Why is my timeline choppy?
Playback stutter in Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Avid or Final Cut usually comes from one of a few places: the storage, the connection to it, the footage itself, or the computer. Answer six short questions and this page lists the likeliest causes for your setup, with what to try first.
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What makes a timeline choppy
Every frame you play takes a trip. It is read from storage, carried over a cable or a network, decoded from its codec, processed with your effects and color, and drawn on screen. Playback stutters when any one of those steps cannot keep up, and the symptom looks the same whichever step is slow. That is why a faster computer sometimes changes nothing.
On a single machine with a local SSD, the usual suspects are decoding and processing. On shared storage, the connection and the number of people using it enter the picture. With cloud files, the internet connection is your storage. The questions above separate those cases so that the first thing you try is the thing most likely to matter.
What this tool can and cannot tell you
It ranks likely causes from your answers using plain rules, and it says how to check each one. It does not measure your network or open your files, so it cannot be certain. If the first steps do not settle it, a person who can look at the real setup will find the cause faster than guessing.
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Questions about choppy playback
Why is my timeline choppy when my computer is fast?
- Playback depends on a chain: where the files are stored, how they reach the computer, how hard they are to decode, and how much processing the timeline needs. A fast computer fixes only some of those links. Footage on a slow drive or a busy network share, or heavily compressed camera files, can stutter on a very capable machine.
How fast does storage need to be for editing?
- There is no single number. It depends on the codec, resolution, frame rate and how many streams the timeline plays at the same time. As a reference point, a 1GbE link carries about 125 MB/s at best and closer to 100 to 110 MB/s in practice, shared by everything using it. Add up the streams you need at once and compare that with what the link and the storage can sustain.
Is Wi-Fi good enough for video editing?
- Usually not for editing straight from shared storage. Wi-Fi speed moves up and down with distance and interference, and video playback needs a steady flow. A wired connection is far more predictable. Wi-Fi can be fine for light tasks such as reviewing a proxy or copying files that you are not playing at the same time.
Do proxies actually fix a choppy timeline?
- They help when the problem is decoding heavy files or moving a lot of data, which is common with camera H.264 or HEVC, RAW and shared storage. They do little when the limit is effects, the graphics card or a broken network link, so a timeline that is still rough on proxies points somewhere else.
What does a dropped frames warning in Premiere Pro mean?
- Premiere Pro can show a dropped frame indicator in the Program Monitor when playback could not keep up with the timeline. It says that frames were skipped, not why. The cause might be storage, the network, decoding or processing, which is why this tool asks about all of them. Check Adobe's documentation for the current behavior in your version.