Variable Frame Rates From Phone Footage Creating Problems In Premiere - No External Playback

 We have to deal with a lot of phone footage nowadays, and the phones are prone to creating clips with variable frame rates, with some hit and miss results in post, particularly when using Premiere.

 Have a look at this phone video clip specs:

Variable frame rate clip from iPhone, seen as such in Media Conch

 If you are like me using BMD 3G Monitor with Desktop Video, with non legit frame rates in Premiere Source window, you get no output. Even though Premiere is content playing back the clip internally, no go with external monitoring.

 Now if you create a legit frame rate Timeline and drop the variable FR clip into it, all is well because Premiere conforms the non-legit frame rate clip to the (legit) Timeline frame rate.

 When bringing such variable FR clips into Premiere, the FR stamping gets somewhat fantastical. In this example I have 5 clips, all from the same phone. They are all recognized in the metadata as 29.98 fps:

All VFR clips stamped as 29.98fps in Premiere

Same thing in the Media File Properties: 29.98. It should be 30fps, but because of variable FR, Premiere stamps them at 29.98.

Same thing in the Media File Properties window.

 For some reasons the first three clips playback just fine on the external monitor via Desktop Video/3G Monitor, the last two clips do not playback at all. Again, I'm talking about the Source window playback, not Timeline playback.

 On closer inspection, these clips show fantastical frame rates when invoking the Modify/Interpret Footage function. The Frame Rate is all over the place:

 Clip 1 = 29.9775

 Clip 2 = 29.9782

 Clip 3 = 29.9793

 Clip 4 = 29.9869

 Clip 5 = 29.9845

 Remember all five clips frame rate is rounded and stamped as 29.98 by Premiere.

 For some reason, only the first three clips will play through external playback in Premiere, not the last two. Maybe 29.97xx is an acceptable frame rate to BMD, but not 29.98xx? Who knows.

 A workaround is to manually stamp all these VFR iPhones clips to the proper 30 fps, (or 29.98 fps) in the selected "Assume this frame rate" and clicking OK. Batch processing is possible.

 Now all clips playback through the Source window / external monitor 3G Monitor device just fine. But it is changing the source frame rate, so it might not be desirable beyond permitting Source Monitor external playback via BlackmagicDesign DV/3G Monitor. You be the judge of that.

PP 25.5.0

macOS Sequoia 15.6.1

BlackMagic Design Desktop Video Updated To 12.8, Now Works On macOS Sonoma 14.2.1... But Only With Resolve...

 DV version 12.7.1 was broken with Apple update to Sonoma, not even launching.

BMD just updated their DV app to version 12.8. It is now recognized by Macs M1s with macOS Sonoma 14.2.1.

Shows up in system report, good.

Launching fine, great.

Version 12.8

It works fine with Resolve, I can output to my external monitor without problems, so that's progress.

It shows in Resolve settings, and it outputs playback just fine from Resolve!

--- Now it still does not work with Final Cut Pro... 😩 Weirdly the Video Standard for Final Cut Pro is empty. Nothing under the drop down menu, it's empty. 😕

No way to select anything in FCP Video standard. That's not normal.

In FCP Playback settings, no way to select BMD output, it's not there.

--- It doesn't work with Premiere Pro either... Even though in Premiere case, it shows in the Playback settings.

Blackmagic Playback available from Premiere's preferences.

It shows in Premiere, but no output...

So, some progress, but it looks to me that Sonoma 14.2.1 is still blocking the output to Blackmagic devices.

I feel BMD has figured it out for Resolve, since it's outputting on playback no problem, but Final Cut Pro nor Premiere is able to output.

In the Read Me document, BMD state that Sonoma, listed devices and listed softwares are supported, but that's not entirely the case in my experience. 😞

About Blackmagic Desktop Video Software

Welcome to the Desktop Video software for macOS!

This software includes everything you need to set up your DeckLink, UltraStudio and Intensity for video capture and playback with your macOS computer.  

What's new in Desktop Video 12.8

New features and bug fixes for DeckLink IP models:

• Fix an issue where Rec.2020 video was incorrectly tagged.

• Ensure audio is passed through during keying.

• Add support for PTP follower only mode.

• Fix an issue where audio is captured on the wrong channels.

• Fix an issue where corrupted video is sometimes received during loopback capture.

• Ensure all flows are stopped after a video format change on the source.

• Fix intermittent issue where black video is captured after changing video input format.

• Fix issue where network settings would sometimes disappear in Setup utility.

• General performance and stability improvements for all models.

Minimum System Requirements

• macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later.

