-
Weird green or blue line on Media Encoder h264 export
So I’ve got a ProRes file exported from AE at 1681px wide and they want an mp4. I know that mp4s don’t like odd numbers, and on my Mac Pro tower, Media Encoder just shaves a pixel off and gives me a nice 1680px wide file that seems to work just fine for our client. HOWEVER, we have tried doing this on a Windows 10 machine using the exact same version of Adobe and identical ME settings, and it is NOT happy about it, and it makes the last column of pixels a weird color. Still gives us a 1680px wide mp4, just not one that we can send to our client due to the line down the right edge that is dark green in the black section and light blue in the white section (see attached photo).
Does anyone know if this is a PC vs Mac thing? I feel like I had a similar issue years ago, but I can’t remember the solution or find it online (assuming there was one). Our current workaround is just shave that pixel width off in AE when we export the ProRes. But I’d love not introduce that extra step as this is a recurring job.
Thanks!
-
4 Replies
-
Have you tried changing the render engine? Anytime i’ve had weird things like this happen I start with changing the ME render engine from either CUDA to OpenCL or to Software.
-
We did. We tried so many things including the render engine, and the only thing that worked was exporting on a Mac.
It seems to be a PC hates odd numbered pixel widths thing. So I just had to make my comp an even number of pixels wide, and voila! No more stripe. Client hasn’t complained about the file being 1 pixel skinnier, so I guess that’s just how we’re doing things now.
Thanks!
-
It’s not a PC or Mac thing. It’s an “a lot of systems/codecs/formats/encoders do not like odd numbers in resolutions and they might pad it with something or straight up not work at all so one really shouldn’t use odd resolution values”-thing.
-
Yes, but when the client’s specs are an odd number mp4, you try your best to provide an odd number mp4. Their specs are based on the Jumbotron specs they were given by the stadium which clearly states that it is an odd number of pixels wide but also that delivery needs to be an mp4. I’m not sure the Jumbotron folks and the machine that runs the images on the Jumbotron folks have ever had a conversation about what’s possible which is how we get this kind of issue.
And the PC vs Mac thing appears to be HOW they each handle it. PC adds a weird line of some super bright color as if to say, “hey, I don’t like this, and I’m going to make sure you know it.” Mac just shaves it off like, “well, surely they didn’t mean it, so let’s just tidy this up for them.” I use both and generally don’t have a preference, but when I was trying to trouble shoot export issue, I couldn’t replicate the problem on my Mac. Neither of them were willing to give me an odd numbered width mp4, but the Mac version could just get sent on with fingers crossed, while the PC one needed a bit of attention first.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up