Playing video clips in Organizer

[peggig]

When I double-click a video clip in the Organizer in PRE8, it opens a window in which it looks like the clip is supposed to play, but it doesn't play. It's just black. There's a play button, but nothing happens when I click it. This is true for all the videos in the Organizer, and they all work fine when played from Windows Explorer or within PRE8. Any ideas on what might be wrong, or how to fix the problem?

Thanks!

[Barb O]

A few questions for info to help analyze this problem.

What type of video?
Do you have an image in the thumbnail for that video file?
Did this playback ever work for ANY video files of this type?
Is the video file on an external or internal hard drive?
What version of Windows are you running?
Do you have both Premiere and Photoshop Elements v8 installed?

[peggig]

What type of video?

HDV MPEGs, downloaded from a Canon HV40 and split using HDVSplit.

Do you have an image in the thumbnail for that video file?

Yes.

Did this playback ever work for ANY video files of this type?

No, not from the PRE8 Organizer. (I've only tried it recently, though.)

Is the video file on an external or internal hard drive?

Internal.

What version of Windows are you running?

Windows Vista (32 bit).

Do you have both Premiere and Photoshop Elements v8 installed?

I use PhotoShop CS2, but I don't import any of my photos into the Organizer. I use if only for video.

Thanks!

[Barb O]

Chuck,

How would a codec for HDV MPEGs from the Canon HV40 become installed as a system available codec on a system running Vista ?
Does Canon distribute any codec to use for processing HV40 files?
Does Premiere Elements supply/install an HDV MPEG codec and if yes what is required in order to activate this codec?

Pegig,

Just to make sure that I understand because this could be relevant. You do NOT have Photoshop Elements 8 installed.

Since you have Photoshop CS2 installed, it would be perfectly reasonable not to install PS Elements 8. So my question does not imply that PSE 8 should be installed, this is specifically info gathering to try to solve why the video will not play.

[peggig]

Barb, no I do not have any version of PhotoShop Elements installed.

[Chuck Engels]

Chuck,

How would a codec for HDV MPEGs from the Canon HV40 become installed as a system available codec on a system running Vista ?
Does Canon distribute any codec to use for processing HV40 files?
Does Premiere Elements supply/install an HDV MPEG codec and if yes what is required in order to activate this codec?

I could view M2T files on my computer before I got the HV40 and I don't think there is anything installed from Canon.
My guess would be that whatever is necessary would have been installed by Premiere Elements. I do not have any HDV files on my laptop at the moment and I don't have version 8 installed currently either. I can do some checking when I get home but first see if the files will open in Windows Media Player and if you can play the files when added to the timeline. Is the only problem that they won't play in the Organizer? If so then there must be a different problem not related to Codecs.

[peggig]

Yes, I can play them in Windows Media Player, and in the timeline in PRE8. The only place they don't play is in the Organizer.

[Chuck Engels]

I did find some M2T files on my laptop and imported them into the Premiere Elements 7 Organizer.
I can see the thumbnails and when I double click on the file it opens in the clip monitor and plays.

What do you mean by

The only place they don't play is in the Organizer.

I know that version 8 is a little different than version 7 so I just want to be sure we are talking about the same thing.

[peggig]

When I double click a thumbnail in the Organizer, it opens a new window with the name of the video clip at the top, and a black box where the video should play. There are video controls on the bottom, and the keyword list on the right, but the controls don't do anything. When I click the Play button, it changes to the Pause button, but the video doesn't play. The box where it should play remains black, and the position indicator doesn't move. I can drag the position indicator, but nothing happens.

[Barb O]

When I double click a thumbnail in the Organizer, it opens a new window with the name of the video clip at the top, and a black box where the video should play. There are video controls on the bottom, and the keyword list on the right, but the controls don't do anything. When I click the Play button, it changes to the Pause button, but the video doesn't play. The box where it should play remains black, and the position indicator doesn't move. I can drag the position indicator, but nothing happens.

