__I cannot send to Media Encoder, despite it and AE being updated together

[Hugh Betcha]

I cannot send to Media Encoder, despite it and AE being updated together.

Also, what is the best possible export to do (as far as resolution)?

I once found a video on how to both maximize the resolution AND lower file size - but I lost it...

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Sorry to hear this is happening.  When sending a Comp to Adobe Media Encoder doesn't work as expected it can be frustrating.

Double-check that the version of After Effects and the version of Media Encoder match.  For example, if running After Effects 23.5 then it needs to be used with Media Encoder 23.5.

Often this type of issue is resolved by uninstalling After Effects and Media Encoder, restart, and then install After Effects which will install the corresponding version of Media Encoder with it.

As far as settings go, "Match Source - High Bitrate" is good for H264 MP4, so is "Match Source - Adaptive High Bitrate".

If you're running After Effects 2023, there are three H264 Output Module templates.  The one for 40 Mbps is likely to look the best, but will be larger than the other two.

If you cannot get your Comp to go over to Adobe Media Encoder, a workaround is to render the Comp at Best Settings / High Quality (the resulting movie file will be large) and then add that to Media Encoder.

[Hugh Betcha]

Thanks Warren!

I don't know why Adobe lets you update encoder, when it should be 'married' to AE. Target bitrate is what I was thinking of, to adjust resolution vs. size.