Skip to main content
J
joeycamoriano
Participating Frequently
November 1, 2017
Answered

Exporting Faster (is it really possible?)

  • November 1, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 11832 views

After reading everything I could find on how to export my large project at the fastest possible speed, nothing has worked. I may have to resign to purchasing faster hardware, but figure I would put this out there in case anyone is in the same predicament I am in and has found an answer.

My goal:  To export a 60-minute documentary from PPRO CC 2017 to a high-quality output file as well as a file for web delivery.

My current equipment: 

MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch, Early 2013

Processor - 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory - 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB

External 5TB USB Porsche hard drive (4.96TB currently available)

External 6TB SATA LaCie d2 Thunderbolt 3 (4.85TB currently available)

Before I go any further, I must say that I have my preview files, rendering, and processing scratch-disked over to my 5TB USB drive and pushed all of my media, about 80GB, over to my 6TB drive via a thunderbolt cable. For some reason, I thought that by separating the media from the processing with two different drives would speed up the process; however, I may have shot myself in the foot by not purchasing a drive that runs at 7200 RPM and after trying everything I know how to do, the export process stops at 3 minutes into the documentary and remaining times exceed 60 hours. So I am beginning to realize that I may need to dump everything I have into faster drives. I compare this process to owning a Lamborghini, but it stays in the garage because it's missing an engine. So I think I may have just answered my own question, but can anyone relate? I really don't want to buy anymore hardware at the moment.

I have tried the following, and here are my current specs when exporting:

Sequence settings

Editing Mode: DSLR

Timebase: 23.976

Frame Size: 1920x1080

No max render or max bit depth

Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 1 pass

Target Bitrate: 9 (I have scaled this even lower but export times still long)

Max Bitrate: 16 (same as above)

Yes, I checked the USE PREVIEWS box and also unchecked it, no difference

I have also tried using proxies, which I ingested as I was dumping footage on the timeline, still no improvements

My Estimated File Size has ranged from 200 MB to 9,000 MB and there is no difference in export times (machines still stop after 40 minutes of trying to render)

I have also changed my Preset to Custom and did the Match Sequence Settings

I have also rendered everything BEFORE exporting

I also tried AME with no improvements

I also tried changing the Preview File Format to I-Frame Only MPEG as well as others

My Renderer is at Mercury Playback Engine GPU Acceleration (OpenCL) and I also tried Software only, no difference

As for Smart Rendering, I don't know what to do since I did not convert all of my media to ProRes or another format before editing. The problem is I have already edited everything onto my timeline, and I have many clips that are heavily Magic-Bulleted with Colorista IV, Denoiser II and Cosmo II (killers), Colorista IV, and also Red Giant effects. Not everything has an effect, but the majority of my project does.

Bottom line: Is there any way to speed up my export process without having to buy faster drives? AND IF NOT, which drives should I buy and how should I configure my processing and media between these drives, or should I? I don't want my media to go missing. Seems like Adobe Premiere Pro CC does not have a good way to find media once it's been moved around. Thank you.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer SAFEHARBOR11

    Since this project is so render-intensive, I would definitely export as a "master" using a high-quality codec like ProRes for a couple of reasons.

    1) You can export this project ONCE, then from the ProRes master file, quickly export to any other delivery format as needed later.

    2) Exporting to H.264 takes more horsepower to encode than less-compressed intermediate codecs. This is on top of the already heavy workload of your effects. Will greatly increase export time and chance of crashing with overburdened laptop.

    Just thought of something - from my bag of tricks that I've had to use over the years out of necessity - export the timeline in chunks rather than all at once. Export as three 20-minute pieces rather than one big clip. The assemble the 3 clips on a new timeline and export as one master clip. Using ProRes, you won't have any quality loss really, but maybe this workflow would allow you to complete the export. Or even do 10-minute pieces, whatever it takes to get through the export without crashing.

    Thanks


    Jeff

    2 replies

    E
    excited_Genie16B8
    Legend
    November 1, 2017

    Assuming a proper system and all else being equal, there are only four things you can do to speed up exports.

