ProTools 2023.6 AAE,CPU & Video Engine Errors

[alexcaus]

Hello everyone,

I am reaching out after encountering multiple ProTools errors which make the app almost completely unusable. I have tried for the last months to fix this, but have had no luck and no help from Avid other than being directed to all the fixes you can find on their website which have not worked.

To get to the point, I am getting the following errors (attached pictures) upon playback. The errors are present on both Rosetta and ARM modes. There is nothing I do to replicate these, they happen purely random, at random intervals, sometimes even up to 5-6 playbacks in a row. The session size does not matter, these errors happen even in empty sessions with just a video and audio track, so the CPU error is quite weird. Moreover, for the buffer size error stating to increase it, it is already maxed out.

On top of this, recently when opening sessions containing a video, ProTools states that "there are unsupported media due to a missing CODEC" and the video window is extended to the entire screen, but the video material is extremely small, visible in the left corner. If I am trying to hit play, the video runs but I cannot make any window adjustments as just clicking on the video window freezes ProTools and requires a force quit. I don't believe there is any problem with any CODECS as I have tried all possible CODECS, all video formats supported by ProTools and when trying to import a new video, I am prompted with the same unsupported media error. Nothing I do seems to fix the problem and it FIXES itself randomly without having to restart the Macbook or do anything. It just won't work for a while, sometimes hours, sometimes minutes, and then all of a sudden works again perfectly fine, being able to import various video formats, increase the size of the video window. Perhaps important note that I have not done any updates or anything else to the OS or ProTools before being prompted with this CODECS error - It just appeared from nowhere after having worked on a project for the whole day.

I just don't know what to do anymore. All these errors are really slowing me down, I can't even monitor the levels from start to end anymore as I can't play the mix without an error popping up every minute. Furthermore, I just can't have ProTools not loading any video material for hours at random as that means I might not even be able to start a project because the video won't load. Researching, it seems no one else has all these problems at once like myself, it's like I'm getting hit by the train from all sides.

Thank you for your time reading this and hopefully we can find a fix for this that might help other users too, but at the moment the simplest option seems to just use an intel-mac.

[resonatee]

hello,

there might be something off with your video files. let me tell you what i do.
i use ff-works app to convert everything i get from mp4 files to mxf. I found that it works the best. The next best thing is DNxHD in mov container.
Recently i got a tip on this very forum to turn off "enable GPU" in video engine preferences (Preferences/Operation tab, Video section) and that also made it a lot better.
When the video engine starts to 'act up', what i do is i go to /Users/Shared/ folder and delete the whole AvidVideoEngine folder. That sorts it out.
Check these tips man and report back.

Bummer to hear you are having problem on M1/Arm. I was under impression that these cpu's work great with video. Let us know, ok?

[smurfyou]

Originally Posted by resonatee

Bummer to hear you are having problem on M1/Arm. I was under impression that these cpu's work great with video. Let us know, ok?

Avid Video Engine is not yet Apple Silicon native.

OP what exact system, OS, and PT tier are you on?

If you're trying different codecs, it's often best to clear out the old video from the project and then close it before opening again and importing the new clip.

You say you've tried all supported codecs, if you search the forum you will see time and again there are really only 2 that are recommended. Ever. DNxHD and ProRes, both in their low bit rate forms. No reason to use any other codec.

The AAE/CPU errors are usually plugin related. That's another can of worms.

[smurfyou]

Also are you importing from AAF's?

[alexcaus]

Originally Posted by resonatee

hello,

there might be something off with your video files. let me tell you what i do.
i use ff-works app to convert everything i get from mp4 files to mxf. I found that it works the best. The next best thing is DNxHD in mov container.
Recently i got a tip on this very forum to turn off "enable GPU" in video engine preferences (Preferences/Operation tab, Video section) and that also made it a lot better.
When the video engine starts to 'act up', what i do is i go to /Users/Shared/ folder and delete the whole AvidVideoEngine folder. That sorts it out.
Check these tips man and report back.

Bummer to hear you are having problem on M1/Arm. I was under impression that these cpu's work great with video. Let us know, ok?

Thanks for your message. I don't think there is anything wrong with the video files - I have old sessions where the video file is .mov DNxHD and when PT is acting up, it won't even open old sessions which worked perfectly. I have also tried DNxHD in mov container and set it to DRAFT to reduce the load - same constant errors. Have not tried mxf yet but will turn off the "enable GPU" option you have mentioned and see if there are any improvements.

[alexcaus]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

Avid Video Engine is not yet Apple Silicon native.

OP what exact system, OS, and PT tier are you on?

If you're trying different codecs, it's often best to clear out the old video from the project and then close it before opening again and importing the new clip.

You say you've tried all supported codecs, if you search the forum you will see time and again there are really only 2 that are recommended. Ever. DNxHD and ProRes, both in their low bit rate forms. No reason to use any other codec.

The AAE/CPU errors are usually plugin related. That's another can of worms.

M1 PRO, 16GB RAM, macOs Ventura 13.4.1 and PT 2023.6 - I have updated to the latest in the hope this will fix something. I was encountering these problems on the previous PT and macOS versions and was not able to fix them.

I have tried all supported codecs since PT was playing up on DNxHD and ProRes both set on Draft, I thought I might have some luck with the other ones even though they are not necessarily recommended.

I don't believe the AAE/CPU errors have anything to do with plug-ins since they happen at the same frequency on completely empty sessions with just 1 audio & video tracks, no plugins. I do get a CPU error sometimes stating a Plug-in has caused this and indicates the track and plug-in name but that error is different from the one in the image I have attached and happens rarely.

Avid has just got back to me and asked me to send all the logs when encountering the errors.

[audiogamble]

Are you running Pro Tools in silicon or Rosetta mode? In general, I've noticed more 6101 errors on the latest update of Pro Tools as well. As you've observed, doesn't necessarily correlate to a heavy session.

[alexcaus]

Originally Posted by audiogamble

Are you running Pro Tools in silicon or Rosetta mode? In general, I've noticed more 6101 errors on the latest update of Pro Tools as well. As you've observed, doesn't necessarily correlate to a heavy session.

Running it in Rosetta but the errors are there in both modes.

[sco]

Im having pretty good success with...

Mac Studio M1
Monterey
Rosetta
Protools 2023.6
HD Driver 2023.3

Sessions with 40-100 MP4's

I just had a day from hell with it, but I believe it was caused by Spectrasonics Stylus

[emgexclusive]

Having the same issues after troubleshooting with Avid and Apple techs. I pay a hefty fee every year for Ultimate and it’s not stable… smh