Choppy video playback in Premiere Pro
 

Hello. I've been using Premiere Pro since version 1.0 and have NEVER been able to get my video to playback smoothly. Everytime I upgrade (version 2.0 --> CS3, etc)... I still get choppy video playback in my monitor.

It seems to happen most of the time, but not always. I keep thinking it's my computer but I've had two completely different computers that this has happened on. I update my video card drivers all the time and I have plenty of RAM.

Both computers have had ATI cards in them, my first one was an ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV (back when I was running version 1.5) but since Premiere Pro 2.0 (and now CS3) I still have issues with an ATI x1800 and 2 gigs of dual-channel OCZ RAM.

Should I buy more RAM? Is it a glitch Adobe has with ATI cards? Vegas seems to work great for me, no glitches there...but I'd really like to keep using Adobe.

I have an Athlon 3800x2, 2 gigs of RAM, and two large SATA hard drives. Really not sure what the problem can be. This happens with both DV and HDV.

Any ideas?

The fact that even DV is choppy makes this a tough one. I've installed PPro2 on a lot of computers, an even the crappy ones do DV smooth as butter. Only my new quad-core does HDV smoothly, so I can understand why your old one was not good enough for that. But even DV? Really?

I would try making a small partition on your disk you can dual-boot to (use Partition Magic to do this). On this blank partition install a fresh copy of WinXP SP2, PPro2, and your video drivers. NOTHING ELSE! No other programs at all. Then try some playback. If the issue is fixed, start adding your normal programs back on until it breaks. Then you know at least *what* is causing the problem.

You don't need any more RAM. 2GB is plenty, trust me.

Are the drives fully de-fragged and optimised?
You say you using more then one HDD. Have you set up scratch disks and video files on a seperate HDD with just windows and PPro one the other?

You guys are right. I should definetely do more troubleshooting.

The problem is that it's intermittent. I have reformatted dozens of times (I do it quite frequently).

However it's not 100% of the time that I'll experience these weird playback glitches. But when they do occur, it's frequent. I'll re-install my video card drivers and temporarily it may fix it...but then eventually it seems to happen again. It's weird. I can't quite put my finger on it.

But I'll reformat and try CS3 and do it in stages and see when/if something brakes.

The two SATA drives I have are pretty new, but I guess de-fragging would be a good idea nonetheless. Aside from my main 2 large SATA drives. I have 3 more IDE in my computer and 3 in external enclosures, which I never edit to since I assume it would be too slow.

Thanks for the suggestions though, I'll definitely give them a try.

I would recommend using most of your drives. Go into your preferences in PPro and select different drives for scrach disks/storage as well as having Windows on its own drive and if possible PPro on a different drive the Windows. Thats four seperate drives(not partitions) if possible.
And ya defrag all the time. That is the single greatest slowdown of PC's. Especially the windows drive.

For some reason I'm apprehensive about putting Windows and Premiere Pro on different drives. I'd prefer to put those on the same drive, in the typical directory structure \Program Files\ etc. etc.

But I'll definitely start using the scratch disks more. Currently I'm using only 1 scratch disk. I guess it's best to keep my captured files on my 2nd SATA drive, and maybe my video and audio previews on one of my internal IDE drives. And should I put Media Cache on another internal IDE drives or just stick it on the same drive as my audio/video previews?

How do you guys decide which should be SATA and which should be IDE. Any difference?

It doesn't matter what you put on what really (SATA/ATA). I would just use you slowest drive for video storage that you don't need often.
You don't need to put PPRo on a seperate drive, but it is preferable, and there is no reason to be apprehensive about it. The OS doesn't care where you want to put your programs.

Craig,

I have XP and PP2.0 on IDE drive and use my SATA drive to store footage..Dual core processor, 2 gigs ram an 256mb video card..Works spot on.

This is a common issue with Premiere 6.5 which is what I currently use and is easily fixed with the instructions below. I'm not sure if it's the same with PPro but check your project settings, specifically playback settings under the general tab.

With 6.5, if the check boxes for

Playback on DV Camcorder/VCR
Playback on Desktop
Render Scrub Output to DV Camcorder/VCR

are all checked, then you will experience choppy playback. Try leaving the Playback on Desktop checked and unchecking the first and third options and the choppiness should go away. It is okay to leave Play Audio while Scrubbing at the bottom checked.