Media Encoder Stops Encoding with the New CS5.5

[Neverends Productions]

I just upgraded to CS5.5 a yesterday and having some issues encoding an 1 1/2 program for a DVD. The program doesn't seem to crash per se, just stops encoding. The task manager says it's running. I tried to encode the same sequence, but shorter and have the in and out points go through the part where it always stops and it worked fine. It's just when I try the entire sequence it stops. Anyone have any experience like this with CS5.5 just coming out?

Thank you,

Doug

[mjschiff]

I am having the same problem. I have updated my (nvidia) video drivers to the latest version, and also the computer bios (It's  Dell Precision workstation T3400), and it is  no help. I'm trying to use AME to encode about 30 SWF videos to H.264 mp4 files, using a queue in ME, and it reaches a certain point (it varies on each video) and hangs. I have only been able to successfully encode about 1/10 of the videos.

How can I get a "downgrade" to the CS5 version so I can get some work done?  I used AE CS5.5 to create these comps. Can I encode those in CS5? If not, I need a downgrade to AE as well. I just purchased an upgrade to the master suite for this project as I had the web suite before?

BTW, the same comps render perfectly, with no issues using the same settings as above in AE directly.

[Louis_fre]

I hate to disappoint you, my last post here was over a month ago and you are the next person to comment.

I think adobe has abandoned this one!

Sent from DisKreet Digital iPhone

[mjschiff]

Thanks, I noticed that. Seems that they would want to get this fixed. Even though there are only a few vocal ones here, I'm sure their support lines are swamped with them.

-- Martin

[Nariman Sodeifi]

We have not abandoned you.  This thread represents couple of different bugs based on various reports.  The one that most people are reporting has to do with exporting out of PPro to AME and app hanging at some point (Cuda card in system).  Or just starting AME, loading PPro project and trying to encode (Cuda card in system).  This bug has the highest priority and is still open to be fixed.  And I bring this up almost weekly with our development team.

Unfortunately this is also not a bug that can be fixed in AME.  So a patch to AME won't solve this issue from what I have been told by development team that’s working on this issue.  I have been working closely with Premiere Pro development team and they assure me that is one of their top bugs to resolve. 

[mjschiff]

Perhaps I have posted this in the wrong place then. My problem is with loading After Effects projects directly into AME and having them never complete rendering, even though the program does not seem to be locked up. The same projects render fine if I render them in AE directly.  If you can direct me to a better place to post this, I will be happy to go there.

-- Martin

[Nariman Sodeifi]

Well, it may not be the wrong post.  Do you have a Cuda card in your system.  If that answer is yes, this is likely the same issue.  Easy way to test this is by disabling cuda in AE and on the project.  Save the AE project (with cuda disabled), then bring it to AME. Do you still have this issue?  There are instructions on earlier posts on how to do this in PPro.  I'm not sure of the steps to disable cuda in AE and AE Project.

[Tim Kurkoski]

Martin - please start a new thread in the forum for the problem you're experiencing with AE. Thanks.

AE doesn't use CUDA.  What you describe is different enough behavior from the problems other people described in this thread that we should troubleshoot it separately, and also give it better visibility as a new thread.

[tjsCreative1]

Thanks for your posting that we're not forgotten.  We often wonder when there's no reply for a while.

I am suffering this same problem, AME freezing.  It does seem to have some specific triggers, but can also happen at random in some projects.

t's amazing how much slower performance is without CUDA.  I'll be glad when it is all working right.  In the meantime...

Are there differences in CUDA performance and stability in Adobe Media Encoder and Premiere Pro?  There's a big difference in supported board prices.  If I knew a $1,000 board would make my AME stable, I'd get one today.

Thanks again for the help.

[Dmitri Graf]

I used to be able to reproduce this freezing bug pretty consistently but then I downloaded the latest driver for Quadro FX4800 and now I can't repro.

Can somebody confirm that this bug is gone after the newest Quadro FX 4800 driver is installed? http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro-tesla-win7-winvista-64bit-276.42-whql-driver.html

Thanks

[EckleySP]

I have the same issue.  I don't know what CUDA is, so my guess is I don't have it.  Also, I am using an NVVIDIA GeForce GTX 285. .  . though I'm not sure how that can have anything to do it. 

[Dmitri Graf]

GTX 285 is one of the CUDA video cards supported by Adobe.

CUDA is a parallel computing architecture which significantly speeds up scaling and some effects transformations by doing some crazy parallel matrices computations.

EckleySP, is there any chance I could get your Premiere project?

[EckleySP]

The problem - mine anyway - is not A Premiere Pro Project.  It is many of them.  I have a number of projects that need to be rendered out - each will take in excess of 12-15 minutes or so, so I wanted to stack them up, or batch them in AME.   It usually gets through the first one or two, but then hangs up - usually in the beginning of a project.  It does not seem to matter what format I am rendering to, or the size - it just does not handle multiple 'batched' files.  In my case, each file consists of pretty much the same content.  They begin with a 30 second WMV file, followed by a nested sequence, followed by a simple title and another nested sequence.  In whole, the projects are about 18 to 25 minutes in length.  To get this work done, I have to render from Premiere Pro - so I sit here and watch it render - then I'll get the next one started. . .  and wait again.

