Get Smoother Playback

[RJ Johnston]

There's a playback option when turned off, helps improve playback performance in the preview monitor.

I couldn't figure out why playback had a stutter or strobe effect even for standard definition video. Then I started experimenting with the playback settings. Turning off the External Device setting in Project Settings gave a noticeable performance boost.

By default, the External Device setting is set to "DV..." on my system. To turn it off, go:

Edit > Project Settings > General > Playback Settings > Realtime Playback > External Device: None

I don't remember this setting giving problems in prior versions, but in version 8, it definitely helps me if I change it to "None."

[Bobby]

Thanks RJ. I definitely have mine to "None" and do recall vaguely something about that in the dim past.

[dberthia]

Any other suggestions? Standard-def playback in my monitor window is unwatchable. Running 32-bit Windows 7 with 4gb of RAM- very frustrating. No problems whatsoever in PrEl7.

[Steve Grisetti]

How fast is your processor, Dave? And does your video need rendering? (Is there a red line above it on your timeline?) If so, press Enter, let the program render the video and see if that improves your performance.

[dberthia]

I've got a 3.20GHz Pentium 4. The only red lines are above my transitions. When I select "Render work area" it works for a few seconds, but the red lines never go away. I have the entire project selected as my work area.

[Steve Grisetti]

This should not be the case! I've got a slower processor than yours and I don't have that problem.

Have you gone to Edit/Preferences and turned off Background Rendering? Are you running any other programs at the same time (including the Organizer)?

I'm assuming when you say "standard video" you mean video from a miniDV camcorder, right?

[dberthia]

Yes, this is standard definition video from a miniDV tape. Background rendering is ON. What would be the rationale for turning it off?

Also, I noticed in my scratch disk settings that I'm pointing to an external USB drive for video previews, audio previews and encoding. Could that be a factor if the drive speed is not as fast as an internal?

[Steve Grisetti]

Having your scratch disks set to a second drive can actually improve your performance, assuming you've got a good fast connection between computer and drive (USB2).

Background rendering is a process that automatically renders your movie as you work on it. The problem is that sometimes, when it starts rendering, it won't let you do anything else. Particularly on a system at the lower end of the hardware requirements, it's a good idea. (I've even seen it give quad core processors a problem.)

You are on Windows XP, right? There has got to be something wrong somewhere. Playback of miniDV footage should be easy, even with version 8 on a Pentium.

[dberthia]

I'm on Windows 7. For some reason, I don't think my previews are being rendered. I deleted all the rendered files through Timeline -> Delete Rendered Files, then I hit Enter to re-render everything. It rendered for only about 30 seconds, then finished. I see many sections of my one hour project that still have red bars, even though I've selected the whole project as my work area. BTW, I now have background rendering OFF.

[dberthia]

I just noticed that I get good playback if I drop the magnification in the playback window. A setting of 50% gives the playback I expect. 75% is not bad, and 100% or more produces choppier and choppier playback.

[Chuck Engels]

How much video RAM do you have on the video card Dave?
Sounds like it can't keep up. Do you have problems playing any videos in Media Player or Quicktime?
What video card do you have?

[Steve Grisetti]

I also wonder about running Windows 7 on a Pentium. Particularly if you've got all of the features (like the Aero interface) enabled. You could well be using most of your system's power just running the operating system!

A simple check is to open the Task Manager (right-click on the Task Bar and select Task Manager) and watch what's going on under the Performance tab as you work. If, when you play the Premiere Elements timeline you're seeing your CPI usage peak or run over 90% (especially if your RAM is also getting some peak usage), you could be just maxed out.

[dberthia]

My video card is a Raedeon Pro 9800 128mb. Again, no problems with PrEl7. Yes, I think CPU usage is the likely culprit. It's pegging at 98-100% during playback. I guess it's back to PrEl or on to another product if v8 is that much of a resource hog.

[RJ Johnston]

Do you have timeline autoscroll set to Smooth Scroll in General Preferences? I noticed on my machine that CPU usage doubles when it is turned on and the timeline is scrolling. Try turning it off or changing it to Page Scroll.

There's also another option in General Preferences that might make a difference: GPU Playback. Try turning that on and off. You need to save your project and restart PRE8 after you change that option.

[dberthia]

I have Page Scroll set already. I just tried turning off GPU Playback, but that didn't seem to have any effect.