Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 Video Playback Problem/Bug

[Ruben0918]

I have been editing a video for the past few weeks, but recently, after I have been editing for a few minutes, all of a sudden my video won't play in the playback window. When I hit the play button (or the space bar) it does nothing - just sits there. All of the clips are rendered (with the green bar), but I cant see my changes because it doesn't play. I am even able to move the cursor along the timeline and it will show the video in the playback window, but it won't play back in real time. Like I said I have been using Premiere Pro CS6 for a while and havent had this problem until now. Also, when I drag a clip into the preview window, it doesn't play either (but I am able to move the cursor along the timeline). I have to shut down Premiere and open it up again, then it works for a few minutes again, and then the same problem occurs. Please help! The specs for my lap top are as follows: Macbook Pro Retina Display, 2.6 GHZ i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD

[John T Smith]

Do you ONLY have that single 500gig drive?

If yes, you are below specification... which requires a separate drive for video files

An EXAMPLE concerning trying to use only ONE Hard Drive for Video Editing
.
You are a music conductor, with a baton that you use to point to various parts of the

orchestra... this is like Windows pointing to various parts of the hard drive to do

Windows housekeeping or to load program segments for various functions
.
Now, at the same time and with the same hand... while still using the baton to conduct

the orchestra... pick up a bow and play a fiddle... this would be doing something with

your video file at the same time as all the other work
.
You as a person cannot do both at the same time with the same hand
.
A computer is a LITTLE better, in that it can switch from one kind of task to another

very quickly... but not quickly enough for EASY video editing
.
You need AT LEAST two hard drives (separate drives, never a partition

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/650708 for more on partitions) with Windows (or Mac OS)

and software on your boot drive, and video files on a 2nd drive so the boot drive is

not slowed down by trying to do everything
.
Do not try to use a USB2 external drive for video editing, the USB2 file transfer speed

is too slow
.
External eSata or USB3 are both fast enough for video editing... eSata is better -

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1117813
.
ONE possibility is this dock http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-SuperSpeed-Docking-Station-Cooling/dp/B0055PL2YI

[Ruben0918]

I don't see how the problem is my drive. Once the clip is imported into PP - from my drive -, and rendered, why would the size or quantity of my drive effect the playback (and only the playback - everything else works like a gem)?Like I said I have been using PP for months with no problems. Sometimes I can edit for a half hour before the problem occurs, and other times for only a few minutes. Sometimes simply deleting the audio track, and then hitting undo (which is what was suggested on a different forum) will allow it to play again - this is only a temporary fix.

[John T Smith]

PPro uses a LOT of space for temporary files... how much free space do you have on your single drive?

[EthanDavid-l07xwB]

I am having a very annoying problem with Adobe Premiere Pro CS6.  Everything works flawlessy on Premiere Pro cs6 EXCEPT the timeline video playback (sequence composite video playback).  When I navigate to the MEDIA BROWSER, I can see my videos.  I can also double click on my video and it will play in the corresponding window above.  HOWEVER, when I bring that same video to my timeline and play the footage, I hear the audio but the video DOES NOT show up. [SEE ATTACHED PICTURE] I am using .MOV files coming from my Canon Mark II and Mark III.  I do have some third party software installed for Adobe After Effects (Red Giant) but from my research that should not be an issue for this software.  I have tried a number of fixes that I have found online:

1. Switching from GPU to Software only when starting PP also within the actualy program.  This worked only once and never worked again.

2. Unistalled, Reinstalled, Upgraded, etc...

I am using the following system:

Toshiba Qosimo x875-7190 laptop

Windows 8.0 - 64 Bit

Graphics Processor Unit: GeForce GTX 670M [3 Gig RAM] - OPEN GL

Quad core - 2.4 GHz Core i7-3630QM - Processor

Memory: 32GB RAM

Hard Drive: Two 500 GB HDD 7200 RPM

Adobe Master Collection CS6

Premiere Pro CS6 [updated 6.05]

On my computer I have the entire Adobe Master Collection CS6 and I have no problems out of any of the other programs...as far as I can tell.  I have used PP before so I know I can drag and drop into my timeline. As well as create a new sequence.  I have tried a number of different ways of doing this but nothing seems to work.  Could really use some help. 

