Audio dropout detected and choppy playback

[marthalandes]

My playback on Premiere Elements 14 is very choppy even after rendering. So much so that it freezes on one image as the timeline is progressing. Choppy sound too. I clicked on the exclamation point in the bottom left corner of the timeline and the event page opened and said Audio Dropout Detected on about 20 different clips. Once I clicked remove all, it got a little smoother on the playback. But this keeps occurring? Why? what does it mean?

[Steve Grisetti]

What operating system do you have? What processor does your computer have and with how much RAM?

Do you have Quicktime 7 installed, per the program's system requirements?

What model of camcorder is your video coming from and what format and resolution is this video?

When you added the first clip to Video 1 on your timeline, did your video have a yellow orange 'render' line above the clip? This is an indication that your project settings do not properly match your video specs, which can result in poor performance and lower quality video.

[marthalandes]

Hi Steve, thanks for answering. I have used Premiere Elements once a year for 9 years for a huge project -  and have found your book very helpful. 

My computer is only a year old. It's a Dell with Window's 10. I have 8102 MB Ram with 4300 MB free.

I do not have Quicktime 7 installed and never have as far as I know. I just tried to download it, but it says its not compatible with my system, something about Apple? Should I keep trying to find a way to download it?

I'm recording the clips with a Canon DSLR. The files are MVI and are huge file sizes - maybe too big?

Yes, I do sometimes have a yellow/orange render line, but I've always seen those. (of course I've always had choppy playback - until I upload to YouTube or make a DVD.

I appreciate your assistance on this. I have a week to finish the project, but it would help if I could see it.

Martha

[marthalandes]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Sorry I didn't tell you the kind of operating system. It is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.2GHz

My camera is a Canon ELS Rebel T4i. I believe I mentioned it is a MOV format. Do I need to convert that somehow?

Thank you for the link to download Quicktime. I did it, but don't know how to make it help my production. Sorry if I'm a dummy.

I appreciate your help. I will make sure to write down all my findings so that I won't have the problem next year when I start again.

By the way, I uploaded a whole bunch of video files and was able to work on it last night, but once I rendered, it got choppy again. Seems to be backwards.  I'll do whatever I need to do to fix the problem as per your instructions.

Martha

[Steve Grisetti]

Hi, Martha. I'm glad to hear you've found my book helpful!

Yes, you should install Quicktime 7. It's a necessary component for Premiere Elements 14 and earlier and can resolve some issues in version 15. You can download it from the link below. And you can opt to install the components and not install the player -- or disable QuicktimePlayer.exe by changing the file extension from .exe to .old -- so that it won't pose a security issue.

QuickTime 7.6 for Windows

It also would be helpful to get complete answers to my questions, including which processor your computer uses. Even a one year old Dell could use anything from a weak processor that can barely run the program to a top of the line Intel Xeon, so is is important to get specific.

That said, I'd say that your core issue is that you're trying to edit MVI video. Something Premiere Elements isn't equipped to do.

Again, you don't tell me specifically which Canon DSLR you are using, but most likely that camera can be set to shoot in MP4 or MOV format -- formats that are much more compatible with Premiere Elements. Switching to that recording mode along will likely resolve your problems (assuming your computer processor is up to snuff).

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm confused. Two posts up you said your video was MVI video. In the above post you mentioned it was MOV. Which is it? This is very important.

That said, what is the resolution and frame rate of the MOVs you're shooting?

And, in Premiere Elements, under the Edit menu, what is listed under Project Settings on the General page?

In most cases, the program interprets your video specs and matches your project settings to them. This will give you excellent performance. However, because MOVs can be pretty complicated files, the program sometimes requires you to manually set up your projects settings.

Your computer's processor is a bit low end for heavy duty video editing. However, if your project is properly set up to match your settings to your video specs and you are editing a basic HD video, you should be able to get decent performance.

[marthalandes]

Oops. Sorry. It does look like they are MOV files.

The resolution is currently set at 1920x1080.

The frame rate is 29.97

The project settings/General page says:

Editing mode - DSLR

Time base 23,976/second

Frame size 1920x1080

24fps Timecode

Title safe area 20x20 not adjustable

Action Safe area 10 x10 not adjustable

How do I adjust this to make it work?

[Steve Grisetti]

We still need to know the resolution and frame rate of your video files.

if you can't figure them out from your camera settings, you'll need to open one of your MOV files in the free download Media Info. In Media Info, go to the View menu and set it to Tree, then either copy the data it lists or post a screen capture of the report to this forum.

[marthalandes]

I'm sorry, but I still don't know where to find the free downloaded Media Information to get the frame rate and resolution. Is it in Premiere Elements? I'm not trying to be a problem, but everywhere I look it has the same information I posted above.

By the way, the reason I was confused between MVI and MOV  is because each file is labeled like this: MVI_6336.MOV 

Thank you again for your help.

[Steve Grisetti]

The free download Media Info can be found via Google or at:

MediaInfo

[marthalandes]

Above find a screenshot of one of my clips.  I hope it give the information you need to help me.

Thanks again.

[Steve Grisetti]

Start a new project. On the New Project panel, click Settings.

On the Settings screen, go to the DSLR Presets and select, from the 1080p set, DSLR 1080p30 29.97. Click OK.

On the New Project panel, check the box to Force Settings and click OK.

Import your MOV into this project and place it at the beginning of Video 1. Ideally you should NOT see a yellow orange render line above the clip -- and, if so, you should also be able to play your timeline without any hiccups.

[marthalandes]

OK, I did everything you suggested. I started over with a new project and forced it to use the right settings. So far, it is playing more smoothly for now, but I've just started.

Unfortunately, it does still have the yellow line in the render spot and also has the exclamation point (event) saying 'Audio Dropout detected' every minute or so. I Clear All and go back to work.

