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Old November 13th, 2005, 04:29 PM   #106
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Adobe Encore 1.5 crashes my computer when doing the Motion Menu Rendering

I don't know why this is happening, but I recently upgraded my system (now have a Pentium Dual Core 2.8Ghz with 1GB DDR on Asus P5LD2) and when I click on Render Motion Menus in Encore's file menu the computer becomes unresponsive at first and eventually freezes completely. I sometimes get a few green bars, sometimes it even goes up to half the task, but it always ends up either crashing or completely locking up.

By clicking on Ctrl/Alt/Del I accessed the performance tab to monitor what was going on and I've noticed that when I click the Render Motion Menus in Encore, both CPUs (or should I say both cores) peak to 100% usage and stay there until the freeze. Now Encore is the only application that will bring the CPUs to their very limit. Even encoding MPEG2s or complicated effects in PPro 1.5 will only use between 70-90% CPU consumption. Note that this system is not overclocked.

So I'm thinking the problem is with either Encore overloading the CPUs (if that's even possible) or (gulp) a hardware defect, maybe overheating, not sure really, but before bringing the whole computer to the store and pay a premium price to have the tech guys figure it out, I thought I would ask here first if this is a known problem and if there is a known solution. Is Encore having compatibility issues with dual CPUs? Or should I dig deeper to find what's wrong?

Thanks for the help.

EDIT: After installing Asus PC Probe, I was able to see that normal usage temperature for the CPUs is 50-55°C (around 130°F). It climbs to 60-65°C when I try to render the animated menus in Encore. It looks like the computer becomes abnormally slow when it hits 60°C or just about. Now I might be way off here, but this doesn't seem like crazy values for a dual core CPU. If it was going up to 75-80°C I would be worried but 60°C? Can this really be the problem? Hmmm...

Last edited by David Lach; November 13th, 2005 at 05:02 PM.
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Old November 13th, 2005, 06:56 PM   #107
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Hi David,

Hmmm, not sure on this one. Just guessing, but the only software issue I can think of is that Encore uses the same encoding engine (Adobe Media Encoder) as PPro, so if you haven't gotten the Main Concept update or PPro 1.5.1, it is possible that this is a variant of the "Cannot render video frame..." error people have gotten in PPro.

On the hardware side, I presume that the system is transcoding during the motion menu operation, which is very CPU intensive. If your CPU actually is getting hot enough for the system to throttle it back, it may be that it isn't actually locking but just rendering so slow that it seems like it? I would at least double check that the CPU fan is in fact operating properly, that the cooling fins are not clogged with dust, and that there is adequate air flow through the case (maybe even try leaving the cover off while troubleshooting).

Those are just wild guesses...hopefully they help but if not maybe someone else has a better idea.
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Old November 13th, 2005, 08:25 PM   #108
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Thanks for the suggestions Pete. I had updated the MainConcept encoder a while ago (I was getting errors), and it now works fine in PPro. The problem is exclusive to Encore.

As for airflow, the CPU is 1 month old, sparkling new, fan is working at optimum speed, no dust and I always leave the case cover off. I don't know what it is honestly, but I'm really starting to get the idea that either there might be an Asus defense mechanism that kicks in at 60°C, or that the CPU is damaged. I have operated applications at 100% CPU activity before, and although it makes it hard to use other programs, the task responsible for the high CPU usage should continue just fine. I'll call Intel on Monday to know a bit more about safe operating temperatures, but it would come as a shock to me if they said this high a temperature was risky. My last AMD CPU would regularly go as high as 75°C without a glitch.

