It's good to hear that you're keeping your laptop from going to e-waste!  So, the MacBook Pros have a neat little trick to extend battery life: Automatic Graphics Card Switching. It sounds like Premiere Pro CC 2017 is running on the integrated GPU rather than the discrete graphics card.  If you're running a recent version of macOS, you should be able to disable "Automatic graphics switching" in the Energy Saver System Preferences.  If you're running an older version of the OS, there's a 3rd party application called gfxCardStatus that allows you to monitor which graphics card is in use as well as manually switch between Integrated Only (what you don't want) or Discrete Only (what you do want). Hopefully, that's the issue and you can get at least 18 months more use out of your 2011 MacBook Pro. -Warren ... View more

Let's see... If you import the .prproj, any selected Sequences import as source footage.  So, you're getting Sub-Clips inside of a Sequence, but not the Sub-Clips themselves.  This will behave just like a Subsequence would behave if you stayed in Premiere. Using "Replace with After Effects Composition" should get you closer to what you're looking for.  If not already in a Sequence, place all of the Sub-Clips in a Sequence.  Select all of them, right-click (or control click if you happen to be on Mac without the secondary mouse click enabled), and choose Replace with After Effects Composition. If you need to see the Sub-Clips as individual clips at the project level in AE, you'll need to batch convert them.  You'll only get the corresponding Sub-Clip Media Start and Media End points as source footage inside of a Comp in AE. For what it's worth, you can also copy and paste from the PR Sequence to the AE Comp. -Warren ... View more

You're not running software like Deep Freeze by any chance? ... View more

Shadow: Your setup sounds pretty good. Maybe double-check that the AE Disk Cache is set to the C drive (Preferences > Media & Disk Cache).  You want a fast hard drive or SSD that's separate from your footage.  With your setup, C should be good. If I were to shuffle anything around, I'd put still images on the faster SSD as well, especially if you're using Image Sequences. You might be able to gain a little more performance by expanding Current Render in the AE Render Queue (unfortunately, Media Encoder doesn't have this).  If you notice a particular stage of the render process slowing things down, you can look into what you might do to speed that up.  Also, check what percentage of RAM is being used (this shows across the bottom of the Render Queue panel.  If that's close to 100% based on how you're using AE, consider more RAM. -Warren ... View more

What video file format are you currently exporting to?  And, at what settings? ... View more

Hi Shadow: My questions was less about my knowing what you're asking After Effects and Media Encoder to do, but more about if you know what you're asking it to do.  Part of building that awareness is benchmarking your system based on how you use it. High resolution source footage, like 8K images, should take longer than 4K or 2K images for AE or Media Encoder to process. Part of the reason H264 takes so long to encode is that the file size is really small with very good picture quality and it compresses between the frames as well as within the frame. While export format will affect system performance, one usually picks the export format based on what's required for delivery.  If you're publishing to social media, H264 is the way to go right now.  If you were generating an edited master for broadcast TV, you'd export a file at broadcast settings (probably an MOV, MXF or MPEG).  If you were generating a file for DVD-Video authoring, you'd export a NTSC MPEG2 stream or PAL MPEG2 stream.   If you were generating Windows Media files, you'd export to WMV.  If you were a video DJ, you might encode to the HAP codec.  I'm pretty sure you're getting the idea. There are some good articles on optimizing your AE system.  Have you had a chance to read any of them? -Warren ... View more

Me, too!  At home.  If tomorrow I had to set up a department with 10 or more designers managing numerous projects that use different fonts sets, I'd switch to Universal Type Client (budget permitting, of course). -Warren ... View more

Have you considered adding another workstation? ... View more

Sounds like your skill set in AE has improved to the point that you need a faster computer.  Congratulations! (I mean that in all seriousness.) Have you learned how to render Comp Proxies?  Once you get the results that you're looking for with Timeworn, you can pre-render that footage as a Comp Proxy, saving time as you work on other components of your work in AE. -Warren ... View more

Hi Steven: You can reinstall AME CC2015 or AME CC2014 and run it concurrently with AME CC2017.  It's a little tricky to find in Creative Cloud Desktop, but you should see "Previous Versions" and be able to find your way from there.  I'm not sure how or why, but yes, both the Match Source - High bitrate" and "Match Source - Medium bitrate" presets in AME CC2017 yield smaller files and lower bit rates even though the setting summaries match.  With 1080p source to 1080p output, I've found the the CC2017 encodes Medium bitrate encodes to be about 3/4 rather than half (but, I haven't tried converting to 720p via a modified version of the preset). I'm curious, what is it about your workflow that requires matching bit rates? -Warren ... View more

Hi shadow7eddy: How render heavy is the Comp that's being sent to Media Encoder?  For example, is it a 1920x1080 Comp with just a few layers that have keyframes for Transform properties only or is it a 3840x2160 Comp with Roto Brush & Refine Edge applied, or a complex Particle Playground applied, or some heavy color correction applied, or with a 3rd party plug-in like Neat Video applied, or are lots of 3D layers enabled with ray-tracing?  You know, anything that slows render times down? -Warren ... View more

