Weird rendering problems with AVI or MOV

[M. Gilden]

This problem has been driving me crazy on my main Win 7 workstation for a while now, and I can't figure it out.

After Effects seems to render out corrupted frames randomly whenever I use any AVI or MOV formats (I used to blame it on VFW issues, but it seems to happen with QT as well now!).

I noticed it first when using DNxHD, so I switched to Cineform- but no luck. Generally, the problem seems to be frames that just come out blank when loaded into an NLE like Sony Vegas. Always in the same location. When I try to play it back in WMP, it freezes up at the point the blank frame appears, while the audio continues.

I tried just using a standard Quicktime codec, like Animation or YUV 4:2:2, and while the frames aren't blank, they are still corrupted as you can see in the attached image:


Notice the scrambled static looking pattern on the top of the frame? That randomly appears throughout the footage, sometimes smack in the middle of the frame. Just about any AVI or MOV codec and combination of options I've tried does this.

This is ever so frustrating, the only way around it seems to be choosing a lossy format such as H.264. Which is obviously less than ideal.

Has anyone ever encountered anything like this before?

 

[M. Gilden]

Quick update:
This happened on another computer I owned previously as well. My solution at the time was to get a new workstation (that one was getting old anyway).

I'd like to figure how/why it is happening to prevent whatever circumstances lead up to it from ever happening again!

Details regarding my installation:
Core i7 8GB Ram
Nvidia card with 1GB
CS5.5, Sony Vegas 9
Latest QT and Cineform Studio

I'm wondering if it is somehow related to running Sony Vegas 9 and CS5.5 on the same workstation? I can't imagine why that would be, but I'm willing to entertain any theory at this point...

 

[unadog]

Do you have the full Production Premium suite?

Have you tried to render out of Premiere Pro, or out of Media Encoder? Same result?

Does it happen even if you don't do any compositing in After Effects, but just render? I assume you are NOT transcoding when you bring the files in, just working with the native format?

Have you tried rendering with CS6? (30 day free demo.)

It would be interesting to see if it happened out of all of the Adobe products, not just AE.

Arte you using "highest quality" for the output (I think that is the check box?) You are using the CUDA cores/Mercury Hardware Acceleration?

Did you move the same graphics card from the older box, or all new components?

Sorry, just a lot of questions. They might help narrow down a bit.

Good luck!

Michael

 

[M. Gilden]

Do you have the full Production Premium suite?

Yes. 5.5, CS6 coming as my work is paying for an upgrade soon.

Have you tried to render out of Premiere Pro, or out of Media Encoder? Same result?

Rendering out of PPro has always been a pain for me, but AME seems like its worth a try...

Does it happen even if you don't do any compositing in After Effects, but just render? I assume you are NOT transcoding when you bring the files in, just working with the native format?

It happens even if the source is purely generated (strictly animation, no captured footage at all). This example happens to have a video clip embedded as part of a presentation, but I've had this happen even on title sequences and strictly animated comps.
So, its something about AE's encoder, nothing to do with the source material I think.

Have you tried rendering with CS6? (30 day free demo.)

No, but I'll be getting it soon. Something tells me it won't magically fix it, since I had this happen in CS4 as well on my previous box.

It would be interesting to see if it happened out of all of the Adobe products, not just AE.

Hmm. I could try it and see. I generally only render out intermediate files from AE, and finished deliverable formats from everything else (mp4, DVD mpeg2, etc), so its never come up before.

Arte you using "highest quality" for the output (I think that is the check box?) You are using the CUDA cores/Mercury Hardware Acceleration?

Apparently, AE does not use CUDA core or Mercury Engine in CS 5.5. That stuff is limited to Premiere. But I tried every combination I could find of OpenGL and Multiprocessing on/off, and nothing fixed it (although openGL rendering looked terrible for other reasons).

Did you move the same graphics card from the older box, or all new components?

All new. Originally I was going to keep the old box around as part of a render farm, but I ended up selling it. Only thing that is the same is the version of Sony Vegas (which is kind of outdated at only version 9, but its the last stable one I liked). I wonder if Sony's installer somehow messes with the encoding libraries for VFW/Quicktime?

Meanwhile, going to try Adobe Media Encoder, and hope rendering outside of AE helps...

 

[M. Gilden]

Update: Rendering in AME helped!

I'll be darned. It seems to be a problem localized in AE's render queue. The comp rendered just fine with no corrupted frames, even tried a longer one that used to have multiple corrupted frames before...
Only problem is, it seems to take longer. Its about as long as rendering without multi-processing enable was on AE, so I assume Media Encoder does not do multiprocessing (can't find an option to enable it, and that limitation sounds familiar).

That means my renders take about twice as long, so I'd still like to sort this out. But, at least this works for now, and I can go to sleep knowing I have a temporary solution. Wonder what causes this bug?