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PC vs Mac render issue
Hi,
Our new PC seems to be creating some errors rendering where the same file rendered on a Mac causes no problems?
The glitch is in a watermark – there are no key frames on the watermark but it flickers on the export. It doesn’t flicker on RAM preview. I know the file is OK as the Mac plays it out fine.
Any ideas?
Olly Lawer
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17 Replies
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[Olly Lawer] “The glitch is in a watermark – there are no key frames on the watermark but it flickers on the export. It doesn’t flicker on RAM preview. I know the file is OK as the Mac plays it out fine.”
What exact version of Ae are you using? Are you RAM previewing at the same resolution that you’re exporting? Are you using multiprocessing for renders but not for RAM preview, or are you using MP for both (or neither)?
What format are you rendering to?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Hi Walter, thanks for your response. Answers below.
– What exact version of Ae are you using?
AE CC
– Are you RAM previewing at the same resolution that you’re exporting?
No. We’re doing a RAM preview at 1/2 resolution. Does this make a difference? Still, Mac doesn’t have issue with the same file, but the PC does.
– Are you using multiprocessing for renders but not for RAM preview, or are you using MP for both (or neither)?
Both.
– What format are you rendering to?
QT MOV Animation Codec. We use this all the time and it’s fine. Tho, we did have to buy QT pro on the PC to enable the same workflow as we use on the Mac.
Olly Lawer
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[Olly Lawer] “No. We’re doing a RAM preview at 1/2 resolution. Does this make a difference? Still, Mac doesn’t have issue with the same file, but the PC does.”
It can make a difference, yes. The disk cache is resolution-dependent, so it’s possible that if your cache is invalid, you wouldn’t see it on a valid half-res render.
Do you have any effects applied to this layer? Are you sure you’re up to the lastest version of any third-party effects?
What do you mean “Mac doesn’t have issue with the same file, but the PC does?” Are you saying the Mac renders correctly and the PC does not, or the Mac plays back the rendered movie file correctly and the PC does not?
Also note that the disk cache is machine-dependent. I’d suggest you try purging RAM and clearing the disk cache as a troubleshooting step.
[Olly Lawer] “QT MOV Animation Codec. We use this all the time and it’s fine. Tho, we did have to buy QT pro on the PC to enable the same workflow as we use on the Mac.”
Something is wrong here — an installation of QuickTime may be required, but QT Pro is not required to render from Ae to QuickTime Animation codec.
Do you have any anti-virus or firewall software on this machine? If so, is “Adobe QT32 Server.exe” permitted through?
Do you see the same thing if you render to another format, like a PSD sequence?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
– Do you have any effects applied to this layer?
Yes, an adjustment layer with a blur, but no key frames on the layer
– Are you sure you’re up to the lastest version of any third-party effects?
Yes. We use Creative Cloud and everything is up to date – no third party effects.
– What do you mean “Mac doesn’t have issue with the same file, but the PC does?” Are you saying the Mac renders correctly and the PC does not, or the Mac plays back the rendered movie file correctly and the PC does not?
Exactly right. We use Dropbox between machines. The exact same file with no changes renders fine with the Mac, but the PC renders a glitch.
The file played back glitches on both machines and plays fine on both machines – dependant on if we are playing back the with the PC rendered file or the Mac rendered file.
– Also note that the disk cache is machine-dependent. I’d suggest you try purging RAM and clearing the disk cache as a troubleshooting step.
Will do.
– Something is wrong here — an installation of QuickTime may be required, but QT Pro is not required to render from Ae to QuickTime Animation codec.
When we got the PC, we had to install QT to render a MOV. Understandable. However, this MOV was not recognised by the Mac or the conversion software. So we paid for QT pro after some advice on here. Now the files play OK and are recognised on the Mac.
– Do you have any anti-virus or firewall software on this machine? If so, is “Adobe QT32 Server.exe” permitted through?
Yes we do – I’ll check. I should note, all other renders have been glitch free on the PC.
Do you see the same thing if you render to another format, like a PSD sequence?
– not tired, but we can try
Olly Lawer
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A tip for rendering issues / glitches is to clear all caches before you render. This is done in one of the menus, edit or composition I think. It helps especially when doing a MP-render. A second tip is telling AE to “clear cache” during renders every X frames. This is turned on via a SECRET AE-preference pane.
Last resort is clearing all caches and turning MP-render off.
AE’s new caching system is often good and aggressive but sometimes it screws up. The above has always fixed rendering issues for me at least.
Speaking of the above issue I’d love the option to “clear all caches before composition rendering” in the output module. It would save me some headaches.
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Great. Thank you.
So tell me about this secret menu?!?! 😉
Olly Lawer
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Cool. Tho does it slow down render a lot? Kinda enjoying very quick renders compared to iMac!
Olly Lawer
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It really depends. Some renders will be affected more than others. Primarily turning multi-processor rendering off will decrease speed by a lot (of course depending on host system).
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I find the secret menu items to be almost entirely unnecessary in all 64-bit editions of Ae (CS5 and later). They were quite helpful in 32-bit versions which were very limited in RAM access, where the RAM requirements for the caches could actually interfere with rendering.
Also, I only recommend clearing the caches when you’re running into trouble; otherwise, they can be very useful. If you were doing RAM previews at full resolution instead of half-res, then you’d see the same cached results in your previews as you would in your renders, and you’d know immediately if there were any problem (which is possible but relatively rare) that would necessitate clearing the cache.
Making smart use of the disk cache can be a big time saver, preventing you from rendering and re-rendering the same frames over and over again as you work and as you render final output.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events
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