Forum Discussion
The encoder-7-64 process causes the CPU usage to spike unnecessarily
When I work on Storyline files that contain videos, the ‘encoder-7-64’ process starts automatically, even though I’m not publishing the course.
This causes CPU usage to spike.
I don’t think that should happen.
18 Replies
Does the process end after a few minutes or does it persist across sessions with no media edits?
The “shouldn’t happen unless publishing” assumption is wrong. SL front-loads video transcoding at insert time, encoder-7-64 is the bundled encoder that generates the working copies, preview renditions and thumbnails the authoring environment needs. That’s why preview is instant and publish is (relatively!) fast.
Hi DShaw and thank you for your reply.
The process persists across sessions even if I don’t make any changes to the videos.
Encoder-7-64 starts as soon as I open the Storyline file, even before I make any changes.
I downgraded to build 3.120.37241.0 and now Encoder-7-64 no longer starts automatically (and unnecessarily).
So the assumption that the process shouldn’t start unless I’m publishing is not wrong.
After all, I’d never noticed this before.
Please fix it.
Glad you have found a fix you're happy with. What this proves is that 3.121 does something on open that 3.120 doesn't, not that background encoding is inherently wrong, insert-time transcoding has always been the design in SL. 3.121 shipped a fix where closed captions were deleted after a video was edited. I'm guessing here, but the fix likely changes how video renditions or their captions are validated, so on open SL decides existing assets need reprocessing, which would explain the issue you're seeing if I'm guessing right...
Downgrading isn’t a fix, and I’m not happy about it.
It’s unreasonable that the encoder should start up and re-encode all the media every time I open a Storyline file, even if I don’t make any changes – don’t you think?
So, I hope Articulate fixes it soon.
I'm not an expert here, but as far as I know, the encoder-7-64 process should only start when publishing a video with Adaptive video quality selected in the Publish Quality settings. It may also run briefly when you insert a video because Automatic compression is enabled by default.
With Adaptive video quality, Storyline publishes multiple versions of the video at different sizes, so re-encoding is required. Have you tried switching the publish quality to Static?
Which Storyline build were you using when you first encountered this issue?
The publish quality I used is Static.
The build in which I encountered the issue is 3.121.37380.0.
I downgraded to build 3.120.37241.0 and the issue disappeared.
I replicated this on my machine and ran a controlled test on 3.122, and I think I've found what's going on.
Current builds precache a publish-quality copy of your video at insert time, but only if the source is out of spec. A compliant MP4 (H.264, 1920x1080 or smaller, AAC audio) is left completely untouched, encoder-7-64 doesn't fire at all. An out-of-spec source (in my test, 1762x1146, taller than 1080) triggers the encoder to produce a rescaled rendition into a PublishPrecache folder, so publish can serve it later without re-rendering. This is why I couldn't replicate it a few days ago as my MP4 was in spec!
That seems to explain what you're seeing exactly. I'd guess your project almost certainly contain videos that don't meet the current spec, most likely oversized in height, or with non-standard framerates or audio. Every time you open the project, SL queues a precache job for each non-compliant asset. If you close SL before it finishes, none of that work persists, so next open re-queues the lot. It looks like it's re-encoding on every open because effectively it is, the same jobs, never allowed to complete.
Two things you can do:
One, let it run to completion once. Open the project, let encoder-7-64 finish naturally however long that takes, then save and close. Next open it shouldn't run.
Two, If this does fix it, for future projects, standardise your source video at 1920x1080 or smaller, H.264, 30fps, AAC stereo. Anything within spec bypasses the precache path entirely in my testing.
Worth raising with Articulate support regardless. The feature itself seems sensible, precaching to speed publish, but doing it silently on open, with no progress indicator, no way to defer or cancel isn't great.
I updated to build 3.122.37526.0 and, once again, the Encoder-7-64 process starts automatically and uses a high amount of CPU when I open Storyline files containing videos, even without publishing.
This happens whenever I open any Storyline file containing long videos.
I had to downgrade back to build 3.120.37241.0.
Hello marcello_,
I appreciate you sharing additional details here in this thread. I've shared them with Marcello within your case, so they're aware of your experience. We'll follow up via your case, so everything is in one location.
