Looks like Adobe listened and finally put people to work fixing this ongoing problem.
I can report that Adobe Media Encoder 24.1.1 seem to be immune, and exports h264 properly, ending on the last frame of the program, not on an auto generated black frame.
I tested Exporting h264 directly from Premiere 24.1, and the bug is fixed with Premiere as well. No more black frame at the end of h264 exports. Yeah! Finally.
Thank you Adobe!
h264 encoding using either Compressor 4.7 or FCP 10.4.1 on M1 with Sonoma 14.2.1 are showing blockiness with busy/semi busy imagery.
It wasn't like this with previous versions on FCP/Compressor/Pro Video Formats/macOS that I recall.
h264 encoding behaves very poorly compared to Adobe Media Encoder. I tested both on the same ProRes master, Apple output is dirty where AME is relatively clean. Same data rate, using the default settings.
I tested previous versions of FCP/Compressor on the same machine: Monterey and Ventura, and results are the same: blocky, sloppy, prone to artifacts on certain images.
It was not like this before: I looked at the same h264 export I did in June 2023 with FCP 10.6.6, Pro Video Formats 2.2.5, and Ventura, it was clean throughout. Same machine.
Something happened since, and now it's screwed. What is going on Apple? Anybody seeing a similar problem on their setup?
Below are 4 frame exports of the same image:
Superimposed to the original sequence. Opacity switched to Difference, and Midtones Exposure pushed to 100%.
Desktop Video 12.7.1 is not yet compatible with Sonoma, so no UltraStudio Monitor output is possible at the moment for FCP or DaVinci, or Premiere, or anything.
It's actually an Apple thing introduced in Sonoma 14.1:
"Starting in macOS Sonoma 14.1, cameras and video output devices that don't use modern system extensions won't be available to use unless you restore the legacy settings."
Apple offers a workaround: https://support.apple.com/en-jo/HT213969
Although some users seem to be having a hard time: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=191101
I don't think I will even try this, as I'm just testing Sonoma et the moment, and I have no intention of using it for production just yet. My problem is that I will no doubt forget about this restoring legacy video device workaround, so I'd rather wait for BMD to come up with a updated software.
Adobe Premiere is such a piece of garbage.
I export a h264 video selecting an In and an Out points. The Out point is 1sec into a graphic, the same graphic continues for a whole 10seconds after the Out point. On export the resulting h264 file last frame is black.
Why is it not showing my graphic? WHY??????
I mean ADOBE? What do you have to say? It's been documented FOR YEARS! Just Google "Adobe Premiere puts a black frame at the end of my h264 export". It's a BUG!!! 🪲🪳🦟 BUG, BUG, BUG!!! Fix it already.
If I Send To Adobe Media Encoder instead of direct exporting from Premiere, SAME THING!!! By the way, selecting Hardware Accelerated or Software Only doesn't not make an iota of difference, same fuckup. So now I have to export a ProRes version, that works just fine, and then encode a h264 with AME? Nope! Doesn't work either. 🖕
Apple Compressor to the rescue. APPLE COMPRESSOR, works just great with h264, Adobe???
What a mess. Premiere "Pro" Uh???? It would be laughable if it wasn't disgusting.
!!!UPDATE!!!
Adobe Media Encoder 24.1.1 SEEM TO BE WORKING FINE NOW.
I tested Export on Premiere 24.1, and the bug is FIXED with Premiere as well! No more black frame at the end of h264 exports. Yeah! Finally.
Thanks Adobe!
Premiere Pro throws an error compiling movie on exporting a h264 file:
Error compiling movie.
Render Error
Render returned error.
Writing with exporter: H.264
Writing to file: /Volumes/G Vulcan 4TB/[2152] MCV OpenHands/MCV OH Chuck/ Masters/Masters Web/CP_OHC_Chuckwild_01.mp4
Writing file type: H264
Around timecode: 00:00:02:00 - 00:00:02:05
Rendering at offset: 0.000 seconds
Component: H.264 of type Exporter
Selector: 9
Error code: -1609629690
Other people have been reporting the same error, and for them turning off "Hardware Encoding" seem to work, albeit slowly.
For me, it's turning off "Use Maximum Render Quality" (leave it unchecked) that does the trick.
Mac M1, macOS Ventura 13.6, Premiere 24.0.0.58
Starting with macOS 13 Ventura, Apple is stopping compatibility and development for Firewire Core Audio. So Firewire audio devices will no longer work.
Presonus announces EOD for Firewire products.
That's a blow to Firewire audio interfaces owners, and renders such devices obsolete overnight.
Some manufacturers were clever enough to incorporate a dual connection: Firewire + USB, and I salute them for that. Hopefully if you have a Firewire audio interface, it also has USB connections.
On the other end, good old IEEE1394 is now 37 years old now!
I had plenty of FW drives of course, and DV video would have not been possible without Firewire connections and protocol.
By the way, DV is now deemed an obsolete format. Time to go through your DV tape troves and digitize everything before it's too late.
