"Error compiling movie. Unknown Error." OR program crash when rendering

[ERP12]

When rendering in Premiere Pro CC I get the messge "Error compiling movie. Unknown Error." OR the program crashes.

-Adobe Premiere Pro CC V 7.0.0 (342)

-ASUS Z87-A, Intel Core i7 4 core, 16gb RAM

-450gb+ disc space

-Also installed: After Effects, Adobe Media Encoder

-All recent updates installed

-Windows7 64bit

-I am using all programs through Creative Cloud

-Footage is AVCHD 720p but doesn't work with .mts or .mp4 files

-I am trying to render speed and simple cross dissolves. Neither are working

-This has happened before on a friend's desktop. I was using his machine to edit on while I was in the process of building mine. He got the same error when I was trying to export. I restarted and the issue was fine. Restarting on my machine has not solved the issue. This leads me to think it is a bug in the program?

-I have been running After Effects and it has worked flawlessly.

Help!?

[hdaistudentpdx]

It seems like this is a render issue for PC and an export issue for Mac,  am I right? I just want to export a dvd. 

This is ridiculous, one person posted that the problem has something to do with Mac's themselves.

I've done everything on here.  I've been trying to figure this out all day long. I'm exhausted. 

I'm rendering out a 1hr 25 minute film to dvd. it did render a mp4 but I need to burn a DVD.

finally I've deleted my preview files and NOT rendered again, because I guess there is a problem with macs?   Anyway, why was the answer so hard to find? And also why is Adobe NOT present for this conversation. I've noticed that Adobe comes in and comments on super random items that have nothing to do with the bigger problem, why on earth is there an UNKNOWN error????? It needs to be more specific so all these peoples problems aren't lumped in together.

What else is weird about this problem for me is I wasn't having a single problem with the render. So it appears I can render all I want while editing and then to export delete all preview files and cash.

I was able to export a few minutes at a time but when I render out larger portions it won't work. I definitely need one on one help.  this is a nightmare.

[Jacout13]

Hello,

As I noticed it sometimes ago, if you render with GPU : the crash is

random and occured on different time within the same sequence.

If you render without GPU : the crash never occured.

Nvidia (I work with PC and Nvidia GFX) never answered about this problem

which may be due to the couple Nvidia + Adobe.

[hdaistudentpdx]

I talked to Adobe and the only solutions they gave me didn't work. the last resort they told me (which I have to do now)  is to export movie bit by bit as a .mov, of a 1hour 25 minute movie and then put on a time line in premiere and and re-render as the types I want.

[Dave Merchant]

I've seen a bunch of people reporting "unknown error" crashes with the H.264 class library but they can export the sequence without errors to other formats OK (AVI, ProRes, in extreme cases without soundtracks an image sequence). In these cases, the standalone version of Media Encoder should be perfectly happy taking your intermediate file and transcoding it into the format you were originally trying to make. It's not an ideal solution but it'll get your project delivered.

[hdaistudentpdx]

@dave merchant

The only thing that finally worked for me to make a dvd file was to export the audio track separately .   It ended up to be such an easy way to get it done. I've literally spent full days trying to figure this out. from early morning to the wee hours.  Thank you so much for that idea.   Adobe didn't even suggest that.

When I did what adobe suggested :  export the file out as a quicktime .mov - It wouldn't work, they told me if that didn't work - to export it out in small segments - which only worked at between 5 - 10 minutes at a time, and it took me forever.   And guess what it was over 600gbs for all the files together.   Then I put it on a new timeline and tried to export the dvd file, and guess what?  It did the same unknown error compiling movie and all that.

So finally I was at my wits end - of trying dozens and dozens of things, and I exported  the dvd m2v file audio only and then video only and it was easy.

THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Wow.

[Jacout13]

Hello,

Sometimes ago, I tried to render and export to DVD and/or Blu-ray, with

and without GPU.

Without the GPU : no crash, never.

With GPU : random crashes, never twice the same time on the timeline.

8 months ago, I ask Nvidia : no answer.

Conclusion : the trouble might be due to Nvidia not to Adobe, but Adobe

and Nvidia nave to work together and they don't wish it.

So one question : if every Adobe users become Sony Vegas user for

example, what might happen ?

