Premiere slow, makes it nearly impossible to edit

[SQ]

I'm saying one lagarith file, one video track, no cuts, it won't playback if it's not rendered.

I noticed the problem with HD footage, but I work almost exclusively with SD footage now. And on top of that, even when I have HD footage, my compositions sequences are hilariously small. I'm currently working in 624x352. It is still sputtering, even when rendered. This current sequence is the worst, but it's Xvid so I guess that's expected.

When I used HD mp4s, the comp was at 624x352 and previews set to 1/4 playback resolution.

When I was working with avs files for (SD) mkv (IIRC-- this is going back about 2 years), resolution was 720x480 and it wasn't working perfectly but it was going much smoother than it is now. That project is the last time I remember it NOT sucking, actually.

....

I opened up Premiere and decided to make a few test projects for myself to see what the problem might be (I've never done this before, I just have been kind of dealing with it and a passing thought said I should post here yesterday).

I believe the problem is the amount of files I have imported. Not only this, but whether they need "conforming" or not. Videos with audio need to be conformed. Premiere always conforms them in the background while editing. Not a huge problem if you have one or two files, but my projects lately have been using tons of files (50+) with sound.
SO ONE STEP CLOSER TO SOLVING THE MYSTERY.

This is probably not really a hardware problem with this information. But assuming this is actually the problem.

1.) Is there a way to turn off conforming so it does not happen, or only happens when I tell it to do that specific file?
2.) Is there a piece of hardware I could upgrade that would make conforming go by faster?
3.) If the above is not possible, is there a batch way to strip sound from all my files. (Avs I'm guessing?)

[l33tmeatwad]

For one, if your composition settings have little to do with how your system can playback the source material If your source is say, 1080p lossless, it doesn't matter if your project setting is 480p, it still have to decode and play that 1080p file unless you render (in which case it plays the rendered preview). Also, if you pull in a full episode then cut it, it's going to give you more problems than if you make subclips (or just pull in clips).

[SQ]

Can you explain why that is, about subclips?
I'm not doubting you, I'd just like to know.

[BasharOfTheAges]

It's loading in the entire file. The sub-clip is a set of time stamps... all a subclip is, essentially, is a set of pointers back to the start and stop points within the full file. Unless you render a preview, you are loading the full file THEN doing a series of steps to offset time, downscale, etc. Without rendering previews, you are actually doing more work to downscale and clip inside Premiere too.

[halex1316]

LOL you clearly misunderstood. I said "remotely" which clues that it is hardly at all. i7 or not, 2.8GHz isn't that fast nowadays. His graphics chip has nearly 2GB of memory, so it's not that bad at all. And if it didn't help with hardware acceleration, it surely wouldn't make a program slow down given that those features were disabled and it wasn't relying on it.

[l33tmeatwad]

Intel graphics is not on par with other cards, especially in laptops. The memory you see listed is the amount or had access to, not the total amount of dedicated graphics memory.

[halex1316]

Ahh, was unaware this was a laptop. Intel currently has a really powerful graphics card out right now, not sure of the name, but it was being compared to the GTX Titan. Read it in a hardware magazine. No hostility intended.

[l33tmeatwad]

Yeah, Intel FINALLY did release one this year that is comparable after trying to play catchup on the graphics card market for all these years.