MainConcept MPEG Elements plugin problem

[Ken Jarstad]

I downloaded and installed the MC Elements MPEG codec/plugin for PrEl v2 and when I go to Setup on the PrEl splash-screen, the new presets don't show up. I did a repair install of the plugin but PrEl acts as though the plugin does not exist.

[Bob]

Ken, try holding down the shift key as you start up Premiere Elements. The plugins are cached to speed up startup. Holding shift during startup forces the plugin cache to be cleared and the plugins will reinitialize.

[Ken Jarstad]

Good idea, Bob. I tried it and still none of the new presets show up. Further, I tried the Ctrl-Shift option and PrEl popped up a dialog box asking 'Browse for Folder / Choose an additional Plug-Ins folder ....', whereupon I selected from the file hierarchy this location:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0\Plug-ins\MainConcept

Still, no luck.

Then, I uninstalled and reinstalled the MainConcept MPEG Elements plugin and have the very same result.

[RJ Johnston]

Did you try holding CTRL-ALT-SHIFT when starting up?

[Ken Jarstad]

Never heard of that one, Robert. Tried it - and no luck.

Maybe I should try Ctrl-Alt-Delete a couple of times.

[RJ Johnston]

Anytime I've had trouble with that MC Plug-in, I've uninstalled it, then uninstalled Premiere Elements, then run a registry cleaner, and then started over.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

This may be a silly question but does the Main Concepts folder appear here

....../plug-ins/en_US/MainConcept

and is there anything in the folder.

[Ken Jarstad]

Hi John! Not a silly question at all. The location was posted in message #3.

......\Plug-ins\MainConcept

The installer asked for the folder where Adobe Premiere Elements has been installed. "The specified folder must contain the Adobe Premiere Elements.exe file." The installer creates the folder under \Plug-ins every time. Is your installation location different?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Hi Ken, Yes, my installation is different - it is installed in the directory I indicated and it works OK for me.

[Bob]

It was worth trying the cache rebuild. That needs to be rebuilt whenever a plugin is updated or replaced. Evidently something else is going on too. I think John is on to something with the directory structure. The SDK indicates that the new convention for plugins is to place them in the language specific plugins directory, which is the \plugins\en_US\ part for the US English version. I'd give that a try and cross my fingers.

[Ken Jarstad]

Seems like I can remember other folks having problems installing this plugin. I have been combing the Adobe Elements forum with no luck. Does anyone remember a suitable thread or someone with the same problem? I think someone here also talked to Main Concept about it and finally got it to install.

I even tried moving the \MainConcept folder under \en-us although Registry references may not have been right in that case.

I cleared cache and preferences in each case I tried.

I have un/re-installed the plugin three times now - and the installer insists upon putting the folders in the very same locations. It seems a bit drastic to, as Robert said, reinstall PrEl also, and do a registry cleaning - just to get this to work.

[Paul LS]

Ken have you had PE3 or PPro installed at sometime along withg PE2? I remember I had a problem (if I can recall now ) when I had PE3 and PE2 installed... I wanted to install in PE2 but it installed in PE3, so I uninstalled PE3 and then it just wouldn't install in PE2. Or something like that...

When you finally install it you may find it is problematic anyway... with HDV it just sucks up computer resources... PE is bad enough but add the plugin and it gets worse believe it or not. Also with HDV, if you do a simple cut and then use smart rendering it sometimes gives a pixelated frame or two around the cut... the only way to overcome this is to use a transition (cross fade for example) so that it is forced to render the transition... then you do not get the pixelated frames. Really I have given up with it. This is one reason I went to Sony Vegas for HDV... it has the smart rendering, which infact uses the Mainconcept codec, and it suffered from the same pixelated frame issue until Sony released a patch. Also it is not resource hungry in Vegas.

[Ken Jarstad]

have you had PE3 or PPro installed at sometime along withg PE2?

No, the only other product I ever had installed was PrEl v1 which was uninstalled about a year ago.

Paul, how is your folder hierarchy structured? There is a \MainConcept folder and an \Editing Modes folder located under \Plug-ins on my system.

[Paul LS]

My Mainconcepts folder and Editing Modes folder are under ....../plug-ins/en_US

The Editing Modes folder contains a Mainconcept editing modes file as well as an Adobe file.

Do you have an Editing Modes folder containing the Adobe file under ....../plug-ins/en_US if so try just dragging the Mainconcept editing modes file there and move the Mainconcepts folder into ....../plug-ins/en_US.

[Ken Jarstad]

Tried it - did not work. I sent a support email to MainConcept.