Quicktime export = choppy audio first 5 to 10 seconds

[Leo Versola]

When I export a composition to a Quicktime movie file using the default settings, I get a file that has choppy audio for the first 5 to 10 seconds and then it smooths out and plays just fine.

However, when I shift everything forward on the timeline by 10 seconds and then export the composition, the audio plays just fine once the movie starts playing.

It seems like up to the first 10 seconds of the audio get corrupted on an export. I've tried all different combinations of Quicktime export settings and get the same results. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have anything to do with the audio file itself; I'm only using high-quality .wav files. Also, since the same thing happens on more than one of my machines, I doubt it's hardware related.

I've been using AE for years now and have never run into this and yes, I've searched the web quite thoroughly before posting...

Details:

After Effects v8.0.2.27
QuickTime Pro 7.4.1
Windows XP SP2
Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM

Any ideas?

Thanks,

[dory_breaux]

I'm having the same problem I think its the new quicktime or something.

[Leo Versola]

I'm having the same problem I think its the new quicktime or something.

I'm thinking along the same lines but can't find much info out there to support it. It never used to do this before the 7.4 QT update and I thought the 7.4.1 update was supposed to fix the AE compatibility issues. It may be due to some sort of DRM-related process that goes away after 10 secs. I haven't tried it on much longer files yet due to the rendering times to see if it re-appears with any regular frequency.

I'm trying to find a way to downgrade back to QT 7.3.1 and see how that affects the problem but it seems there's not a very easy way to do this...

I wish it weren't so but I'm kind of glad to hear someone else is seeing the same thing I am. I've posted on the Adobe forum about the issue so hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this soon enough...

[Leo Versola]

OK, found the problem; my export settings for audio were set to 44.1khz. I changed them to 48khz and the problem went away. Still using QT 7.4.1 so that's a relief...