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CS4 Encoder and phantom source
Hi
This is driving me crazy. I am mostly an After Effects guy but I am trying to put together my showreel in Premiere Pro CS4.
My sequence is a mix of QuickTime files and AFX projects (dynamically linked). I have made sure that all the clips are rendered (green render-line throughout) but the problems start after choosing Export>Media. My sequence loads but nothing happens when I start the queue. After a few moments everything stops and a yellow warning triangle appears in the status column. When I click that and read the text PPro states that the error is because a source file cannot be found. However, all the project clips are connected, none of them had been moved and neither has the project.
I have read on various forums that some people are having problems but I cannot make head nor tail of their solutions or even if they have found a reliable fix. I have tried unchecking the XML import but it has made no difference.
When I manually run the Encoder and load in a random QuickTime file to encode, everything works.
CS4, Mac OS X 10.5.6, Dual QuadCore 3.2ghz, 10gig Ram
A
Vertigo Productions
https://www.vertigo.co.uk -
11 Replies
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Make sure you get the latest update. There sometimes was an issue with the first version of CS4 if you installed over CS3. The temp files were stored in the wrong folder.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
Thanks Vince, I have just run the updater. It found something for Encoder but it has made no difference.
The status column says ‘waiting’ but I can see from the tiny window at the bottom of the panel that it is trying to load a PPro project that just doesn’t exist. It is definitely not the same file as is listed under the ‘source name’ column in the main window.
This seems crazy, I have done nothing different from the way I used to use CS3. I can’t drag a PPro project into the Encoder, is that possible? Do I have any other options?
Antony
A
Vertigo Productions
https://www.vertigo.co.uk -
Unfortunately, Adobe only released a tech note for this problem on the Windows platform.
Cheers
Eddie -
Other than doing a clean OS and Adobe install, try creating a new project in a different folder, and importing your current project into it, then try the export again.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
This entire Adobe Encoder idea is one sad fiasco. The more I use it, the more I hate it. I just discovered is doesn’t allow access to codec settings. I went to create a Quicktime file and realized I had no access to audio and video codec quality settings. No access to setting keyframes either.
My only option was to render a full uncompressed Quicktime file (which is huge, needless to say) that I then open and finally export in the Quiktime Pro player using the proper target codec settings for audio and video.
I would like to know WTF Adobe was thinking about when they created this thing. Useless crap.
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Yes, there’s a link to codec settings on each file listed and should open on a new window.
If not, it sounds like you are having some serious software issues and might need a fresh OS and Adobe install, which should be done for every new version.
You really don’t want anything else running other than the Adobe suite, and in a professional environment where stability is most important, nothing else installed either. No antivirus, popup blockers, malware removers, no third party software running in the tray.
In fact we had an crashing issue recently just because Google desktop was running in the background, so it doesn’t take much…
Many of us have been asking for a batch encoder for years. Most don’t realize the cool factor until they have 4 or 5 files that need to be encoded overnight, or while they’re working on another project, that’s really the beauty of it, and why it’s separate from Premiere.
It’s 1.0, so it may not be perfect, and I still think they should leave the old export as well, just like After Effects, but it has worked flawlessly on our side.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
>>Yes, there’s a link to codec settings on each file listed and should open on a new window. << Oh it's there alright, it's just grayed out, along with the keyframe settings. >>If not, it sounds like you are having some serious software issues…<< Well, with the Adobe Encoder, yes. The rest of my programs work perfectly fine. >>…and might need a fresh OS and Adobe install, which should be done for every new version.<< With all due respect, where did you ever get this advice from? I've never heard of anything so drastic. Install the system from scratch just to install a new version of a program? You do this for every new version of a program that you update? Hopefully I can find a version of Premiere CS3 I can perform some tests with. Otherwise I need to look at alternative editors. It's too bad because I'm pretty satisfied with this latest version of Premiere. Hopefully the CS3 version will be fairly close in capability. I'm not impressed with this Encoder, to say the least. I could care less about it batch rendering processes. You can probably get a Python, Perl, or VB script written that can do a far better job of it. >>…I still think they should leave the old export as well, just like After Effects…<< So are you saying that AE CS4 can bypass this mess? That would be very hopeful, at least for AE.
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“With all due respect, where did you ever get this advice from? I’ve never heard of anything so drastic. Install the system from scratch just to install a new version of a program? You do this for every new version of a program that you update? ”
Even if you uninstall the entire suite, there are a ton of files left over. For example, many registry keys, everything inside common folders, everything inside Users/…/app data/roaming, which you can’t really remove manually, and other folders that I probably don’t even know about. Heck, ever the data cache was left over last time I checked.
We do this with every new major version (CS2 > CS3 > CS4) yes, absolutely.
In fact I would recommend a fresh start at least yearly or you can expect drastic Windows slow downs anyway as stuff piles up, 30% + on average from my experience.
No many people don’t go through that trouble, but I can tell you that I have none of the issues most people complain about here… Must be something to it.
If you have a good backup system, that should not be that big of a deal to take on, I usually get it done in 3-4 hours.
After Effects has a build in render queue, and a separate export menu, although they recommend using the render Queue.
Neither allows you to keep working during export like Premiere does though.
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area -
I guess that’s all fine and well if you work strictly with the CS3 suite, but I have a multitude of programs, audio, video, 3D, compositing and multi media support software, and there’s no way in hell I’d be reinstalling all that just for a program upgrade. I don’t work with a “suite”, so I guess if you do so, then such an option may be viable.
I don’t have any problems with my system or any of my other programs. The problem for me lies strictly with this Adobe Encoder. Even Premiere itself works fine, save for some comical legacy dysfunctions. Some things will never change in Premiere. As you’ve mentioned, the Adobe Encoder is version 1.0, so perhaps in the future it may actually work, but it doesn’t work now. At least not for me.
Adobe must know this program is dysfunctional, because they’ve gone out of their way to leave the internal renderer in AE. AE is far more professionally used than Premiere, and they know they can’t afford to cripple it’s rendering pipeline. At least AE has been spared the agony of this beta code. Otherwise combustion would probably render faster! That would be an embarrassment they could never live down. 😀
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But that’s the problem really, unless you dedicate a machine to editing, each additional program you install increases your chances of conflict, and as you described it yourself, your odds are very high, nothing Adobe can predict in their own testing of the software.
There are certainly things in AE that I would like to see in Premiere, but the point must be made one more time, AME works fine for most of us, and I’m afraid the solution, again, would probably be to start fresh, if a simple re installation didn’t work…
Vince Becquiot
Kaptis Studios
San Francisco – Bay Area
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