Kyle, I'll be happy to run another test with footage alone, and report what the result is, but that's not very "real world" for my use of Pr.  Adding those variables are common with the kind of work I do most.  Also, I'm snowed with paying work until Oct. 1 (and will be using 14.9 with trusty old OpenCL), so my time is at a premium now.   But, I will get to it, and report back here when I do.  Thanks for your interest helping figure this out. ... Afficher plus

Just adding a tip or workaround:  You can rearrange the FX stack in Lumetri by just adding another instance of Lumetri and use the component you want, and choose your rendering order in the Effects Tab.  You can rename the Effects layer after the component you used if that will help you stay organized.  You probably already know that Pr renders Effects from top to bottom. ... Afficher plus

Slight detrail here:  Neil, I never got the Colorista IV Extension / panel to work correctly.  Usually, there was a half to full second of lag between when I changed a parameter and I saw the result.  That made it untenable for me.  Did you ever experience that?  And if so, is that fixed in V?   Thanks for that insight on Speedgrade. ... Afficher plus

@R Neil Haugen wrote: It wouldn't take that many changes and I (and many others) would not need to cross-over to Resolve.   😉   Neil   Agreed.  It's encouraging to hear that Adobe is working on better color tools.  I recall reading that the Speedgrade tools were rolled into the Lumetri tools.  I don't think I even ever cracked open SpeedGrade, so I'm not able to comment on that.   I've watched a tutorial on color correcting in Resolve, and it has more controls than Lumetri has, a critical one of which appears to be adjusting the thresholds between the shadow-midtones-highlights for the color wheels.  Having a color contrast slider would be nice.  Red Giant Looks has both of these features in their various components.  Unfortunately, Looks isn't the most elegant tool for doing shot to shot color corrections.  But, it does offer some features that other companies like Adobe would do well to consider adding to or emulating in their flagship NLE. ... Afficher plus

I'll add to the chorus that Resolve does export ProRes from Mac systems.  I have a colleague who does color work for me occasionally, and the XML round-trip workflow is solid. Seems to me that the Premiere devolopers are missing out on a HUGE opportunity by not making Pr as good or better at color than Resolve is, especially since everybody and their pet marmet claims Resolve is superior at color work.  Rather than adding features (like inessential "Essential" panels) for amateurs, perhaps Adobe should put the PRO back in Premiere Pro, and gussy up the high-end features that pros want.  To beat a dead horse, I'm specifically talking about color correction.     Why is Adobe giving customers a reason to jump ship?  Their net worth is $317 BILLION+.  Certainly, they could afford to spend a few bucks to make Pr PRO live up to its name. They should also look at beefing up the audio section to be more like a professional DAW than a tacked on feature set with more inessential "Essential" features like ducking.  That would be far more professionally addressed with side-chaining a compressor than the goofy way it's implemented now. ... Afficher plus

Kyle, here are the results of another test.  Pr 14.9, a four minute sequence of mostly .mxf footage, ProRes 4444+, PNG stills with alpha, and some nested sequences with Warp Stabilizing.  This is typical for the work I do.  I cannot share my media with you due to NDA, but I can test on some other footage. I let the sequence play in its entirety, and quit Premiere between using the two renderers.  So, the number of frames played is the same.   As you can see, OpenCL is exponentially superior to Metal.  TEN TIMES more frames were dropped under Metal than with OpenCL, and the effective frame rate under OpenCL is near real-time, whereas under Metal it’s around half the sequence frame rate (23.976).     Open CL: <123145403363328> <Dump Playback Queue> <0> =============================== Queue Dump (5768) =============================== <123145403363328> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0>  Frames dropped during playback: 192 / 5769, Preroll(ms): 369.23 <123145403363328> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0> Avg Prefetch(ms): 0.0110666, Avg Render(ms): 41.8212, Avg Display FPS: 23.1798 <4439006656> <MZ.MainThreadHangMonitor> <5> Main Thread Blocked for 1.83305 seconds.     Metal: <123145409617920> <Dump Playback Queue> <0> =============================== Queue Dump (5768) =============================== <123145409617920> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0>  Frames dropped during playback: 2694 / 5769, Preroll(ms): 600.985 <123145409617920> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0> Avg Prefetch(ms): 3530.33, Avg Render(ms): 76.5987, Avg Display FPS: 12.9387   ... Afficher plus

Thanks, Kyle.  I'll run more experiments tomorrow.   ... Afficher plus

I did that this afternoon, Kevin.  I don't have faith in User Voice, but we'll see.  Thanks for your input. ... Afficher plus

