[Bryce Hoover]

I should have been a bit more specific.

My company has it’s own FAST channel. For our channel, I deliver ProRes 422 and another process converts it to whatever format the FAST channel uses.

We also supply promotional content to a bunch of other providers, like FrndlyTV, XUMO, Philo, Sling, Tubi, Vizio, Samsung, Amazon, etc. Everyone has different requirements; some will accept 23.976fps spots, some will only accept 30p. Some limit the file size to less than 20MB, others 200MB. Some will accept ProRes because they’re going to rewrap it for their needs, and others are very specific on every setting.

It’s nearly impossible to get delivery specs for each of the providers/FAST channels. I have to beg for correct delivery specs from my producers and then they have beg someone else, and those people never seem to know who to ask, it’s infuriating.

I wish it was just a matter of googling Deliverable Specs for DirecTV Stream and in the results there would be a link to a DirecTV site with the info laid out. I’ve tried. I would call myself and ask, but who do you call?

It’s like in the old tape days, if you master on DigiBeta and the station/network you’re sending it to can only accept MII or BetaSX; no one seems to know this information until you get the rejection call. That call comes from someone who was told to call you and tell you they can’t accept the tape but they can’t tell you what they need because they’re not “technical”. Back then, you called their production/on-air master control ops center/engineering and someone there would tell you. Sometimes, I really miss the tape days.

[Bryce Hoover]

A full restart didn’t fix anything.
This same phenomenon has been duplicated on a separate machine with OSX 10.11.6 and CC 2015.4.
Turning off Mercury Playback GPU acceleration doesn’t change anything (other than it makes scaling worse)

Just tried it on another machine with CC 2017.
Seems this issues lives in CC 2017 as well.
2 Effects on an adjustment layer.
One effect keyframed works as expected.
Second effect added kills the first effect (meaning the keyframed adjustments disappear).
These are stock Adobe effects. (sapphire does the same thing)

If anyone can use an adjustment layer with more than one keyframed effect and have it work properly, please let me know.

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

I’ll confirm that Project Management in the latest Premiere Pro version (2015.3) is still broken based on a test that we just performed following the same procedures with the same project and same source material referenced in my original post. There is a longer post in the Adobe Forum titled “Project Management CC2015 – Consolidation Broken? Works in CC2014.2”

The transcode failure warning is the same.
“Transcode Failure: unable to match audio channels. File “HCA_111_Testless_Final.mov” was copied”

It’s still broken.

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

I did a very simple test. I’ll lay it out below. I hope I’ve explained it well enough.

Mac Pro, 6-core Intel (2×2.93 GHz), 32GB ram, OS 10.9.5
Premiere Pro CC 2015 (9.1.0) (174 Build)

Timeline contains a single 17frame AV clip, video and audio are linked.
Timeline contains opening graphics, end tag graphics and open/close VO (.wav file).

Project manage the “17fr” timeline.
A consolidated 17fr file is created (48.1MB) as well as a copy of the full source (23.5GB).
Graphics and .wav audio are copied over and are not consolidated (normal behavior).

Opened newly consolidated “17fr” project.
The 17fr clip references the full source.
Relinking 17fr clip to the consolidated clip yields no errors; however, audio in the timeline is lost
(blank waveform, no .pek being generated, no .pek file is ever generated).

Frame match back of clip in timeline brings consolidated clip source into source monitor WITH AUDIO.

Replacing timeline clip with source clip from the Bin, audio remains missing.
(right click on clip in timeline, choose Replace with Clip, from Bin)

Replacing timeline clip with source clip from source window (overlay), puts the source audio into timeline.

Double clicking timeline clip, loads consolidate source video into source window;
however no audio is present (audio is blank).
Double clicking consolidated clip from the bin loads consolidated source into source window with audio.

Double click timeline clip, loading it into the source window (with no audio), right click window, choose reveal in project, reveals consolidated clip in bin – double click the clip in the bin, loads consolidated clip into source monitor WITH AUDIO.

It seems PP might consolidate a project, but doesn’t reset clip links to newly consolidated media.

Newly consolidated media must be edited in by hand for both audio and video to be present.

Project Manager is broken in CC2015 (9.1).

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

Different project, different sources, same issue.

Premiere Pro CC2015 (9.1)
Source file: ProRes HQ, 8 channels mono, HD 1920×1080

Clips in the timeline that are from this source but do not have synced audio linked,
consolidate and transcode properly (transcoding to ProRes 422).

Clips in the timeline that are from this source and DO have synced audio, but are unlinked,
do not consolidate or transcode, and reference the entire source (23:45 show).

Clips in the timeline that are from this source and do not have synced VIDEO
(meaning only the audio is used) do not consolidate or transcode, and reference the entire show.

Premiere Pro has created some consolidated clips with audio and video that seem like they could replace what’s in the timeline, but they reference nothing in the timeline.
(they’re just extra media created by PP and serve no purpose).

These clips are in my bin and are offline.
If I reconnect the full show, the clips are still offline in the bin, but are online in my timeline.
So, the consolidation sort of worked, except for everything in my timeline references the full show, not the newly created consolidated files.