Plan C: Render what Vegas supports for compositing: a "mask" movie for the Parent Compositing Track and a "show through" movie for the Child Compositing Track.  As I'm sure you're aware, this is a RGB only movie and a Alpha only movie in AE speak. (I know you're looking to have one file for picture, sound and alpha; but requires QuickTime.) It's covered on page 384 of the Vegas user manual. Here's a link to the full Vegas user manual if you or your Vegas editor need it: http://dspcdn.sonycreativesoftware.com/manuals/vegaspro13.0_manual_enu.pdf ... View more

Mariano, you are correct.  The Animation CODEC is 2:1 compression. ... View more

Hi Rory: Here are the troubleshooting steps that I would take: Frame Size: Try exporting at 1920x1080 instead of 1920x816. Fonts: Take a look at font(s) that you're using for a corrupt font.  (Although, a corrupt font would likely show signs of trouble before you export.) Format: Try is to export to a format that does not compress between the frames (like QuickTime using the Cineform CODEC).  If that exports from start to finish, then use the resulting .mov file as the source in Media Encoder to create your H.265 encode. Older version of Premiere Pro: If you're under a tight deadline, you could re-install a prior version of Premiere Pro to create just the end credit roll as a stand alone video file that you can then import into your current project. -Warren ... View more

Glad to see something like this!  I've really been missing doing this with Final Cut Pro classic's Media Manager for awhile now. ... View more

I think that you may have answered your own question. Where does the MP4 file originate from? ... View more

You'll want to contact Adobe support for this.  Usually the CODEC installs after a short wait and is available immediately. -Warren ... View more

There are a lot of options, but... If you're on a Windows machine, Cineform set to 4 should give you pretty good results. If you're on a Mac, Apple ProRes 422 (LT). ... View more

Can you vendor deliver an SRT file?  That's what I've always used. If not, you can probably reformat the XML to SRT.  (You'd want to download a sample SRT file and conform your XML to match.) ... View more

Sounds like you have source footage in your Sequence that does not hold up to H264 encoding. Some compression types are good for editing (like Apple ProRes 422, Cineform, Avid DNxHD) and some are not.  H264 files are very much like JPEG still images.  There's compression loss in the file to begin with.  If the amount of compression is very low, the image quality can be very good; however, the compression is still there.  If a lot of compression is applied, the image quality will be fairly low.  Creating second, third and fourth generation files will look progressively worse. It sounds like you care about image quality (as we all should).  You want to switch to a CODEC where the 2nd generation file is visually indistinguishable form the original and has a high PSNR (peak signal noise ratio). -Warren ... View more

Telestream Switch is a pretty good replacement for QuickTime Player. Media player with inspection and correction - Request Free Trial - Telestream Switch If the free player doesn't meet your needs, there's a pro version. It's available for both Mac and Windows and supports many of the CODECs previously supported by QuickTime without QuickTime being installed. ... View more

When Adobe first launched Creative Cloud, they offered a discount on the subscription so that it came to $29.99 a month for your 1st year if you owned a prior version of the software.  While that ended a long time ago, you could call Adobe and ask if they'll still extend that pricing to you at (855) 375-7186. Premiere Pro is available by itself for $19.99. If you're a student, there's a very good discount (a community college class counts). -Warren ... View more

josephc74343123  wrote I am still not working with sequences,  My needs are incredibly modest, and up until the last update they were met.              Hi Joseph: Which application did you think you were updating?  Premiere Pro has always, in every version to date, set the frame size (a.k.a. video dimensions) at the Sequence level and not at the Project level.  Furthermore, without a Sequence you do not have a Timeline. josephc74343123  wrote Why would I continue to pay *substantially* more for a product that only results in more headaches and not an improved workflow or result? No one would expect you to.  While I can't speak for everyone who contributes to the Premiere Pro forums, I think it's safe to say that everyone that contributes to it would want you to be using the software that best suits your needs. -Warren ... View more

The HP z840 supports four 128GB RAM chips.  It costs a small fortune, but one could have said workstation with 512GB of RAM. ... View more

What format is the audio file in currently?  It's probably MP3 or AAC.  Try converting it to WAV or AIF (16 bit, Stereo, 48kHz) in QuickTime Player classic or Adobe Audition.  Then check the resulting file.  If it holds up to that conversion, the resulting AIF or WAV should work as expected in PR. -Warren ... View more

It depends on what you transcode to and at what settings. First generation Apple ProRes 422 will perfectly preserve the quality (be it good or bad) of the original file.  That is, the resulting file will be no better nor worse. If you're producing video for broadcast, you'll want to go with Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) or Apple ProRes 422.  If you're making videos for social media, you'll want to consider going with Apple ProRes 422 (LT) to save on storage space requirements. An example of transcoding that will cause a loss in quality would be transcoding to H264 at a low bit rate.  The compression generation loss would be immediately apparent in the resulting file. Anyone interested in Apple ProRes and quality preservation should read the following white paper: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf -Warren ... View more