Feature film export to Bluray 120 hours

[QingLyn]

iMac 2015, High Sierra, 64GB Ram

I'm trying to export a 4K 80 minute feature to HD Bluray H264 at 30bit to get a file size of 15GB and the latest time remaining showed 120 hours (5 days)!!  

There are no OSB files.  (read how they can slow things down).  There are a reasonable amount of effects, plenty of color grades with Magic Bullet Looks on many, and a few 2K files sized 200%.  

It seems essential to 'Use Maximum Render Quality' because if you don't none of the vignettes from Lumetri will export (did lots of tests).  Adobe haven't answered my questions on why this is so.

I wouldn't mind an overnight or 24 hour export but 5 days?  Am I doing something wrong?  

Thanks very much for any advice.

Q

[Sami Succar]

It would help if you can post the full specs of your computer, mainly your CPU and GPU.

[QingLyn]

Thanks.  

CPU 4Gz Intel i7

GPU AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096MB

Q

[Michael Grenadier]

Here's what I do in this sort of situation where the export time seems out of control.  I change my preview format to something like prores422hq and render my entire sequence... You can mark ins and outs and render by section if you like...You can then play your sequence and make sure everything's rendered properly.   I then export to prores422hq with "use previews" checked...  and then I transcode the prores422hq to my intended end format.    I've had a few situations where what was supposed to be an hour export was complete in much less time.  Of course, the export may not have taken an hour, but I like this workflow to seperate the "render" from the export...  bwdik...

[QingLyn]

Thank you.  I will do a 5-10 minute section test of your workflow to see how that goes.  

When you say 'transcode to intended format', where do you do that?  Media Encoder?

And I've always wondered if pre-rendering speeds up export at all.  In most of my exports, it hasn't seemed to make a difference.  Does it? 

Finally, if you have any experience with sync issues from Audition to Premiere exports, I have a 48khz 24fps project/sequences in both but when the 5.1 exports directly to Premiere, it is sliding out of sync from 0 frames in the beginning to over 12 frames at the end of an 80 minute feature.  Not much, but it wasn't happening on my first exports.  (see details in Audition forum, maybe click my name?) 

Thanks again.  I'll let everyone know how it goes. 

[QingLyn]

Should have looked in Sequence Settings before last answer.  Since my project is 4K, the editing mode is set to DNxHR which limits the Preview Format to DNxHR plus any one of the following:

HQ

HQX

LB

RGB

SQ

If I change the Editing Mode to ProRes Raw, I can access ProRes422HQ in Preview Format, but I am terrified that changing the Editing Mode will cause more problems.  Will it?

Thanks.

[Michael Grenadier]

transcode to intended format, either media encoder or premiere...  prerendering IF you have set the preview format to match your export format and you check "use previews" will in my experience speed up your export.  whether when you add the time it takes to prerender it still makes a difference... however, the big advantage is that you can play your sequence and see if there are any issues and then fix a small section without having to redo the export...

As far as changing the edit mode, duplicate your sequence before you change the edit mode so if things go south, you haven't lost any peace of mind.  In my experience, changing the edit mode if you're not changing frame rate, etc. shouldn't cause any issues...   but if one of the dnxhr formats is high quality and you can export to the format, you can probably stay with it.  Just don't work with dnxhr so I can't advise you about it.  At this point I'm working on 2 systems, one mac and one windows, after years of just working in mac...  I'm sure someone here can advise you on this, or do some googling...

as far as your synch issues,  not sure what you mean about 5.1 exports directly to premiere.  

[QingLyn]

Thanks again for your time and knowledge.  I duplicated the sequence and changed to ProRes.  I used a 6 minute section and now rendering.  It's taken about 40 minutes and has half an hour left, so it says.  Multiply that by about 12 and it should be an overnight render for the whole sequence.  

I use a 5 year old iMac but to buy anything that can chew through 4K on Mac costs about $10,000 or more for good specs.  Any advice on a Windows machine that would be in the $5000 range or less?  

Audition exports a 5.1 file directly to an open Premiere Project.  It's the only method that's working right now but is out of sync slightly.  Other export methods are failing completely.  I will update to slightly newer Audition version and try again.

[Michael Grenadier]

before you start the full render, why don't you see how long it takes to export the 6 minute section with "use previews" checked... and then bring that in to adobe media encoder and see how long it takes to encode to what you need for the bluray...  hate to think I led you down the garden path...

When you say other methods of exporting from audition fail, can you be more specific.   although I've delivered a few features with 5.1 mixes, never made a blu-ray...  What program are you using to author the blu-ray?

[QingLyn]

I did what you said.  It took about 70 minutes for 6 min. of sequence.  I will try the whole thing.  

1. When selecting 'Export Multitrack Mixdown' Audition and selecting the desired .aac file, I get a !dat error with no idea what to do about it.

2. When selecting 'Export Multitrack Mixdown' Audition  and selecting .aiff, it creates a stereo file instead of the selected 5.1 (allows this selection) when trying to export to my hard drive OR creates about 18 minutes and then fills the remainder with a waveform of ridiculous db levels that will blow any speaker apart.

3. Audition no longer supports Dolby (nor does Premiere) without buying a pricey plugin.

4. Audition is only working (for me) when I export a 5.1 with 'Export to Adobe Premiere Pro' selected, so it opens automatically in the open Premiere Project (but it slides out of sync with the video by 12 frames at the end.  Have to fix manually I guess. 

[Michael Grenadier]

so it does seem like the full workflow will take less than 5 days...and you'll be able to check the full render and the export before the transcode...  so that's good.  I hope.

adjusting the audio in premiere will probably give you quality issues...  When I've had to adjust speed in premiere for the picture and wanted to match the audio, the quality sucked.  Sending it to audition saved my bacon in that case...

If you export each track by itself from audtion and bring them all in to premiere, do they stay in synch?

now I did supervise the restoration of a film from the 70's a year or so ago and we did a 5.1 mix and I seem to remember that dolby is an option but not required for 5.1.  You didn't say what you were going to use for authoring the blu-ray...  You might want to talk to a sounddesigner about outputting a 5.1 file if you supply the 6 individual tracks.  Can't imagine it'd be a lot of money.  I know a couple of people in the NY area that would probably be able to handle it for you if you're interested.   

[QingLyn]

Thanks again!  I haven't chosen a Bluray authoring software yet.  Adobe used to include Encore, which was very good, but it was discontinued 4 or 5 years ago.  I've made Blurays with Toast Titanium before and they were okay but with limited menu options.  Doesn't matter that much as it's mainly for festivals who just want to push 'Play'.

Adobe Audition used to support Dolby Digital but cannot currently because of legal reasons.  

Thanks for offering contacts in NY.  I'm in BC Canada (Hollywood North) so plenty of local options as well, but can probably manage myself once I get the workflow sorted.  

All the best!