Get "Red" Render Bars in Premiere CS5

I

ikander

Well-known member
Okay...I'm an FCP editor who loves ProRes, so please excuse the dumb question.

After hearing how awesome it is to edit AVCHD natively in Premiere, I'd thought I'd give it a go.

So, I copy my .mts files off my card, start a new premiere project, and make a new sequence (AVCHD Preset 1080 30p to match my footage). However, when I drag the mts clips into my timeline...the footage gets the red "need render" nonsense. Plus, when you try to play it's buggy as all hell (and looks crappy to boot).

What am I doing wrong? Can I not just drag and drop the .mts files in?
 
I'm guessing the sequence doesn't exactly match the properties of the source avchd footage precisely. You can drag the source .MTS avchd file onto the "new file" button in the project panel, which Premiere then automatically generates a new sequence based on the clip you drag on the new button.

What specific hardware are you using (PC / Mac, make/model of laptop or PC)?

Here's a nice video faq on PP.
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/ryoung/story/premiere_pro_frequently_asked_questions/
 
Thanks very much for the help!

When I drag and drop the clip to create a new sequence, I now get yellow bars instead of Red (an improvement to be sure). But, the footage still looks like garbage when I playback (splotches everywhere/stuttering). It's also curious that the sequence setting of the "yellow bar" sequence is listed as AVCHD 1080i square pixel. Now, my HMC-150 was set at 1080 30p. So, maybe someone could explain why this is.

In regards to the choppy/ugly playback, I'm guessing this is happening because the PC I have premiere installed on may not be beefy enough handle the footage (It's a BOXX technoloiges PC. 6 gb of RAM. Intel i7 Quad Core. Windows 7).

As a comparison, I fired up FCP on my MacPro tower, transcoded to ProRes and, the footage comes in at 1080 30p and looks great. For time being, looks like I'll continue with my usual workflow. :-) (Transcoding takes about the same amount of time as it takes to copy over the contents of the card anyway, so it's not like ingesting the mts files directly is that much of a time saver).
 
the Core i7 on the PC desktop should be fast enough to playback the HMC150 AVCHD files (and mostly likely on your Mac Pro tower also) -- it will use its software "mercury playback engine". If you have an Nvidia card, it's very likely that it can be "hacked" (really, adding a line to a text file and enabling an option in the graphics driver) to hardware accelerate playback, and effects (color correction and other things). Check this page for all the card details -- it's amazing.

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm
 
ikander said:
Thanks very much for the help!

When I drag and drop the clip to create a new sequence, I now get yellow bars instead of Red (an improvement to be sure). But, the footage still looks like garbage when I playback (splotches everywhere/stuttering). It's also curious that the sequence setting of the "yellow bar" sequence is listed as AVCHD 1080i square pixel. Now, my HMC-150 was set at 1080 30p. So, maybe someone could explain why this is.

In regards to the choppy/ugly playback, I'm guessing this is happening because the PC I have premiere installed on may not be beefy enough handle the footage (It's a BOXX technoloiges PC. 6 gb of RAM. Intel i7 Quad Core. Windows 7).

As a comparison, I fired up FCP on my MacPro tower, transcoded to ProRes and, the footage comes in at 1080 30p and looks great. For time being, looks like I'll continue with my usual workflow. :-) (Transcoding takes about the same amount of time as it takes to copy over the contents of the card anyway, so it's not like ingesting the mts files directly is that much of a time saver).
Click to expand...


Like what was said....make sure the sequence settings match exactly. I have a feeling your playback settings are set to either 1/2 or 1/4 quality. To fix this, right click on the timeline preview window, and switch "playback resolution" to full if it isn't already.

Most codecs (dvcprohd, acv-intra, pro res) will simply drop to 1/4 resolution when set to that mode. Maybe it's the long GOP nature of AVCHD, but for whatever reason, it's 1/4 or 1/2 playback mode is full of splotches and weird looking artifacts.

Believe me, I was really panicked the first time I checked my brand spanking new HMC150's footage in Premiere, cause that low quality playback setting was on by default.
 
Here's an article and video that explain in detail what causes red versus yellow versus green render bars:
http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2011/02/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars.html

The gist:

  • green: This segment of the sequence has a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play using the rendered preview file. Playback at full quality is certain to be in real time.
  • yellow: This segment of the sequence does not have a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play by rendering each frame just before the CTI reaches it. Playback at full quality will probably be in real time (but it might not be).
  • red: This segment of the sequence does not have a rendered preview file associated with it. Playback will play by rendering each frame just before the CTI reaches it. Playback at full quality will probably not be in real time (but it might be).
  • none: This segment of the sequence does not have a rendered preview file associated with it, but the codec of the source media is simple enough that it can essentially be treated as its own preview file. Playback will play directly from the original source media file. Playback at full quality is certain to be in real time. This only occurs for a few codecs (including DV and DVCPRO).
 
I copy my .mts files off my card
Click to expand...

Take note that SOP for tapeless media with Premiere Pro is to copy the entire folder contents, not just the actual media files. You then use the Media Browser to import, not a right click in the Project pane.

Done this way, a lot of issues tend to get resolved.
 
Open 1080p30 avchd sequence. Import your footage. Right click on your mts files in project window (bin). Go to Modify>interpret footage>Field order box - set it to conform to: no fields (progressive scan).

That should do it, when you drag your files to timeline there won't be any red line.
This happens because 1080p avchd wrapper is actually 1080i and premiere sees it as interlaced. However the footage "inside" it is true progressive, and when you tell premiere to treat it as progressive everything works fine.
 
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