5 Replies Latest reply: Aug 17, 2010 9:35 AM by JSS1138 RSS

    AME hangs. Is it my codec, or my bitrates???

    Pijetro Community Member

      Okay....

      So i've lost at least 10 hours trying to find out what's going on....

      Here's a synopsis.

      I'm doing a downconvert from HDV progressive to NTSC progressive.

      I initially imported a PPro sequence, and used AME's presets. During an overnight encode AME hung up...

       

      Okay, i should have known better.

      I usually  save down to my Matrox .AVI, since the process always delivered better results, plus AME encodes faster this way..Yes, i lose the extra "Save to .AVI step", but the results have been good.

       

      But here's the rub...Even my Matrox intermediary codec hangs AME...

      So i resave the problem area, reencode, and AME hangs on a different point. Totally unrelated....

       

      So i've used the helpful option of "Preview while outputting" option, and i notice that there's always a corruption/hangup at the same point of encode..

       

      Several culprits i thought were, machine going to idle, low bitrate, low quality, uncheck "use preview files", but whatever i try, and whatever setting, AME hangs up at any given point...

      I'm ready to drop AME and go for another encoder if this keeps happening...This is usually the time i should be able to kick back and relax....

       

      Any help would be appreciated...

        • 1. Re: AME hangs. Is it my codec, or my bitrates???
          Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

          Unfortunately, it could be many things. Please look over this ARTICLE, and let us know all about your Project/Sequence, your source footage, you system (could be very important), and the exact Export settings.

           

          My first guess would be system, but that is only because it is the number one culprit, when things go wrong. Assets and Project/Sequence are #'s 2 & 3, in that order.

           

          Good luck, and let us know more about what you have, and what you are doing. More details will be best.

           

          Hunt

          • 2. Re: AME hangs. Is it my codec, or my bitrates???
            Pijetro Community Member

            Thanks Bill...

             

            Well, my system is in my profile, but i don't mind copying and pasting it...

             

            HP wx9300 Workstation.

            2xAMD opteron 270 cores

            C: system drive/72g 10000RPM

            D: Data drive/500g 7200RPM

            E: Scratch drive/72g SCSI

            F: 2x500g raid 0

            8gig registered ECC RAM

            Matrox RT.X2 card

            Adobe CS4 Master Suite Collection

            Windows 7 64bit premium

             

            Virtual memory has always been a puzzler to me, so i have it set to "Adjust to set best performance of programs", and Virtual memory controlled automatically. Min is 16MB, recommended is 12286MB and allocated is 8191MB.

             

            My Sequence setting is that of HDV 30fps 1080P. My source footage is of the same substance, and project file to suit..

             

            As mentioned earlier, I had two separate workflows. Export to  downscaled Matrox .AVI @486P (full proof). The other being import sequence  into AME, and let the downconversion happen internally.

            The sequence is standard fare, with simple A/B rolls..The only difference being, is sometimes i noticed hanging on a Fade Out..A simple re-export of the troubled frame fixed this issue.

             

            My export settings are NTSC progressive high quality. I uncheck the audio, since it's already saved out in the .AVI...I've overridden the default to suit for a 4 mbps average 1.5min and 7max...Yes, there's 2.5 hours required on this particular DVD...I realize the bitrates are low...I attempted to export with higher bitrates, but it was of no use...Hangup occured on the exact same spot.

            I also attempted to uncheck "Use Preview files", and force AME to reencode any potential bad frames within the codec.

             

             

            .

             

            I've made sure to go into my system, and disable any sort of possible power savings..

             

            I'll also read further into your suggestions for better posting.

            Unfortunately, i've done many types of encodes, and exports...

            This one is very puzzling...

            • 3. Re: AME hangs. Is it my codec, or my bitrates???
              JSS1138 CommunityMVP

              My first thought would be to lose the Matrox.

               

              I've found that Premiere just plain runs better without it.

              • 4. Re: AME hangs. Is it my codec, or my bitrates???
                Pijetro Community Member

                Yes, that's many peoples thoughts....

                 

                But as i said, i bypassed the Matrox altogether, and still got a hang up...

                 

                Edit, i've been successfull to go through the entire video (import Ppro sequence), but playback started chopping up..

                I'll try a reencode again...

                • 5. Re: AME hangs. Is it my codec, or my bitrates???
                  JSS1138 CommunityMVP

                  Bypassing Matrox doesn't always help.

                   

                  I'm talking about physically removing the card, wiping the system to get rid of any left over Matrox bits and reinstalling the entire Adobe suite on a clean Windows install.

                   

                  It's what I had to do, and Premiere has run fine ever since.