Error trying to burn project

[angelah100]

I have a bunch of kids basketball games and am burning 2 games per dvd in standard definition. I succesfully burned 3 dvds but am now having trouble. On the first 3 dvds, I had rendered each game individually to an MPG file. When I burned the DVD, I combined 2 MPG files into one project and added my disc menu, then burned to a folder, then used image burn to create the actual dvd. On the 4th dvd, I used the same process but while burning to the folder the process stopped when almost done (approx 85%) and the word "error" appeared under the progress bar. When I clicked "cancel", I got a warning that I was interrupting the burn process. No further explanation of the error occurred. I then tried using AVI files instead of MPG but the same error occurred. I then tried making a new project with two different files but the same thing happened. Of course, have rebooted computer etc a few times thinking it was just some random computer issue but that hasn't made any difference.

Any clues on how I should troubleshoot this? Any and all advice will be appreciated!

[Steve Grisetti]

Are each of your DVD burn-to-folders in separate projects, Angela? You aren't re-using the same project over and over are you?

I always recommend starting a new project by saving the project to its old folder. This keeps all of process files that Premiere Elements needs to create in a separate directory, where they're less likely to get mixed up with others.

In fact, if one of your project chokes on a DVD burn-to-folder, do a Save As and save your project into a new folder before you try again.

And don't forget to occasionally go to the Preferences and clear the Media Cache. (Version 12 does this automatically after each use.) It too can get gunked up with junk files.

[angelah100]

I've been using a different 'burn to' folder each time. Before seeing your reply, I followed the 'troubleshooting recommendation' on adobe site to disable most startup programs/services but still got an error. I then tried burning to DVD and got NO ERROR, however the DVD didn't work properly - there are two items on the menu and only the first one works. However, when I previewed the DVD menu before burning it, it worked fine.

I just finished cleaning media cache - took forever b/c I had never done it before - then tried to burn to folder and got error.

Am going to change the menu template and see if that changes anything.

[angelah100]

Hmm, I changed the menu template and it worked. The template I was using before was the basketball template from this site, however I had modified it so that two main menu items would appear on the main menu page. It worked for the first 3 dvds, but is now causing an error. I recreated it with a new template name and it still causes an error. I need to get the dvds done so will probably use the generic template instead - that one has multiple main menu items on it already, no modification required.

[Steve Grisetti]

Does the DVD menu fail only on your TV -- or does the menu also not work when you load the disc into your computer?

It could be a compatiblity issue or it could be an issue with this disc media itself.

[angelah100]

Both TV and computer - the second menu item button doesn't take me to the 2nd basketball game, nothing happens when I click it. When I previewed my menu from within PE11, the 2nd button worked fine. I'm not sure why my edited DVD template worked for 3 DVDs but not the 4th!

There's something strange about the DVD template folder. I tried again to use the unedited basketball template that I had downloaded from this site. When I choose the DVD template from within my project, I could see the unedited template as one of the available templates and selected it. However when it loaded into the project, it appeared as the edited template (it had multiple main menu buttons on the first page, it wasn't the original template). If I navigate to the DVD template folder from Windows Explorer, I can see that the template has the original date on it and is not the edited version, yet I can't load it. I messed around a bit with new folders, made sure none of the actual files had the same name, but it didn't make any difference. If I pick any version of the basketball template, only my edited version shows up in the project.

[Steve Grisetti]

You may well have found a bug in the template, Angela.

[angelah100]

It's not the template. I tried using one of PE11's templates - the soccer template because it had two main menu items on the first page, which is what I want. I replaced the background with rotating basketball clip (from this site) and had to move the menu items slightly because they overlapped. When I burned to folder, got an error at 99% just like last time. I wonder if it has something to do with moving the menu items? Although it still doesn't explain why I successfully burned 3 DVDs!

I normally edit video on my desktop but have PE11 on my laptop, too. I'm going to try and burn the folder on the laptop and see if it works.

[Dave McElderry]

This reminds me of a problem where a tiny gap in the timeline, even one frame, will cause a burn failure such as you describe. Of course if there were no changes in the project between the good burn and the failures then this isn't the case. Did you possibly make any editing changes at all, even slight, between the good burns and now?

