Crash on Surround sound Sony AVC mp4 renders?

Entilza wrote on 4/20/2010, 7:05 AM
Hi team,

I've recently been using Sony AVC mp4 format to render compressed vids on Pro 9c and 9d.

I've been using it because I've encountered stability problems with the other main mp4 format, chiefly Main Concept AVC mp4 (it bombs with an unknown error immediately upon starting).

Everything's been just fine with Sony AVC mp4, until I needed to do a surround sound render (instead of the usual stereo).

It only renders for about 5 minutes before it crashes with an "unknown error". Looking at the remains of the file, I can see the video is fine, but the audio is double speed.

Rendering a shorter segment (short enough that the render doesn't crash) gives the same result: normal video, double speed audio.

Just wondering if anyone else gets this? And, any other way to render a compressed HD format with surround sound integrated in the file?

Cheers,
Jason

Comments

Entilza wrote on 4/21/2010, 12:27 AM
Some extra info: The project is one solid (pre-rendered) video track, with a 6 channel pre-rendered WAV. 15 mins long, 1080P. Nothing special. 720P and 1080P mp4 renders both crash.

But what I am really after is to find if anyone is successfully using Sony AVC MP4 codec with surround sound output?

Cheers,
Jason
musicvid10 wrote on 4/21/2010, 9:26 AM
Do 9c and 9d support AVC/AAC 5.1 ?
Do 9c and 9d support AVC/AC3 5.1 ? (I doubt it)

If not, your solution would be to render a video-only AVC and an audio-only AC3 5.1, and mux them in a third-party utility.

As for the crash, what version of Quicktime player is installed on your machine?
Entilza wrote on 4/22/2010, 6:00 AM
Hi musicvid!

I'm presuming 9d supports AAC 5.1 because the option is there in the Audio render tab for Sony AVC mp4.

You can confirm this by choosing the Sony AVC output, and selecting the Internet 16:9 HD template. Under audio is AAC (only option) and Stereo and Surround 5.1 are the two options.

AAC Stereo works fine.

Quicktime version is 7.6.6 - but isn't that unrelated? Or are you suggesting I might try a Quicktime render instead?

Cheers,
Jason
musicvid10 wrote on 4/22/2010, 6:42 AM
Ahh yes, now I remember seeing the 5.1 option in the AVCHD templates. The only option is the Studio encoder, so I guess I never paid much attention. However, it seems to render "proper" 5.1 channels when I tested with some HDV material in a 5.1 Vegas project.

Can you upload a short clip of your source video somewhere? We could compare settings and nail down whether you have found a bug in 9.0d.

Vegas 9.0d and QT 7.6.6 are said to work together. That is the first version of QT reported to work correctly with MP4 in any version of Vegas in over a year (since QT 7.6.2), so yes, it is related.

Entilza wrote on 4/23/2010, 6:58 AM
Unfortunately the source material is 2 1080p AVI's. One is for the vision, the other for 6 channel sound (it also has vision, but is not used).

These files are almost 100Gb each. I am struggling to cut this back for an uploadable sample that is also long enough to cause the error.

In the mean time, I have logged a job with sony and they have refered it to the dev team. I was able to provide the veg file, but suggested they supply their own 15 minute 1080p avi's as alternative source material and see if they can replicate.

In related news, I was able to succeed at a Sony AVC 1080p 5.1 surround file by using the m2ts format instead. Works a charm, but it has to be interlaced (no option for p). By renaming the extension mpg, the media players work with it and it serves over the network just fine.

Still doesn't answer the previous problem though, and as I said it forces interlace.

Cheers,
Jason
musicvid10 wrote on 4/23/2010, 8:03 AM
Given your source, I think I would render an elementary AVC stream; and,

Either render a separate AC3 5.1 stream and mux them in TSMuxer; or,
Demux the original 6CH PCM and mux it with the AVC stream.

Both operations go very quickly in TSMuxer, it is just a choice of smaller file size or preserving the original audio exactly. I think either method would be preferable to AAC audio, unless there is a specific reason to do so.

It is worth noting that both AC3 and PCM audio are AVCHD standards compliant, while AVC/AAC is not.

FOOTNOTE: Are these animations? Don't expect stellar conversion quality going from 1080 avi (uncompressed?) to AVC video.
Entilza wrote on 4/23/2010, 6:01 PM
No, it's 5D Mk2 footage - Isn't everything these days? :-D

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll look into them!

Jason