• macOS 13.0 Ventura.

• macOS computer with either Thunderbolt or PCIe slot.

• 8 GB of system memory.

Note: The following products are supported on macOS Ventura and Sonoma:

Apple silicon and Intel Macs:

- DeckLink Duo 2

- DeckLink Quad 2

- DeckLink Quad HDMI Recorder

- DeckLink 8K Pro

- DeckLink 4K Extreme 12G

- DeckLink IP HD

- DeckLink IP HD Optical

- DeckLink IP/SDI HD

- DeckLink Micro Recorder

- DeckLink SDI Micro

- DeckLink Mini Monitor HD

- DeckLink Mini Monitor 4K

- DeckLink Mini Recorder

- DeckLink Mini Recorder HD

- DeckLink Mini Recorder 4K

- DeckLink SDI 4K

- DeckLink Studio 4K

- UltraStudio Recorder 3G

- UltraStudio Monitor 3G

- UltraStudio HD Mini

- UltraStudio 4K Mini

- UltraStudio 4K Extreme 3

- Intensity Pro 4K

- DeckLink 4K Pro

- DeckLink 4K Extreme

- UltraStudio 4K

- UltraStudio 4K Extreme

Intel Macs only:

- DeckLink Mini Monitor

- DeckLink HD Extreme 3

- DeckLink HD Extreme 3D

- DeckLink SDI

- DeckLink Duo

- DeckLink Quad

- DeckLink Studio

- UltraStudio Express

- UltraStudio Mini Monitor

- UltraStudio Mini Recorder

- Intensity Pro

- Intensity Shuttle Thunderbolt

Third Party Software Support

• DaVinci Resolve 17 and 18.

• Fusion Studio 17 and 18.

• Apple Final Cut Pro.

• Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2022 and 2023.

• Adobe After Effects CC 2022 and 2023.

• Adobe Photoshop CC 2022 and 2023.

• Adobe Character Animator CC 2022 and 2023.

• Autodesk Flame 2024.

• Avid Media Composer 2023.

• Avid Pro Tools 2023.

• The Foundry Nuke (Intel Macs only).

If you have installed the drivers prior to installing any of these applications, we recommend that you uninstall and reinstall the drivers. This will ensure that all relevant components are installed in their required locations.

Additional Information

Please check www.blackmagicdesign.com for additional information on third party software compatibility and minimum system requirements.

Some applications may use third party code under license. For details please refer to the included "Third Party Licenses.rtf" document.

Copyright 2024 Blackmagic Design. All rights reserved. 'Blackmagic Design', 'Blackmagic', 'Blackmagic Cloud', 'DaVinci Resolve', 'Fusion', 'Fairlight', 'Ultimatte', 'HyperDeck', 'DeckLink', 'HDLink', 'Videohub', 'Intensity' and 'Leading the creative video revolution' are registered trademarks in the US and other countries. All other company and product names may be trade marks of their respective companies with which they are associated.

Updated January 24, 2024.

Adobe Premiere Pro Recommended Hardware 64GB RAM Minimum

OK so Adobe in its mansuetude recommends 64GB of RAM minimum to run PP in a professional environment:

64GB Minimum! WHAT??

This info is taken from Adobe's "Best Practices & Workflow Guide" that you can download here. 

64GB, this is a huge amount of RAM. And they even say to go higher for complex projects. How much higher? 128GB? 256GB?

Yes, I know Premiere will work just fine with less, duh! That's not my point. Adobe recommendation is 64GB or more. Who are we? Rockefellers?

I mean, I agree that more is better, but it's also expensive and inefficient at some point. Fast cores, sure, more cores, of course, it will help rendering speed. Faster ssds and drives, faster ethernet, obviously.

Adobe justification for this is rather vague:

Video frames decoding, OK sure, 6k, 8k, 12k is gonna tax the system RAM. How many pros work with higher than 1080/4k 24/30 resolution though, I'd be curious. Also this function is shared with hardware / GPU, and with these getting more and more powerful, less system RAM should be needed, not more.

Project data... Gobbling RAM like this? And how much of it is really used? And why is it not more efficient at using RAM? At some point throwing more raw power at bad code is not making the software better.

So how about looking hard into optimization for a change Adobe?

Adobe Premiere, Why on F#$%^#* Earth Do You Put A Black Frame At The End Of My Video????

 Adobe Premiere is such a piece of garbage.

I export a h264 video selecting an In and an Out points. The Out point is 1sec into a graphic, the same graphic continues for a whole 10seconds after the Out point. On export the resulting h264 file last frame is black.