Le 23/01/2015 07:16, hdaistudentpdx a écrit :

>

"Error compiling movie. Unknown Error." OR program crash when

rendering

created by hdaistudentpdx

<https://forums.adobe.com/people/hdaistudentpdx> in /Premiere Pro/ -

View the full discussion

<https://forums.adobe.com/message/7123780#7123780>

[hdaistudentpdx]

I tried the gpu thing days ago and that was not what solved it for me. I've been trying with software only since tuesday.

[Jacout13]

Hello,

I hope you understood my bad english :

- with GPU : random crash, sometimes no crash even with very long sequences,

- without GPG : no crash but very long export and/or render duration

(three or more time higher)

[GrizzlyAK]

So, I ran into this the first time recently. I discovered it when I copied an adjustment layer for quick grading with an RGB Color Corrector and Color Balance effects in it from a rehearsal cut of a short film.The effects worked fine and rendered out without issue. I imported the sequence into my 'final' cut so I could reuse the titles and adjustment layer. I copied the adjustment layer to the new rough cut of the final sequence and ran into this error when I tried to render it, but only after applying the adjustment layer. I found that if I turned off the Color Balance, the sequence rendered fine. I found that if I moved the Color Balance above the RGB Color Corrector, the effect of the RGB effect completely disappeared AND it rendered correctly (both effects turned on) - so reversing the order worked, but effects were weird. I also found that if I added ANY non-GPU accelerated effects to the RGB Color Corrector that I'd get the same compile error (unknown).

I went through and deleted clips until I got to 0 on the timeline, added a new one back on, and it still wouldn't render. So, I created an entirely NEW sequence, copied all video and audio (not adjustment layer) from the original failing rough cut of the final sequence, and pasted it into this new sequence. I also copied the adjustment layer again from the rehearsal cut into this new sequence and it is rendering just fine.

HOURS WASTED DOING THIS! It would be awesome if Adobe actually tested their products before releasing them instead of forcing us to do it for them. My project consisted of about 30-40 different clips and audio, all from the same DSLR (Nikon D810), nothing fancy, two effects in an adjustment layer applied to the entire sequence, and Premiere couldn't handle it. Given this and some of the comments I read while troubleshooting this on this forum, gives me pause in trusting Adobe products for any real work that has a deadline (unless, of course, you build in the required Adobe testing time into your budget).

So, just another data point; something else to try. Create a new sequence, and copy everything from your non-working one to it, and see if this will jump-start Premier. Worked for me. Good luck.

[josev25464780]

Yep, I have also been receiving the same error, but only when I try to export to an external HD, stopping almost every time.  It almost never crashes if I export to my internal HD.

[jennertherat]

This was happening to me with completely clean footage. No effects, transitions, or sound editing at all. I came back to a project I had dumped my footage into a week ago and there was no rendering it. It's good to note this as most of you are having this problem while having worked significantly on it by layering tracks and all that. Luckily i didn't get that far into it. I don't have time to read through all the old posts to see if anyone has suggested this but for me a simple changing of the file name was all it needed. I had included a special character "/" in the title and that threw the system out of whack. Changing the file name to something without special characters was all it needed. Hopefully that can help someone if that is their case as well and they are getting this error before beginning to really cut.

I will say that I am incredibly disheartened at Adobe's lack of communication and attempt to remedy this problem for such a long time. It really has made me lose quite a bit of respect for them as a company whose clients rely on their software to make a living. To quote screenname_abc..."A craftsman is only as good as his tools.  If his tools break he is out."

Good luck everyone. Hopefully Adobe gets their act together on this soon before I run into this at a much deeper level.

[regan929]

This has happened to me on several projects. Here's what I can offer for those as frustrated as I was and spending hours trying to fix it.

1. Render your work area. Where it stops and gives you the error is where the problem clip is.

     (Note: You might have to delete your saved rendered files in your project folder if you can't see where the problem clip is.)

2. Take the problem clip into a new sequence. Try removing the effects, and/or changing the in and out points until it renders without error.

3. Export this clip and re-import into Premiere.

I did this and had to re-do about 4 clips in my 9 minute film. Not sure why--it's not frame rate. Most of the clips had warp stabilizer on them, but many other clips had this effect and worked fine. Not sure the reason behind this bug at all.

Hope this helps!

[anythingwilldo]

I recently rendered a 7k + frames sequence out of After Effects, then I compiled it on Premiere and added the audio there. I ran into the "Can't compile movie. Unknown error" pop up. AME failed to render it too, reporting the same thing. So I started generating shorter previews until I was able to isolate a couple of corrupted frames, the wouldn't open in Photoshop and they did not have a  picture thumbnail but rather the generic .png thumb, as if they were not done rendering.

