Exported video file much smaller than predicted and broken?

[catmasterop]

Hey guys, good day to you!

Been working on a podcast "post-production" and after I finished everything, the 1hr 47min project has a predicted file size of about 12,4GB and takes almost a full hour to export (YouTube - 1080p Preset).

After exporting twice (no error, full duration export), both exported files seem to be corrupt as they are both smaller than 5GB. They indicate the correct video duration of 1:47 but neither playing nor skipping I can get past the 40something mark.

Weirdly, the estimated file size of 12.4GB is exactly the same no matter whether I select the 1080p or the 720p preset ? (on the contrary, if I select "vimeo - 720p"  it's only about 6GB)

Did anyone experience anything similar?

Am I doing something wrong with the export?

Is my SSD broken?

Can anyone explain what is going on here and why my Premiere is not catching it and not producing an error?

Need a quick solution as I am way past my deadline.

Thanks in advance!

[Byron Cortez]

After choosing "YouTube - 1080p Preset" what other configuration did you choose in the other 2 exports that you made? The same?

[catmasterop]

I exported twice in total. Assuming some sort of error when the first file was dysfunctional, I exported a second time.

Both with exact same settings, just going with the defaults, yes.

The first time I exported, my file ended up being 4,88 GB in size while the second export produced a 4,53 GB file.

Both are indicating the correct duration in their metadata but don't contain 1:47:56 worth of footage.

I am so puzzled right now.

[Byron Cortez]

I see that you are exporting with Mercury Playback Engine acceleration "Software Only", change this to Metal, CUDA or OpenGL and try again. To change it you must go to the menu File / Project Settings / General... If you can not change it, it is because your computer does not meet the minimum requirements for this technology.

Let us know if you solve it.

[catmasterop]

I will try it, but can you think of any reasonable explanation why Software shouldn't work?

It does work well with all my shorter videos, this is the first time I experience such a problem.

[Ann Bens]

Software only revers to the intel cpu feature not MPE.

[catmasterop]

Hey guys...

Both YouTube presets 720p and 1080p enforce a VBR with 16Mbps Target and 16Mbps Max. Bitrate.

I got a working file by reducing the settings to VBR 5kbps-12kbps as I figured that should suffice for a 1080p podcast where the biggest portions of the image are static most of the time.

Still using Software encoding, like I've always done without problems.

Again, I don't see why Hardware versus Software encoding could be the problem here and would appreciate if you guys elaborate. I will certainly try it, but again, I can't see why that should be the problem.

[Christian.Z]

Please do not export to the C: drive. That might solve your problem.

[catmasterop]

Christian.Z  wrote

Please do not export to the C: drive. That might solve your problem.

Thanks.

This sounds like the most reasonable explanation so far.

Again though, I just exported a working 4GB file without problems using Software encoding to my C:\ drive. Also never had that problem before.

I only have one drive in this computer at the moment.

[catmasterop · Accepted solution]

TL;DR:

Thanks for all your input.

I ended up using a workaround which was to reduce the bitrate going for a much smaller overall file size.

(Went from 16Mbps Target and Max Bitrate to 5Mbps and 12Mbps respectively)

4,5GB file exported fine and works!

Still puzzled what caused my issue.