4K Export Freezing (was SO frustrating.....)

RayGus wrote on 9/9/2016, 2:00 AM

Any help please?

I guess it is almost like asking for a needle in a haystack but here goes.

I have a 4K video on timeline using MEP 2016 Premium.

It is 50 minutes long.

I am trying to export as an MPEG 4 file (full 4k resolution) to a new Seagate 4TB external HD.

It simply freezes at various times....the latest being 10 hours in to exporting!

It has frozen at different points....say 3, 6, 7 hours etc.

I have a quad core, 8gb Ram PC...but it looks as if it was goping to take 15 hours to make/export!

It was at 14GB when it last stopped at 10 hours suggesting another 5 hours to go.

Any thoughts or ideas plase.

Many thanks

Ray

 

Comments

pmikep wrote on 9/9/2016, 3:14 AM

First, might I suggest choosing better descriptions for your issue? "So frustrating" doesn't help us (or others) to relate to your problem, especially if we solve this issue.

I haven't done 4k vid, but when I have long encodes, I break them up and then use freeware to reassemble. (Yes, MEP should be able to do it, but as you're finding, it sometimes hangs. Might be a Windows memory management problem. Or heat? Or your temp file/page file might not be large enough,main drive failing, etc.)

If you read the manual, there's a way to set a blue colored marker over a selection of your video. Then you can tell MEP to "Export selection." Move the Selection marker to the next section and export again.

Then find a free editor that allows you to append them into a big MP4 file. (Staxrip)

Alternatively, export the whole video to .WMA first. Then open the WMA and export to MP4. I've found that MP4 is enoding while it's encoding the raw video, and encoding to WMA isn't as taxing.

Last changed by pmikep on 9/9/2016, 3:14 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Started with MEP 11, then 17, then MX, then MEP 2013, 2015, then 2016. Changed to the fast competitor after that, which worked fine with my non-Intel hardware. Then bought a used Dell with an Intel GPU, just to play with MEP again. Installed MEP 2020 Plus in March 2020, even tho I don't like losing patches if I have to reinstall after a year.

Testing on a Dell Vostro, <s>i3-8100</s> updated to i5-9400 w/ UHD 630, 16 GB 2400 DDR4 (CL15), Win10 Home, heavily NTLite'd. Now with GTX-1650 Super OC'd. Added a WD Blue M.2 for OS (PCIe 3), Apps, Temps and Video-In. 2 Monitors. A WD Blue SSD for outputs. (SATA III.)

RayGus wrote on 9/9/2016, 4:46 AM

Thanks pmikep

SO sorry...fully agree re the title...guess it just showed my frustrations as all had been gong so well until then.

However, your suggestions do make a lot of sense......

I am happy to export smaller selections....that does seem such a sensible idea.

Never heard of Staxrip but that again souinds great to put all back as one etc...

I am in process of one last burn at full size and if that fails I am going to take your advice as above etc.

I am also thinking of your second idea which mich save splitting up etc.....

Tried to edit the title of my thread but could not......

Thanks

Ray

 

johnebaker wrote on 9/10/2016, 2:21 AM

Hi Ray

. . . . to a new Seagate 4TB external HD. . . . . 

This could be the cause of the issue - if you have the disc space it is better to export to an internal hard drive then when finished copy to an external drive. Do be aware though that for 4k video you do need a lot of free space on the drive.

USB devices have a significantly lower data transfer rate and the USB ports will go to sleep after a short time of inactivity, how long this takes depends on your PC's power settings.

 HTH

John EB

Last changed by johnebaker on 9/10/2016, 2:21 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 23H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

RayGus wrote on 9/10/2016, 2:37 AM

Hi Ray

. . . . to a new Seagate 4TB external HD. . . . . 

This could be the cause of the issue - if you have the disc space it is better to export to an internal hard drive then when finished copy to an external drive. Do be aware though that for 4k video you do need a lot of free space on the drive.

USB devices have a significantly lower data transfer rate and the USB ports will go to sleep after a short time of inactivity, how long this takes depends on your PC's power settings.

 HTH

John EB

Hi John

You are teaching me a great deal with every post!!!

I have just completed the 1st stage of what pmikep suggested and managed to get half the video on to the Seagate external drive....even though during the night the PC had again lockled up and I had to restart.
SO....I decided to copy the other half this morning and within about 2 minutes, the PC locked up again and froze...

I am now starting to think it is a fault with the PC rather than any real issues with software or export etc...

I will let this second half copy (all being well) and then take to our local and very good computer repair guy in our local market...he is really good and I will ask him to check pc over etc...

Hopefully he may identify a problem which can be fixed but I am thinking that my 8 year old PC is time for an upgrade.

It is one of the 1st quad core I think and even had a blu ray burner in it...quite good for the time etc...BUT...perhaps with 4K video editing I need to be moving from 8 to perhaps 32 GB ram and newer processers etc...

Just to say thank you again for you constant help and input....it is much appreciated.

Best wishes

Ray

pmikep wrote on 9/13/2016, 4:18 AM

I would like to hear what you find about this problem.

FWIW, I have an old AMD Quad core too. Every year I blow a bunch of dust out of the CPU heatsink. And every few years I have to reapply thermal compound to the heatsink. So one of your problems could be heat with the CPU.

Naturally your CPU should be able to run 100% indefinitely. (I've found that MEP uses 80% while encoding.) You can run prime number freeware programs to test your CPU.

It could also be bad RAM. You can burn an iso of MEM+, a free memory tester.

And too, John could have a point about your external hard drive being a bottleneck. Since your computer is 8 years old, it probably doesn't have USB 3.0. 

And I have all my sleep functions disabled in Windows so that nothing powers down during a long encode.

Last changed by pmikep on 9/13/2016, 4:18 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Started with MEP 11, then 17, then MX, then MEP 2013, 2015, then 2016. Changed to the fast competitor after that, which worked fine with my non-Intel hardware. Then bought a used Dell with an Intel GPU, just to play with MEP again. Installed MEP 2020 Plus in March 2020, even tho I don't like losing patches if I have to reinstall after a year.

Testing on a Dell Vostro, <s>i3-8100</s> updated to i5-9400 w/ UHD 630, 16 GB 2400 DDR4 (CL15), Win10 Home, heavily NTLite'd. Now with GTX-1650 Super OC'd. Added a WD Blue M.2 for OS (PCIe 3), Apps, Temps and Video-In. 2 Monitors. A WD Blue SSD for outputs. (SATA III.)

RayGus wrote on 9/20/2016, 1:30 AM

I would like to hear what you find about this problem.

FWIW, I have an old AMD Quad core too. Every year I blow a bunch of dust out of the CPU heatsink. And every few years I have to reapply thermal compound to the heatsink. So one of your problems could be heat with the CPU.

Naturally your CPU should be able to run 100% indefinitely. (I've found that MEP uses 80% while encoding.) You can run prime number freeware programs to test your CPU.

It could also be bad RAM. You can burn an iso of MEM+, a free memory tester.

And too, John could have a point about your external hard drive being a bottleneck. Since your computer is 8 years old, it probably doesn't have USB 3.0. 

And I have all my sleep functions disabled in Windows so that nothing powers down during a long encode.

Hi pmikep...

I am suspecting the problem is the age of the pc....

It is one of the first i7 machines I think (2.66) and has 8gb ram.

I do not think that is enough for 4k editing and as an example I just copied another movie from my newer (but still dated) i7 laptop with 8gb ram to the Seagate drive with no problem, other than the time it takes to do it....

Bottom line...time for a new pc I think if I am to make 4k video...

Best wishes

Ray