I will see if this fixes the choppiness. If not, I'll be back on here again.

By the way, how do you set the playback so that it doesn't automatically start over every time I get to the end of the video? I'm sure that's a simple thing, I just can't find it and it's very annoying, when most everything I'm adding is at the end.

Thank you for spending time this weekend working with me. I hope it continues to go smoothly so I don't have to bother you anymore.

Martha

[Steve Grisetti]

You can change the "auto play" setting in your preferences, on the General page. Uncheck the option to play timeline after render.

I'm really not sure why our new project settings aren't matching your video specs, based on the information you've given me.

If you'd like to Dropbox me a sample of your MOV file, you can share it with my first name at my web site, Muvipix dot com. (Never post your e-mail address to a forum, by the way.) I'll see if I can see something that's not so obvious. Maybe I can come up with project settings that will perfectly match the file.

Your other option is to convert your MOV files to 1920x1080 MP4s using the free download Handbrake. If you do that, the program will set up your project automatically, based on the first MP4 you place on your timeline.

It's up to you how you proceed at this point.

[Steve Grisetti · Accepted solution]

Thanks for sharing the video with me, Martha.

I dropped it into a project that was set up with the settings I suggested and it worked just fine! There is no yellow orange render line above the clip and it plays very smoothly using Premiere Elements 14 on Windows 10 with Quicktime 7 installed.

Once again, the project settings you should select are DSLR/1080p/DSLR 1080p30 @29.97. (Though you shouldn't need to check the Force Selected Project Settings option on the New Project panel for this to work.)

If that's not working, I'm just not sure what's up. But the video and program should play very well together based on what I've seen.

[marthalandes]

Thank you so much, Steve, for all of the work you put into this.

I worked all day uploading most of my video clips to the new project and it looked and played back great even with a few orange lines!  I was very happy and started writing this reply to you just now, but decided at the last minute before sending it to render the workspace. And unfortunately, just like last time, it instantly became choppy and freezes up. It does help to clear the even audio event audio problems every minute or so.

I hope you don't think I'm crazy, since my clip worked so well for you.

I think I'll just keep plugging along on it, because I don't want to start over again since I need to finish this week. Hopefully, when I download the finished product to CD's and upload to YouTube, it will be smooth?

Anyway, thank you very much for your help and suggestions and being so prompt!

Wish me luck.

Martha

[marthalandes]

Steve, Martha again.

I worked on the new version of the video, adding sound effects, green screen, music, and other special effects. Anything I added to the middle or beginning got so choppy with only sound playing and picture freezing, just like before. the end wasnt perfevt but not terrible. I've turned the computer on and off and checked the settings.

I need to make dvds and decided to see if it was choppy playing that way and and burned onto a DVD. I chose the 480 or something like that. (I don't have my computer with me now to see) It took about 30 minutes to burn the 10 min dvd Which is no problem but when I tried to play on my DVD player/TV, it said Disc Error.

i tried again with the 500 ish format and it wouldnt play either. i tried on another dvd player too to no avail.

i was hoping it was just the program playback causing problems, but i cant know unless i can get a dvd to play.

How do I know if QuickTime is doing anything?

So other than smashing my computer, do you have any insight or sugggestions? 

i hate to start over, but will if i absilutely have to. it took me three days to do it again.

thanks again in advance.

martha

[LariosoDog]

It might be that cpu is a bit weak for full hd video, and effects on top of that.

It rates 3500 here:

PassMark CPU Benchmarks - High Mid Range CPUs

Windows has what they call Windows Experience Index and you can find looking in Control panel -> System.

You can see rating for video part as well - Aero rating is most advatageous regarding video playback, and gaming stuff like 3D more for games and stuff.

So there you can find the weakest part of your computer, cpu or video or other part like discs.

[Steve Grisetti]

Larioso makes a good point. As I said earlier, you've got a marginal computer -- so you can do some basic AVCHD editing, but heavy duty green screen and effects are going to tax your video. Especially if you are using MP3s or another audio format other than WAV for your music or audio files. (Are you?)

How are you creating your DVD? It sounds like you may be just burning a video file to your disc rather than using Export & Share/Disc/DVD. (Resolution shouldn't be an option, since DVDs only have one resolution.)

But why go through the trouble of outputting a DVD? If you want to see if Premiere Elements is damaging your video, just use Export & Share/Computer/Device with the 1280x720 resolution and MP4 format. Then play that MP4 in VLC Media Player. It should play fine -- which will indicate that your only issue is playback in Premiere Elements. This choppy playback won't be in your finished video.

[marthalandes]

Hi Steve, thanks for the suggestion to download the video to my computer.  It looks great and I even uploaded it to Youtube with no problem or choppy playback. Yay!

However, I do still need to make Dvds and no matter the setting, I can't seem to burn to a DVD.  I did it last year, so know it's possible.  I did go from export share, but its not able to play on anything afterwards.

I even tried to burn from the file on my desktop, but

Can't get that to happen.  do you know a free burner software you recommended Or have other suggestions?  Once these are burned and work, I'll stop bothering you.

Again, I want to say how much I appreciate your quick responses and help.  It's soooo much fun to work with Premiere Elements 14 and your book is awesome!

Martha

[Steve Grisetti]

Are you able to create an ISO? If so you can use ImgBurn (free) to create a DVD from the ISO. ImgBurn is great -- but recent versions come with a lot of bloatware -- but I've got a tutorial that shows you how to work around the bloatware and just install and use the program.

But if you need to actually author and create a DVD file, you'll need a separate DVD authoring app. I can recommend an expensive one if you need me to. And then I can tell you how to get your video from Premiere Elements into this program. (All of this information is in my books, on Amazon) by the way, if you're interested.