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Media Encoder Crashing my Mac whilst creating proxies

Explorer ,
Jul 13, 2022 Jul 13, 2022

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I am currently in the process of creating proxies for a doco using Premiere's create proxies workflow and once in media encoder it will get about 30 or so clips in before it compeltely crashes my entire computer.

Step by Step: 
- I import MXF footage from FX6
- Select all the footage in Card 1 and 'create proxies' 
- I choose Quicktime ProRes (high bitrate) and begin proxy process
- It opens up Media encoder and begins creating proxies without issue and will randomly drop out no matter which proxy settings I choose

I have used this workflow multiple times for other cameras and never had an issue. Does anyone know if this is an update issue? an MXF issue? Or my computer? How do I fix this? 

Specs: 
iMac Pro (2017)
Processor: 3.2 GHz 8-Core INtel Xeon W
Memory: 32 GB 2666 MHz DDR4
Graphics Radeon Pro Vega 56 8 GG

Media Encoder v22.5
Premiere Pro v22.5

Bug Unresolved

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71 Comments
Adobe Employee ,
Jul 13, 2022 Jul 13, 2022

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Hey matiasb75700424,

 

Sorry about the issue. Do you also get this issue while creating h.264 proxies? Do you also see this issue while creating proxies for other media types? Can you share your source file properties (Project Panel > Right-click on media > Properties)? Let us know. We're here to help.

 

Regards,

Ishan

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LEGEND ,
Jul 13, 2022 Jul 13, 2022

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Am I correct that you upload the card contents to a local computer drive, and are accessing the file on disc from there?

 

Neil

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Explorer ,
Jul 13, 2022 Jul 13, 2022

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Hi Ishan, 

I recently completed another project using the exact same workflow using C300 mk2 footage and had absolutely no issues. The only things that has changed this time is that I have updated both Premiere and Media Encoder, and the different camera / file types. 

It's very strange because if I do small batches of about 10 clips at a time, it's absolutely fine, it's when I set off an entire card or 20+ clips to media encoder that it without fail will crash my computer at some point during the queue.

I have also tested the clips that it crashes on to see if there are specific clips crashing it, but it seems like they're fine also. When I set them to proxy in small batches they proxy completely fine. 

I haven't had a chance to test if it also happens with h.264 proxies yet as i'd need to set off a large batch and wait a while to see if it happens and I'm trying to get through the ProRes proxies atm. The small batches is only a temporary fix however as I've got about 82 hours of footage to get through! 

I've tried creating the proxies in other programs and attaching them but because they're not 16x9 aspect ratio when I create 1920x1080 proxies they don't match. 

Attached below is the properties panel of one of the clips, all clips are all the same.

Screen Shot 2022-07-14 at 8.04.11 am.png
And just for reference when I create the proxies in another program and bring them in here's what they look like because they don't match the aspect ratio:

Screen Shot 2022-07-12 at 3.04.07 pm.pngScreen Shot 2022-07-12 at 3.04.16 pm.png

Thanks for helping out, let me know if you have any other questions Ishan.


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Explorer ,
Jul 13, 2022 Jul 13, 2022

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Hi Neil, 

The footage is located on a Lacie Rugged 5tb USB-C drive, which is the main drive I am editing off as well. 

So I have moved all of the content from the cards onto the drive, set it out like this: 
Day01 > Card01 > A001
DAy02 > Card02 > A002 etc.

I then create the proxies within the card folders using the following settings: 

Screen Shot 2022-07-14 at 7.52.55 am.png

 Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks Neil



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Explorer ,
Jul 13, 2022 Jul 13, 2022

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I should also mention that I thought this might be a problem with 'productions' so I tried it in a normal Premiere project outside of the production and still had the exact same problem.

I have also cleared my media cache on both programs just incase, but also no luck. 

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Adobe Employee ,
Jul 28, 2022 Jul 28, 2022

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Thanks for sharing the info. For testing purposes, could you roll back to 22.4 and let us know if you still see the issue? Here's how: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/download-install/using/install-previous-version.html

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New Here ,
Oct 04, 2022 Oct 04, 2022

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I'm having the exact same issue with native Pro Res footage.  My computer powers itself off and then re-boots itself. Very frustrating.

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Adobe Employee ,
Oct 04, 2022 Oct 04, 2022

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Hi christopher,

Sorry! Computers typically shut down on their own if they get too hot. Kindly check out the cooling of your case. Is it overheating? I believe you can download cooling info apps for free. Can you check?

