Please help me, I am at my wits end with compressor!!

[John Pale]

There isn’t some magical thing to do that everyone in the world is keeping from you, honestly.
Try to do what this Apple Tech note says to do, and be sure to do everything step by step, in the same order as listed…..(even if you think you already did)

http://www.apple.com/support
Apple Service & Support
Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro: Compressor – Cannot submit job from Batch Window

In some situations submitting a job in Compressor fails even though a valid source, preset, and destination have been added.

Symptom

The Submit button is dimmed in Compressor’s Batch window, or a message appears stating “Unable to connect to background process” when submitting a job. This can occur due to an issue during Compressor’s installation.

To prevent this, either completely disable or temporarily remove third-party antivirus software or disk utilities which may run background processes during Compressor’s installation.

Products affected

Compressor 1.0, 1.0.1, and 1.2 (part of Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro 3)

Solution

If you have Mac OS X 10.3 or later, update to Compressor 1.2.1.

If the issue continues:
Click the Finder in the Dock.
From the Go menu, choose Go To Folder.
Enter “/Library/Receipts” and click Go.
If present, drag files which contain the name “CompressorUpdate” to the Trash.
From the Go menu, choose Go To Folder.
Enter “/Library/Frameworks” and click Go.
Drag the file “Compressor.framework” to the Trash.
Go to either the Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro page and download the Compressor 1.2.1 update (you will need to have your serial number).
Install the Compressor 1.2.1 update.

If this does not resolve the issue and you have both Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro 3 then do the following:
Uninstall Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro.
Reinstall Final Cut Pro 4 and download and install all updates.
Install DVD Studio Pro 3 making sure to select “Custom” and uncheck Compressor to install only DVD Studio Pro and A.Pack.

If only one of these applications is present then uninstalling and reinstalling the single application should resolve the issue.

For Mac OS X 10.2 to 10.2.8

In most situations, updating to Compressor 1.1 should resolve this. You can use Software Update in System Preferences to install the updates. Note: The Pro Apps Support package (ProKit Framework) must be installed first. Once the Pro Apps Support Package is installed, then click Check Now in Software Update again to see the Compressor update.

If the issue continues, it may be because DVD Studio Pro 2 was installed after installing Compressor 1.1. DVD Studio Pro 2 installs some components that do not work with Compressor 1.1. To resolve this, follow these steps:
Click the Finder in the Dock.
From the Go menu, choose Go To Folder.
Enter “/Library/Receipts” and click Go.
Drag the file “CompressorUpdate1.1.pkg” to the Trash.
From the Go menu, choose Go To Folder.
Enter “/Library/Frameworks” and click Go.
Drag the file “Compressor.framework” to the Trash.
Go to either the Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro page and download the Compressor update (you will need to have your serial number).
Install the Compressor update.

[Jeremy Garchow]

This sometimes happens on one of the edit machines in the office. Whenever it does, I have downloaded the update 1.2.1, reinstalled (just the update), trashed compressor’s preferences and I’m back to encoding. When you redownload the 1.2.1 update make sure you select the ‘keep and download’ option in software update so that you can keep this for installation later in case of another mishap.

Jeremy

———–
G5 Dual 2Ghz <> 4GB RAM <> FCP 4.5 <> Kona 2

ATTO 42XS <> Huge Systems 1.25 TB 4105 Fibre

[Loïc Pipoz]

There is an other problem with compressor.
As it is a network product somethime it need a network connection for working well.
The solution for having it working without ethernet connected or when ISP is down is to crate a network location named off.
And unchek all port in network setup.
Then restart.

On our G5 we do not keep our ethernet switch always on (fan are loud)
so if the g5 is started with switch off. compressor cannot contact background process.
with the off location it work after a restart. or just having the switch on before the start make all happening well 🙂

[Bjorn]

I just had the same error. After updating the system to 10.3.8, compressor wouldn’t open at all. I reinstalled Compressor 1.2.1 and Compressor could open again. But then I got the “could not connect to background process” message.
To fix it, I simply repaired permissions on the drive. Seems to work fine now.

/ Bjorn in Sweden