DaVinci Resolve has a weird way to deal with interlaced footage.
First with Resolve, you better pay attention to what kind of media you are bringing in, and how it is recognized. In particular with legacy footage (NTSC, PAL) the Pixel Aspect Ratio is sometimes unrecognized, or recognized as Square. You will have to manually switch to NTSC or PAL Pixel Aspect Ratio. Same with Anamorphic or 4:3 footage. Check your footage for squashed looking image.
Second, the Field dominance is usually recognized properly via Auto, but best to double check against your actual footage anyway and make sure it matches. If not, again modify it by hand, and use the correct settings for your footage, Upper Field or Lower Field. Using the incorrect field will produce unwanted artifacts.
Then, when creating a new Timeline for exporting screeners, make sure the frame rate matches the footage. Ex. 29.97 for NTSC or 25 for PAL. It's counter intuitive, but do not check "Enable Interlace Processing" box. The effect will be to double the frame rate, resulting in a 59.96fps Timeline for NTSC or a 50fps Timeline for PAL. In most cases you do not want to enable interlaced processing.
Resolve User Manual p131:
Enable interlace processing: Interlaced media is supported throughout DaVinci Resolve. The “Enable interlace processing” checkbox forces DaVinci Resolve to process all operations internally using separated fields, in order to properly maintain the field integrity of interlaced clips in your program. In addition, each clip in the Media Pool has a Field Dominance drop-down menu in the Video panel of the Clip Attributes window that lets you specify whether clips are upper- or lower- field dominant; an Auto setting makes this choice by default.
There is also a corresponding checkbox in the Render Settings panel of the Deliver page, named “Field rendering,” that lets you enable and disable field rendering when you’re rendering file-based output.
There are two instances where you want to leave this setting turned off:
— If you’re working with progressive-frame media, it is not necessary to turn this checkbox on. Doing so will unnecessarily increase processing time.
— If you’re using interlaced clips in a progressive-frame project and you’re intending to deinterlace those clips using the Enable Deinterlacing checkbox in the Clip Attributes window, then you must keep “Enable video field processing” off. Otherwise, the Enable Deinterlacing checkbox will be disabled for all clips. For more information about deinterlacing clips,
see Chapter 22, “Modifying Clips and Clip Attributes.”
If you’re working on a project with interlaced media that you intend to keep interlaced, then whether or not it’s necessary to turn field processing on depends on what types of corrections you’re applying to your clips. If you’re mastering your program to an interlaced format, and you’re applying any adjustments that would cause pixels from one field to move or bleed into adjacent fields, then field processing should be enabled; effects requiring field processing include filtering operations such as blur, sharpen, and OpenFX operations, as well as sizing transforms that include pan, tilt, zoom, rotate, pitch, and yaw.
On the other hand, regardless of whether you’re outputting interlaced or progressive-frame media, if you’re not filtering or resizing your clips, and you’re only applying adjustments to color and contrast, it’s not necessary to turn on field processing for interlaced material, and in fact, leaving it off may somewhat shorten your project’s rendering time.
You will not be able to go back to the original frame rate after you choose to Enable Interlace Processing. All outputs will be at double the frame rate. Even if you are applying resizing and other pixel shifting prone processing, you might still want to not enable it in order to maintain the original frame rate.
The other problem with Resolve is that not all formats/Codecs allow for interlaced output. For example Quicktime h264 is always progressive. There is no checkbox for interlaced rendering when selecting h264 or h265. Apple ProRes on the other hand has a checkbox and allows for interlaced rendering.
h264/h265 are mostly for delivery of files to web/computers. But they are also widely used for making screeners, and when the original footage is interlaced (legacy NTSC, PAL), it sometimes is a problem outputting either a progressive file, or worse a 59.94/50fps file.
Let's say the editor uses your files as temp clips into his/her cut, it will be a problem down the line when it's time to online with the original clip. The timing won't match, or the clip will be wrongly stamped as progressive.
Having to export first to ProRes out of Resolve, then convert the ProRes interlaced files to h264 interlaced using Compressor or AME (both allow for interlaced h264 outputs), is not an acceptable workaround, too time consuming and it adds opportunities for errors.
Granted, legacy formats are not much in use these days, except in documentary work as archive footage. And there are tons of archives recorded as NTSC or PAL interlaced. If you are moving your cut between NLEs, and/or when it's time to online, problems will arise. A good online editor will be able to flag and deal with these mismatches properly, but still.
Now if you are using the original interlaced footage in a progressive Timeline and finalizing in Resolve, then as described in the manual, just de-interlace the footage and you are in business. Just make sure all the clips settings are correct as discussed earlier.
It's odd to me that the proper interlaced workflow when dealing with screeners / temp outputs is so lacking in Resolve. Again Apple Compressor and Adobe Media Encoder are perfectly fine with interlaced h264 outputs.
Why is interlaced only possible with some codecs and not others in Resolve? To me it feels like a random decision on the part of BMD.
