Premiere Elements 7: Preview playback problems?

[evil-authoress.livejournal.com]

Hello, everybuggy! First time poster, first time video maker, the whole thing. I recently bought Premiere Elements 7, and I'm having trouble with the preview playback as I'm working. The audio is fine, but the video goes in fits and starts, sometimes playing at half speed or not at all, so obviously it's hard to tell how the clips are fitting together. I've tested the source .avi on its own, and it seems fine. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I don't use the same software for vidding, but had the same issue with the preview in Sony Vegas because I vid with very large files. Does Premiere have a pre-render feature, where you can just pre-render a small section of your timeline? That's how I got around the issue in Vegas. If my source was a Region 1 DVD, (NTSC DV) then I would pre-render little sections in the same output format and then the preview would run smoothly.

[evil-authoress.livejournal.com]

I think it's the codec problem, as bananainpyjamas described, but I'll look into that too. Thanks!

[littleheaven70.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, glad you've gotten to the bottom of it. Vegas also dislikes DivX or Xvid files (won't show the video at all) and I found installing ffdshow (which is a video for windows codec) fixed that up. So if AviSynth doesn't do the trick, try that one.

[evil-authoress.livejournal.com]

I've already got ffdshow, which I think helps make the whole thing bearable, if kind of frustrating. But thanks!

[bananainpyjamas.livejournal.com]

Is this a DivX or XviD-encoded file? Premiere doesn't like those.

[evil-authoress.livejournal.com]

Just checked - it's XviD-encoded. Short of finding another source file, is there any way I can get around this?

[bananainpyjamas.livejournal.com]

You can import it with AviSynth. It might still be a little buggy but for the most part it should work. Download AviSynth and the Premiere AVS Plugin.