iPhone 4K and fast rendering does not work.

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Solved by

Sep 25, 2020 08:10

With my first real projects with PD 19 I try to produce with some iPhone 4k 60 fps files. Now with the Fast Video Rendering technology on and set to Intel Quick sync video, most of the output formats I have tried to produce with end with the error message:
“Production unsuccessful. Please ensure that your Graphics Card driver is up to date, and update to the latest version of Windows Media Player. You can also try to output the production in a different video format”
With the fast rendering ON, I have not seen this message in any of the previous PD versions, before.
I have all drivers and media players (is that for the codec??) up to date. I have tried different video formats but many give the above error message and only a few work fine like : H.264 640x480/25p (I work with PAL) and also H.265 and MPEG2 1920x1080/50i (25mps), but they take for ages. (And in PD18 my GPU a 1070 happily joined in, but in PD 19 not anymore).
It works with that Fast Video Rendering OFF. If it works, the rendering is very slow. But that has been mentioned here before.
I know that you may want to look at my specs, but this behavior is basically not my system but the obvious changes between PD 18 and PD 19….
I am flagging this to a) see whether there are users that recognize this, b) whether there are any suggestions [not things like pre-conversion etc. one would assume that PD is simply able to process the original files as is] and c) to alert CL to check this (I have also informed CL otherwise).
Overall, I am not so happy with the delivery of PD19 like this. Of course, 365 users have the choice not to upgrade to any new version (19 in this case), but once they have, they are stuck with the (initial?) errors, also because there is no way back. In addition, my suggestion to CL to extend the testing work (this software IS very complex by nature) and maybe involve end-users at some stage. I would be happy to participate, as long as there is some way to use the old version along for the production work that must go on.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 25, 2020 14:08

A couple thoughts: Did you use the Profile Analyzer from the Produce page to determine which output profile to use? I'm asking specifically because of this issue which is still present in PD19. The recommended profile would be the default MPEG-4 1920 x 1080/60p (40 Mbps) profile with the format set to NTSC.

iPhones are known for using variable frame rates and that has been known to cause problems in PD. Try converting to a constant framerate in Handbrake, VLC or VirtualDub2 and see if that makes a difference.

You can also share one of you problematic clips on OneDrive or Google Drive so I and others can see if it's an issue with more systems that just yours.

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Sep 25, 2020 14:55

Thanks for your reaction!
I did try the profile Analyzer indeed. The recommended format you mention, is not accepted by my software (read I get the error message) even when I set the output to NTSC.
This format (and most others PAL and NTSC) does not work when I set the Fast video switch ON, whereas all DO work when I set the switch OFF.
There may indeed by a related problem (or the same) because when I disable the audio track and do the same test all formats do work irrepective the switch...
It is virtually with all my iPhone 4K video files. I want to do some more testing with that and will share the results (and files when appropriate).
I am aware of the variable frame rate issues. They did not trouble me in the PD 18 vesion.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Sep 25, 2020 16:30

The NTSC setting is only needed if you want to select a default profile with a 60p framerate. No need to do that if the Profile Analyer was working properly.

You may also want to convert the iPhone's audio to another format that doesn't use a variable bitrate. MP3s have been known to cause problems, but WAV, AAC and Dolby Digital (assuming a Win10 system) should work with PD.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Sep 26, 2020 23:04

Warry, a few comments and suggestions.

A) “Production unsuccessful. Please ensure that your Graphics Card..." Often one gets that message if encode device cannot support profile. You say you are using QS, does your version of iGPU support 4K?
B) "(And in PD18 my GPU a 1070 happily joined in, but in PD 19 not anymore)." That to me is misleading. If you are using QS, then the Nvidia NVENC cannot and will not be used in PD. You can't encode both with Intel QS and Nvidia NVENC concurrently. Maybe what you saw was the 1070 doing video decode?
C) Since things apparently worked for you in PD18, any chance you were using the GTX1070 solely for hardware encoding which should handle your 4K phone footage fine.
D) Depending which iGPU you have, the GTX1070 maybe a much faster encoder when PC properly configured. If you are seeing QS in the PD Produce page fast rendering options area or a lack of Nvidia icon in about PD splash, I'd probably configure to use your GTX1070 instead of the iGPU and see if your 4K iphone footage is handled any better.

Jeff

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Sep 27, 2020 07:44

Thanks for your suggestions Jeff!
A) my systems runs with a UHD 630
B) As you know I cannot repeat the 18 tests anymore. What I saw, I dont see now is, that in 18 the 1070 joined in when producing, in 19 the 1070 is inactive. I dont really know what I saw the 1070 was doing
C) That is possible; have not changed any settings, although there was an NVidia update which I installed
D) I think you are right.I will give that a try.
This and the different behavior with FX as discussed in this forum, the question remains: has anything changed in 19 that makes it works diffently than 18 in the GPU area, or is it me....?
(And maybe : WHY is it so difficult for CL to handle GPUs, whereas any of the other software I use has no problems at all.....)
Regards!

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Sep 27, 2020 08:24

Since you have a UHD630 it should encode 4K, you might see if this applies in your case as it triggers the same error msg, https://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/43754.page#post_box_226112

Jeff

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Sep 27, 2020 08:59

Warry - If this pc is a laptop then it would explain why it could not access the Nvidia graphics. Supplying a DxDiag.txt could help.

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Sep 27, 2020 09:19

Hmm. Thanks Jeff,
That did the trick I changed the values and it now all works fine. Did some initial speed tests and it seems to works all much faster too. I will do a bit more testing.

Either I have not noticed in 18, or the settings have changes at 19 implementation time.
And what can CL learn from this hint (already given in 2015!).

Thanks again Jeff!

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Sep 27, 2020 09:23

Quote Warry - If this pc is a laptop then it would explain why it could not access the Nvidia graphics. Supplying a DxDiag.txt could help.

Thanks for your reaction, Tomas!
It is indeed a laptop And I am aware of the limitations and have given in. Still, these limitations do not appear to apply for other software like Movie Studio etc.

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Sep 27, 2020 09:36

Thank you for the information. I posted replies to users with laptops several months ago with links from others who enabled the Nvidia card. Some say it works in PD18 like you said earlier and others said it doesn't work. Maybe you have to do that setup again for PD19 like you did earlier for PD18. Some users said they see Nvidia card usage while editing but not in producing. The task manager or GPU-Z can be used to monitor the activity of the graphics card.