After Effects CC stopped working with QuickTime files

Report · Jul 15, 2013

I can not reliably use QuickTime (Animation or ProRes codec) in my timeline. I also can't export to QuickTime. I believe accepting the latest update to CC or my system software initiated this problem. I did not have this problem last week. I have converted all of my source QTs to .PNG sequences and .AIFs as a work-around.

System Details:

Troubleshooting Info:

• I've read this article: http://blogs.adobe.com/aftereffects/2011/02/troubleshooting-quicktime-errors-with-after-effects.html

• I don't have Blackmagic or Aja, but I do have Nvidia Quadro 4000 Mac with the latest Nvidia and Cuda drivers. I'll try uninstalling... but I may want to raytrace in the coming days.

• I've trashed the 12.0 folder and rebooted many times

• repaired permissions

• Multi-threding on/off doesn't matter

update

• "QT32Server process" appears then disappears Activity Monitor when I try to render ProRes (output module fails...)

• No firewall

• Uninstaled Nvidia driver. Restarted. Same problems.

and then

• Created a fresh admin user. This seems to work for now: I can read and write QTs through AE again. I'll update if there are any changes.

update again

• Once again, I can not import ProRes QTs into AE CC. Making a new user only worked for 2 launches. The only software I used with this system/new user was Adobe AE CC, PS CC, and Safari.

Any suggestions?

Best,

Benjamin

Report · Sep 10, 2013

We just ran into this issue. Removing the DVCProHDVideoOut component did not fix the issue. I was able to narrow it down to the AJAMuxer component in quicktime. However this component is nececcary for playback/digitze with FCP7. Also without the AJAMuxer component audio can not playback through the AJA device in After Effects.

Report · Sep 10, 2013

VigsTV-

Have you tried all the solutions mentioned in that blog post? Did you empty the trash after removing the DVCProHDVideoOut component?

Try also trashing the DVCProHDMuxer component. Removing this instead of DVCProHDVideoOut can also solve the problem; they work as a pair, removing one will cause either to fail (we wrote up the blog post without mentioning Muxer in order to keep things simple).

If you change the Audio Hardware preferences in AE to use a different device, does QT32 Server stop crashing?

Have you updated your AJA drivers? What version are you running?

Report · Sep 10, 2013

I've tried all of the solutions mentioned. When I remove AJAMuxer After Effects doesn't have a problem with the Quicktime files. However without the AJAMuxer component I don't have video playback available in Final Cut. Also the AJA device cannot be chosen in the After Effects preferences Audio Hardware. I can get audio to play from my computer speakers, but there are 1 or 2 frames of delay.

AJA Kona3G

AJA driver 10.4.7

AJA Adobe Driver 10.4.5

Report · Sep 10, 2013

Did removing DVCProHDMuxer help?

Although we have no reason to think the problem is caused by AJA's drivers, we have had cases where using the AJA card for audio output causes the same failure to occur. In a nutshell, when enumerating the list of audio devices, QuickTime sends QT32 Server some data it can't recognize and the crash occurs. We don't what the trigger for this is, as it's inside of QuickTime. The DVCProHD components make it more likely to happen, but we've seen a few different configurations cause the problem.

Try changing your audio device in System Prefs. One of our engineers has also recommended creating a composite device in Audio MIDI Setup (Applications > Utilities) when this problem occurs, but that's outside of my area of expertise.

As noted by Todd in another thread, in the upcoming After Effects 12.1 update due in October, the risk of this problem is reduced. After Effects 12.1 disables by default the risky behavior (requesting a list of devices from QuickTime) that instantiates the QT32 Server crash. This change also disables video out by default, so by re-enabling video out you will risk the problem occurring.

In a future release of After Effects, we plan to avoid the crash entirely by using a different technology for video out.

Report · Sep 10, 2013

I don't have a DVCProHDMuxer component in my QT. I only have the DVCProHDcodec. The only way around it for me is to remove the AJAMuxer. I'll try a few more things, and see if I can find a workaround.

Report · Oct 15, 2013

Hi Guys

Would like to share my issue, have been using AE CS5 for ages and recently upgraded to CC.... after updateing my AJA KONA LHI drivers and installing the Adobe AJA drivers for CC started having the same issues as everyone else here , couldnt import Moov Files.... did the following and it worked for me,

Deleted

DVCPROHDVideoOutput.component

Deleted and re-installed to make sure it updated

AppleProResCodec.component

Deleted AE CC Prefs (This without even deletiing the above fixed the QT Issue)

However coudnt get Audio to play/scrub without crashing and getting the same error as tmpsto1's post. So followed Adobes suggestion to go to Audio MIDI Setup (Applications > Utilities) then went to AE 12.0 ticked all the Audio Boxes

Then Deleted AE Prefs again

Patched the Audio back to the AJA Card and boom... all working perfectly audio scrubbing working and ALL QT's Importing.

By the way I rang the Adobe hotline about this yesterday and they had absolutly no clue whatsoever in how to help me I had to help myself... this really needs to improve. Spoke to AJA also and they suggest removing the AJAmuxer.component... this did nothing for me personally.

Cheers

Report · Oct 19, 2013

Hi Tim,

I was having the same issue wit my AE CC (didn't happen with AE CS5)... when I import mov files it was appering the follwing warning:

So, following your advice I moved all the files from QT Library to other folder in desktop.. and it solved the issue!!

Then, I put the files back one by one and I noticed the villain was the "DVCPROHDCodec.component"

So, by far all is going great!

Thank you for your help!

Report · Nov 02, 2013

In windows, I upgrade AE CC to 12.1 version and not fix the problem. I can´t convert to quicktime any codecs.