 

Thanks,
Kevin

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Community Expert ,
Oct 04, 2022 Oct 04, 2022

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had a lot of problems generating proxy files from mxf files recently on a very large doc project.  Proxy creation would intermittently fail in media encoder, and proxies would not stay attached.  We also saw intermittent flashing when playing both camera original and proxies . What solved the problem is resetting the color space to rec709.  Certainly worth a shot...  select a clip in the project and right click and choose modify: interpret and go down to color management and if the color space is anything other than rec709 turn on color space override and set it to rec709.    And what's good is that changing the color space of the camera original also fixed preexisting proxies...  

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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@matii_  did you find a solution?

 

I'm have a terrible time trying to proxy FX6 footage that's AVCI 100 in an MXF container, as AME constantly freezes after about 50 clips are proxied (this project has 500 clips) and this problem has occured on every project with this kind of footage. 

 

Running AME v 22.6.1 on MacOS 12.6 and this issue has occured on multiple Mac Studios with M1 Max chips as well as a 2020 iMac, and only with the that footage, even other Sony footage has been fine.

 

I tried the suggestion of changing the clips to Rec 709 colour space before proxying but it made no difference and continued to crash after converting 50 or so proxies.

 

If anyone has a work around we are desperate to know as a lot of people use this codec!

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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well maybe just do 50 clips at a time?  don't mean to be snarky, but it might be a reasonable workaround.  

 

Are you "creating proxies" from within Premiere which sends them to AME?  If so, maybe just bring the camera original into AME directly and transcode to your desired format and settings for proxies and then attach them back in Premiere.

 

And where are you saving the proxies?  I always save them to a folder next to the original media as that avoids any issue with duplicate file names...  but maybe try saving them to a common folder for the project to see if that makes any difference.

 

And when you successfully create the 50 or so proxies before AME freezes, are the proxies successfully attached to the camera original within Premiere?   

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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As it's random as to when it freezes then only doing a small amount at a time isn't really a viable option as it still randomly freezes, but when doing a batch amount it usually gets through close to 50 clips depending on the size. And the issue is the amount of time spent on any project with this footage just to proxy is not okay, as it's not just one isolated project where this issue is occuring.

 

But the proxies connect and work completely fine after AME crashes except for the last two it created. It also crashes Premiere sometimes and if it isn't saved then for some reason it's making me connect each proxy individually and not batch automatically connecting the others as what is usual Premiere behaviour in all other projects.

 

I haven't tested if transcoding them directly in AME crashes it, but I've never found any settings in AME that allows a direct transcode with Sony clips that have 8-channel audio (which most Sony cams seem to have these days) and then attaches to the clips as proxies in Premiere without any issues (as in when trying to attach the proxy it pops up with an error about the audio channels or something). If you know what settings in AME allow a direct transcode to create compatible proxies with 8-channel audio then please post the details/link to an article as I've tried researching without success. 

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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I had exactly this problem a number of years ago with sony clips with 8 channels of audio and was totally unable to create proxies that would link to the camera original.  Seemed clear to me that there was something in the way Sony was formatting those 8 channels of audio that would not play nice with Premiere.  But I did work around the issue by transcoding to prores proxy files and then making the camera original offline and relinking to the prores proxy files and when we locked picture, doing the dance in reverse to relink to the camera original.   If you're willing to use this workflow, I'd suggest you test a few files before diving in to the deep end of the pool.  In my case, I didn't need any of the audio tracks except the first 2 (the rest were empty).  I don't remember exactly how I setup the transcode but don't think it was rocket science (sorry for the mixed metaphors).  

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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Unfortunately that would only work if we were transcoding to the same resolution, but we need small proxies to run multiple computers from a server, so you'd have to transcode and replace and then proxy those transcodes. Again, the time to do that just isn't viable for us as it isn't just a one off situation with a few clips that have issues, is hundreds of clips per project across many projects.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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just tried taking a short 4k clip and dropping it into media encoder and applying a prores proxy preset to it with 1080 pixel dimensions and then brought the 4k clip into premiere and attached the 1080 proxy clip to it and edited the clip into a 4k timeline switching proxy on and off seems to be working fine without any issues because of the smaller pixel dimensions...  or am I missing something?  wouldn't be the first time.

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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Might have our wires crossed, but I understood your work around was to transcode the Sony footage, offline the orignal MXF files, and then link to your transcoded files. If that's correct then the process takes too long as we want to export drafts using the orignal files and not small proxy files.

 

Basically we need to be able to create proxies from these files without it crashing AME and still be able to switch between the proxies and orignal MXF files as with all other footage, so without having to go through a lengthy process.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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that was my original thought, but if the problem is caused by creating the proxy in premiere which then queues them in Media Encoder, just loading the camera original into Media Encoder and then applying the custom preset with the correct codec and pixel dimensions might not crash Media Encoder and then you can just attach the proxy files back in Premiere...    Maybe worth a shot leaving a batch larger than 50 files cooking overnight...   And wondering if there could be some issue with your network...  assuming you're working in some sort of shared media environment.     Might be worth a test working with local drives...  Just throwing some ideas out...  No one else is piping up with any suggestions...   When I have this sort of issue, I keep banging my head against the wall til I figure out a solution or work-around...  

