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Compressor Transcoding Issue: Failed: Error: RequestFrameAt
Hey Everyone,
I’ve been reading up on “Failed: Error: RequestFrameAt returned: 3 for absolute frame XXXXX”. Seems like it’s basically a corrupted frame. I see that you can isolate it, cut it out, and then export without issue, BUT……
Here’s my situation. I’m working on editing a doc. The two primary cameras are exactly the same. Prores 422, 23.976 fps. But I have some footage from other devices I’d like to utilize here and there. Gopro footage, cell phone, handheld cam, etc. So I’ve been using compressor to transcode them to prores 422, 23.976. They’re various codecs and often 30 fps. First question: does that sound like the best practice?
I’m setting the timeline settings as the primary camera’s codec, etc and then adding the bonus footage. This is for a paranormal investigation project so “gritty” looking footage is fine in small doses, when it comes to the bonus footage.
Here’s where the problem comes in. I’m sending batches of these bonus footage clips to compressor and putting the settings on them that I want. When I start the batch about 30% fails with the above error message. Since this is all raw footage I haven’t even gone through yet, I don’t want to add each one to the timeline and find the corrupted frames. Is there a way to force compressor to complete those transcoded exports, even if it leaves the corrupted frame in there as a flaw? Because I probably won’t use 90% of this bonus footage anyway. Hopefully that makes sense.
I’m using an old iMac late 2013 (yeah, working on upgrading). 10.15.7 Catalina with old compressor 4.5.4. I’ve tried it on my newer 2020 macbook pro and had the same results.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
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5 Replies
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Just a suggestion. I would try transcoding the footage without changing the frame rate just to simplify the problem. Seems like “frame corruption” would be less likely to happen.
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Thanks. I’ll give that a shot. Do you think I’ll have any complications exported from the timeline later with different frame rates in the project?
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Update: It looks like it still fails when transcoding with it’s original frame rate. If you put it in the timeline and cut out the problem area it does indeed export correctly.
Now I’m wondering if I should just skip transcoding everything to the same codec/frame rate and just import it all as is, edit the project and then see if it’ll export after the edit is done without issue. I’ll try a test with the various codecs in the same timeline and see what happens.
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“Now I’m wondering if I should just skip transcoding everything to the same codec/frame rate and just import it all as is, edit the project and then see if it’ll export after the edit is done without issue.“
This would be my choice. Bring in the source (turn off auto-render), and let ‘er rip. It’ll save time and drive space, though if you’re bringing in long-GOP footage you may want to transcode prior to import anyway – those old Intel machines really struggle with it.
Test it and see what you can get away with.
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Thanks for the thoughts! I ended up transcoding most of the clips in advance. It took time and space but I’m hoping it’ll prevent any hiccups at the end.
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