Why is it not showing my graphic? WHY??????

I mean ADOBE? What do you have to say? It's been documented FOR YEARS! Just Google "Adobe Premiere puts a black frame at the end of my h264 export". It's a BUG!!! 🪲🪳🦟 BUG, BUG, BUG!!! Fix it already.

If I Send To Adobe Media Encoder instead of direct exporting from Premiere, SAME THING!!! By the way, selecting Hardware Accelerated or Software Only doesn't not make an iota of difference, same fuckup. So now I have to export a ProRes version, that works just fine, and then encode a h264 with AME? Nope! Doesn't work either. 🖕

Apple Compressor to the rescue. APPLE COMPRESSOR, works just great with h264, Adobe???

 What a mess. Premiere "Pro" Uh???? It would be laughable if it wasn't disgusting.

!!!UPDATE!!!

Adobe Media Encoder 24.1.1 SEEM TO BE WORKING FINE NOW.

I tested Export on Premiere 24.1, and the bug is FIXED with Premiere as well! No more black frame at the end of h264 exports. Yeah! Finally.

Thanks Adobe!

Adobe Premiere Pro 2024 (24.0.0.58) Error code -1609629690 Exporting h264, And Solution

Premiere Pro throws an error compiling movie on exporting a h264 file:

Error compiling movie.

Render Error

Render returned error.

Writing with exporter: H.264

Writing to file: /Volumes/G Vulcan 4TB/[2152] MCV OpenHands/MCV OH Chuck/ Masters/Masters Web/CP_OHC_Chuckwild_01.mp4

Writing file type: H264

Around timecode: 00:00:02:00 - 00:00:02:05

Rendering at offset: 0.000 seconds

Component: H.264 of type Exporter

Selector: 9

Error code: -1609629690

 The media / clip itself is h264, editing into a default Timeline.

Other people have been reporting the same error, and for them turning off "Hardware Encoding" seem to work, albeit slowly.

For me, it's turning off "Use Maximum Render Quality" (leave it unchecked) that does the trick. 

If I check the "Maximum Render Quality" box, it leads to the error, no matter what. It's perfectly happy with "Hardware Encoding" always on.

Mac M1, macOS Ventura 13.6, Premiere 24.0.0.58

Not A Day Passes Without 🤬 Premiere Crashing 🖕🖕🖕

 11:14am

11:35am

F&$K YOU PREMIERE!

Adobe Premiere Does Not Draw Waveforms Properly, Another Bug 🪳

The bugs 🐛 🪲 🪳 are crawling around with Premiere. This time it's in the form of finicky waveforms drawing... Or lack of shall I say...

Isn't this a wonderful behavior?

Good luck keeping your sanity with this kind of waveform drawing! Oh! By the way, as you see here, it will draw eventually after you playback or zoom-in/out, but next time you open the same file, the same empty sections reappear.

I always remember Premiere being shitty with waveform drawing, so it's not like this problem is brand new. Who cares? Just delete these pesky peak (.pek) files once in a while, what are you complaining about?

Who f$c^*ng cares!?? Not Adobe obviously! Good luck editing audio.

The bugs 🐛 🪲 🪳 are everywhere with Premiere!

More Adobe Premiere Pro Bugs - It's Endless

 Here is another bug! Premiere is so buggy, stay away from it!

When you try to transcribe, or in my case re-transcribe, a Sequence, I get this error message and nothing gets done:

A low-level exception occurred in RawPCM (Exporter:17)

Great! Worked fine on the assembly timeline though. Oh! Wait, apparently if you use any audio FX, or even, god forbid, if you adjusted any levels in the timeline, Premiere throws this shit in your face and does nothing.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-discussions/a-low-level-exception-occured-rawpcm-exporter-17/td-p/12944658

Lovely! Users only reported this bug 6 month ago, we only had two or three versions of Premiere since then. The bug is still there.

Wonderful, thank you Adobe!

--- UPDATE ---

You won't believe this! So I had enough with premiere and I went for a walk to lower my blood pressure. Lo and behold I come back to the same Sequence, same Project, everything the same as I left it an hour ago. I didn't touch anything. For the life of me I click on Re-transcribe sequence and... It goes through and is currently transcribing!!!

Meaning the workarounds and/or whatever reasons peeps believe Premiere is giving this error message are all BS. My Sequence is completely mixed, with clips, and tracks levels, and sound effects galore! And this time it has decided that it would go through with transcription.

What the F*U#% IS THIS ADOBE???

It's maddening I tell you. Adobe Premiere, the most unreliable NLE software champ 🏆 ever.