good seconds, and only then it starts playing.

Once it starts - it's running fine.

This appeared out of the blue, no updates or new setups, on the same project that worked fine before (a 2K project with MXF files).

I'm using a PC HP machine with 10 cores and 32gb ram.

Tried everything written in the forums including cleaning the cache files.

Nothing works.

Any ideas?

[Ann Bens]

If you have done everything written on the forum there is nothing left to do.....
 

[NadanPines]

I was hoping something new came up.

It seems like this is something lots of people are dealing with, and every time something else solves the issue.

[Michael Grenadier]

wonder if it could be a drive issue.  As a drive gets full, performance drops for a variety of reasons including incipient hardware failure.   Not sure how it works in windows, but on a mac there are utilities that will clean up file allocation table issues etc that might slow down disk access.   

and there are some obvious questions.  Are you running any other programs at the same time?  Have you tried disconnecting the computer from a network or wifi?  You might also try creating a new project and importing the old project...

You might also try a proxy workflow.  It can get tricky figuring it out, but once you do it's rocksolid in my experience.  Of course, that doesn't explain why it's just started happening.  

[Peru Bob]

As was mentioned by mgrenadier 

What are the  hard drives (how many, what kind, what is on each, and how full)?

[NadanPines]

Thanks guys for your replies.

Pr is the only software running, no Wi-fi, the project is on an SSD drive with 30% of it free.

The project has a relatively complex time line, 40 min long with 18 sound channels. It also has a couple of dynamic links to after-effects. Again - non of those gave any trouble just a day ago.

I tried to open a new project on the same SSD with only a few clips from the same database, and it's working fine.

So my guess is that during work my project just crossed some invisible line that turned it from smooth to nightmare.

Any idea what that line might be?

[Michael Grenadier · Accepted solution]

as your project becomes more complex, it can put greater demands on system resources.  You might try rendering out your AE comps in After Effects and placing them above the comps in your premiere timeline and disabling the comps.

What are the source properties of the audio?  non compressed audio is definitely the way to go (aiff or wav) ...and make sure the sampling rate matches that of the sequence.  

And mxf files might be the problem.  Have you tried a proxy workflow?  Takes a little effort to get your head around it, but it's really rocksolid once you do.

And one thing to try is to create a new project and "import" your old project.  Might clean things up a bit...  

[NadanPines]

I took your advice and imported my last sequence to a new project.

It's still lagging a bit before playback, but it's considerably better (about a second lag instead of 3-5 sec).

I'll try cleaning up a bit more and see if it helps.

Thanks!