2-pass encoding for H.264 and H.264 Blu-ray hangs at the end of Pass 1

[Jim Norman]

I am using Premiere Pro V22.2 and am unable to use 2-pass encoding for H.264 and H.264 Blu-ray for long videos (1.5 hours, for example).  1-Pass works okay which tells me the projects are okay, but when I use 2-pass, PP locks up at the end of Pass 1.  On shorter videos such as 24 minutes, 2-pass works okay.  I have spent 2+ hours on the phone with Adobe support and they have not been able to fix the problem.  Is anyone elee having this problem?   The videos are 1080p.

[R Neil Haugen]

Is there a particular reason you need 2-pass encoding? It sounds like you must have a very specific deliverable need. Give us the details of what you need to produce and we can have ideas to help.

Neil

[Jim Norman]

Neil,

Thanks for the response.  I have been using 2-pass encoding since it became available.  My assumption was that for a given bitrate, 2-pass would produce a better image.   I have always had fast computers, so the extra time required for 2-pass was not a problem.  This worked fine until recently when I started having Premiere Pro freeze at the end of the first pass.   I spent 2+ hours with Adobe using remote access to troubleshoot, including deleting presets, reinstalling the graphics driver, and trying the 2021 version of PP.  I have done testing on a second computer running Windows 10 with no difference in the results.   My first computer runs Windows 11.  For short (24 minute) videos, 2-pass works okay, but for 2+ hour videos, it hangs at the end of Pass 1.   Another strange thing is that PP is still using 10% of the CPU time when it freezes.   MPEG-2 DVD 2+ hour videos do encode with 2-pass okay, but not H.264 or H.264 Blu-ray.    I have spent many hours trying different configurations without fixing the problem.  Frankly, I cannot afford to spend any more time doing testing.   One good thing about 1-pass encoding is that I can use hardware encoding which is very fast.   That leads to another mystery.  With 2-pass encoding, only software encoding can be selected, but when encoding using the software setting, it is still using around 30% of the GPU's processing power.

[R Neil Haugen]

No app can do hardware encoding on a 2-pass process, one of the users here has the full story on that but I don't recall the details.

For some things the 2-pass can give slightly better data compression is what someone said a while back ... but again, I'm not the one that really knows that cold.

I've used 1-pass for many different things for years, and never had an issue. Now I don't do broadcast though, don't know if at times it might be wise there.

Neil