Inspiring

Answered

H.264 in After Effects H.264

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
April 4, 2018
6 replies
91445 views

In After Effects version 15.1, Quicktime H.264 codec is missing and according to Adobe as of this version it is no longer support H.624 on Windows. Does anyone have a way around this? The TV stations we sends spots to REQUIRE Quicktime H.264.

Correct answer mike233

Our solution is the reinstall AE CC 15.0 and not update it.

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Longbrake81

Participant

Here is your fix.

Render it in HD 1920x1080, then open your file in photoshop. Create a file in 1920x1080 then set it for motion. Import your file that you made in after effects, then resize to fit your canvas, then render in h.264 from there.

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pnchx

Participant

Hi guys! I just discovered the solution... i hope can help. (sorry for my bad english)

First... make sure that you have installed the Quicktime Player 7 in your Computer.

1.- The issue is that "Apple Aplication Support" is not running with AE.

2.- Download Quicktime Player 7 from Apple Website.

3.- Using winrar... Right Click on Quicktime7 Installer... and click on "Etract Archives" or "Extraer Ficheros". Put that files in an independent folder.

4.- In the extracted files you´re gonna find this file: "AppleApplicationSupport.msi" Double Click and install. And Done!

Open AE... try to Export in Quicktime and look for the H264 compressor.

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eyarbrough619

Participant

Is there a comparable codec in the list similar to H.264?

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Rick Gerard

Community Expert

Not really. H.264 is a high-quality interframe MPEG compression scheme with a defined set of standards for frame size, frame rate, and audio format. Right now it is the standard for multi-platform delivery and is supported on virtually all current devices that will play a movie (video).

H.264 also works best when you use multipass rendering. Compression and color artifacts almost completely disappear. The Output Module (Render Cue) has never supported multipass rendering and unless it is redesigned from the ground up, it never will. H.264 rendering in a Quicktime container is also no longer supported by Apple so that is why it was removed.

There are some new compression schemes that look like they may gain wide acceptance and deliver higher quality playback with lower demands on the CPU, but there are still compatibility issues. Most of these new formats are not compatible with the frame based rendering that the Output Module uses so you'll have to use the Media Encoder for them too.

The Output Module is very efficient at producing frame-based visually lossless digital intermediates and production masters using many of the standard Mezzanine codecs. A Mezzanine codec (or format) is a compression scheme widely accepted and adopted by many production companies and/or professional freelancers for use as digital intermediates and production masters because you can re-render them many many times without introducing any compression or color artifacts. They are not intended for distribution to the public.

I hope this clears a few things up for you. If you intend on delivering your product to the public then it is extremely important that you use an app that is specifically designed to render to common delivery formats. The Adobe Media Encoder is a fairly full-featured and widely accepted tool for that job and it will run in the background while you continue to work in After Effects or Premiere Pro.

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eyarbrough619

Participant

Thank you so much. It’s very important to have the right codec especially for file size and compatibility. I appreciate it.

Ellen Yarbrough

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mike233AuthorCorrect answer

Inspiring

Our solution is the reinstall AE CC 15.0 and not update it.

S

sequence W4

Known Participant

I agree with Mike, some warning would have saved me a lot of money today. We have reinstalled old versions of After Effects, Premiere and Media Encoder on all our machines. We have 10 years of H264 legacy projects we need to be able to access. Also a lot of stock footage we buy from Getty and Shutterstock is H264 and PNG.

Maybe we will look at upgrading our Macs so that we can run the latest Adobe software updates

A nightmare day for us all.

Kyle Hamrick

Community Expert

I'm sorry for the headache you've encountered, but they *do* put out a pretty exhaustive list of the things changing (good or bad) from version to version. They don't just throw this stuff out there with "no warnings," as you put it. If you have workflows you believe may be impacted by an update, it's your responsibility to check that before updating.

New features summary | April 2018 release of After Effects CC
Dropped support for Quicktime 7 era formats and codecs

Also, not that it really matters, but I suspect Apple is probably the entity who deserves your ire.

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sequence W4

Known Participant

I have this same problem since update morning 040418 and Media Encoder won't launch... nightmare!

Kyle Hamrick

Community Expert

Try sending it through Media Encoder. Has always been superior for H264 encoding anyway.

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mike233Author

Inspiring

IT has to be Quitcktime (.mov) not regular H.264 (.mp4)

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Rick Gerard

Community Expert

mike@m2c wrote
IT has to be Quitcktime (.mov) not regular H.264 (.mp4)

That is nonsense. Apple does not support H.264 encoding, it never worked well and never was stable and predictable. If some client is demanding an h.264 file in a QT container they need to do some research. If some software will only playback h.264 QT movies then it is highly unusual and should not be used in any process that requires dependable performance.

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