New PC, moved PRE files over but timeline now empty

[1horsemoviemiss]

Hello all, I’m glad I found this website & forum. There’s a heap of really good info & reading here & posts by people who are regularly using APE & PRE.

I have been using PRE9 for several months on my old XP single core, 2Gb ram, nVidia GEForce, yada yada you know the type! I never had a problem using WMM & could make quite complicated movies up to 30mins long with no problems. Then along came Premiere Elements 9 & it all went south.

I have just read a few threads here by people with the same problems so I know 2 things for sure.

1. I maybe didn’t have to go out last week & spend a LOT of money for the new PC (specs listed below).

2. The problem may have just been a combination of lack of working knowledge on my part along with expecting too much from the software.

I’m making a movie of my family’s recent trip to central Australia. I started making it on the old PC & ran into problems from the outset. The cameras used made HD photos & vids. So far I have cut it into 4x 19min movies but still had major problems of the timeline not being able to run freely & jerking along & out of sync, files taking several minutes to load, missing transitions, etc.


Then I decided it was the PC being too small to run the software along with the movie size & configuration. I spent 3wks optimizing the old PC to get it running better & thoroughly cleaned of malware & un-needed stuff but that hardly made a difference. So I checked some Photoshop forums to discover best specs for new PC & bought it last week.

Next I had to move the existing PRE files across & install the software on the new machine. Then I imported all the files exactly how they were on the old PC & loaded the movie file onto the new PC & into PRE.

Aahhhhgggg it’s empty!!! The bones are there but there’s no content. It says it can’t find the files.

Is it only because I have moved the files to a new computer & therefore changed the addresses of everything? Or have I missed an important file that lists all the addresses of the content? (By content I mean all the individual camera video files & photos, titles, etc. Are they called ‘Assets’?) I moved whole folders such as the one automatically named Adobe which contained all the movie files.

Have I lost 50hrs of work & now have to start all over again? I had it to the stage of rendering. Here again is a place where I obviously have lots to learn because I thought rendering happened after I’d finished building the movie & it was ready to be burned.

I read in this forum part that rendering can be done all the way through to help stabilize the movie. But what would happen if I wanted to change how a photo looked & it’s transitions or titles etc & it had already been rendered? Wouldn’t I have to redo that whole section meaning double the work?

So here I am with a fangdangle PC & a heap of empty PRE partly built movie files!

What are your recommendations?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Firstly a big welcome to Muvipx.

1. I maybe didn’t have to go out last week & spend a LOT of money for the new PC (specs listed below).

Maybe that's true, but what an excuse to get an super, upgraded PC.

2. The problem may have just been a combination of lack of working knowledge on my part along with expecting too much from the software.

From the description it looks like you have copied the .prel file (which is the project file) and the "data" files to the new PC OK but the problem is that when you start the project PrEl cannot find the "data" files. Is that correct?

If so, the remedy is quite simple. When you open the project you should see a screen saying 'filexxx cannot be found' or something to that effect.

If, at that point, you manually navigate to where the file is on the new PC then PrEl will automatically re-link to that file plus all of the other missing files if they are in trhe same directory.

HTH.

[momoffduty]

I read in this forum part that rendering can be done all the way through to help stabilize the movie. But what would happen if I wanted to change how a photo looked & it’s transitions or titles etc & it had already been rendered? Wouldn’t I have to redo that whole section meaning double the work?

If you make any changes you will have to render again. Position the Work Area Bar over the changed area and render.

Welcome to Muvipix!

[1horsemoviemiss]

Thanks for that info John. Yes I did see that window open & I thought "oh my goodness there are almost 400 individual files just in this first 17min movie & if I have to relink every one of them I'll be there forever!

yes I will do that tomorrow. I'm really excitedly waiting to see how this movie runs on the new PC. ))

Thanks Cheryl. Rendering is the next thing I have to learn about. Looks like tomorrow's task ;-)

Thankyou both for the speedy replies. I can go to bed now knowing how to proceed tomorrow. phew! lol

[1horsemoviemiss]

OK so I followed all that lovely advice provided in previous posts & I finally got the movie timeline filled & playing with just a couple of errors due to plates that I seem to have missed relocating. I relinked all the files it asked for & it did seem to relink all the other similar types automatically.

So I was working on it when all of a sudden it had to close & didn't give me time to save although there had been a couple of auto saves during the work time.

So PROBLEM 1. I need to increase the capacity available to PRE on new PC. Or does PRE ask for a certain volume & can I change that size? I can't see how the number of changes, do's & undo's could have used all the memory that quickly. Certainly a lot less than my old XP PC. I did read somewhere that it saves all the do's & undo's so you can go back to something earlier. How do I clear all that history?


I then reopened PRE & OH NO! it wants to relink all those files AGAIN! I patiently went through the relink process again but this time there didn't seem to be so many. Perhaps it's a slow learner?!