[Paul_Duffey]

Yeah that's a real pain. If you do that over and over again like I do for a living then I'd strogly consider an EVGA GTX570. I was experiencing the same problem until I bought one of those and then downloaded the most current driver for it from the EVGA site (not the disc that it came with). With most video editors time is money so you don't want to be rendering while you watch, doing 8 hrs at night, or while your running errands is going to be way more convieniant.

[EckleySP]

Are you an After Effects user as well?   If so, any 3rd party plug ins installed?   And working. . . . ?

[Paul_Duffey]

It was in Premiere Pro CS5.5 for me. When I turned off Cuda processing the render time would double, so it was really important to have that.

[EckleySP]

Well, it appears to be working at least.   I can let it run at night and certainly be more productive than before.   -  Thanks for the info

[EckleySP]

I can tell you I don't have the newest driver for the GTX 285.  I had major issues with a Boris Continummimmm  plug in in After Effects and was told to back of the current driver.  I don't think it helped, so I suppose I should get current.

[Dmitri Graf]

Your issue will be solved if you disable CUDA in PPro.

Just go to PPro menu -> Project -> Project Settings -> General... -> Choose "Mercury Playback Engine Software Only" Renderer => You will no longer have this problem in AME.

[jbiggs-nyc]

I recently upgraded from cs3. Very unhappy, as while there were some issues with Sony and Canon materials, I found work arounds. Now stuck trying to output.

It's as if my new version of Word would not allow printing.

Anyway, what should I do, as my AME intermittantly hangs. I have major projects going on, need to fix this. Call? Email?

[Paul_Duffey]

Whats your systems stats? when you jump up to CS5.5 and editing multilayer HD you really need a lot of horsepower. The minimum requirements are a guideline that doesn't really encompass other ware or draws on system resources. If you write back and say you have an i7 with 12 gigs of ram I'd say start one by one updating the drivers for your video card which out of date drivers on Nvidia cards seems to be the main culprit for system lock ups.

[jbiggs-nyc]

It's a slow machine - I'm planning to upgrade soon. However, if I miss deadline on my current job, will not have money, so no new hardware.

Really regretting the upgrade. At least I could do my simple cuts and burn DVDs and export MPGs.

It's a HP p6110f, E5300 CPU, 64 bit Vista, 8MB memory, RAID0 drive.

I just need to output my current job. To get a new machine, reinstall, move everything over ... that's DAYS of unbillable work!!!! Seems like each version of Premiere requires several hundred hours of set up and trouble shooting. All I want is a stable machine to do relatively simple work. Cuts, fades, some color correction.

I was able to at least export up to this morning - my final output for current project is MPEG2 files. Today, it's hanging on the "Encoding Sequence 01" at 0%. This worked fine earlier today.

No changes since this morning. In fact, i had 5 edits queued, it bombed in the middle of #3.

Very very disappointed. I've been on Premiere for over 15 years ( I'm a video artist). Looks like FCP is only solution if I need to expend more $.

[Paul_Duffey]

I think the e5300 is a quad core right? and you meant 8 gigs of ram. I'm guessing with it being HP and that older of a computer you're probably don't have an approved Nvida card, so you're doing all software rendering rather than Cuda. That's a lot of pull on a system resources, rendering HD is easily 4x's as taxing as SD video just because the math says it's 4x's the pixels.

The one best work around if you just need to ge things done and upgrade hardware later is to render directly out of Premiere, rather than Queuing it to render out of Adobe Media Encoder. Also if you have a lot of rendering, several hours of video in many different clips, just do one, do the math on time length of video vs how long it takes to render, and see if you're going to meet your deadline, if not then I'd upgrade to an i7 with 12gigs or more and an Nvidia GTX video card. You can buy laptops off ebay spec'd like that in the $900 range, workstations in the $600 range. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and just upgrade and put it on a credit card. I usually upgrade every 2 years. My last system was an 8 gig i7 920 with an nvidia gt 8800 (no premeire approved). Luckily when the i7 980 Hexicores came out I was able to still use my motherboard. Ram is rediculously cheap now, The cheaper i7's are cheap now as well, under $230s. The  GTX 580s are a little pricing, $400 range, but the Nvidia GTX 400's cards are way cheaper. Here's a link that explains what cards can be used:

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5.htm

Mainly you want an Nvidia GTX with over 1gig of DDR5 ram. The brand I'm using is an EVGA and I had to update the driver from their site rather than the disc included in the retail box.

[jbiggs-nyc]

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but how to export directly out of Premiere? I've been doing file>export>media. What is other option?

[Paul_Duffey]

When the export dialog box comes up just make sure you press the [Export] button rather than the [Queue] button in order to render out of Premiere rather than Adobe Media Encoder. Basically this whole thread is based on AME locking up when it's Queued.

[jbiggs-nyc]

Thanks so much, this is HUGE help. I hate being a dummy.

My video project involves five separate outputted MPG files - it's going to be show as five sync-ed videos. All five are very similar - one main track, with several additional tracks for the extra screens.

After editing, I've been trying to line up all five versions on AME. I'll just do one at a time.