Encoder doesn't work well..BRING BACK the h.264, wmvs and mpeg2 options within AE!!!

[DigitalSignageResolutions]

I just have to make a comment, that is unfortunately very negative. I've been using AE for over 10 years to create graphics for digital signage. I use mainly h.264 and wmv which are no longer available for rendering direct out of AE. Of course you are all aware..everyone is complaining about it and has been since the decision was made to remove these options. Trying to render my files out of Encoder has doubled my production time...whether it is waiting for Encoder to launch, or waiting a totally unnecessary amount of time to launch the output modules, or just an inexplicable result in my render, I am completely dissatisfied. It is unacceptable, slow, and a total hindrance. I've been hanging on to previous versions of AE because of this. Now that I am embedded in CC, I am struggling tremendously with my digital signage workflow. Hey, I understand where Adobe's concerns are with supporting codecs that seem irrelevant. Let me tell you, wmv and .h264 and MPEG2 are VERY relevant in the multi-billion dollar industry of digital signage. The workflow to do a simple render out of AE CC in these codecs is ridiculous and laughable. PLEASE bring back these essential codecs. I speak for myself, but can be truly confident my words match the thoughts of hundreds, if not thousands of designers out there. Adobe, you have a "lower end" market that utilizes your product for productions other than feature films....I think this end of the market accounts for a large portion of your revenues too...please try to appease us by bringing back a few codecs, and spending the $$$ to pay them to keep them updated. Your "lower end" community deserves it.

[Moved from non-technical Lounge Forum to specific Program forum... Mod]

[Here is the list of all Adobe forums... https://forums.adobe.com/welcome]

[John T Smith]

This is an open forum with "some" Adobe staff participation, use the links below to make a report

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform for feature requests or bug reports

-or Feedback forum https://forums.adobe.com/community/creative_cloud/desktop-app/content

[R Neil Haugen]

In the Current Render box, if you click the "Output Module: XXXXX", opening the options for the render/export, choose the Quicktime option for Format, then go to the Video tab's "Format Options" box as underlined in red here,

In the ensuing pop-up, if you click the "Video Codec" drop-down box, you get a long list of codecs ... and one option is H.264, as shown below.

So you can still get H.264, but no ... I can't find any option for WMV either.

I hope this is some help.

Neil

[Rick Gerard]

You do not want to use H.264 in a QuickTime container. It is not longer supported by Apple, no longer being worked on, is buggy and never worked well.

The AME works great for almost all effects. If you have GPU intensive projects then you should render a visually lossless DI (digital intermediate) using a suitable production format and then use AME to render an H.264 MP4 for delivery. If you have renders that take more than a minute a frame I would strongly suggest that you render to an Image sequence because they are much easier to fix if you need to make changes to a few frames and much easier to recover from if you have a rendering issue. The AME will do a fine job of compressing an image sequence, or if you need to replace the audio track you can import the image sequence into Premiere Pro, add the audio track and render directly from PPro. These renders will go very quickly.

[DigitalSignageResolutions]

Rick,

That is the flow I currently follow and it duplicates my work. It increases my production time and rendering out of.AME is slow. My work flow has slowed tremdously having to render twice just to get a simple file. It isn't efficient and is very disappointing. I appreciate your suggestions, but my issue is that I don't want to render twice... Especially when I have 9 or 10 versions of a file tha tare needed because they have different date ranges for playback.  I just wish they would add the ability to render these back into AE.

[Rick Gerard]

Are use the AME all the time and I never sit around and wait for renders. I just keep working. I routinely have compositions to take seven or eight minutes a frame to render. I never wait for those renders either because I know how long they're going to take and I just dump them on to a Nother machine and let it run the route the image sequence.  Pulling in H.264 MP4 proof for a client using the media encoder is very quick from an image sequence. I never wait for those either. If I need to look at some "pencil test" (first pass to check motion and composition) I will just send a very simplified come to the A&E to render an H.264% off as a proof of concept. I never wait for those renters either because I send them directly to the A&E as compositions and then just keep working.

Maybe these suggestions will help your workflow a bit.

[DigitalSignageResolutions]

Rick, it sounds like you and I use AE for different applications. My ads are short on average - 10-20 seconds, and fairly simple. Again, they are for digital signage. I work with an average of 10 different ads a day. These ads usually require both a wmv or h.264 output as well as an avi output for a secondary type of sign. Believe me when I telly you using AME has dramatically increased the time to work (I have been doing this over 10 years). It is inconvienent having to bounce around to render out these files. I did them all for years within AE..the new workflow changes how I work, and it ads time to each production. And yes, rendering out of AME is slower in my experience. I need my renders to happen quickly as my turnaround times are generally 24-48 hours. So, having a render that takes "8 minutes a frame" as you indicated is your experience,  is not even close to my reality. You probably don't even notice a change in your efficiency because you are used to a seriously long render time. I'm accustomed to renders taking less than 5 minutes total, and being able to make edits, re-queue without any lag, or queueing in another program. I appreciate your input, but I think we are comparing apples and oranges.

[crisgarcia6OT]

Rick Gerard​ The avi file has the biggest file that takes more space. The MOV is a video file played on Quicktime. I use a windows, not a mac. I always export my videos to mp4

[DigitalSignageResolutions]

Thank you, but that option for h.264 no longer works in the applications I use and is no longer supported...But than you

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi DigitalSignageResolutions,

Sorry for the frustration. We're the support team here, we do not develop or make changes to the software. The only way your voice will be heard by them is to file a bug.

When situations like this arise and hurt customer workflow, it is pretty painful and I do understand that as a former freelance compositor and animator. Again, give the team feedback and hopefully we'll have a better, faster workflow for your encoding needs in the future.

Thanks,
Kevin

[DigitalSignageResolutions]

Thanks for the tip. I will forward accordingly....

[crisgarcia6OT]

Can you ALso bring the .mp4 format? I wanted to export the project from afterefects to mp4. .avi file takes a lot of space than the mp4.