Video editing

[Leigh]

Hi all

I’m just starting our with recording my rides, I’ve a GoPro 7 black.

I’ve a trial version for Premier elements 2019 and premier pro. Should I be looking at other options before I commit to buy / learn the software?

I have a 2014 MacBook Pro with ssd, 16g ram although the processor is not dual. I’ve noticed it’s slow when viewing footage if it’s not been rendered. Even slower if just watching straight from finder.

I recall reading it’s best to have the software / data on separate disks, is this correct?

I’m rebuilding my Mac as it’s been a couple of years since is has a full service.

Any tips other than buying a new iMac would be great.

Cheers

 

[HippoDrone]

I think my OS and software are on one SSD, I then put the raw footage on another SSD and store the edited videos on my HDD. I don't have a Mac though.

 

[F4celess]

I suspect the processor is what holds you back. But by dual, do you mean 2 processors or dual core? Because a single core would be very odd on a high end product in 2014. Regardless, Yeah, most of us keeps the software and content on seperate drives. In your case using an external harddrive for the media is probably the best bet as your storage fills up fast with high-quality video footage. If your system lags it's most likely because it's simply not beefy enough. If you are running 4k footage, turn it down to 2k or 1080p if you still struggle. Frankly speaking, you don't need 4k footage to make good vids.

 

[LoneWolfer]

If you have a 2014 Macbook Pro it is defininetly able to handle editing with Premier Pro. And your Mac has Dual Processor Cores on a single Chip.

I work on my Macbook Pro most of the time and it works great. I have iMacs as well, but kind of hate sitting at a desk as thats where I'm stuck all day everyday so I prefer to go to a coffee shop or sit on the couch working on passion projects.

In Premier, if you are having trouble viewing your cut in the Program Monitor, drop your Playback Resolution down to 1/2 or even 1/4, the little drop down menu in the bottom left corner of the Program Monitor. This will make the playback smoother, won't look as crisp but that won't change the native resolution. So when you render it out, it can be rendered still at 4k or whatever you choose to have in the final playback file.

As for where to store everything, I work from my internal hard drive with both the programs and the footage/files I use. I back everything up on an external drive.

 

[Leigh]

Hi all, thanks for the feedback.

Below is a screen shot of my system, looking against the requirements of Premier elements 2019 it seems as though its powerful enough.

Perhaps I was a bit keen when I got the GoPro on Saturday as I did shoot in 4K 60fps.

Im elements I've set the playback quality to lowest, if I go to the project settings the majority of the settings are greyed out.

I've imported 2 videos totalling 12 minutes, I cannot view the video back as it goes very slow after 4 seconds of playback.

I've also added some screen shots from the activity monitor, perhaps the CPU is causing the slow playback?

Is anyone aware of a very basic tutorial on YouTube? I've watched quite a few however none address the challenge I'm facing.

Cheers

 

[LoneWolfer]

Have you tried clearing the cache in the program itself? And do you have a screenshot withou t activity monitor present? So just Elements open?

 

[Leigh]

Have you tried clearing the cache in the program itself? And do you have a screenshot withou t activity monitor present? So just Elements open?

Hi,

This is a brand new install of the software, I rebuilt the Mac earlier today hence this is the 1st project I've created, I did clear the cash but it made no difference, the size limit is set to 5G.

Below is a screen shot with just elements open.

Cheers

 

[LoneWolfer]

Can you Enable/Disable GPU playback in Premiere Elements? Possible under the General preferences.

 

[Leigh]

Hi,

No I cannot see its an option I've also googled it.

It seems most of the options are greyed out, I loaded a new project with no media and the settings we're also greyed out.

Perhaps I should try Premier Pro?

 

[LoneWolfer]

Dang, I sadly don't have any more insight into Premiere Elements. There is another program that I have used, and still use to color correct, called DaVinci Resolve: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/edit

I actually might try and convert over to it myself as I feel Adoba is going in a squirrelly direction as of late and its much better for color correction than Premiere. And its free. Might run better on your machine and gives you more tools to play with.

 

[Leigh]

Dang, I sadly don't have any more insight into Premiere Elements. There is another program that I have used, and still use to color correct, called DaVinci Resolve.

I actually might try and convert over to it myself as I feel Adoba is going in a squirrelly direction as of late and its much better for color correction than Premiere. And its free. Might run better on your machine and gives you more tools to play with.

Hi all,

Thanks for the input, I did some test footage in 1080p 60fps and editing works well I Elements. For now I'll just use 1080p 60fps until I have a better understanding of the editing workflow.

Thanks again for all the support.

Cheers

 

[SighBored]

The internal storage is always not enough to store and edit, you probably should get an external storage. I'm not too sure about the HEVC format, FCPX is able to load/import the media but seems a bit fussy to me.. Can't comment much.

 

[scooterwuf]

Everyone has given great advice. The only other thing I can think of adding is to make sure you're not running any unnecessary programs while you're editing in Premiere (Elements or Pro) as they'll take away from the RAM you'll need.

When you cleared your Cache was it in Premiere, or for your computer in general? If the former, you go one step more. When I clear my cache in Premeire and things are still laggy I then dump the rest that is assigned to my computer itself. A few steps are involved. Click away from Premiere to your native Desktop. Select GO from your top menu items and while the drop down menu is revealed hold your Option key on your keyboard. This will cause a new item - Library - to appear. Click the new item and select the following:

Application Support - Adobe - Common - Media Cache, and Media Cache Files.

I dump all the files in both folders. After that I'll save and quit Premiere, and shut off my entire lap top. If it's also been on a while (and is hot) I'll wait for it to cool down a bit - 15 -20 minutes - and come back and turn everything on again.

This generally helps with any lagging.

A last resort would be to render a Preview in Premiere over an area your working on. Though this takes up memory it's a last resort fix to help you look at things.

- Wolf

 

[thunderous71]

Although Premier will run on the Mac you have, it will struggle with 4k footage even 1080p @60fps will stutter at times. Nature of the beast I am afraid. Unless you render to RAM (not practical) each time you clip your time line will constantly stutter.

As for editing from an external drive that would depend on the connection, if old USB 1 or 2 that wouldn't be recommended as the bandwidth when scrubbing will cause stutter too. Its best to edit from the system drive or another internal drive in the case of an SSD.

Some other editors may have a lower overhead as Premiere is a bit of a resource hog and I say this as 10+ years user of the software.

But I think you know the real answer to the posted question

 

[Leigh]

Although Premier will run on the Mac you have, it will struggle with 4k footage even 1080p @60fps will stutter at times. Nature of the beast I am afraid. Unless you render to RAM (not practical) each time you clip your time line will constantly stutter.

As for editing from an external drive that would depend on the connection, if old USB 1 or 2 that wouldn't be recommended as the bandwidth when scrubbing will cause stutter too. Its best to edit from the system drive or another internal drive in the case of an SSD.

Some other editors may have a lower overhead as Premiere is a bit of a resource hog and I say this as 10+ years user of the software.

But I think you know the real answer to the posted question

Hi all

Thanks for all the input, I’ve installed a trial version of Final cut which seems to work much better with 4K

I’d love to splash out on a new IMac, John Lewis have some food deals at the moment too however it’s not as easy to hide from the wife as a GoPro

Cheers

 

[Raven]

It is really down to that Intel GPU. Without a dedicated, hardware GPU, the system has to share processing with everything running. Apple has really dropped the ball on the MBP's when it comes to GPU in the last few years.

I would also throw DaVinci Resolve into your testing mix - it's both free, and less bulky than either of the other two.

Good luck tracking down the issue.