All the files have been reimported into PRE on the new PC which should have relinked them permanently anyway.


PROBLEM 2. need to find out how to relink or readdress the files permanently on new PC if simply importing them & then moving into new folders doesn't do it.

PROBLEM 3. I should be able to link lost files back into PRE files but it either won't let me in or a message box comes up saying unsupported file type. mmmm

PROBLEM 4. I need to have the opportunity to save the project manually when it demands to close. Is there a way to tweek it for that?

PROBLEM 5. On new PC, project opens with current time indicator set at the end of the project & I have to wind it all the way back to the start. I'm sure I changed some settings in PRE on the old PC so that it would open where ever it was on the last close. But now I can't remember how I did that. Can anyone point me in the right direction to fix that little annoyance please?!


Other than all of that it is good to have the timeline play without all the jerking along & missing transitions, etc. So I'm ever hopefull.

[Chuck Engels]

A very warm welcome to Muvipix Miss
We have quite a following in Australia these days

[1horsemoviemiss]

Well things aren’t going smoothly with the Photoshop Premiere running on the new PC.

It keeps crashing after playing the timeline for about 5mins. Any part of the timeline will cause it to happen.

I thought of several things like paging file not big enough, somehow caching heaps of memory.

I opened the Task Manager to watch the CPU usage, memory, paged & non-paged use, free & available cache space.

Then I opened my project in PRE again, made some changes & saved as I went because it has crashed twice with work unsaved. Those errant files are still posing a problem but I am manually importing them each time I open it. I played the timeline in parts to make changes, then set it to play from the beginning. I watched the task manager as it played, then had to pause it to make changes a few times & replayed, then let it run.

After a few minutes it crashed again. The crash only happens after continuously playing the timeline for several minutes. I can do editing work & play short sections without problems.

I jotted down what the message window said. Right before the window opened there was a spike in CPU. However that would just have been caused by the software crashing.

The message box said:-

PRE had stopped working & needs to close.

Windows can check online for a solution next time you are online.
( I clicked that option earlier today then went online but nothing happened. I was expecting an Adobe page to open at the troubleshooting section perhaps)

Below the message were the problem details:-

Event name: APPCRASH
Fault module name: xerces-c_3_0.dll
Other lines of info I guess were the address of the actual crash site. I can soon make it happen again by running the software if those command lines are important!


Could it be because it’s a 32 bit software running on a 64 bit system? This new PC has anticrash software & it is supposed to diagnose & repair although that might be confined to Microsoft products. Or is it getting it's knickers in a knot because some of the files are not linked correctly?

Should I uninstall & reinstall as a first step? Would I need to save the project to the expansion HD again before uninstall?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

What version of Windows 7 are you using? Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate?

[1horsemoviemiss]

Home Premium John

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

The problems could be caused by outdated drivers.

Check that you have the latest drivers for your graphics card. Check also that Quicktime is up to date.

You might also want to try a re-install. Doing so shouldn't affect your project.

[1horsemoviemiss]

I'll get onto all those things tonight & tomorrow John.

When I connected Asus to the net just now there was a message re new drivers. It has a driver update component to windows. So they are downloading now. Then I am getting Adobe flash & reader. There was a driver disc come with that computer but no instructions on whether it is just for backup or what. I assumed it was for backup just in case.

Anyway thanks for the homework John! ;-)

[momoffduty]

I can not help with the computer tech stuff, but there are lots of experts here such as John. The only thing I have to suggest is once you get things up and running is to increment & save your project. When I first start a new project I give it a file name "TheProjectName_v1". After editing a bit File>Save As and change the _v1 to _v2. By the time I am finished editing a project I will have maybe 8 versions of a project.

This is not to replace Save when working. If I am making a lot of edits I will File>Save or Ctrl+S every 5 or 10 minutes.

[1horsemoviemiss]

Hi Cheryl, When PRE9 was on the old computer I had it set to save every 2mins. But when I moved it to the new computer I didn't remember to personalize it & now I can't remember how I did it. I guess it will come back to me when there is less other computer stuff crowding my mind! I'm not young anymore & all this high tech stuff needs more room these days a bit like my old computer really! lol

So yes I learned the hard way to save as I went along. PRE9 has a save button which I have begun to click after every edit.

I see the benefit in renaming the project because that will give you all those versions just incase. Of course on the old PC I couldn't keep making that many file due to running out of space. But it's a good policy I should adopt now on the new PC. I would end up with 100 versions I'm sure!

Right now I'll be happy to get just one version to play through & render & then burn.... (8-[

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

.....but there are lots of experts here such as John. .....

(blush)

[momoffduty]

.....but there are lots of experts here such as John. .....

(blush)

I would be lost with out all the tech support I have received here.