You're right about it getting extremely slow, rather than completely stoping responding, but it becomes so slow that there is pretty much nothing else you can do. You can no longer open other programs, you can no longer click on anything, it is just no longer functional, and the render pretty much gets stuck at whatever number of green bars it was at when the performance started to go down the drain. Moreover, if I click on something fast repeatedly (I confess, out of impatience), the mouse freezes for a couple seconds and I get a beep sound from the BIOS. I then have to reset the computer. This doesn't sound good I'm afraid.
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Old November 18th, 2005, 06:31 PM   #109
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David Lach
I always leave the case cover off.
I don't think that is a good idea for optimal air flow. An average computer case is designed to have an airflow that has air drawn in at the bottom front of the case, and then flowing up over the CPU and out the top back of the case. Leaving the case open would disrupt this flow. It's okay for short periods of time if you are working on the computer, but I wouldn't leave the case open for long periods of time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Lach
I don't know what it is honestly, but I'm really starting to get the idea that either there might be an Asus defense mechanism that kicks in at 60°C, or that the CPU is damaged.
I know that Intel CPU's have a feature that throttles back the CPU should it get too hot to prevent damage to the processor; I'm not sure that AMD processors have a similar feature.
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Old November 18th, 2005, 10:51 PM   #110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Christopher Lefchik
I don't think that is a good idea for optimal air flow. An average computer case is designed to have an airflow that has air drawn in at the bottom front of the case, and then flowing up over the CPU and out the top back of the case. Leaving the case open would disrupt this flow. It's okay for short periods of time if you are working on the computer, but I wouldn't leave the case open for long periods of time.


I know that Intel CPU's have a feature that throttles back the CPU should it get too hot to prevent damage to the processor; I'm not sure that AMD processors have a similar feature.
I get cooler temps with the case opened though. That's why I leave it that way for now. It's also because the only place I have under my desk to put the case is partially obstructed, making it hard to have proper airflow.

Today I encoded a few video files using my newly acquired Procoder software and it brought the CPU temperature to a whoping 72°C without any glitch whatsoever performance wise, so I now know my problem with Encore is definitelly not hardware related (at least not as far as the CPU temp is concerned).

Having done some additional tests with Encore, I can say that it progressively got much worse. I got abnormal operation errors all over the place and trying to create subtitles was a nightmare. It was so slugish and slow. I could count 5-10 seconds between finishing writing a line and being able to play back the MPEG2 asset once again. I then started getting some out of memory errors (got 1024MB). I just had to give up. I embeded the subtitles into the PPro timeline and gave it that way to the client. If not I would still be trying to figure out what was wrong. I don't think I'll use Encore again unless I find somewhere a fix for this. I might go the Ulead route instead for now (damn shame because I liked working with Encore/Photoshop so much).
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Old November 19th, 2005, 04:44 AM   #111
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I searched Adobe's Encore forum and found only a smattering of somewhat similar problems. Seems that the Matrox RTX100 Video editing card was associated with problems for some, and there was at least one who used a Pinnacle card. Another person accidentally exceeded the bitrate limit for a motion menu and got a freeze. So not sure what the problem could be.

There are only a few basic things I can think of to try:
- Double check bitrate settings for rendering (no extra 0's, etc)
- Disable as many tray icons and apps, and non-essential hardware as possible to seek out a driver conflict
- If this is happening only with a particular clip, try creating a new project and linking only the problem clip.
- Try transcoding in PPro first and see if the same footage imported as DVD-compliant MPEG still has a problem.
- If you haven't already done so, try uninstalling Encore, rebooting, re-installing and rebooting.
- If you have a second computer with a DVD burner and different hardware config available, try installing on that to see if the problem continues.

Sorry, I can't think of anything better than that so far.
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Old November 19th, 2005, 09:55 AM   #112
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David Lach
I get cooler temps with the case opened though. That's why I leave it that way for now. It's also because the only place I have under my desk to put the case is partially obstructed, making it hard to have proper airflow.
Ah, I see.

By the way, Adobe has released an Encore 1.5.1 patch. Have you installed it? You can download it here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...atform=Windows
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Old November 19th, 2005, 01:47 PM   #113
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Hi
I cant find in the original posting wether You are using a Matrox RT.X100, if You are try disabling the WYSIWYG, output to external TV monitor.


Regards.


