Burn to folder empty

[Xrossbow]

Hi All, I'm new to Premiere Elements 12 and ran into the same problem described above. In my case I was exporting to a DVD with Folder option. It said it completed fine, but nowhere could the folder be found.

I had been saving the project itself quite often in a sequential numbering process so it was easy to go back and find a good working project.

In my case the problem showed up when I added Scene Markers and a Menu to the project. As soon as I cleared the markers and the menu from the problem version, all was good again. Subsequent trials with adding the markers and a menu to the same file worked fine.

This was my first attempt at using the scene markers and adding a menu so there is no telling what I might have done wrong to make it go stupid.

This project is short, only about 16 minutes long, mostly stills, with a couple of short videos. Only used 3 scene markers to work with the menu, the Western version. The markers were located at the beginning, middle area, and a stop marker at the end.

[Steve Grisetti]

As with the original poster, you need to tell us more about your system and worfklow. Any details are helpful: Your operating system, processor, RAM, defragmented hard drive free space.

What directory are you saving your DVD files to? Are you ensuring that it is an empty folder prior to you directing your DVD files there.

[Xrossbow]

Win 7
Intel Core i7-2700k 3.50 ghz
16 gb ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 660T video
120gb SDD C drive
1 TB SATA D drive
2 500 gb usb drives

Hi Steve,

I really don't think that the problem as it showed up is system related. When I noticed the problem I then tried saving it to various locations and drives and all attempts failed. And yes, all the test save locations were into new folders.

As I said, the problem showed up when I started playing around with the Markers and the Menu features for the first time. And went away when I cleared the menu and markers. Subsequent actions with the markers and adding a menu have not duplicated the problem. Unfortunately I didn't keep the original file.

I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing when I first experimented with the marker and menu features. I remember adding and deleting scene markers, moving them around, playing with the stop marker and what I thought was the menu marker, etc. And playing around with menu itself as far as text size and placement, etc. Maybe I should have read Adobe's lacking-in-depth reference guide first.

I did run the menu disc preview at the time and it seemed to function ok. Only problem I saw was when it didn't save.

The reason I posted this was in case someone one else ran into the problem, this might give them a clue as something to look at. I've got a long way to go in learning this version. Last time I used Premiere was back around ver 4 or 5 many years ago.

[Steve Grisetti]

Certainly do let us know what you figure out, Xrossbow. Unless the problem is common enough that some of our moderators can duplicate it (and I have tried but cannot), we're not going to be of much help.

[Xrossbow]

I went back in to try another menu and got it to fail again, multiple times. I was attempting to burn to a dvd folder. The following are the processes I used.

Preliminary folder setup was making 4 separate folders for each set of project test files and 4 sets of folders to burn the dvd files into.

Steps used in burn to dvd folder - test 1
1. Setup the timeline with a few stills. (Sample pictures that came with Windows.)
2. Added a soundtrack (short mp3 file)
3. Placed 2 scene markers and one stop marker on the timeline
4. Went to Tools Menu and selected Movie Menu
5. Selected Movie theme. (Western theme) Tested using the Disc Test and it worked fine.
6. Attempted burned to folder, but no joy..

Steps used in burn to dvd folder - test 2
1. Used the previous project with the exception that I went in and reset the menu to null
2. The folder was built with no problems.

Steps for burn test 3
1. Went to Movie Menu and added the same western theme back in to the project file that just succeeded without the menu.
2. Attempted the burn to folder, it said success as before, but no joy.

Steps for burn test 4
1. Reset the Western menu theme and downloaded a different theme.
2. Burn to folder indicated success, but again no joy
3. Repeated this test without the sound clip, no joy

I took screen shots of the first two tests and are available. I've also saved both the failing project, and successful project files. Which are also available.

So what is this newbie doing wrong?

[Steve Grisetti]

Where is your stop marker? It's not at the end of the timeline, is it? That's been known to cause problems.

Otherwise, this is a pretty scientific test.

One other thing to try is something I suggested above. Retest that last failed project -- but, before you do, do a Save As and save the project under a different name, inside a newly created folder with no other files in it. (And make sure your Preferences have all of your scratch and temp files set to Same as Project.) This gives the program a fresh area to save its temp and render files, just in case the problem is that new temp files are corrupting old ones.

[Xrossbow]

Yes, I have the stop marker at the very end. I wasn't aware of a problem there. Subsequently when I slide the stop marker a few frames to the left and then burn, it works fine. This is on the original problem file.

As far as your other suggestions, that is exactly what I was doing in the test above. And yes, the Preferences are set to "Same as Project".

Interestingly, I have performed multiple new tests with all new projects, project names, and folders with the stop marker set at the end and cannot get them to fail.
I followed the same steps as during the original test, with the exception that I didn't add an audio track on these newer tests. (I'll try that next).

In summary, the failure seems to pertain only to the very first burn test file I setup as described above. And the failures followed that first project test file, even though I had done a "Save as" with new names and new project and burn folders. I can still open up that first project file and it will fail as long as I don't move that stop marker, or reset the menu out.

Can you expand a little about the stop marker at the end problem?

Thx

[Steve Grisetti]

Unfortunately, nope. It's just a thing that happens. Never put a stop marker at the end of your movie.

[Bob]

Stop Markers are used in conjunction with Main Menu Markers to divide a timeline into separate movies. When encountered while playing, the Stop Marker stops playback and forces a return to the main menu. You only need Stop Markers at the intermediate end points. The standard action at the end of the timeline is the same as a Stop Marker -- stop playing and return to the main menu. You never need a Stop Marker at the end of the timeline.

The problem seems to be a little more complicated than just a double stop at the end. When you manually place a stop, the specific frame at that location must be identified. For some codecs, that is problematic. I suspect that you may be creating a orphan frame or possibly introducing a null segment at the end and that's causing the problems. Gaps in the timeline, even a single frame, can cause similar problems.

[Xrossbow]

Hi Bob,

I had read some marker description info up on the Adobe forum site similar to your explanation in your first paragraph, and then at some point watched a YouTube tutorial on making a menu. In this case the guy said he needed to add some Scene markers, followed by a Stop marker at the end of his demo timeline. So being totally confused, I try the YouTube procedure and run immediately into this problem on a simple little assembly of 8 stills. Lucky me.

Course the demo was using v11 if that makes any difference.

Anyway, your second paragraph makes sense and I learned something new today, so things are progressing.

Thanks a bunch.

[kenskopp]

Steve this is Ken Skopp. Would this discussion relate to my problem in PRE12 that all the menus in my projects now disappear when I load them into PRE12. I have reinstalled PRE12 twice in last two days. As my other Topic, I redid the project that was screwed up and was able to burn to folder. But now PRE12 will not recognize menus on my other projects and I am getting the red "Media is Missing" on all projects.

Ken Skopp

[Steve Grisetti]

Hard to say without seeing your project and maybe even exploring your hard drive, Ken.

[kenskopp]

Hello Steve,

My internal hard drive expired Friday. I have it replaced and am restoring programs etc. I will not be able to restore my files from my back up external hard drive till Monday. Thanks Steve

Ken

[Steve Grisetti]

Ouch! I wonder if that was the issue all along.