[angelah100]

Actually the DVDs were all different. I have a dozen basketball games to burn, am doing two per DVD. I burned each game individually to an MPG file. On the first DVD, I added two MGP clips and my modified basketball menu template, added the main menu and stop markers to the timeline, then burned to folder. For the second DVD, I replaced the two MPG clips with the next two clips, adjusted the timeline markers, saved the project as a new project, then burned to a new folder. Ditto for third DVD. On fourth (and subsequent) DVDs, got the error when it was burning to folder.

I created a new project on my laptop, used the same MPG files and the same modified basketball template and it burned without issue. I then used Imageburn to create the DVD and the DVD works fine. I think this eliminates the template as the culprit.

I went back to desktop and created new project, added the MPGs, checked very carefully to make sure they had snapped back-to-back so there was no blank frame between them (because thinking about that, and how I was doing the DVDs, that was a very real possibility), used the modified template, got an error again. So it's some issue with PE11 on my desktop but am at a loss as to what the problem might be. I was just doing the DVDs, not messing around with other software or hardware so nothing else should have changed. Really, it's a wonder I have any hair left at all.

[Steve Grisetti]

If something used to work and now doesn't it's usually a sign that something has changed in the operating system.

When did you last run Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter?

[angelah100]

I run Disk Cleanup before starting a video project (so have done it every day this week) and Defrag is scheduled to run once per week so it ran on Wed and disk is 0% fragmented. I checked programs to see if anything had been updated recently. The only one in the right time period was Adobe Flash Player update, so I uninstalled it and tried to burn project but got the same error. however I just realized that I didn't reboot after I uninstalled Adobe Flash Player, maybe that would make a difference.

[Steve Grisetti]

I'm not sure, Angela. It's hard to say what's going on here.

You've cleaned the Media Cache and I assume you've tried launching the program while holding down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys on the left side of your keyboard to reset the preferences.

Most likely since it used to work with exactly the same type of video but suddenly doesn't your problem is related to some kind of junk gunking up your system. I'm just not sure where else to tell you to look for it!

There is also the possibility that you've run into some sort of timeline quirk. For instance, having a gap in your timeline can cause problems, as Dave said. So can have audio with no video or having a stop marker at the end of your timeline. But these aren't likely causes because you created a brand new project and still ran into problems.

It might be worth uninstalling Premiere Elements completely and then running a registry cleaner like CCleaner and reinstalling the program. (Don't worry. You won't lose any work in progress. They're in a different part of your hard drive.) Just in the off-chance that some sort of bug got into the program itself.

As a Premium Subscriber, you also have the option of contacting me by e-mail directly (steve@ this site's name) and setting up a time where I can Skype with you and watch you work, to see if I can see if I can come up with a realtime solution. There are no guarantees, of course, but it's at least a chance to see if we're missing something obvious.

[angelah100]

You had an interesting comment in your reply about a stop marker at the end of the timeline. I do have a stop marker there, although I had made sure that it was a frame or two from the end of the timeline. I searched for posts regarding timeline markers and someone had posted that they had trouble burning (the burn folder was empty when they burned) - and that the problem disappeared when they erased the timeline markers. So as a test - I deleted the last stop marker (the one near the end of the timeline) and got a burn error but it did get to 99% before the error. 2nd test - deleted all the timeline markers, and it burned fine. So it's an issue with the timeline markers although am not sure how to resolve it. I'm going to play around with it a bit and will post results here so there's some record of it.

[angelah100]

I put the two main menu markers back on the timeline and it burned fine. I then put one stop marker on the timeline - this one is a few frames before the 2nd main menu marker, and the project burned fine so I successfully made a DVD.

In the first "test", I deleted the last stop marker (the one that was placed a few frames before the end of the timeline) - so I had 2 main menu markers and one stop marker - and the project DID NOT burn successfully. After deleting them all, then replacing them all but the last one - so I again had 2 main markers and one stop marker just like the first test - it DID burn successfully.

I guess I'll chalk this one up to a bug in the software related to stop markers. It's good to know that it wasn't the template (which I really like) or my manipulation of the template.