Hi!

I've had an open ticket with Avid (and tried Elite phone support to no avail) for two weeks now, and I'm still no closer to solving one of two fresh install issues that I've encountered (I say that mostly to indicate that I have gone the support route first here).

I have two new HP Z6 machines with Windows 10 Pro, and neither of them installed Avid to allow background transcodes to function.

Avid 1's issue was that the BG services would not stay on for more than a few seconds, and I eventually found a forum where someone had pointed out that many fresh installs lack an .ini file in the Program Data folder (Avid Editor Transcode, to be exact).  Once I created that .ini in Notepad and placed it, it worked literally immediately.

However, on Avid 2, the services work fine, but a new error prompts:

The Production Services Engine was unable to make a connection.

Here's what I've tried so far, which Avid has also recommended, to no avail:

I've cleanly uninstalled every version with regedits and restarts at the front and back of every install.  I've also tried three versions of Avid (our company doesn't use the latest version, but I did try that installation first for testing purposes):

Avid 8.4.2

Avid 2018.12.15

Avid 2021.9

I've installed as a separate, new Admin user (per their instructions), and no clean uninstall/reinstall has resulted in any difference in any version.

Has anyone had any experience with this?  Avid has gone completely silent on this for nearly a week, and as the sole point of ingest at my company, being able to set up BG transcodes and queueing is paramount to my workflow, and I'd love to get that back now that I've gotten two smoking fast machines.

Thank you for any input and advice.

Sean Campbell:

Hi!

I've had an open ticket with Avid (and tried Elite phone support to no avail) for two weeks now, and I'm still no closer to solving one of two fresh install issues that I've encountered (I say that mostly to indicate that I have gone the support route first here).

I have two new HP Z6 machines with Windows 10 Pro, and neither of them installed Avid to allow background transcodes to function.

Avid 1's issue was that the BG services would not stay on for more than a few seconds, and I eventually found a forum where someone had pointed out that many fresh installs lack an .ini file in the Program Data folder (Avid Editor Transcode, to be exact).  Once I created that .ini in Notepad and placed it, it worked literally immediately.

However, on Avid 2, the services work fine, but a new error prompts:

The Production Services Engine was unable to make a connection.

Here's what I've tried so far, which Avid has also recommended, to no avail:

I've cleanly uninstalled every version with regedits and restarts at the front and back of every install.  I've also tried three versions of Avid (our company doesn't use the latest version, but I did try that installation first for testing purposes):

Avid 8.4.2

Avid 2018.12.15

Avid 2021.9

I've installed as a separate, new Admin user (per their instructions), and no clean uninstall/reinstall has resulted in any difference in any version.

Has anyone had any experience with this?  Avid has gone completely silent on this for nearly a week, and as the sole point of ingest at my company, being able to set up BG transcodes and queueing is paramount to my workflow, and I'd love to get that back now that I've gotten two smoking fast machines.

Thank you for any input and advice.

I've always had issues with Background Rendering/Transcoding.

Miraculously, when I re-installed windows on my system this fixed itself, but was never able to get this working for a long time.

Perhaps this thread might help you: https://community.avid.com/forums/p/202699/906974.aspx

Thanks for responding! I'm going to dig into that thread before trying the fresh Windows install.  On 8.4.2, I used BGQ for many years, and it saved my life countless times. Currently, at least one of my new systems is working flawlessly. Many thanks again. 

I agree with Philip 100%. If Backround stops working, the only solution is to reinstall Windows and Avid.
Every day I check with concern whether it is still working.
I have never been able to start Backround if it has stopped working. Waste of time.

I have one infallible medicine, I have written about it many times.
Backup receipt. I am going back to my previously functioning state and I have no problem. It takes me 5-10 minutes.

Zb.

Thanks for the info!

That has never been my experience over the past ten years, but I'm certainly willing to try it.

I want to reiterate that the BGQ never actually functioned at all on either of these new machines.  Everything was freshly installed, and that portion didn't work either time.  This was a completely fresh install of Windows on a brand new HP Z6, and I have also so far tried the restore points.

If Avid doesn't have any good help for me tomorrow on my call with them, I'll try wiping... again.

For 6-7 years, all six of my machines use BGQ every day, 5-6 days a week.  I've never had a failure on the BGQ transcodes, especially after a fresh install, until now.  It's also interesting to me that one of them installed Avid without the proper .ini file to allow services to run, and the second (exact same model/software) computer has a completely different issue that doesn't allow BG transcodes to run even though BG services are fine on that unit (because I placed the .ini file it was ALSO missing...haha).  Such is Avid, I suppose.

Thanks again for all your insights.  I'd love to narrow down just WHAT is being fixed (or broken) with these reinstallations.

There are normally network connections that have to be open for it to work. It normally asks for permission to open the required ports but this dialogue can drop behind and get ignored and then lost.

You could try turning off the firewall completely and see if it works then (but remember to turn it on again)

That will at least tell if its related to that or not.

Same with antivirus software.

Ah!  Good thought!!  I do recall it prompting, and I allowed all networks, but I will definitely try futzing around with the firewall and report back.  Thank you for taking the time.

Hi, Pat.

I disabled the firewall completely but no luck there.

I also tried creating inbound/outbound rules and restarting to allow Avid Media Composer to have free reign but no luck there either, although I am not certain by any means that I allowed enough associated programs "in/out."  I just added the program Media Composer itself as a test.

I also compared the HP Z6 that's basically a clone of this system that won't allow BGQ, and the inbound rules look nearly completely different. Check this out from the working machine I'll call Avid 2:

Here's Avid 1:

Seems rather telling if we're barking up the right tree here.