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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As I said earlier, I've never been able to attach proxies of transcodes in AME without creating them in Premiere first when they're 8-channel audio Sony clips. I always get errors when trying to attach them no matter how I configure the encoding preset.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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sorry, don't always have the time to reread the whole thread.   yeah had the same problem a few years ago.  

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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but if you look at the queue in media encoder you can (if you reset the status if its completed) call up the settings so if you can successfully encode the sony clips with 8 tracks by sending from premiere, you might be able to extract the settings...  or just save the ingest preset (and give it a unique name) and then you should be able to apply it to a file directly brought in to Media Encoder.  Have no idea if this will work with your sony clips, as I don't have any of that footage available, but worth a shot.  Time for bed here in NY, but if this isn't clear, post back and I'll try and do a better job of explaining in the morning.  Screen Shot 2022-10-13 at 11.51.29 PM.pngScreen Shot 2022-10-13 at 11.56.10 PM.png 

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Explorer ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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That makes sense, but I just tried it and AME crashed after about 10 clips. 

 

The clips do actually connect to the MXF files as proxies without the audio channel error though, so must be something to do with it being an ingest preset as I've only ever tried encoding presets?

 

It makes the proxy all contrasty though, so even if it didn't crash I'd have to figure out how to get the ingest preset to change the colour space to Rec709. There maybe an easy way to do that, but the footage still makes AME crash randomly so it doesn't help, but thanks for the advice as it may have been a solution.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 13, 2022 Oct 13, 2022

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maybe we're getting somewhere.    Did you change the color space to the camera original in Premiere after you attached the proxy?  When I did that with mxf files, it also fixed the way the proxies looked in Premiere...  Never easy to troubleshoot from a distance and even in person, these things can be difficult...  

 

Now, for the MediaEncoder crash..    Don't think you told us this yet:  Please tell us your system specs: OS version, Premiere version, amount of RAM, Hardware specs including graphics card.   Are you running any other programs at the same time as MediaEncoder?  And wondering if there's an issue with your Premiere:  preferences: memory settings.  Maybe try assigning less or more RAM to the adobe apps...  Maybe try creating a new OS user account with administrative privileges...  Could be some other app that you've installed that's creating some sort of conflict.  A new account can sometimes fix that...  And are you working with shared drives via a network?  Might try working with a local drive as a troubleshooting step.   

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New Here ,
Oct 17, 2022 Oct 17, 2022

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Did you find a solution to this? I am having the same problem.  

Macbook Pro 2017

2.9 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

Memory 16 GB

Graphics Radeon Pro 560 4 GB

Intel HD Graphics 630 1536 MB

 

Running Catalina 10.15.7

 

I was trying to create a large batch of proxies from a Sony FX6 camera for a documentary project and my computer kept crashing unless I fed it small batches and constantly checked to reset everything once it crashed. Usually leaving large batches of proxies to finish overnight in Media Encoder is no problem.

 

I saw the comment about setting the color profile to rec 709. I'm not sure if this is related, but I did notice that I needed to override the color profile on most of the clips because they were looking overexposed with a color profile in premiere even though they looked like normal flat raw footage in Quicktime and VLC. This is not something I thought was related, but next time I will make sure to do this step first before creating proxies and see if it makes a difference.

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Explorer ,
Oct 17, 2022 Oct 17, 2022

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I haven't found any difference in terms of crashing when switching the colour profile, and it seems like no matter what colour profile the clips are set to any of that XAVC-I footage causes AME to crash after 50 or so clips, but if I proxy 30 at a time and quit then restart AME then I can do another 30 without crashing, depending on how long the clips are. Pretty annoying. This issue seems to have only appeared recently, so I'm not sure if it's because of a Media Encoder update or if I just haven't had to deal with so much of this codec before. But the exact same issue happens on Intel iMacs as well as brand new Mac Studio's with M1 Max chips. I know other people with the exact same issue on varying systems, but it's not just FX6 footage, it's also other Sony footage using that same codec.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 17, 2022 Oct 17, 2022

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one other thing to try...  on the occasional recalcitrant clip that changing the color space didn't help, changing the extension from .mxf to .mpg did seem to solve the problem.  worth a shot...  but at least while testing, but I'd copy the clip before changing the extension...  but I'm a belts and suspenders kind of guy.

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