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FCP crashes when exporting HD to SD with Compressor
I have been attempting to Export>Using Compressor a 2-hour sequence consisting of XDCAM HD footage and a few .motn files to create SD mpeg-2/ac3 files in order to make a DVD. I have successfully used this workflow a couple dozen times over the past few months, but now FCP crashes at about 80% completion of the encoding process. Console gives me a running string of error messages “error code=12 can’t allocate region”. I’ve been chasing this problem with help from some folks at 2-pop.com and I’m not getting anywhere. Any thoughts?
My setup:
Mac Pro 2 x 3.2 GHz Quad Core Xeon
8 GB RAM
(2) 1TB eSATA RAID (2-500 GB WD drives in a Sonnet enclosure x 2)
g-technology 2TB RAID
OSX 10.5.7
QT 7.6
FCP 6.0.5 -
8 Replies
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My first thought is render out the motion files and put them into the timeline instead of the .motn files.
My second though is don’t use the Send to Compressor function. I never use this as it’s just slower.
Export a reference Quicktime Movie. Quit FCP. Launch compressor and bring that QT file into Compressor and run.
easier yet, invest in an AJA Kona board and do the downconvert in realtime.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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I think the same than Walter.
Some times trying to do all at once can be too much.
Compressor is making an MPEG-2 downscaling a QT stream that is being processed in FC and in Motion. And to make the thing a bit more complicated, the original footage is MPEG-2 too.
Export from FC a Reference or Self-contained movie. Everything will be easier and the Compressor jb will take half of the time.
rafael -
Walter,
Thanks for the feedback. As others have also mentioned rendering my .motn project files to .mov, I did that and replaced all the .motn files in my Sequences. Then I exported a QT movie (unchecked the self-contained box) which took 4 hours but it worked. I’m currently transcoding the QT movie to MPEG-2 in Compressor, which is saying it will be another 4 hours to complete. Forgive me, but did you say this would be quicker? It was only taking 4 hours (when it worked) going straight out through Compressor. Unless my math is wrong, 8 hours is twice as long as 4 hours.I’d love to invest in a Kona card, but I’m trying to make DVDs for my client to approve. And the duplicator wants 8-bit Uncompressed SD QT. I don’t think the AJA would help me with either deliverable.
Thanks again for the info.
Mike
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[Michael Pella] “Then I exported a QT movie (unchecked the self-contained box) which took 4 hours but it worked.”
This means your Sequence was not fully rendered. should take 10 minutes max even for a very long project.
[Michael Pella] “I’d love to invest in a Kona card, but I’m trying to make DVDs for my client to approve. And the duplicator wants 8-bit Uncompressed SD QT. I don’t think the AJA would help me with either deliverable. “
Just a one off for them to approve? We do that all the time with our DVD Recorder. Composite video out of the AJA Kona along with RCA audio directly to the DVD Recorder. Realtime. Hit play on the timeline, hit REC on the DVD Recorder.
As for the 8bit SD Uncompressed QT, yep, the Kona helps there too. Here’s the method we follow when we want to use our copy of BitVice for DVDs which does not support HD files yet.
Lay off the HD timeline to tape using our Panasonic 1400 VTRs.
Capture that HD tape back into our system using the Kona to do a realtime downconvert to SD. In your case, just capture to 8bit Uncompressed SD.
Again, realtime so much MUCH faster than going through Compressor. For a 22 minute show that would take us 44 minutes to make the conversion. Once to lay to tape and again to capture back into the system downconverted.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Thanks, Walter. Those are good workflows. I’m definitely going to purchase a DVD recorder for these one-off approval copies; I’m wasting huge amounts of time making files. The Kona to tape then recapture is an interesting approach that would require significant expense (I don’t own an HD deck either) so I think I’ll store that one in the memory banks for future application. The Uncompressed file takes almost 6 hours to render.
My Sequence was fully rendered, but it definitely took 4 hours to make the reference movie. Any thoughts on what else I might be doing wrong to take that long? My sequence is 2hours 20 minutes, XDCAM HD footage, RENDERED .MOV FILES made with Motion and a few little music stingers, hardly any compositing. I did Export>Quicktime Movie using current settings.
Mike
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[Michael Pella] “Any thoughts on what else I might be doing wrong to take that long?”
Nope, not really. I’ve done 1 hour shows and can’t recall a reference file ever taking longer than 10 minutes. We never work in XDCAM here so I don’t know if that’s anything.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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I went back to my master sequence (which consists of 3 shorter sequences) and found that the only Render option not selected was “Full”. I selected it, hit Render All, and it started to reconform the GOP (several hours to do so). I imagine that was the issue is creating a QT reference movie.
Replacing the .motn project files with rendered .mov files seems to have fixed my crashing problem, so I thank you for that piece of advice.
Mike
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[Michael Pella] ” found that the only Render option not selected was “Full”.”
Yep, that gets a lot of people. And of course every time you trash your prefs, you have to reset all of that.
Glad it’s working for you now.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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