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Previewing sequences



Adobe Premiere Pro attempts to play back any sequence in real time and at full frame rate. Adobe Premiere Pro usually achieves this for all sections that either need no rendering or for which Adobe Premiere Pro already has rendered preview files. However, real-time, full frame-rate playback is not always possible for complex sections without preview files: unrendered sections.

When you set the Program Monitor quality setting to Automatic Quality, Adobe Premiere Pro dynamically adjusts video quality and frame rate in order to preview the sequence in real time. During particularly complex unrendered sections of the sequence, or when using a system with inadequate resources, the playback quality degrades gracefully.

To play back complex sections in real time and at full frame rate, you may have to first render preview files for those sections. Adobe Premiere Pro marks unrendered sections of a sequence with colored render bars. A red render bar appearing in the time ruler of a sequence indicates an unrendered section that probably must be rendered in order to play back in real time and at full frame rate. A yellow render bar indicates an unrendered section that probably does not need to be rendered in order to play back in real time and at full frame rate. Regardless of their preview quality, sections under either red or yellow render bars should be rendered before you export them to tape. A green render bar indicates a section that already has rendered preview files associated with it.

Sequences refer to preview files in much the same way as source media. If you move or delete preview files in the Windows or Mac file browser rather than the Project panel, you’ll be prompted to find or skip the preview files the next time you open the project.

You can customize a sequence preset to allow previewing of uncompressed 10-bit or uncompressed 8-bit footage. For more information, see Create a sequence with uncompressed video playback (Windows only).

Define the work area

 Do any of the following:

  • Drag the work area bar over the section you want to preview. Make sure that you drag the work area bar from its textured center; otherwise you cue the current‑time indicator instead.

    Grabbing the work area bar (above) and dragging it over the section to preview (below)

  • Drag the work area markers (at either end of the work area bar) to specify the beginning and end of the work area.

    Dragging the work area markers to expand the work area

  • Position the current‑time indicator, and press Alt+[ (Windows) or Option+[ (Mac OS) to set the beginning of the work area.

  • Position the current‑time indicator, and press Alt+] (Windows) or Option+] (Mac OS) to set the end of the work area.

  • Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the work area bar to resize it to the width of all contiguous clips under the point you click.

  • Double‑click the work area bar to resize it to either the width of the time ruler, or the length of the entire sequence, whichever is shorter.

    Position the pointer over the work area bar to display a tool tip that shows the work area bar’s start timecode, end timecode, and duration.

Render a preview file

 Set the work area bar over the area you want to preview, and select one of the following:
Render Effects In Work Area
Renders the sections of the video tracks lying within the work area containing a red render bar.

Render Entire Work Area
Renders the sections of the video tracks lying within the work area containing either a red render bar or a yellow render bar.

Render Audio
Renders a preview file for the sections of the audio tracks lying within the work area.
Note: You can set Adobe Premiere Pro to render the audio tracks whenever you render the video tracks. For more information, see Render audio when rendering video.

The rendering time depends on your system’s resources and the complexity of the segment.

Render audio when rendering video

By default, Adobe Premiere Pro does not render audio tracks when you select either Sequence > Render Effects In Work Area, or Sequence > Render Entire Work Area. You can change this default so that Adobe Premiere Pro automatically renders audio previews whenever it renders video previews.

  1. Select Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences > General (Mac OS).
  2. Check or uncheck Render Audio When Rendering Video.
  3. Click OK.

Work with preview files

When you render previews, Adobe Premiere Pro creates files on your hard disk. These preview files contain the results of any effects that Adobe Premiere Pro processed during a preview. If you preview the same work area more than once without making any changes, Adobe Premiere Pro instantly plays back the preview files instead of processing the sequence again. Similarly, preview files can save time when you export the final video program by using the processed effects already stored. Adobe Premiere Pro stores the preview files in a folder you can specify.

To further save time, Adobe Premiere Pro maintains existing preview files whenever possible. Preview files move along with their associated segment of a sequence as you edit your project. When a segment of a sequence is changed, Adobe Premiere Pro automatically trims the corresponding preview file, saving the remaining unchanged segment.

When completely done with a project, delete preview files to save disk space.

Specify the disk location for preview files

  1. Choose Project > Project Settings > Scratch Disks.
  2. For the Video Previews and Audio Previews menus, choose locations for video and audio preview files.

    The disk you choose must be large and fast enough to support video playback, so choose a hard disk attached to your computer, not a network drive. Also, because Adobe Premiere Pro must be able to locate the preview files when you open a project, avoid specifying removable media.

Delete preview files

  1. With a Timeline panel active, do one of the following:

    • To delete the render files only for a range of clips, adjust the Work Area bar so that it spans only the desired range. Then, choose Sequence > Delete Work Area Render Files. Those preview files which have any part of their associated clip within the work area will be deleted.

    • To delete all the render files for a sequence, choose Sequence > Delete Render Files.

    You can set a keyboard shortcut for Delete Render Files and Delete Work Area Render Files.
  2. When you are prompted, click OK.

Scroll a sequence during preview

You can set an option to automatically scroll a sequence when it is wider than the visible area in its Timeline panel.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or Premiere Pro > Preferences > General (Mac OS).
  2. Choose an option from the Timeline Playback Auto-Scrolling menu:
    No Scroll
    Sequence doesn’t scroll.

    Page Scroll
    Sequence scrolls through the visible area of a Timeline panel a page at a time.

    Smooth Scroll
    Current‑time indicator stays in the center of the visible area while the sequence scrolls under it. This is the option set by default.