Compressor just hangs. Any ideas?

[Simon Denny]

Hi I have moved into Final Cut Studio 6 and I’m having a few problems that I cant fix.
Compressor just hangs and does nothing at all.
I was rendering a short 30sec sample to test compression onto DVD and I went back to re render another short sample and now Compressors just does not work.
I can load media, add compressor setting and play media through the player window but this is it.
I have re started my MBP and have now trashed preferences but still nothing.
Any ideas on hoe I can fix this problem?

I’m thinking a re install might be nedded but I’m just about to render a 50min project for a client if I can resolve compressor.

Simon

[Mitchell Lewis]

Did you make your "Source" a network drive that is now offline?

Are you sure you trashed ALL the Preferences associated with Compressor? (I know there are like 3 or 4 associated with Final Cut Pro)

[Simon Denny]

Yep trashed all preferences and the scorce is not a network drive.
This is driving me mental, somehow I have to fix this tonight and a re install takes a few hrs.

Thanks

[Robert Lane]

Simon,

Compressor has been a buggy application for sometime and is sensitive to the OS and or it's core services not being in good order.

First order of business is to do a house-cleaning for the OS and make sure it's running smoothly. Download the free app, Onyx and run all it's routines:

Titanium Software

If you have a copy of Disk Warrior run it to make sure the core OS doesn't have any directory issues.

Lastly, make sure you're using the proper method for doing your encodes. There are 3 ways:

1. Export directly from the timeline in FCP;
2. Export a reference movie then import into Compressor and;
3. Export a self-contained movie and import into Compressor.

Option #2 is the most stable and usually takes the least amount of time to complete an Encode.

[Simon Denny]

Thanks Robert,
I have resolved the problem for now and I dont know how.
I had been researching the net late last night and found a download called Compressor repair
this seems to have fixed the problem.

Simon

[Terry Taravella]

Simon, I have had this problem also in the past.
Once I started a habit of "reset background processing" before each new project, I haven't had the "hanging up" problem.

Click under Compressor > Reset Background Processing > ok.

give that a try.