13 Replies Latest reply: Oct 22, 2010 9:23 AM by Bill Hunt RSS

    Encoding on another machine?

    woodwizer Community Member

      Hi

       

      I have Adobe Production Premium CS4 on my laptop and it's fine for the editing that I do.  But actual encoding takes eons.  Is there any way that I can export the project to encode on my PC (Which does not have CS4 on it at all)?

       

      Also, if I can't do that, can I close the premiere application while it's encoding?  Or won't this make a difference?

        • 1. Re: Encoding on another machine?
          John T Smith CommunityMVP

          You must have Premiere Pro and your EXACT project and video files to encode

           

          When you stop Premiere, you stop everything... unless, I think, you run the Media Encoder in standalone/batch mode... but you will need to read in the user guide for that, since I always use Premiere to do all export/renders

          • 2. Re: Encoding on another machine?
            woodwizer Community Member

            John T Smith wrote:


            I always use Premiere to do all export/renders

             

            What do you mean?  In CS4, when you chose 'export' it sends it to Adobe Media Encoder.  Is this not the best way to do it?

            • 3. Re: Encoding on another machine?
              John T Smith CommunityMVP

              I mean I have never run the media encoder by itself, only as a module started by Premiere

               

              You can't stop Premiere and have anything happen

               

              I **think** you may run the media encoder by itself, outside Premiere, but I have never done so... hence the advice to read the user guide

              • 4. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                If your workstation does not have CS4, then the answer is no. PrPro does not support any sort of "Render Farm."

                 

                Also, if you install CS4 on both machines, then you can ONLY run one instance of it, including AME, at a time.

                 

                Now, I do similar to what you suggest, but I have PrPro on each machine, and when doing a migrate, have my entire Project on a FW-800 external, where the drive letter is set in the two OS's. However, when I migrate to the workstation, I may not then do any work in PrPro on the laptop.

                 

                Hope that this helps,

                 

                Hunt

                • 5. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                  JSS1138 CommunityMVP

                  You can't stop Premiere and have anything happen

                   

                  Adobe Media Encoder is a stand alone application.  Whether started from Premiere or by itself, Premiere does not need to be running for AME to work.  I close Premiere all the time while encoding happens.

                  • 6. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                    woodwizer Community Member

                    Thanks for that Bill amd Jim  That answers my question directly.  I apprecieate it.

                    • 7. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                      Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                      You are most welcome.

                       

                      Good luck,

                       

                      Hunt

                      • 8. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                        woodwizer Community Member

                        Ok, appologies for resurecting a slightly stale thread.  But after a lot of thought I decided to buy another copy of premiere cs4 and put it on the main PC in my house.  I use this PC mainly for storage and my wife does some web browsing.  It's much more powerful than my laptop, but due to a disability I have to use the laptop in bed most often.

                         

                        So I have two further questions.  I'm running out of disk space on my laptop.  So I would like to install a couple of TB drives in the PC and use them as the main Video storage drives.  Now, as I want to use the PC for encoding the final projects, is there a way that I can get the laptop and the PC to use the same location for the project files?  i.e I would edit on the laptop, then VNC to the PC and have AME make the three versions of the file that I use for the web?  Is there anything special I have to do to make this work?

                         

                        Also I have heard hints on thw web towards using a low res version of the original clips to make editing on the low spec machines easier.  I'm reading stuff about workflows.  I'm new to this and google isn't helping much.  Is it true that I can do this?  If so, can someone suggest how or a link for me to research?

                         

                        Sorry for a lengthy post, but these 2 things will make my life much easier.

                        • 9. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                          Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                          No problem with continuing a slightly older thread.

                           

                          I do similar, as I migrate my Projects between my laptop (love doing the rough editing on the patio) and my workstation.

                           

                          To accomplish this, I use FW-800 external HDD's, and everything in the Project is on these. [I do not recommend using USB 2.0, and found FW-400 too slow for me.] I set each external's drive letter in the OS of each machine. This means that whenever I plug in external Z:\, it is seen as Z:\ on either machine, so PrPro can locate Assets, just as though everything was on an internal HDD. I mark each external with its drive letter, and add a little label with the Projects' names. I started with Z:\ and worked backwards, as my workstation has a ton of internal HDD's. I have now run out of unique drive letters, but just started over with Z:\, but that does mean that if I have Z:\ plugged in, I cannot work from my other Z:\ drives - no biggie, as each has all Assets and Project files, so I never need more than one Z:\ plugged in at a time.

                           

                          Good luck, and hope that this helps,

                           

                          Hunt

                           

                          PS - if you are just setting things up, I'd recommend using eSATA HDD's, in lieu of even the FW-800's, and just getting the proper connection/controller cards (probably ExpressCard on the laptop) on each machine.

                          • 10. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                            woodwizer Community Member

                            Thanks very much Bill.  You've actually made me totally re-think what I'm doing.  I was thinking about running a gigabyte network lead to my laptop, as obviously wireless wasn't going to cut it for this.  But it never occured to me to use external drives.  So I've just been looking at eSata PCMCIA cards on eBay.  I already recently added an additional SATA card to my workstation, which has an external eSata slot.  I'll have to wait til this project is out the door before I can invest in some 1TB drives.  Until then I'll make do with a USB2 external drive to get the rendering sorted.

                             

                            I can't thank you enough!

                            • 11. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                              Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                              When I set up my Gigabit NAS, I had plans on editing to/from it, but quickly changed my mind, due to the extreme lag. For simple file transfers, the Gigabit connection is OK, but when it comes to actually working to/from it, I was surprised, and not in a good way. Now, I only use the NAS for archiving, and will Copy over my Assets from it to either an internal, or to one of my FW-800 externals.

                               

                              Good luck,

                               

                              Hunt

                              • 12. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                                cmdr_k33n Community Member

                                Glad to see I'm not the only one with these scenarios.  I too tried the Gigabit NAS and was disappointed in its performance.  I then went the firewire 800 route, hoping to use one machine for editing and one for encoding, however I ran into a big snag with file systems as one is a Mac and the other is Windows.  Turns out neither of them can natively have write access to the other's file system, so it's a catch 22 deciding which file system (HFS or NTFS) to use when formatting the external.  I'd be interested to know if anyone has found a safe solution for this, since I've read mixed results on using third-party programs or terminal hacks to allow write access.

                                • 13. Re: Encoding on another machine?
                                  Bill Hunt CommunityMVP

                                  Yes, the inability of the Mac to use NTSF is an issue. Luckily, I only have PC's, so that is not a problem for me. For delivery to Mac's, I keep a small handful of FAT-32 FW-400 & FW-800 externals, just for that purpose.

                                   

                                  I read somewhere that Mac was going to include at least the capability to read NTSF in a future OS, but cannot recall (or even find) the details. Maybe just wish-ware too?

                                   

                                  Good luck,

                                   

                                  Hunt