[Ryan Holmes]

Jan – there are a lot of factors that go into getting “speed” on encoding. What format are you starting with? What format(s) are you converting to? Where does the media reside (RAID, internal drive, flash drive, etc)? Where are you writing the new media file (NAS, RAID, internal drive like a boot drive, etc.)?

All of these questions impact your performance. Additionally CS6, was tuned very well for Nvidia GPU’s. I see in your spec list that you’re running an ATI. While CS6 did start to incorporate ATI with their OpenCL architecture, Nvidia was where the speed came from (and still is to some degree on the Creative Cloud apps). However, support for ATI has jumped leaps and bounds in the Creative Cloud offering of Media Encoder.

Also the more cores you can have on your CPU the more Adobe can thread the encoding through multiple cores (parallel processing). I’m assuming your computer has 1 Intel i5-3570K, so you have 4 cores. Having 8 or 12-cores would also cut down on exporting times.

To my earlier questions, where you’re media file resides and where you write your newly encoded media file are also important. Using USB based hard drives (unless they are USB 3.0) is generally discouraged. Having storage attached via Firewire, Thunderbolt, or eSata is greatly preferred. Further, avoid using only your boot drive to store, edit, and encode your media. Your primary system hard drive is already running your whole computer. If it has to serve up a file, and also write a new file while maintaining all system operations you’ll also lose performance.

Some of your speed problems are likely computer-hardware related (GPU, processor type,etc), while others may be based around the file your encoding and the settings you’re converting it to.

Hope this helps.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Can you get a feed from their in-house system? Or have them provide you with a copy of the recording that you can just sync up with your footage?

any on-camera solution is going to leave a lot to be desired quality wise. You could always mic her with lav and use that…though the dynamic range of a lav isn’t typically very strong. If you can’t get a feed from their in-house board (or a copy of their recording of it) I would probably lean towards the lav on 1 channel and some sort of on-board mic (Rode or AT) for a bit more ambience and backup recording to track 2….mix in post as needed.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Nothing but good things to say about SmallHD. I have 4 of them for various tasks. They are great, affordable, and dependable monitors. I always recommend people towards that company (good customer support too based on my experience with them).

SWIT also has some followers around here. Warren Eig wrote up a good review of one of their monitors last year: https://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/12805/breviewb-swit-s1070f-monitor-review

Additionally there are monitors sub-$1000 made by Marshall and Ikan that you can investigate. In today’s market there are so many more choices than just 5 years ago.

Ikan: https://ikancorp.com/productlisting.php?id=75
Marshall: https://www.marshallmonitors.com/products/monitors/index.html

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Yeah….that’s not right. Sounds like you may need to clean your cache (preferences –> Media –> Clean Media Cache). This may also be a deeper problem that requires a uninstall/reinstall of the software.

If you’re on Adobe Creative Cloud (CC) then the process is a breeze. If not, you’ll need to find your disks and de-authorize your software, uninstall, restart, and then install fresh copies of Adobe.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Steven Pritchard] “The only way I can now render an item is to export it directly from PP.

Once you put the file in there you can change the output settings (or drag and drop other settings onto it). Are you not able to change the settings once the file is in AME? All the yellow text provides contextual menus that you can change as needed. Drag and drop from the Preset Browser also works.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

I think Kevin’s answer is Creative Cloud specific….looks like it’s time to move to After Effects CC.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Have you ever used that setting before?

AME typically uses the last setting you used or the last setting you used applied to that specific file when you drop something into AME.

Maybe AME is pushing you towards making more GIF’s from your work! 🙂

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Not sure exactly what you’re asking. Modern cameras continue to get better and better in poor lighting conditions. At our shop we have a Canon 7D, 5DIII, and C300. Hands down the C300 is the king of the pack!

As a point of comparison our Canon 5DIII blows away our Canon 7D in low light scenarios. We can shoot at higher ISO on our 5D and still have a usable image where our 7D will become overrun with noise (higher ISO = more noise). Our 7D starts to fall apart around ISO 2500. Our 5D can run close to ISO 10000 and still be usable. The chip technology in a 7D is almost 5 years old. Sensors have advanced quite a bit since 2009 when it was released.

For many of the manufactures claims I disregard how high it can go as a measure of effectiveness. However, typically the higher it goes then the cleaner it is at the lower ISO’s where people typically shoot. So instead of ISO 2500 barely being usable on our 7D, our 5D can shoot at ISO 2500 all day and look clean. Again, because the sensor technology has advanced quite a bit.

Another important aspect for you to consider is lensing. Canon L-series lenses are fast and can drastically help in low light settings. That’s a double-edged sword as you know. The faster you run the lens the more depth of field you’re creating so focusing can be a challenge. But opening up the lens to let more light in can help offset some ISO issues. In terms of lensing I will always give the nod to Canon over Sony.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

You don’t need to DI the format. The iPhone is just recording a h.264 mp4 Quicktime file. That should work fine in Premiere Pro even on Windows.

If you do want to convert to DNXHD, you’ll need to maintain the same frame rate as your source footage – 120fps in this case. Inside of PPro is where you designate it to be interpreted at 23.976fps which will give you smooth slow-mo. If you just convert your source footage from 120fps to 23.976fps it will remove frames, and playback at a 1:1 to speed. Media Encoder is not where you will do your slow-mo work – that is saved for Premiere or After Effects.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

What brand and speed of CF card are you using? A slower card will cause the internal buffer of the camera to fill up more often thereby creating more heat as more processing power and memory has be be used in the camera. A faster card allows the data to be written off quicker.

I only use the Sandisk Extreme and Extreme Pro cards (16GB or 32GB). I’ve used those for 4 years and have never had an overheating problem, even down here in Texas.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost