Inspiring

Question

Audio cuts out in Quicktime even though it's there

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 11, 2020
6 replies
5730 views

I am exporting a file to .mpeg format from Adobe Premiere Pro. When I play the file in Quicktime player or through iTunes, the audio abruptly stops for no reason, even though the audio is there...what gives??? I can't trust the audio export -- very frustrating! I'm working on an iMac with the latest Catalina update.

This topic has been closed for replies.

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

don't want to imply that I know more than adobe (well maybe) but I don't think we can expect them to explain all the nuances of compression, decompression, postproduction workflow, etc in this particular document. I've been doing this for a very long time and do have some insights into the process. Try the intermediate step of exporting to prores. If you're concerned about any possible loss of quality, use prores4444 as the intermediate format. prores4444 is virtually lossless (much better than an mpeg file).

If that solves your problem, you're home free...

Or if you're satisfied with how things stand now, fine. I've always felt that when you are having a problem like this, it's always a good idea to find a solution or a practical workaround if possible because the root cause of the problem may come back to bite you in more serious ways down the road. good luck.

S

Small Town GalAuthor

Inspiring

Dear mgrenadier:

It's easy for Adobe Stock to reject a file with "technical problems"???, so I try to follow the rules and get my work accepted; and, with the next update between Apple and Adobe, there will most likely be another "something" that comes along to bite us and we will have to work that out. I am not a technical guru by any stretch of the imagination, but I have done some pretty good video and audio editing over the last twenty years, so I do know some things. I find it strange that sometimes the audio is fine when played in Quicktime, and sometimes it just drops out for no reason. I have come to the conclusion that perhaps the older render files and cache in Premiere Pro are interfering with a new added audio track that has multiple cuts, so I have tried to delete the old render and cache files before exporting, do a completely new render, and that has worked the last couple of times...but who can predict the future? I am not grinding out video files for Adobe Stock in huge numbers, so this is not affecting me horribly -- it's just frusterating! HAVE A GREAT DAY, AND THANKS FOR YOUR HELP! I wonder if there is any answer...

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

believe me, Adobe can't be as rigorous (horrible) as pbs used to be when checking to make sure your submission met "technical specs." Rejecting videos gave their lives meaning... For the last 20 years when delivering anything for pbs, I always did my output at an online house where if there were an issue, they fought with pbs or fixed it. Trust me, delivering an mp4, or a quicktime with the h264 codec, or with the prores codec if done properly WILL meet their technical specs. It says those formats are acceptable in the delivery specs. If they reject it, it'll be because there's another problem and hopefully they will tell you the issue. If you follow my suggestions from my previous post, you'll probably find a solution...

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

I don't understand. Does it consistently export properly as an mp4? You should be able to at least equal the quality of an mpg file with mp4 and probably surpass mpg. And something like .mov with prores422(hq) will far surpass .mpg albeit with much larger file sizes.

One other thought, try exporting as prores 422(hq) mov and bring the resulting file back in to premiere (or quicktime player) and see if the audio's ok. If so, try exporting this file as an mpg. It's possible there's something dicey in the workflow from your camera original to mpg that this might solve....

Mpeg compression (and this includes h264 and many other variants) is sometimes more of an art than a science and figuring out the optimum workflow is often an adventure.

Sorry for your frustration and hope one of these suggestions solves your issues.

S

Small Town GalAuthor

Inspiring

Dear mgrenadier,

I have gotten my exports to work, as outlined above. As you can see from Adobe Stock's guidelines, they don't want contributors doing much changing to original formats. When I compare my .mpeg export to .mp4, I prefer the .mpeg's rendering of highlighs to .mp4. So, as long as I can get .mpeg to export properly, and Adobe accepts that format, that's how I want to export it, if I can. If that fails, I will try .mp4, which, by the way, also failed to produce playable audio on some exports, and other times it worked. I now try to delete all old render files before exporting and clear the cache. Most problems seem to occur when I have unlinked the old audio file from the video and inserted a new audio file with multiple cuts. Premier doesn't seem to want to handle that...

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

well people usually have a reason for being snarky. Like here, where you still didn't answer all the questions... So does Adobe suggest any file settings for stock submissions? You can adjust your export settings for mp4 so they'll be virtually lossless...

