problems after reinstall...

Question

Level 1

43 points

problems after reinstall...

Hello Forum friends,

Sigh, so my 2013 iMac gglittched out fatally last week, long story short I wiped the HD and reinstalled 10.11.3 fresh and reinstalled all my pro-apps. I've spent several days trying to reconstruct all of my settings and presets...

Compressor is not well.

First off, it is not completing it's encodes like it used to - when compressor is writing a file, it makes the container and another file that is like a workspace, as it encodes the stream, it pours all that data into the workspace, and then at the end it moves the data over into the container and deletes the working file. Compressor is failing to tidy up those working files, leaving my target directory a mess, and raising questions for me about whether things are working right... they aren't.

I'm also seeing a breakdown of basic function - encodes that used to rip off in 20 minutes are taking all night and then some, and while the thing used to slurp data from the master at 30-50MB/s (we have a pretty fast network), it is now only doing that for a few seconds, and then dropping down to 1-2 MB/s. Creeping.

Anyway, I know I'll probably end up working with my network admin on this, but do any of you have any good ideas about how to begin troubleshooting this issue?

Thanks!

Eric D - CoralVision

Compressor, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Jan 28, 2016 2:58 PM

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Answer 1

James Cude

Level 4

1,585 points

Jan 28, 2016 5:32 PM in response to CoralVision

make sure you're on the latest version of compressor, which is v4.2.1. then, try resetting the queue as described here:

Compressor 4: Advanced

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21234

also:

Get help with Compressor 4.2 or later

https://support.apple.com/HT203476

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Answer 2

CoralVision Author

Level 1

43 points

Jan 29, 2016 7:44 AM in response to James Cude

Hmm, mysterious...

in the procedures described in the second link, at the top:

"make a backup of your custom settings, located in Library/Application Support/Compressor/Settings/ in your home folder."

I don't see a folder named "compressor" in Library/Application Support/... The nearest thing I find is a older named "compressor" in "Users/Shared/Library/application support/compressor/..." and this "compressor" folder contains an empty folder named "storage" - where are my "custom settings?"

To **** with my custom settings, it only took me a half day to rebuild them last week, and I am going on 3 days with ZERO viable deliverables... This is dire, so I am reinstalling, using the directions on the second linked page...

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jan 29, 2016 8:19 AM in response to CoralVision

CoralVision wrote:

"

I don't see a folder named "compressor" in Library/Application Support/... The nearest thing I find is a older named "compressor" in "Users/Shared/Library/application support/compressor/..." and this "compressor" folder contains an empty folder named "storage" - where are my "custom settings?"

As the doc says, it's the Home Library that contains what you need to trash…and apparently you have found it.

The folder you want to preserve is Settings. That's where your custom settings are stored.

Russ

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Answer 4

CoralVision Author

Level 1

43 points

Jan 29, 2016 8:34 AM in response to Russ H

Got it - thanks for the help, Russ. I did remember just after that last reply the bit about going to FINDER/GO (hold opt key)/ Library...

I backed up the settings, trashed the compressor folder, restarted, copied my settings back in...

Compressor now (instead of winding down and err-ing out after several hours) goes straight to the "3x crash service down" fail with that cute little stop sign bang.

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Answer 5

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jan 29, 2016 8:42 AM in response to CoralVision

What codecs are you working with? Are they standard? Do you have the Pro Video Formats v 2.03 installed? (Check System Info > Software > Installations)

Russ

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Answer 6

CoralVision Author

Level 1

43 points

Jan 29, 2016 9:24 AM in response to Russ H

The file I'm trying to make is a custom mp4 for use with the "EarthChannel" (version 4) VOD system. The original is an SD mpeg, the target is a reduced-size (320x240), baseline h264 CAVLC.

According to the app store I do have pro formats 2.0.3 installed. How do I access the "System Info..." you reference above?

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Answer 7

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jan 29, 2016 9:37 AM in response to CoralVision

Click on the Apple icon upper left and hold down the option key.

Are these MPEG source files program streams and have you been able to transcode the same type of files previously?

Russ

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Answer 8

CoralVision Author

Level 1

43 points

Jan 29, 2016 10:03 AM in response to CoralVision

The MPEGs are the same as usual, as is an .avi master I am also working with. The MPEG fails out with the "3x crash..." bang, but curiously, the encodes from the .avi master just stall... data moving at a trickle, CPU and GPU spinning at full speed.

The next thing I will try is to just rebuild the custom setting from scratch and try to reproduce the issue - when I reinstalled the OS and ProApps last week, I reconstituted the custom settings by dragging an example into the settings column on compressor. Maybe that gave me some wonky setting i am overlooking...

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Answer 9

CoralVision Author

Level 1

43 points

Jan 29, 2016 10:31 AM in response to CoralVision

Another detail - the h264.mov I use for broadcast playback, which I reconstituted in similar fashion (with a drag, drop, and tweak in compressor settings) seems to be working as expected...

Now trying again with a rebuilt-from-scratch mp4 setting from a MPEG master. Not failing out immediately, but creeping slow/stalled data, with CPU/GPU working hard... FYI this is a single-pass encode...

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Answer 10

CoralVision Author

Level 1

43 points

Jan 29, 2016 10:42 AM in response to CoralVision

These are some shots of what the system is doing, right now it's been working on a 40 minute clip for about 22 minutes, share monitor says it will take another 14 hours... that can't be right....

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Answer 11

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Jan 29, 2016 10:53 AM in response to CoralVision

I suspect there is something about the source clips that Compressor is struggling with. If you want, yip could abroad a tiny section of a sample clip to a file sharing site like Dropbox. We could then download it and see whether we encountered similar difficulties.

Russ

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