Adobe Media Encoder Stuck Rendering "Reading XMP" - With Fix

 Adobe Media Encoder is broken again (v 24.1.1)

When Exporting from Premiere, Send to Adobe Media Encoder, nothing happens, AME gets stuck "Reading XMP", or not even showing anything. One of the many complains.

Yet another bug 🐛 that's been plaguing AME for the longest time. Can't you guys FIX THIS SHIT once and for all Adobe?

Note that this bug is not systematic. Sometimes everything works as it should, other times it gets stuck. Usually when you're in a rush to export something.

I tried a possible fix: open AME Preferences, Uncheck "Import sequences natively". Quit AME. Remove XMP altogether, no go.

Uncheck "Import sequences natively"

Unfortunately it only worked for one export. The next day, same thing happened again: AME stuck "reading XMP."

Quitting Premiere, restarting Premiere does not work either. AME gets stuck Establishing Dynamic Link, then stuck reading XMP.

What works for me:

(1) In AME Settings, General, turn off "Enable Parallel Encoding". Why is it turned on by default Adobe?

Uncheck "Enable Parallel Encoding"

 (2) Create a Custom Preset, or Edit your Preset, then click on the "Metadata" Button.

Click on Metadata, bottom left

"Create Sidecar File" is the default export option. NO GOOD. Why is it the default Adobe? I understand it might have something to do with Markers that's broken, although many users report that they are not using Markers at all. Whatever, in any case it doesn't work. So, turn Export Options to "Minimum required" or "None".

Export Options - Select "Minimum required" or "None"

Click OK, then SAVE and use this new Preset to encode.

(3) Sometimes even steps (1) and (2) are not enough to get AME to start encoding. If it still gets stuck, delete every single job from the queue. Leave AME open, go back to the Premiere  sequence, re-Export via send to AME. Re-apply the saved presets and hit render.

After these 3 steps, (AGGRAVATION x 3!) AME eventually does its job properly without getting stuck.

What a convoluted unnecessary process Adobe, shame on you.

Which is faster? Mac mini 2012 vs. classic Mac Pro 2012, Encoding HD 1080 h264 comparison

Encoding a 60min. HD ProRes422 to HD h264 (Best/MultiPass Quality) file on cMP (6 cores Xeon), and on Mac Mini (quad core i7)

1) Using Compressor:

1a) cMP = 210min. Abysmal!

VTEncoder almost never goes over 400% CPU

Using only 6 cores at 70% and 6 cores at 10%. Total never goes over 40% User CPU load.


1b) Mini = 50min. Best results!

VTEncoder barely goes over 200% CPU

Using only 4 cores at 10% and 4 cores at 5%. Total never goes over 40% User CPU load.

2) Using Adobe Media Encoder:

2a) cMP = 90min. Meh.

AMEncoder goes up 750% CPU

Using 6 cores at 80% and 6 cores at 60%. Total goes over 65% User CPU

2b) Mini = 84min. Meh.

AMEncoder goes up 600% CPU

Using 4 cores at 80% and 6 cores at 60%. Total goes over 65% User CPU

3) Machines configs:

cMP 2012 6 cores 3.46GHz, 32GB Ram, Radeon 7950 3GB.

Mini 2012 4 cores i7 2.3GHz (Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz), Intel 4000 1.5GB

Conclusion: Even though its specs are underwhelming compared to the cMP, the Mini wins with Compressor.

The cMP is really terrible! (x4 real time!!! What?) The Mini encodes the 60min. file in less than 50min. - under real time. 

On the other end with AME (which is much more power hungry) it's about the same on both machines and it takes longer than real time (x1.5 real time more or less.)

The Mini sports a dedicated h264 encode/decode chip, makes sense that the performance is better, it seems though only Compressor is accessing this added power. Adobe? What the heck??

Have a good day!

AME Background Encoding Pauses When Playing Premiere Pro Timeline

I like to Export my screeners via Adobe Media Encoder (Queue) so I can continue to work on my Premiere Timeline.

Yes, I can do that, dandy as it is, but NO!, it does not work because as soon as I playback my Premiere Timeline, AME puts itself in full PAUSE mode. 

And waits until I'm not playing back in Premiere to resume encoding.

Darn it!!

Now if I just edit and stuff, it works, full encoding in the background. Scrubbing is fair game, it continues to encode while scrubbing the Timeline, but no playback allowed. Changing the Playback relolution to 1/2 or 1/4 doesn't help.

Is it just me? Is there a setting for this? Or ...what??

Aaarrg! I wish Premiere would share the resources instead of sucking everything out of AME to a full stop.

Apple Compressor still cannot deal with XAVC-S or MXF files from Sony A7RII and FS5

Compressor 4.3.2, the current one, cannot open A7RII MP4 files.

It has no clue with FS5 MXF footage either and transcodes to an all black/empty file.

OK, mmhm, how long has this Sony codec been out again? Is this another codec war Sony and Apple are waging?

Short of using Sony's Catalyst software, you have Adobe Media Encoder and EditReady that can transcode your Sony footage to Prores on a Mac.

Good luck.