[Jim_Simon]

My guess would be a graphics driver issue.  Unfortunately, your machine likely has two GPUs that can and sometimes do interfere with each other, and no way to fully disable the inferior GPU - the Intel built into the processor.

[Ninarama]

Also having had the exact same problem.

After having worked 2 days on the project, playback ability suddendly stopped at all. Even after restarting Premiere, and even after switching to software rendering, NO playback at all.

What helped here was:

Close everything that shares Adobe's big memory pool: Photoshop, After Effects (and I also closed Bridge, just to be sure).

I also loaded an older project into Premiere to see if that's still doing playback - it did.

So I'm not sure if the solution was closing all programs or having another project in Premiere inbetween.

I have 32GB RAM in my laptop, so it takes some time for the pool to "overflow", when it is absolutely maxxed-out, and maybe also fragmented, so it needs a restart.

[Mr Tech]

Same problem here and it's driving me nuts. I currently own cs5.5 and download the trial version of cs6 to see if it was worth the upgrade, apparently not. My issues are exactly the same as everyone elses except my video also turns green frequently on top of random freezing (audio always works though). I noticed that the problem occurs more commonly with longer videos.

My setup:

i7-3930k OC'd to 4.5GHz (water cooled)

16GB 1866MHz RAM

128GB Sata II SSD for Windows 7 64bit OS and programs, no games, just adobe programs.

250GB Sata III SSD for video files/scratch files

500GB HDD for other media (not used in this project).

A weak GTX 460 SE video card, but mercury playback is set to software only.

Note: I also tried moving the video files to the HDD to see if separating the scratch files and media files made a difference, none at all.

I tried changing the audio settings like everyone else mentioned to no avail. I've tried restarts, changing a bunch of setting, moving files, nothing is working. I really hope Adobe fixes this because as of now I have a trial of a video editing program that doesn't play video... Has anyone had any luck with this?

[netpara]

If yes, you are below specification... which requires a separate drive for video files

[Justan_Othervideoguy]

I have this exact issue and I made some progress with a playback fix:

Go to Edit, preferences, audio hardware, ASIO settings and switch your output devices (usb headset seems to have contributed to the problem somehow)...

[Justan_Othervideoguy]

An update - i found that if I reduced the buffer size in the output settings I was also able to listen through the usb headset and preview playback is now functioning correctly.

[tobiasb53195660]

Thanks a lot! Worked for me, too!

[bc75825111]

This actually solves my problem of not being able to play the preview videos while launching Audition CC at the same time.

Go to Edit, preferences, audio hardware, ASIO settings and switch your output devices (usb headset seems to have contributed to the problem somehow)...

[azuniversestudios]

I have been struggling with this exact same issue since I bought CS6 almost 2 summers ago. I was looking forward to using Premiere as my primary editor, but that's not possible because of this problem. When I change my audio output between built in output and system default, sometimes I get lucky and video will playback for a little bit. Otherwise, nothing plays. After much research, I believe that this issue has something to do with Audio and specifically the Audio Midi Setup.

Summary of issue:

When skimming through video with play head, no audio plays and the audio monitoring bars show nothing. When pressing the play triangle or space bar, it changes to a square and dies not playback. I've had this problem since I bought the program.

My Setup:

iMac 21.5" Mid 2011 2.5 ghz Quad Core i5

Mac OS X 10.9

8 gb RAM

500gb internal drive for OS and the program

500gb FireWire 800 external drive for Media and Projects

3tb external drive USB 2 for media cache, scratch disk, and previews

ATI Radeon HD 6750M - 512mb video memory

I really am sick of this issue so I really hope somebody finds a fix soon. I've been using Final Cut X for a while, and just want to use Premiere already.

Thanks!

[Mr Tech]

So, I solved the issue for me. In my case it was simply an update to the latest version of premiere pro (6.0.5 at the time of writing this). I didn't find it before because when I went to update premiere pro from within the software I was getting all sorts of odd messages which basically made it sound like there weren't any updates to be had.

After trying everything else mentioned in this forum and many other forums I finally decided to look around on the Adobe website to see if I could find a manual update that I could install myself. Sure enough I stumbled upon 6.0.5, installed it, and now it's been working buttery smooth for the past week.