The majority of the audio in my timeline is from a 1/2 hr show.
Very little is married to/linked to it’s original video.
Is it possible that Premiere is choosing not to consolidate these files and instead,
links to and references the full show? (because PP doesn’t consolidate audio only files)

As a side note, I’ve converted the source file to ProRes 422 with the same audio (6 tracks mono, 7 & 8 stereo mix minus) and still experience the same result.

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

I had a pretty major issue this weekend with MP4 files that reminded me why I have attempted to avoid them in the past.
I created 25 looping animations, most had lengths of 1:27 and a few that were 5:09.
I sent the animations straight from AE to AME for compression as h264 .mp4 files with settings:
VBR 2-pass, 8Mbit target 20Mbit max, key frame distance 15, profile: main, level 5.0, no audio.

These animations were loaded into presentation software ProPresenter. I first loaded them on my MacBook Pro 17″ and noticed they skipped and didn’t start like they should. ProPresenter seemed to hang when transitioning between files. My MacBook has more than enough ram and VRAM to handle everything I through at it. The final play out was through a MacPro tower with a 1.5GB video card and 8GB of RAM.
Playback through the MacPro was much worse and nearly locked up the software (lots of pinwheels).

At the last minute, literally, I took the .mp4 files, through them into Compressor (Compressor didn’t like the .mp4s very much either), and created h.264 .mov files, matching my AME settings as much as possible. These files played as expected, without skipping and did not cause any hangs in either my MacBook Pro or the MacPro. Playback was smooth as silk, seamless.

I’ve found that h.264 encoded .mp4 files seem to be more problematic than the .mov versions.
I’ve noticed less than seamless playback using the QT 7 player and VLC player (on Mac).
I’m in a complete Mac environment for both full-time work and my own side work (OS 10.8+)
I’m confident that the problems I experienced with the .mp4 files were not related to ProPresenter, the version of Mac OS, or the hardware on either system.
Is there something to the .mp4 wrapper that Mac/QT dependent software doesn’t like?
If there’s something I can do to make the .mp4 files I create in AME playback identical to the .mov versions from Compressor, I’d REALLY like to learn what to do. This weekend’s experience was a painful reminder of why I have avoided AME for h.264 files.

I was initially excited that I could go straight from AE to AME and make the files I needed without going to an intermediate (i.e. ProRes LT). Thought that would save me time and drive space. In the end though, I would have been better off exporting out of AE as ProRes LT and using Compressor to make my h.264 .mov files.

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

I’ve confirmed that the .mp4 files do have black as the last frame, so that’s good.

I guess working in the Mac world for so long, I’ve never had issues with reading or creating h264 QT files but always seem to have issues with .mp4 files (creating them at the same quality).

Thanks for your help!

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

Changing from Quicktime to H.264 (mp4) seems to have made a difference.
I created an H.264 preset, Profile: Main, Level: 5.0, VB@, 2-pass, Target: 5, Max: 6, Key Frame Distance: 15.
Quality seems to be as good as Compressor’s QT h264.
What I’ve noticed is the last frame of the .mp4 isn’t full black, but is with the Quicktime version.
QT player says it’s got 300 frames (:30 spot) but the last frame is not black with the .mp4.
I’ve encoded 2 different files and got the same result. I need the file to end in full black.
Any idea what causes the QT to have full black but the .mp4 to not?

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

“80” with AME – the Compressor settings I use have the quality set at High which looks to be 80%.
Keyframe rate – unchecked, does that mean automatic?
AME doesn’t give me an option for VBR or CBR with a .mov wrapper.
.mov vs. mp4 – trying to keep things apples to apples.

I believe I’ve told AME to do exactly what I want, as Compressor seems to understand and be able to perform what I’ve asked it to do.

I’ll use your suggestions and see if it helps. I’ll report back what I find.
Thanks for the suggestions!

-bh

[Bryce Hoover]

** update**

PROJECT MANAGEMENT of CAPTIONED FILES:
There is a setting in Preferences under Media, “include captions on import”. By default, it’s checked.
Uncheck it BEFORE importing and the files will come in with no captioning.
Clips brought in with that setting checked, will ALWAYS have captioning. Premiere Pro flags it somehow and will forever know that it has captioning. The workaround is to rename the clip and reimport it AFTER changing the “include captions on import” preference.
Following that procedure has fixed my problem.
Adobe contacted me with this solution.
reference: https://forums.adobe.com/message/7144275#7144275

PROJECT MANAGEMENT (GENERAL):
Select Source:Individual Clips and NOT Source:Sequence because:
You would not want to set Source: Sequence for your mixed HD and SD clips because setting it to Sequence will constrain the transcodes to the Sequence settings (it will transcode what matches the Sequence frame size, frame rate, fielding and aspect ratio). If your Sequence is 1920×1080, then whatever is not 1920×1080 will be copied. By setting it to Individual Clips, it will transcode per each clip as long as the Preset can support it (e.g.: ProRes or CineForm can transcode 1920×1080 and 720×480, etc.). https://forums.adobe.com/message/7144620#7144620

Also, AUDIO ONLY files (audio recorded without video) will not manage down to only what has been used. The entire clip will be added to the Project Managed media folder.

-bh