The H264 Codec in Premiere Pro CS6 Creates Files with Variable Frame Rates

[Alan Romain]

rgr, Yes, thank you, we have already established that there are several ways to convert VFR to CFR. Just trying to figure out why PP is crashing when exporting a small section of images with several effects and transparencies. It's all explained in the discussion.

[Alan Romain]

Hello Fellow Video Editors

It's been a while, but I finally have some important feedback for this thread. I have been trying to understand and resolve the issues presented in this thread for at least 3 1/2 months now, and this has taken a toll both on my mental health and my finances. Adobe owes me for this research, but what else is new. Several years ago I sent Adobe many pages of well written notes relating to experiments I conducted over the course of 5 months and didn't receive so much as a thank you.

The biggest issue in the discussion is the one dealing with Premiere crashing during export, and I can say without hesitation that the answers I have come up with are nowhere to be found in the Adobe forums. Why, because the Adobe employees are trained to provide only the most basic of potential resolutions and nothing more. They do not deal with logic, nor a sensible process of elimination. In the end, it is the user who either finds his/her own solution, or simply finds an alternative method to achieve the end result. It is the user who is the true tester of Adobe products and all of the bugs they come with, but rarely do the users get the credit for their sacrifices and efforts. Yes, I am upset that I had to lose 3 1/2 months of my life.

I am posting my findings here for several reasons. One, because I am grateful that a few people took the time to try to help me, including poisondeathray who was very generous with his time and patience. Secondly, I hope that my findings help others, and more importantly, I hope these same people will contribute to this group in the same way when they can. We need this group, because Adobe forums are useless.

MY FINDINGS:

As mentioned previously, I have been unable to export my project from Premiere Pro (CS6, CS5.5 or CS5) because the export crashes the program in certain sections that seem to be too taxing on the system. These problematic sections involve transparent images placed above other images that are themselves equipped with Gamma correction and Brightness-Contrast. The transparent upper image(s) are newspaper clippings in motion and slightly rotating.

From experience, I know that these segments are not nearly as complicated as others I have used in sequences, and yet I was always able to successfully export these intense segments without crashing Premiere.

The difference being that my old export settings were different than the ones I am using now, in that I generally used a lower resolutions and rarely if ever checkmarked the box for 'Use Maximum Render Quality'. The latter being the number one cause for these latest crashes as it turns out. In other words, if I export these somewhat complex segments to H.264 with that box unchecked, the export will be successful. And it's also interest to see how differently my system reacts to this feature. Exporting these complex segments on their own with this box unchecked, my CPU usage is at 100% with RAM at around 35% usage, resulting in a successful export. Then with the box checkmarked, CPU usage drops to 20% usage and RAM shoots up to 97 to 99% usage and stays there for a minute or two before the program crashes.

In the hundreds of online discussions around Premiere Pro crashes during export, no one has ever explained any of this, nor the reasons why this happens. Most of these discussions end without any kind of resolution.

FORTUNATELY I HAVE A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM:

In fact, I have two potential solutions to this problem, and an very likely explanation for why these crashes are happening in the first place.

Why is Premiere Crashing during Export and/or Rendering:

Again, I remind you that in this situation, Premiere is only crashing when it comes to these segments containing the transparencies described, and only when the box for 'Use Maximum Render Quality' is check marked. As it turns out, Premiere is crashing at these segments both when rendering the timeline and when exporting, whenever 'Use Maximum Render Quality' is selected. In other words, if I checkmark the box for this feature in the Sequence Settings window, it will result in a crash while rendering these segments in the timeline. Similarly, if I checkmark this same box in the Export window, the result will again be a crash of the program when it begins to process these same segments.

Bear in mind that I am exporting to H.264 1080p progressive at 30 to 40 mbps with the keyframe distance set to 12, which is also relevant, because Premiere Pro behaves differently depending on the settings being used. In this case, the resolution is quite high, and lower the keyframe distance also results in higher video quality. So anytime you increase the quality, your system needs to work that much harder. With this in mind, if I were to use settings that are less taxing on my old computer such as interlaced video set to 12 mbps with the keyframe distance set to 32 for instance, exporting with 'Use Maximum Render Quality' check marked may not result in any crashes.