Here's the link to the updates page for all of Adobe's software. You'll find premiere pro about half way down the page:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates.html

I hope that works for you too azuniverse!

[CMcDowall]

I have the same basic problem. The video and audio will NOT playback, not in the source, project or timeline. The play / stop toggle does nothing, and the space bar does nothing. My video is basically useless because Premier Pro CC does not do the MOST BASIC OF VIDEO TASKS --- PLAY THE &%#%$*# VIDEO. Really Adobe, I just started my CC membership looking so forward to moving up to Premier Pro from Elements. This is a version 7 program, it is REQUIRED that it play the video - NOW.

Why do I have to search the internet for solutions for this mature program to PLAY THE VIDEO. For God's sake !!!!!! Yes I am ranting, I am tired. It is like getting in a brand new car, and the engine will run, and it wil go in gear, but since no one at the dealership thought to put air in the tires, it just won't roll down the road. AHHHHHH !

[Mr Tech]

Did you try manually updating premiere pro? CC has an update that was published this past December that might fix your issue. I tried everything else when trying to fix my CS6 issue and it ended up just being a manual update and restart that fixed it for me. Here's the link to the product updates page:

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates.html

Hopefully your problem ends up being as "easy" to solve as mine was.

[CMcDowall]

Erik - I did do the manual update, but even before I started I could see that the versions were the same. I did it for good measure. I have found that resetting the Audio Hardware is kind of a solution, but it has to be done again and again. It works for awhile, then will just stop working. Thanks

[azuniversestudios]

Sorry Eric, but this didn't help. I'm really frustrated and have been considering just giving up on Premiere, but I will keep checking to see if anybody has found a definite fix to the issue. I wish someone from Adobe would respond to this...

[Ballyearl]

Hi Eric. I have had same issues. It appears that there is a problem with the audio track which slows down playback on timeline.

Slow playback only occurred for me when I dragged sequence onto the new item tab to create a new sequence for multi cam editing. There would be a 3 sec delay or longer between pressing the space bar and the video playing.

This makes  editing very  frustrating.

Here is how I overcame the problem.

1. First copy all the audio tracks from sequence.

2. Drag sequence onto  the new item tab to create a new nested sequence.

3. Delete the audio track in the new sequence, now paste in the copied audio from the original sequence to the new nested sequence, you now have a new sequence with the original audio track in it.

    now press play and video and audio will play smoothly.

Hope this helps

[Mauro_Hervas]

I've been having kind of the same problem the last few days in playback. I do have response when I press the button but It is not real time playback.

I have 64 bits win 7, a 12 core 3.2 Xeon processor, a quadro 2000 (mercury enabled), 8 gb ram (I now it's not the best but I have only installed the CC suite and basic word programs and when I checked it, while rendering, only uses 5-7 Gb), PP 7.2.1(4), 250 Gb hard drive for programs (170 gb free), 250 gb for nothing really (I have like 300 Mb pictures), 1 Tb for media (100 gb free) and another Tb (835 gb free) for scratch and temporary files (both 3.0 usb) and finally a 500 gb eSata for personal stuff.

I have been working just fine until 3-4 days ago. I'm not sure but maybe when I deleted, via premiere, the media cache db files something could have gone wrong.

Any one at Adobe have an idea? 16 responses and 6000+ views should raise some alarm I guess.

[K_63]

Can someone corroborate my possible solution to the spacebar dilemma?

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1515737

[WYKE_TV_47]

We are also having this problem. I've been using this computer with this configuration of programs/drives/etc. for months with no problems at all. All of a sudden last week, no video playback. I've tried every fix in this thread sans the reinstall (waiting on the IT guy to bring the discs back so that can happen) - no successes so far.

I know if no one's found the solution so far it's unlikely I'll get one just by posting this, but I'm mostly just adding another number to the list of people with this problem. It's a pretty massive problem.

[WYKE_TV_47]

...apparently I fixed it by sheer frustrated force of will? At least temporarily it's working. I have no idea why, but while it's working I'm just going to do all the editing I can and hope it doesn't go back down...

[K_63 · Accepted solution]

I found the problem. And a solution to the problem.

I can edit on Premiere Pro 6 files, but after a dozen keystrokes, the space bar and cursor keys stop...