I know I'm flogging a dead horse here, but here's some hard data on how OpenCL kicks butt on Metal performance.  This is data copied from the Pr Console.  Metal drops frames like a bandit.  OpenCL is far superior: Metal:   <123145370017792> <Dump Playback Queue> <0> =============================== Queue Dump (2936) =============================== <123145370017792> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0>  Frames dropped during playback: 1045 / 2733, Preroll(ms): 2007.75 <123145370017792> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0> Avg Prefetch(ms): 3430.04, Avg Render(ms): 60.636, Avg Display FPS: 14.8163     Open CL:   <123145370017792> <Dump Playback Queue> <0> =============================== Queue Dump (1776) =============================== <123145370017792> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0>  Frames dropped during playback: 88 / 1574, Preroll(ms): 242.077 <123145370017792> <UpdatePlaybackStatusInfo> <0> Avg Prefetch(ms): 2.93106, Avg Render(ms): 34.5634, Avg Display FPS: 22.6672   ... Afficher plus

Thanks for that info, Neil.   I heard from Maxon support a while ago.  Their advice was to run the upgrade installer.  I hadn't realized an update was available to Colorista IV.  The last time I ran Red Giant Application Manager, it told me my plug-ins were up to date.   I did some research and found that Maxon has their own app manager (Maxon App 2.0) that recognized my licenses for my RG products, AND it told me there was an update available to Colorista, now Colorista V, as well as other plug-ins in the RG Magic Bullet suite.   So, I updated Colorista to V, and that solves the dropped frame issue in Pr 15.  Progress!  Maybe!  Of a kind!   Since Maxon isn't selling individual plug-ins, and has moved to subscription mostly, the only way I can upgrade on their site is to pay the ransom for a subscription to the whole Magic Bullet Suite that hosts Colorista V.  They have fine print about upgrading permanent licenses, and tells you to contact Sales.  I've done that and am waiting to hear what they have to offer.   In the meantime, I reverted my plug-ins back to Colorista IV so that I can keep making money with Pr 14.9.   Then, I noticed a funny thing.  After launching Pr 15 again, I got better response with Colorista IV than I was before!  I'm seeing close to real-time playback with Colorista IV. I noticed something else, too.  I ran an app, XRG, that graphs system info, like CPU and GPU utilization.  Under Metal and with FX disabled, Pr 15 was using 12% of the GPU.  Under Software Only, it was 3%.   With FX enabled, the GPU uses 50% of the GPU under Metal, and about the same under Software Only.   Seems the GPU is being under-utilized in Pr 15 under Metal, and the CPUs are doing most of the rendering. So, I'm going to call this a mixed answer to my original post.  Colorista V solves the playback issue in Pr 15, but there seem to be NO merits to using Metal, which still makes Pr 15 a giant step backwards.  I suppose Adobe is going to blame that on Apple.    BONUS TIP:  If you want to compare your performance of Metal to Software, open the Console with Cmd-F12.  Hit the play button.  Let it play for a while, then stop.  The Console will tell you how many frames were dropped, and what your effective frame rate was.    I was getting 22-ish FPS under Software, and 12 FPS under Metal.  Adobe has work to do.  Or, keep blaming Apple.  Whatever. ... Afficher plus

Neil, thanks for the info on Maxon support.  I don't have work for the next coupld of days, so this might be a good time to gamble on reinstalling RGAM, or whatever it's called now.  I still haven't heard back from RG with an answer to my question about compatibility with Pr 15.x.   I ran another test with 15.x, and started a new project, imported .mxf footage.  It played OK, but again, adding Colorista IV to a clip ended any kind of real-time playback.  I opened an old project and removed all effects on a sequence.  Playback was restored to real time, but again, as soon as I applied Colorista IV, massive frame dropping.   Sorry for tardy replies.  Notifications still aren't working on this forum.  They do work on User Voice, though. ... Afficher plus

I had some time to do more experimenting.  I trashed my 15.x prefs, reset the plug-in cache, opened a 14.9 project, deleted all the third party effects from my Sequence, and saw SOME improvement in playback.  It's still periodically dropping frames.    So, I applied Colorista IV to some clips, and to my surprise, it played back SOME of the clip in real-time, but eventually started dropping frames.     I have iStat Menus installed, and can see how my CPU (24 cores) and GPU are being utilized.  On starting playback, I occassionally see ALL my CPU cores being pegged for a few seconds, then slowly reducing to just a few cores working moderately, which is something I hardly ever see in any app.  I see my GPU meter going to about 60%, then slowly reducing.  This is completely different from what I see in Pr 14.9.   I wrote to RedGiant about this, Kevin, and I don't expect a reply for days.  Their support is usually marginal at best, and non-existent on weekends.     ... Afficher plus