S

Small Town GalAuthor

Inspiring

Upload source content at one of the following resolutions:

1920x1080

2048x1080

3840x2160

Stock Contributor User Guide Content requirements

Search Adobe Support !

Select an article:

STOCK CONTRIBUTOR

›

A message to our Adobe community about COVID-19. Learn more ›

☰

4096x2160

4096x2304

Upload content at its native frame size. Do not down-convert or upconvert

from the original camera resolution unless the source

resolution is greater than 4K.

Avoid vertical or square framing.

We accept video clips that are 1920 pixels wide up to full DCI 4K at

4096 pixels wide.

Standard sizes are 1920x1080 (HD), 2048x1080 (2K), 3840x2160

(UHD), 4096x2160 (4K), and 4096x2304 (4K-16x9). However, we also

accept most wide screen aspect ratios such as 2.39:1 which can result

in lower height pixel counts.

Frame rate

Do not convert clips from their native frame rate unless you’re

submitting a slow motion or fast motion video.

Shoot at standard frame rates: 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60

Video container formats

We accept MOV, MPG, MP4, and AVI formats.

Use a professional grade transcoding tool such as Adobe Media

Encoder to retain original video quality and avoid recompression

whenever possible.e.

Video compression (codecs) accepted

Recommended:

ProRes

H.264

Also accepted:

MPEG 2

MPEG 4

Motion JPEG (MJPEG)

PNG

Audio

Sound that is part of the scene (ambient sound) is acceptable,

although you may also choose to remove it.

If voices are clearly recognizable, you must supply model releases.

Sound must be set to 48 kHz, 16 bit uncompressed.

Music is not allowed.

Scan mode

Progressive scan video is preferred.

We accept interlaced video if the footage was shot interlaced (for

example, 1080i).

If any processing is performed on interlaced video before

submission, be sure to retain the field dominance to avoid

artifacts (Upper Field vs Lower Field).

Deinterlacing is acceptable if performed with a professional grade

tool such as the Deinterlacing tools in Premiere Pro or After Effects.

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

where did you get the file from? And what is your end use? 59.94 fps is not usually a release format. And what were your mpeg export settings and your more successful mp4 export. sorry if I was a little snarky before.

S

Small Town GalAuthor

Inspiring

The file is from a Nikon D-750 digital camera. I used 60 fps because I was shooting a waterfall, or fast running rapids over the Niagara Escarpments, and I wanted to catch action. I used "Match sequence Settings" for export, with render at maximum render quality checekd. The end use of the video is for Adobe Stock.

People alwasys seem to be snarky in these forums...

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

maybe if you'd answered my questions, I might have some idea what's going on. Impossible to diagnose without the full picture. If you didn't know how to answer the questions, let me know and I can go in to more detail. And you should be able to match or surpass the quality of an mpeg file with a properly configured mp4.

S

Small Town GalAuthor

Inspiring

Source File". Type: MPEG Movie

File Size: 327.85 MB

Image Size: 1920 x 1080

Frame Rate: 59.94

Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 16-bit - Stereo

Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Stereo

Total Duration: 00:01:14:15

Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0

Alpha: None

Video Codec Type: MP4/MOV H.264 4:2:0 (Full Range)

Sequence Setrings: 59.75

1920x1080

Square Pixels

No fields (Progressive Scan)

Display Format: 59.94 fps Non-Drop-Frame Timecode

48000Hz

Audio Samples

I-Frame Only MPEG

1920

1080

Composite in Linear Color (requires GPU acceleration or max render quality)

M

Michael Grenadier

Legend

can you tell us your source properties, your sequence settings and your export settings? Not the easiest thing to do to diagnose this sort of thing remotely...

S

Small Town GalAuthor

Inspiring

Hi, All -- Thanks for your reply. I gave up and exported it as a .mp4 file, and there is no audio drop-out in that format -- I guess I will have to export as .mp4, although I thought that .mpeg was slightly better. Perhaps it's a problem with Quicktime player. My sequence settings match my source file properties, so I don't know what the problem is. I unlinked the audio file from the video and cut the audio in several places to remove several loud clicks -- I then relinked it and rendered everything after deleting old cache files. Nothing worked except choosing the .mp4 format. Any thoughts???

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