Export issue

[rwtsmoke]

This has been a long ongoing issue that I haven't reported, because the scenario doesn't happen often...and for all i know it's a known issue, but in case it isn't, here we go.

I first came across it in either V2014 (which was never released) or V2015. I was working on 2 hour documentary and i needed to export a work print w my rough mix for a Protools session. I tried both of the h.264 export option and various flavors of Prores...no matter what, the audio on the file dropped out right around an hour. Eventually I just spit out a video file and a separate audio file and all was good.

Fast forward a couple years, now on v2017, i'm finishing up a 2 part 4 hour doc and the same scenario plays out, no matter what file I try and export, the audio in the 2 hour clip drops out right around an hour. So I use the same work around for the Protools session and again all is good, frustrating but good.

So now i'm revisiting the 2 hour doc from 2014 to get it ready for streaming. Again, I try both the h.264 and two of the Prores export options and again, audio drops out around an hour. So I take the master show, find a natural break point in the middle and split it into parts 1 & 2, first part is 58 minutes, second part is 62 minutes.

I export part 1 as a .h264 and all is good. I do the same with part 2 and the audio drops out about 2 minutes in. I try various things with the audio, I try various thing in the advanced menu within the .h264 export option and no matter what I did...I couldn't get the audio to stick. So after wasting the better part of a day trying and retrying to export a 62 minute clip, I cut the show into 3 equal (ish) pieces roughly 40 minutes a piece.

And all of them exported fine...as I expected. So what is it with a file thats longer than an hour dropping the audio. I'm due to stream the 4 hour doc within the next 6 months and I don't really want to cut it up into 6 pieces. 

Please advise or please fix, again scenario doesn't come up very often but when it does...its a pain in the ****.

[yann.laforest]

Hi Robert,

Hope you are well,

I recall you reporting the issue back in the days through the Smoke beta program.

However, this is something we have never been able to reproduce on our systems.

Moving forward, the only way to get the issue addressed is to report it to our technical support team and ensure that we get all details and necessary information to reproduce the problem in our lab (if not done already).

As you may know, there is no way for us to address an issue that we cannot reproduce.

Thanks in advance for your help with this,

Regards,

Yann

[rwtsmoke]

Upon further review, it would seem it might be the player within the Media Hub. I brought the full two hour Prorez HQ video file and separate audio file to work with the intent on trying the export on another system.

I married them together and exported a 1080 .h264 file, played it back in the viewer within the media hub and sure enough, audio drops out at 1 hour and 23 seconds. So I brought that file into the media panel, opened as a sequence with the intent to get a screen grab of the wave forms flat lining at 2:00:23:00...however much to my surprise, the audio was actually there front to back...spot checked it at various points and all was good.

I'm going to be really bummed if it is in fact an issue with the player, all those exports that i thought the audio failed but was really there...man that's a lot of frustration and wasted time. I'm going to try exporting one of the two our chunks i'm currently working on this weekend to see if I get the same results. 

[rwtsmoke]

Same result at home, exported file played back in the player within the media hub drops the audio 1 hour 23 seconds in...however that same exported file brought out to the timeline (media panel) all the audio is there.

That's really aggravating....

To be sure I'm going to re-export the (2) 2 hour segments from the recent project this week...

[rwtsmoke]

And not to beat a dead horse...

But two different files one 128 minutes the other 122 minutes, both exported as a 1080 .h264 file, both dropped audio on playback within the media hub. The 2 hour 8 minute clip lost audio at 1 hour 9 minutes and the 2 hour 1 minute clip lost audio at 1 hour 9 minutes.

However, both files once brought to the TL had full audio front to back...