@R Neil Haugen wrote:   And also, the engineering staff pays close attention to their Public Beta forum.   I get the feeling that most new releases are Beta, like, "Hey, let's put this out and see what happens."  I wonder what systems the engineers use to test new builds.     Thank goodness different versions can coexist on the same computer.  With Avid years ago, if you upgraded, you were committed, and retrograding was a nightmare unless you cloned your boot drive first.  Adobe really needs to add a Save As Previous Version in Pr as they have in Ae.  I'm relying on third party utilities to retrograde projects.  So far, so good.   I took your advice and reported this on UserVoice.   Thank you. ... Afficher plus

Thank you, Neil.  I appreciate your and Kevin's insight.  I get that Adobe is at Apple's mercy on OpenCL.  I'm more than a little bugged that Adobe removed a well-functioning feature from Pr, replaced it with inferior performance, and calls it "an upgrade."     I'd gladly do without all the non-essential "Essential" panels for better performance and stability.  I doubt OpenCL support was such a millstone that it made any sense to ditch it for silly features like "reframing" or "improvements" to a titling system that's still clunky and inconsistent with how Ae handles text.  "If it's not broke, don't fix it." I'll take your and Kevin's advice and head over to User Voice, although that seems tilting at windmills, too.  There are dozens of complaints there about the crappy Track Matte effect, Mercury issues, and speed-ramping nested Sequences bug that have been ongoing complaints for YEARS without any changes or fixes.  These are features full-time pros want, but no, let's work on new toys for YouTube and TikTok producers.   There are three features in 15 that I'd really like to be using, but cant:  faster Warp Stabilizing, faster exporting of H264, and improved captioning.  Currently, I'm using 15 for captioning only, as 15 is stable enough when I import an exported movie from 14.9.  The problems start if I open a 14.9 project.  That's a no-go.  SRT export was broken up to 15.4, but there's a workaround that gets the job done. ... Afficher plus

Kevin, and anybody else who's interested:  The performance under Metal in Pr 2020 / 14.9 is almost as snappy as with OpenCL - only a few frames every few seconds are dropped with Colorista applied.  That's the third party effect I use most.  Second most used is Samurai.  With OpenCL, playback is real-time, no dropped frames and no degrading of playback quality.   The difference between 14.9 and 15.4.1 with Metal is night and day.  Add one instance of Colorista in 15.4.1, and in some cases there's no playback of video at all.  In others, there's about four frames per second.  No real time whatsoever with any Red Giant, Boris, Digital Anarchy, or other third party effect.  And, forget about scrubbing the CTI in the timeline.   Pointing the finger at third parties isn't helpful.  Their effects work fine (for the most part) on Metal in 2020 / 14, and therefore I would expect them to point the finger back at Adobe, leaving us hapless customers as collateral damage in Vendor Wars.   As far as Apple discontinuing OpenCL, they are still selling hardware that supports it.  Their jillion dollar MacPros made for PROS are sold with cards with OpenCL supported GPUs.  Many of us PROS are still using their high-end machines.  I got ten years of service from the previous Mac tower, and I expect to be using the new one until 2029 likewise.  Adobe seems to be focusing their development of Pr on amateurs.  Maybe consider dropping "Pro" from the name of the Premiere Pro, if that's the case.  It's not that Adobe can't support OpenCL for while longer.  They've just chosen not to. ... Afficher plus

Deleted by original poster ... Afficher plus

Update:  I just opened two older projects in which source footage and Sequence are 29.97, and getting better real-time performance.  One had ProRes sources, and another had .mxf.   I had tried several other projects with 23.976 sources (.mxf) and sequences, and got many many dropped frames on all of them. ... Afficher plus

Welcome to the WORST plug-in authorization scheme in the known cosmos:  Red Giant Application Manager.  It unauthorizes my plug-ins at the most inconvenient times - twice on a Friday afternoon.  And, I was lucky to get a reply to a support ticket in less than five business days.  They blamed it on Covid.  I think they just don't care. Since then, I clone my boot drive before DOING ANYTHING with RGAM, and if things don't go right, I revert my disk to the previous state before foolishly trusting Red Giant again, so that I can resume getting paying work delivered. I prefer iLok to their egregiously unreliable method.  That said, I don't think iLok will work with any subscription scheme like Universe.  Those must touch base via the internet.  My licenses with RG are all permanent (supposedly). ... Afficher plus

