Jerky play back on HD video in CS4

I have just downloaded my first HD video from my Sony CX550 into PremierePro CS4. On playback the clips are very jerky. I'm not sure if the settings are correct. If rendered, the workspace plays OK, however I never had to do this previously. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction for further help.

John Dory

I have just downloaded my first HD video from my Sony CX550 into PremierePro CS4. On playback the clips are very jerky. I'm not sure if the settings are correct. If rendered, the workspace plays OK, however I never had to do this previously. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction for further help.

 

John Dory

I'm just working my way through CS5, and am no way knowledgable, but it sounds like your machine is struggling to play the native files.

Check that you have the right timeline settings for your clips and/or change the playback resolution to 1/2 or 1/4. This is what I had to do to play my 1080 clips.

It also depends on what system you are running. If you have PC are you running a 32 bit version of windows or 64 bit? Also how much RAM do you have on the computer?

These two factors make a HUGE difference on video editing performance when dealing with HD, as 32 bit operating systems can't allocate as much RAM as 64 bit!

I have a 64 bit system, and have been running 32 bit software, and have had problems with jerky HD video because the 32 bit software couldn't use more RAM than I think 2GB for the actual program (not positive on this) even though I have 8GB RAM.

I recently got 64 Bit software (Not CS) and it's like I've got a brand new computer! - It is ENTIRELY different, super smooth, and I can have four video streams playing simultaneously on picture in picture and it runs perfectly! :-)

I would check the two items above first.

Hope this helps.

I know this, with After Effects CS4 and previous versions, even a ram preview took forever. Now with the AE CS5 and Nvidia card installed AE just blazes through the previews. It is finally the way I like it. Hopefully, FC Studio 4 will come out as 64 bit as well.

Steve

Thanks for all your help. After going back in, I discovered it was the settings.

In reply to the computer spec, I have a 32 bit with a 4Gb RAM, but it seems to be coping OK at the moment. I will try putting a few extra channels to see if it still manages to play these.

Once again thanks for pointing me in the right direction

John Dory

I would definitely add some more ram which has really dropped in price over the years. Try Ramjet or Crucial as they both make excellent quality ram. I usually buy Crucial myself.

Steve