    1. Turn on CUDA and uncheck Maximum Render Quality.

    2. Use 1 pass, not 2.

    3. Get a faster CPU.

    4. Get a faster GPU.

      S
      SAFEHARBOR11Correct answer
      Participating Frequently
      November 1, 2017

      Since this project is so render-intensive, I would definitely export as a "master" using a high-quality codec like ProRes for a couple of reasons.

      1) You can export this project ONCE, then from the ProRes master file, quickly export to any other delivery format as needed later.

      2) Exporting to H.264 takes more horsepower to encode than less-compressed intermediate codecs. This is on top of the already heavy workload of your effects. Will greatly increase export time and chance of crashing with overburdened laptop.

      Just thought of something - from my bag of tricks that I've had to use over the years out of necessity - export the timeline in chunks rather than all at once. Export as three 20-minute pieces rather than one big clip. The assemble the 3 clips on a new timeline and export as one master clip. Using ProRes, you won't have any quality loss really, but maybe this workflow would allow you to complete the export. Or even do 10-minute pieces, whatever it takes to get through the export without crashing.

      Thanks


      Jeff

        J
        joeycamorianoAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        November 1, 2017

        Jeff,

        Once I edit 3 chunks of 20 minutes, how do I export using ProRes? I don't see that as an option (although at the moment, I am not in front of my computer). I remember seeing other formats to choose, but not ProRes as an export option by itself.

        Peferling
        Peferling
        Inspiring
        November 1, 2017

        Look into smart rendering.  Consider an end to end, whole system approach by working with formats and edits that work in real-time:

        FAQ: How do I speed up rendering, exporting, or encoding?

        J
        joeycamorianoAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        November 1, 2017

        Thanks, Peferling. I read that FAQ several times and tried everything mentioned, but that forum discussion is mostly about what to do before editing is finished. Nothing in that discussion seemed to help speed up my export. Thanks for the info, though. Best, Joe.

        S
        SAFEHARBOR11
        Participating Frequently
        November 1, 2017

        The problem is not the drives, it's the effects. Video denoisers are notorious for taking FOREVER to render, with Magic Bullet effects taking a good while as well. And you probably have the two combined on the same clips, yes?

        On my previous PC workstation, which was beefy but 5 years old, denoising 30 minutes of footage would take 18 hours!!! I have a new workstation now and am also using different denoiser software which uses the GPU and CPU cores together and rendering is much, much faster now. I can't imagine doing that on an older laptop though...

        Short of getting a new (fast) computer, there is no easy fix for you I'm afraid.

        I do have a tip for you - denoise the footage BEFORE editing and export to a quality intermediate codec, then work with the new clean clip in Premiere. If you have DN and Magic Bullet effects combined on the same clips, that is just too much especially for a small laptop to handle.

        I've actually completed multi-cam edits in Premiere and later decided I needed to denoise one of the cameras. Too much work to try and denoise each and every cut up little clip in the timeline, which may also have color correction applied. So I would just denoise the raw clip and make a new clip, then change the name of the original clip so that when I opened the Premiere project, it would ask "Where is the video clip?" and I would point it to the NEW, denoised clip and it would use that new source with my existing edits. Done! That was with CS6, but I know CC now has nice tools for finding and replacing footage in a project. It became my workflow to denoise raw clips before editing, because otherwise the timeline response was absolutely horrible with DN applied in Premiere.

        So I wonder if something like that might help you get your project exported? Break down the steps rather than doing everything (all effects) at once? As an example, let's say that for a one-hour project, it would take 20 hours to render with just denoise applied, and 5 hours to render with only color correction applied. Reason would suggest that exporting with both applied should take about 25 hours then, right?

        However, weird things can happen when combining processing-intensive effects. That 25 hours turns into 60 hours...or won't export at all without crashing! Maybe remove the denoising, export project as ProRes, then run denoise on the ProRes clip in a separate pass?

        Good luck with this project

        Thanks


        Jeff

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices