Media encoder render stuck, and only renders if I keep using the computer

[brunoseven]

Hello guys.

I've been having this problem for over a month now, and I avoided asking here for a long time because I thought it was something temporary, since this problem doesn't make any sense with everything I've learned about rendering and video so far.

I edit some videos directly in After Effects and then send them to Media Encoder. It was always ok, until a month ago it started not working so well anymore.

Basically, when I click to render, the rendering process starts, but soon it gets kind of stuck, not moving. No error messages or anything, it just stays still and the estimated time to finish rendering is stopped or increasing.

To make everything more confusing, the render restarts normally if I start using the computer, open youtube, put some video to play, and keep repeating these steps. When I do that, the noise of the computer rendering even increases and the render starts moving again, you can even follow the progress through the Media Encoder.

What I've learned is that the more free I leave the computer during the render, the better and faster the final result will be, but the opposite has happened with me. I already left the whole night rendering a video that rendered something around 30 seconds of video, and when I got up and went to play on youtube the computer rendered more than 5 minutes in just over 10 minutes.

I've never heard of anything like it, and it doesn't make any sense to me. I would like to know if anyone has an idea of ​​what might be happening, as it has been very complicated to have to be using the computer throughout the render so that it does not stop rendering.

PC:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.19GHz
ram: 48.0 GB
Windows 10 Home Single Language
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi brunoseven,

How frustrating! I am sorry that is happening to you. It seems that this is more of a Media Encoder issue. Shall I move your post over there? Let me know. 

I've seen other editors struggling with exporting, too. Regarding things to try, I would see if rendering to an intermediate codec has the same issue. Something like ProRes or ProRes LT would be what I'd suggest. You can then take this master back into Media Encoder and render any H.264 files.

In some cases, Oddball VFR (variable frame rate) source footage is at the heart of the problem. Optimizing the footage in either Media Encoder or (if that won't work), an FFMPEG-based app like Shutter Encoder can do that. With this footage, be sure export settings match.

Thanks,
Kevin

[brunoseven]

Hi Kevin, sure, you can move it.

I'll try to take a look on possible variable frame rates on the next video. I hope it works, but in my mind it doesn't make any sense why it renders if I'm using the computer and get stuck if I'm not using it.

thanks, and I'll let you know if it works

[brunoseven]

unfortunatelly, nothing of this worked.

Actually, this kind of problem use to happen only on moments with interaction with PSD files, the moments with footages work pretty well. It happens with many files, so is not a single PSD file generating this problem.

I'm rendering a video right now at Media Encoder, from After Effects, and if I keep to much time without open some youtube video or using other things in the computer, the rendering keeps stucked, when I open the youtube and start to play some video, or something like that, the render goes faster and the computer (maybe the cooler of videoboard) makes more noise due to the working process.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Moving to AME.