Rendering Hangs in Premiere 14.7, Premiere 14.8, and Media Encoder

[Guest]

I am having inexplicable rendering problems in Premiere 14.7, Premiere 14.8, and the related editions of Media Encoder. These seemed to have cropped up over the past few days.

At seemingly random points throughout the export process, the render will simply hang. The programs don't appear to be frozen, the estimated remaining time doesn't change - it just sits there and makes no progress.

When I attempt to stop the render, Premiere and Media Encoder will then lock up until I mash the 'X' button enough for it to force quit the program.

On top of this, when I attempt to restart Premiere or Media Encoder, I can't  to do so because the process continues to run in the background. If I attempt to force the task to end with the task manager, literally nothing happens. The only way to boot up Premiere or Media Encoder again is to restart the machine.

There appears to be no consistency to this problem. The only good thing is that it never happens while editing - only while rendering.

I have tried virtually every troubleshooting option imaginable. I have:

• Disabled the GPU and attempting using the Mercury Software Engine to render.
• Adjusted the sequence settings in multiple test project files to 4K, 1080p, and even vertical aspect ratio videos.
• Converted the project source video files to a different file format.
• Changed the export format from .mp4 to .mov, as well as the rendering codec (tried h.264, h.265, and QuickTime LT).
• Tried rendering preview files in the timeline, which had the exact same problem.
• Updated my NVIDIA drivers to the most recent version available.

And now, for the twist: this ALSO occurs when I attempt to render the project on a completely seperate machine, proving this is not a computer-specific problem.

PLEASE provide assistance with this issue. I am completely at a loss here and urgently in need of resolution.

If it helps, here are the specs of the first machine I experienced this problem on:

CPU: Intel Core i9-10850K 3.6 GHz 10-Core Processor

GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER WINDFORCE OC 3X 8G GDDR6
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory

Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING Z490-PLUS ATX LGA1200 Motherboard

OS: Windows 10 Pro

[Michael Grenadier]

First, rendering and exporting are not the same thing.   And are any of your sources from a scree capture or from a smartphone?  If so, your problem is probably caused by variable frame rate sources.

use mediainfo to determine whether your source is variable or constant frame rate

https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download
if it's variable use handbrake to convert to constant frame rate
https://handbrake.fr
and here's a tutorial on how to use handbrake
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=xlvxgVREX-Y

[Guest · Accepted solution]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I've resolved the problem, so I want to answer you in detail - just in case it helps someone else.

I mis-spoke when I used exporting and rendering interchangably, I understand these are different things. All of the footage was shot at a constant 23.976 framerate with dedicated camera equipment. 

It appears to have been a problem with the NVIDIA Game Ready driver. I learned today that NVIDIA also offers a 'more stable' Studo driver, so I tried installing it. Haven't had the problem occur while rendering for the past hour.

Will update if the issue occurs again.

[Michael Grenadier]

thanks for closing the thread.  Not everyone does.

[Simptai]

Many thanks! Worked for me too!

[Zak5E5C]

Lifesaver. Thanks so much! I had been struggling with this mystery for several hours today. now it's all running smooth again

[warreng6000]

Thank You! I didn't know that Nvidia had Studio drivers just for video editors and etc. I've been fighting with this problem for several days now. While editing, the video preview window kept freezing every few minuets (audio would continue to play). Looked for answers, tried a bunch of things but nothing fixed this.
The only "work around" I could do during this time, was to go in renderer and switch from GPU acceleration to software only... and then when it froze the next time switch from software back to GPU... rinse and repeat. I kept doing this because I had not found a fix, and I needed this very long project done "yesterday".
Many Thanks! 🙂

[dsymonds421]

Yes thank you! Finally a very specific answer in the context of certain premiere versions and driver releases!

[rideonvideo]

After days of frustration. NVIDIA Studio Driver solved the problem.

[dsymonds421]

That was me on Monday and Tuesday. Today's version of me is so much more tranquil because of the studio driver.

[Guest]

Glad it could help prevent someone else from wanting to tear their hair out. No issues for me, even a week later. I'll be permanently sticking with the studio driver, it's advertised to be far more stable and proven that for me.