Chuck,

That is the same result I had when attempting to play the SPY_INTRO_HD.m2t clip from my v8 Organizer (installed with PSE 8).

I will go test it in a PE 7 project (and the PSE 7 Organizer) to see if that is any different.
Should it be a HDV 1080i or HDV 720p PE 7 project for that clip?

Now I am still suspicious that it is a problem of not having a system available codec to play the file (in this case the m2t file). That is the answer I had received from Adobe for this type of "can't play" from the Organizer problem in versions prior to v8: however, I had hoped that version 8 with the common Organizer would solve that problem. So I don't want to jump to a conclusion.

EDIT - adding new question
When I looked at the file associations list on my Vista Home Premium system, m2t is not even listed!!
m1v and m2v point to Windows Media Player
Why is m2t not listed and what will be the impact of it not being listed?

[Chuck Engels]

Use the HDV 1080i project preset.

A file not listed in the File Types will not open automatically.
There is no file association with that extention, m2t, so Windows doesn't know what to use to open the file.
If you double click on the file Windows will ask you 'What Program Do I Open This File With?'
You can add the extension to the File Types and put Windows Media Player as the default program to open the file with.

Or you can just right click on the file and select 'Open With'... and select Windows Media Player. See if the file will play.

[peggig]

If m2t is essentially the same as mpeg, could you just change the file extension to mpg? I want to put an m2t file on a DVD to give to someone who will most likely not have a file association for m2t on his computer. Instead of explaining to him how to create one, could I just change the extension to mpg so Window Media Player will recognize it? Woiuld that work?

[Barb O]

Summary first,
On my computer, I can do playback of an m2t file from a thumbnail within either the PSE 7 Organizer or the Elements 8 Organizer. I can also use m2t files successfuly in a Premiere Elements 7 HDV 1080i project. (FYI - I do have a different problem of no first frame images in the thumbnails for m2t files in the Organizer.) Unfortunately I don't know why I can do playback in the Elements 8 Organizer and peggig can not.

peggig,
What you have in the Windows File Association list for the file type m2t? Is there any entry and if yes, what program is shown?

Now the details,

Use the HDV 1080i project preset.
A file not listed in the File Types will not open automatically.
There is no file association with that extention, m2t, so Windows doesn't know what to use to open the file.
If you double click on the file Windows will ask you 'What Program Do I Open This File With?'
You can add the extension to the File Types and put Windows Media Player as the default program to open the file with.
Or you can just right click on the file and select 'Open With'... and select Windows Media Player. See if the file will play.

After reading the above post I was able to start from Windows Explorer and play the m2t file in Windows Media Player. (the process seems different under Vista than XP). I did not add the m2t file extension to the Windows list of File Extensions.

For version 7,
I can use the m2t file in a PE 7 HDV 1080i project, playback is fine and I see a first frame image in the thumbnail within in the Organize tab of Premiere Elements 7 and also within the Edit tab listing of the files in the project.

Photoshop Elements 7 Organizer, after importing the same m2t file, there is no image in the thumbnail for that file (instead the filmstrip icon), BUT I can either double click the thumbnail or use the right click menu choice of Play Video and I DO have playback of the m2t video within the PSE 7 Organizer.

For the version 8 Organizer
same results - Thumbnail has no image BUT I can do playback from the thumbnail.

[peggig]

What you have in the Windows File Association list for the file type m2t? Is there any entry and if yes, what program is shown?

The files actually have the mpeg extension, rather than m2t. The mpeg extension is associated with Windows Media Player.

Thumbnail has no image BUT I can do playback from the thumbnail.

Strange. That's exactly the opposite of the problem I have. I can view the thumbnails in Organizer, but can't play the video.

[Chuck Engels]

I'm confused as to why you have an mpeg extension. I capture from my HV40 using HDVSplit and my files have the m2t extension.