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Compressor Export Failures
Hello.
I am working on a large project where we have built the project in FCP7. And now we are exporting each clip in the sequence as an individual file so that it can be played on a larger res system where multiple servers are sourcing different parts of the clip. For example one file is chopped up into 6 1400×1050 images and then exported to play back on 6 different servers to make up a 7000×1050 image.
Im sending the files into Compressor, I then have different destinations set up to organize my media after its gone through Compressor. My issues is that I can successfully do one file at a time. Even do two files. When I try and made compressor do several files at one, even all the layers 200 files, compressor starts giving errors for each file.
Is there a max for compressor? Errors have been – Quicktime error, cant access media, generic error, etc…
Thanks in advance for your help.
Matt
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8 Replies
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I’m unsure about a limiting factor,
But I’m a little confused. how many different files are you sending at one time? i.e, is this a sequence of clips your sending, or a single rendered file of the sequence? I think I might be able to help but don’t quite understand your workflow.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO, CD’s
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Hi Jerry.
Im exporting maybe 100 different clips. Each one ranges from approx 10sec in length to 2min in length.
In Compressor, the each file is rendered into 9 seperate files each one with a different “crop” of the main file.I do this by making 9 seperate settings in compressor each with different crop settings and destination settings.
When in compressor only 1 out of my 9 files per clip renders at a time which i completely expect. HOwever I can’t load more then 1 or 2 clips into Compressor at anytime. When I load more then one and then assign the 9 settings to each one, as soon as I start rendering I get errors vs. “successful”
I hope this makes sense. If not, Ill grab some screenshots tomorrow from the office.
M
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I think I get it now.
In reality, what you’re doing is putting a burden on Compressor. I’m not sure how it uses system resources when you load things in it, but figure you’re just taxing it beyond it’s capabilities. The way it was designed was to load a lot less at a time. 99% of the time it’s a single compression to many clips, or it’s a multiple compressions to a single object – and this is how it’s really used out there, and tested out there when it’s in beta…
You might also consider trying this with media manager, but you can’t crop things and such with it, and can only select one format at a time, however it will load all clips at one time.
Might take a very strong look at Sorenson’s Squeeze or Episode Pro for jobs like this. Otherwise, you’re looking at doing this one clip at a time I’ll wager. I’ll bet they do it in their sleep. Compressor is sort of thrown in to the suite, where the above two are hard core professional compression softwares that are made for what you’re doing exactly. Sorenson’s just released version 6 and it’s a dandy… I’m doing a review of it in fact for the COW… stay tuned.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO, CD’s
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Thanks so much Jerry!
Really appreciate your help!
I look forward to your review!!
One last question if I may… I assume that Sorenson’s Squeeze will take advantage of a multipul cores and an Xsan? ie a render farm?
Thanks again.
Matt
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Rather than placing 9 settings on one clip, have you tried pulling the clip into Compressor 9 times and assigning a different setting to each. It’s not as elegant, but worth a try if you haven’t already tried this. I’ve used Squeeze for years – currently have 5 – and will upgrade next week to 6. I don’t know for sure if it uses multiple cores, but it’s very fast. Check their website.. They claim 6 is 5x faster than 5.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 2 (FCP 6.0.5, Comp 3.0.5, DVDSP 4.2.1, Color 1.0.3)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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The New Squeeze just totally rocks man… My review will be pretty strong. I love that company and always have… they are very very good at what they do…
Jerry
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Went out and got Squeeze 6… It screams… OMG! It kicks Compressors A**!
A couple things I dont like about it, but maybe Im just doing them wrong since it was my first day with the program.
*When I export via Squeeze from FCP I cant apply a group of presets to a file all at once and batch them, I have to apply one preset at a time. Can get very tedious when working with many files.
*Love the Watch folders, however when using them I would basically set them to “watch” the same folder that FCP was exporting too. However Squeeze would immediately start squeezing a file the minute it saw it, it wouldn’t wait for the whole file to to be completed. It would only squeeze the first couple seconds. I had to wait until FCP was completely done with the file and then drop it into a separate “watch” folder. Was really hoping to streamline that and make it a one step process, not a 2 step process.
Again… Maybe (and I hope) that I am doing something wrong… But over all a great program!!
M
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John~ Thanks for the help, yes actually gave that a try as well… 🙁 It renders just fine, just has trouble when you “que” up lots of files…
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