If you want to use video as a track matte, one thing you can do is use the Secondary color corrector in Lumetri, enable the Show Mask button, and do your voodoo on the Key controls to create a luma matte.  You can then use that layer (which you may have to nest if you do any transforms) as the Luma Track Matte layer for another layer to be matted.   You can also use the Extract effect, which may be simpler, but with less control.  Or Threshold, with even less control than with Extract. ... Afficher plus

@Alessandro5FB0 wrote: Hi everyone, is it possible to make a simple matte, luma or alpha, without track? is there only track matte? it seems to me very limiting.   You're right.  The Pr Track Matte effect is very limiting.  It's one of my perpetual complaints.  If only the developers of Pr could duplicate Ae's implementation of mattes, it would be a wonderful thing.  Or, do what FCP has been doing for years (decades?), which is incorporating them into the Transfer Modes.  I guess it's either too hard for them, or there isn't as much demand for advanced professional track matting as there is for dumbing down Pr as much as possible for Tik Tok creators. Ann Bens provided the only way I know to prevent the matte being transformed with the layer being matted.     It's possible to make traveling mattes in Nests, but separating them from the host timeline presents challenges with animating and keyframing.  It's not impossible.  It just requires some back and forth between nests and timeline in many cases.  Most users advise using Ae for more complicated track mattes. ... Afficher plus

There was a time that I had to open my Premiere exported SRTs in Aegisub and then export them as an SRT in order for them to work properly on Vimeo.  You could give that a try.  Aegisub is freeware.   That issue no longer persists for me in Pr 2020, 14.9.  ... Afficher plus

Kevin, I didn't/don't expect you to be critical of your employer.  Some companies will admit mistakes and shortcomings, and that's a job for Marketing and PR when the situation warrants.   You may not recall this conversation, but it was you who told me that I'd have to buy a new computer to keep up with advances in Pr's technology.  I spent $14,000 on a new MacPro just 20 months ago, and now Adobe and Apple are pulling the rug, unless I'm perfectly OK with being stuck on Pr 2020.  For the most part, I am.  I'm getting work done, and making money.  But, I'm paying rent for new software builds I can't use, except for certain functions.*   * I do closed-captions for one client, and finding the new captions feature in 2021 better, even though exporting an SRT from the Captions Tab is still broken, and I have to export a movie from 2020 in order for 2021 not to get dozens of Event Tab errors due to my .mxf source footage.   I won't be surprised when Adobe drops support for Intel chips on OSX. BTW,  I'm still not getting notification emails from this forum, and have learned that my "post flooding" error was a Firefox issue.  I'm having better luck with Safari. ... Afficher plus

Thank you, Kevin.  Please allow me to play Devil's Advocate.  Is the poor performance in Premiere under Metal Apple's fault?  Or, is there some shortcoming in the way Adobe is implementing it?  I really don't expect you to implicate your employer here.  It does appear that Apple is deep sixing OpenCL in Monterey and M1, but I've read it's still supported in Big Sur, which is still the current version of the Apple OS (until Monterey is officially released).  So, why would Adobe ditch it while it's still supported, I'm wondering aloud in print. ... Afficher plus

Kevin, my computer is only about 20 months old.  Here are my specs: MacPro7,1 - 2.7 GHz 24-Core Intel Xeon W - 256G RAM - AMD Radeon Pro Vega II 32 GB ATTO R680 PCIe SAS SCSI RAID6 (8 drives) OSX 10.15.7 Premiere 14.9 most of the time most used source codecs: .mxf, .mov, .mp4 most used Sequence settings: HD 23.976 stereo   PS.  Sorry for my slow replies.  I have "Email me when someone replies" enabled, but it's not working.  Plus, I also get that extremely frustrating and positively erroneous "post flooding" error a lot. ... Afficher plus

Richard, sorry for my way tardy reply.  This forum has stopped sending me notifications to the posts on which I clicked the Send Notifications button.  I've been experiencing several issues with the forum that didn't exist before.  Progress, right?   I use that note symbol on my captions, and it works with any of these in the image I attached.  See that I searched the window for "note," and those symbols show up in the search results. ... Afficher plus

I was able to post a reply with a different browser.  Refreshing didn't work.  Firefox OSX doesn't work.  Safari does. ... Afficher plus