Peter.
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Old December 5th, 2005, 12:44 PM   #114
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Encore 1.51 produced DVDs don't run on DVD player

Hi everybody,
I am producing DVDs with Adobe Encore 1.51 burning them to a Philips DVD+-RW DVD8631 (Firmware CD21) which is the newest firmware. Encore's preview function shows me perfect DVD menues, buttons, firstplay, etc. But, when putting them into a PC-based DVD drive, or stand alone DVD player (I tried even two different ones.) it spins around like crazy and then either never starts or starts with very slow, interrupted video with or without audio and in some instances even crashed my Bose Lifestyle 28 system--had to pull the plug to get it reset so I can get the DVD out again. Looking at the file system via Windows Explorer looks fine--I was even able to copy the bad DVDs without any improvement obviously.
I burned data DVDs with the same burner without ever having trouble.
What could be the reason?
I use Adobe Premier 1.5 Media Encoder to export to m2v files (High quality, CBR transcoding of DV content) MPEG2-DVD, NTSC, Maximum Bitrate [Mbps]: 8.0000 (high quality), PCM audio.
As stated, in Encore all looks cool: audio transcoded, video not. I build then with "Set Layer Break Automatically" set and more or less using the defaults. I define the first play which ends which has the menu as stop action. No subtitles or any fancy multiple audio settings, etc.

Any help would be appreciated. BTW: I used for two years more or less the same procedure but on a different computer, with an older version of Premier and an older version of Encore---never touch a running system, I know. But, the old box was too slow, I had to upgrade.

Any idea in which direction to trouble shoot?

Thanks!!!
Heiko
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Old December 5th, 2005, 02:06 PM   #115
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To pinpoint if it's Encore, build the DVD to a folder, then use Nero or whatever burning software to burn the Disc. If it works, it's Encore, if it doesn't it's your burner, or possibly the brand of DVDs.

Kevin
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Old December 5th, 2005, 02:53 PM   #116
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Heiko Spallek
Hi everybody,
I build then with "Set Layer Break Automatically" set and more or less using the defaults.
Are you burning dual layer? Pretty much the only decent dual layer DVDs at this point are Verbatims.

To find out what is the best quality DVD media visit http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
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Old December 5th, 2005, 10:44 PM   #117
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I've found that I burn more compatible discs if I burn at 1x or 2x. I usually test a DVD on three different players: a samsung stand-alone player, Sony Playstation2 and a cheap $30 Wal-Mart special before handing them off to clients. The Playstation 2 is the player that gives me the most trouble with 4x and higher DVD-Rs and +Rs.

For me and my LiteOn DVD burners, TDK seems to be the most reliable brand. Once the disc is authored to my clients satisfaction, I use Nero to dupe the disc.

Try doing a slow burn and see if that helps.
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Old December 6th, 2005, 05:06 AM   #118
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SOLUTION:
[QUOTE=Kevin Janisch]To pinpoint if it's Encore, build the DVD to a folder, then use Nero or whatever burning software to burn the Disc. If it works, it's Encore, if it doesn't it's your burner, or possibly the brand of DVDs.

Thanks for your idea and my late reply is due to the fact that I had to try it. I thought it is excellent reasoning and had completely buy in into your idea. As it turns out THIS WAS THE SOLUTION. The only funny thing is that is neither Encore nor the burner but the combination: I build a DVD folder and then used another burner to burn the DVD. Worked! But, when I used my burner to burn it it worked as well. So it appears that it is Encore building AND burning with the Philips DVD burner which causes the trouble.
Any, now its fine nad Kevin saved my day! THANKS!!!!

Heiko
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Old December 6th, 2005, 05:27 PM   #119
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No problem Heiko, glad I could help. I actually had a hanging problem while burning recently and did what I recommended to pinpoint what it was, in my case it was my burner.

Kevin
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Old May 4th, 2006, 12:43 PM   #120
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Encore Auto-Trimming?

I just got Encore the other day (yep, I'm a newb to it) and am trying to create my first DVD. My project has one menu, one chapter list, and one 1h 24m HuffYUV AVI file. It's a really simple project, but when I go to transcode and create the DVD folder (or even burn to disc), Encore only encodes the first 3m 19s of my video, resulting in a 300MB file! I then go back to the timeline and Encore has automatically trimmed the video track down to that 3m 19s (however the audio track is still the full 1h 24m).

Any ideas? This is driving me mad and I've been trying to get it to work for the past 7 hours...

TIA...
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