I went back to AE and exported them as stills full res, then I replaced them in the original sequence and I was able to export the movie.

I agree that Premiere Pro CC2014 is a giant coding error though, nothing seems to work. Ever.

[Wilson Semilio]

I love Premiere - at least that's what I thought, until this error happened when I needed to export a music video late at night for delivery the next day. Here's my setup: I've exported my animation from After Effects as PNG files and loaded them into Premiere as Image Sequences. That's it. To pinpoint the error, I rendered portions of the movie at a time, and found that the error was in the last part of the movie. I flicked through each frame and noticed that two frames were identical even though in Finder they were not. They were also able to open up just fine, so no corruption. At least not what I could find. But still Premiere insisted on displaying these two different frames as a single frame. Makes no sense at all... Anyways, now I'm exporting the PNG's from that particular scene again from After Effects, splitting the comp into two folders at the point where the troublesome frames were before. I hope that helps. I can't afford any errors at this point. My project needs to be delivered!

Adobe, if you have any respect for the creatives using your software, you should really get your act together and fix the most critical bugs.

Please reply.

Thanks.

[jpelc]

If all you're doing is taking in an image sequence and adding audio you can use any NLE. It might be quicker to go through even basic free NLE's than to spend all day troubleshooting

[Wilson Semilio]

Hey jpelc. The movie is made up of several scenes (PNG sequences). I'm using Premiere to edit the scenes to the music.

What is an NLE?

Thanks.

[jpelc]

A non-linear editor. You can use Final Cut Pro or Lightworks or anything. If you're just doing very basic editing it won't matter too much if you're not as familiar with the tools as you are with Premiere

[Wilson Semilio]

Thanks jpelc. Actually, exporting to a JPG sequence instead of PNG helped solve the weird frame issue and I was able to export without the "Unknown Error" prompt.

[Jamestown_Films]

So after hours of trying everybody else's troubleshooting methods (rebooting, relinking, deleting preview and pek files, close out of premiere and reopen project, delete LUTS, turn off all effects, try rendering each clip at a time to find my problem area, rearrange bins, etc.), I finally tried the only think that is now working beautifully for me.  I simply created a NEW PROJECT and IMPORTED THE SEQUENCE THAT WOULDN'T RENDER IN THE OTHER PROJECT.  TIP: IMPORT ONLY THE SEQUENCE AND NOT THE ENTIRE PROJECT.  THAT WAY YOU WON'T IMPORT THE PROBLEM.

I hope that helps.

     - James

[GrizzlyAK]

Jamestown, did you try just creating a new SEQUENCE in the same project and copying the entire contents of the bad sequence and pasting them into the new sequence? That worked for me, which might be a little easier than creating a whole new project. If you didn't try this, you might, and let me know if it works or not.

Cheers,

Shane

[Jamestown_Films]

Hey Shane,

     I'm stoked for you that that worked so easily.  I actually did try simply creating a NEW SEQUENCE WITHIN THE SAME PROJECT WITH NO LUCK.  My Footage is pretty heavy XAVC-I from the New Sony FS7, and I've never had too much of a problem until this morning.  Once I CREATED A NEW PROJECTED AND IMPORTED THE SEQUENCE FROM MY ORIGINAL PROJECT THE ERROR STOPPED, and I was able to export and create preview files perfectly.  I appreciate the follow up.

     - Jamestown

[vmbusiness1356]

How exactly do you import a sequence from one closed PP project into a new one?

[anythingwilldo]

You can import the .prproj file as you would with any other footage.

[vmbusiness1356]

Thanks David. As an aside, I was able to achieve DVD export via Media Encoder by exporting the Video and Audio separately.

[spec24]

Alright, this is a joke. I have an animation I'm working on. Each section is a series of still frames. Each is exactly the same 30 fps, no effects. I get the error compiling message when trying to preview render. Here's the kicker: if I switch the Sequence to 29.97fps instead of the 30fps that the stills were rendered at, I have no errors. Maybe I'm ignorant of the reasons why this is occurring but it seems to me that if the source material is 30fps, and the sequence is 30fps I should be able to render the damn thing using SOME codec!

I take it back. Doesn't render in 29.97fps either, but certainly is more cooperative than the 30fps on the parts that will render.