What types of files are most demanding on Premiere at DVinfo.net

Tyson Persall · March 2nd, 2009, 04:01 AM

Some times you load a project and it takes a few seconds to open other times, certain projects can take up to a minute or more. Can someone explain to me why? After making a project with just still images, it seems like the fact that i imported PSD (photoshop files) seemed to lag up the project opening quite a lot. Was it the size of the files, the resolution, or something else? To sum it up, what makes premiere take so long to open a project sometimes?

Tripp Woelfel · March 2nd, 2009, 08:09 AM

You haven't mentioned what type of projects you have. HDV? DV? Custom?

My experience is that DV projects open virtually right away. HDV projects take longer. Ones with a large number of video clips can take significantly longer than ones with fewer clips. It appears to have nothing to do with the total length of source footage, so two hours of HDV footage in two clips will open much quicker than two hours of HDV in 100 clips. I'm not certain, but I think PP needs to verify the indexes and other support files surrounding HDV footage before it can open a project.

PSD files also slow things down. Not sure why.

Tyson Persall · March 2nd, 2009, 03:46 PM

so its the number of files in a project that slows it down.

But this project has NO video clips in it at all, just Photoshop files. So I guess we have learned that PSDs slow down opening a lot as well.

Adam Gold · March 2nd, 2009, 04:53 PM

Premiere HATES stills. Use .png instead.

Jiri Fiala · March 2nd, 2009, 05:01 PM

What do you mean by "stills"? PNG is a format for stills. And oneof the more demanding, too. Decoding image sequence comprised by PNGs will tax CPU way more than, say, JPEGs or even TGAs or TIFFs, even if its disk footprint is much smaller.

Adam Gold · March 3rd, 2009, 01:05 AM

Just telling you what I've learned over at the Adobe forums. Premiere hates stills. All stills. You can virtually guarantee a crash when you use lots of JPGs or PSDs. For some reason, PNGs work better. I don't know why.

Jon Shohet · March 3rd, 2009, 05:21 AM

I have always had good results working with TGA image sequences. PSD's have never given me too much trouble, but I never used the format for image sequences, only for adding graphics, text, and maybe mattes into a premiere project.

JPG takes longer to render than equivalent TGA or PSD in Premiere from my personal experience.

March 2nd, 2009, 04:01 AM	#1
Tyson Persall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: North Hollywood, Atlanta Posts: 437	What types of files are most demanding on Premiere Some times you load a project and it takes a few seconds to open other times, certain projects can take up to a minute or more. Can someone explain to me why? After making a project with just still images, it seems like the fact that i imported PSD (photoshop files) seemed to lag up the project opening quite a lot. Was it the size of the files, the resolution, or something else? To sum it up, what makes premiere take so long to open a project sometimes? __________________ Tyson X

March 2nd, 2009, 03:46 PM	#3
Tyson Persall Major Player Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: North Hollywood, Atlanta Posts: 437	OK, that makes since then... so its the number of files in a project that slows it down. But this project has NO video clips in it at all, just Photoshop files. So I guess we have learned that PSDs slow down opening a lot as well. __________________ Tyson X

March 2nd, 2009, 08:09 AM	#2
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	You haven't mentioned what type of projects you have. HDV? DV? Custom? My experience is that DV projects open virtually right away. HDV projects take longer. Ones with a large number of video clips can take significantly longer than ones with fewer clips. It appears to have nothing to do with the total length of source footage, so two hours of HDV footage in two clips will open much quicker than two hours of HDV in 100 clips. I'm not certain, but I think PP needs to verify the indexes and other support files surrounding HDV footage before it can open a project. PSD files also slow things down. Not sure why.

March 2nd, 2009, 04:53 PM	#4
Adam Gold Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Woodinville, WA USA Posts: 3,467	Premiere HATES stills. Use .png instead.

March 2nd, 2009, 05:01 PM	#5
Jiri Fiala Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Brno Czech Republic Posts: 453	What do you mean by "stills"? PNG is a format for stills. And oneof the more demanding, too. Decoding image sequence comprised by PNGs will tax CPU way more than, say, JPEGs or even TGAs or TIFFs, even if its disk footprint is much smaller.

March 3rd, 2009, 01:05 AM	#6
Adam Gold Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Woodinville, WA USA Posts: 3,467	Just telling you what I've learned over at the Adobe forums. Premiere hates stills. All stills. You can virtually guarantee a crash when you use lots of JPGs or PSDs. For some reason, PNGs work better. I don't know why.

March 3rd, 2009, 05:21 AM	#7
Jon Shohet Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 277	I have always had good results working with TGA image sequences. PSD's have never given me too much trouble, but I never used the format for image sequences, only for adding graphics, text, and maybe mattes into a premiere project. JPG takes longer to render than equivalent TGA or PSD in Premiere from my personal experience.