Another important consideration, is that Premiere Pro CS5 to CS6 warns us right in the Sequence Settings window that check marking 'Use Maximum Render Quality' will require you to set the program's Memory preferences to 'Optimize for Memory' rather than 'Optimize for Performance'. It also advises us that this feature is meant for very powerful systems that have allot of RAM. So this brings me to the other important consideration, which is the fact that my old I7 950 Intel with only 18GB of RAM is very susceptible to crashes when we are dealing with complex segments and rendering with 'Use Maximum Render Quality' selected. And also the fact that I am dealing with 1080p sequences being exported in high relatively high resolution.

Nevertheless, even with my old computer, there are solutions that I will explain in a moment.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO EXPORT USING MAXIMUM RENDER QUALITY?

The simple answer is that the option 'Use Maximum Render Quality' was given to us for a reason. It really does result in better quality, and this is most evident when viewing a close-up of a person's face. With this feature selected, you will see greater detail in the face, including eye lashes and even skin tones, but the greatest proof is in the eyes themselves. The light reflections remain brilliant, whereas exports without this feature being selected will greatly dull and blur these light reflections.

For people who are upscaling videos from Standard 480p or 480i to 1080p, check marking the 'Use Maximum Render Quality' option is absolutely crucial to achieving the highest export quality. The difference is amazing. Fortunately, Premiere Pro doesn't crash for simple straight forward upscale conversions, but if it does, then you will need to solutions described below.


THE SOLUTIONS:

Solution One:

Since maximum quality is important to me, it would be terrible to have to settle for second best just because my computer is old and warn out. Fortunately, I discovered a very convenient way to achieve this quality, even for the complex segments without crashing premiere, and that is through the use of GPU Acceleration. I know, for many it is a bad word and we have all had to disable this option at one point or another in favor of Mercury Software Only, but there is a very simple way to make it more stable. This will sound confusing at first, but unchecking the box 'Use Maximum Render Quality' will actually stabilize GPU Acceleration. Yes, but doesn't this contradict all of what you are trying to achieve in terms of Quality. The answer, NO, because GPU Acceleration has its own 'Maximum Render Quality' built right into it. This means, you can uncheck the option 'Use Maximum Render Quality' both in the Sequence Settings window and the Export window and therefore reduce the risk of crashes. In fact it is crucial that you uncheck this box, because not doing so will still result in crashes using GPU Acceleration.

So in summary, you select GPU Acceleration in Project Settings, and uncheck 'Use Maximum Render Quality' both in the Sequence Setting window and Export window, and the result is a crash free export that will still provide maximum render quality.

In fact, the 'Maximum Render Quality' feature that is built in to GPU Acceleration provides the exact same results as Premiere's 'Use Maximum Render Quality' option if you were to export with GPU Acceleration. I have painstakingly examined the two different export results close-up and they are identical in every way, from half tones to details.

Solution Two:

I imagine most of us have a dedicated Graphics Card that is Adobe approved sitting in our computers, but for those who don't, you may need to use this particular solution. It may not be ideal, but it works. If Premiere is crashing at a certain time segment during the render or export, then you will need to figure out exactly what segment is causing this. The easiest way to figure this out is to export through Media Encoder where you can view the export progress in the little video player window. Once identified, you will need to export this problematic segment separately with the 'Use Maximum Render Quality' option deselected. From there, replace the segment in the timeline with the exported video then export the entire project with 'Use Maximum Render Quality' selected. This way most of the video (except that small segment) will still be at maximum quality.

FINALLY SOME CLOSURE

This has been very stressful, because I use my computer for life, not just video editing, so having to do endless experiments on it was very difficult. There were days when I worked 25 hours non-stop, and at 65 years of age this is hard on the health.

I did countless tests on my RAM, removing one stick at a time, and I literally spent weeks doing system diagnostics. Eventually I managed to completely reinstall Windows 7, and I've uninstalled and reinstalled Premiere several times. As it turns out, all of this was unnecessary, but I was a process of elimination. Now I know better. My computer system is not quite back to normal.

I now have to sort through 3 1/2 months of notes to properly document all of this for future reference.