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Media Encoder using ALL of my available RAM
I’ve had this problem for a long time and can’t figure out what the solution is. Adobe Media Encoder insists on gradually using up all of my available RAM. Current issue (but not the only project with the same problem) is a 34 minute 1080p 24fps Premiere project exporting to Blackmagic 10bit uncompressed QuickTime. Over time, the RAM usage creeps up to 23GB of my 24GB. This means I can’t use my computer to even check email while the encode is going on. As a side note I used to have 12GB of RAM and it did the same thing by using 11GB of my 12GB. Just this morning I upgraded to 24GB RAM thinking that would solve the issue….it didn’t.
The source file doesn’t always originate from Premiere either. If I take a ProRes QuickTime source movie and export for Blu-ray, it does the same thing. If I take a Premiere project and export directly (not thorugh AME) it does the same thing. If I use the same source file and export a DVD-Video file…same thing. My preferences in AME are set to reserve 8GB for other applications.
(I am currently making DVD-video files of my Premiere project mentioned above and CPU usage is at 100% and RAM usage is 22.8GB of 24GB and climbing) I’d better click POST before this all goes away!!
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
i7 960 @ 3.2GHz
24GB RAM
nVidia GTX285 graphics cardAny thoughts??
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3 Replies
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Most people want their video processing software to use all available resources (and they complain when this doesn’t occur).
It is a best practice to reserve your work station for the heavy video work and use a lesser computer (like a cheap laptop) for things like web browsing, email, and iTunes, so that these other processes don’t take resources away from getting the video production work done as fast as possible.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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I certainly understand the concept of having a workstation dedicated to video encoding and doing other tasks on a lesser computer. I don’t have that luxury of multiple workstations, so I try to be as efficient as I can with one. When I upgraded my RAM to 24GB it still uses nearly all of it, but fortunately it did help with multitasking during my tests yesterday. I didn’t feel any lag or hesitation while encoding and writing posts/checking email as I had with only 12GB RAM.
Interesting to note that my preferences were already set to reserve 8GB RAM for other processes, yet AME/Headless still used 23.2GB. I was intrigued by your comment in the Premiere forum about different Codecs using up resources. I’ll try to do some more tests today, but the one common denominator seems to be the Apple ProRes codec as the source video. I’ll encode something for Blu-ray today that doesn’t use ProRes as the source and see if it makes any difference.
-Matt
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Problem pinpointed. The issue only happens when I use ProRes QuickTime files as source elements. I just encoded two long form videos for Blu-ray and the AVCHD footage and XDCAMHD footage acted as they should, using the allotted amount of RAM. I threw a ProRes file at AME and it creeped up to 23.2GB of RAM consumed. So, I know what the problem is and it appears there is nothing I can do about it aside from not working with ProRes. Thanks for your time and input, not sure if I would have figured that one out on my own.
-Matt
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