Difficulty with PE7 and HDVSplit

[RBM]

Difficulty with PE7 and HDVSplit:

I downloaded a one hour HDV tape into an external hard drive with 931 GB of free space using HDVSplit. The downloader seemed to work perfectly. I could see and hear the clip as it downloaded etc. I played a few of the downloaded clips in Windows Media Player; the sound and video played perfectly.

I next selected about twenty minutes’ worth of these downloaded M2T files into a new PE7 project. The files got into the Media panel of the new project, but instead of each file having a picture indicating its content, each of this batch had a logo with a green and purple arrow formed in a circle. When I dragged the first one titled 0001 into the timeline, I got the “Where is the file 0001” message. When I hit the “cancel” option to move to the next file, I got a “generic failure” message saying that the file type of the clip isn’t supported or that a codec is missing. The same thing happens no matter which of these clips I try to drag into the timeline.

I tried starting afresh and re-downloading a small part of this tape, using HDVSplit again, but putting these clips into a new Folder with a different name. I tried starting a new project with them. PE7 responded the same way to the newly downloaded files: it couldn't handle them.

I’ve successfully created a number of HD projects using clips downloaded with HDVSplit. Any ideas concerning why PE7 is having difficulty with this set of clips? They seem perfectly fine for Windows Media Player but useless for PE7.


RBM

[Chuck Engels]

Is the external drive still connected?
Are you dragging the clips from the Media Panel or from the Organizer?
What project preset did you use?
Premiere Elements 7 works perfectly with clips from HDVSplit, I use it all the time.

[RBM]

Chuck,

The external drive is connected. I've tried dragging the clips from both the Media Panel and the Organizer. The project is set at NTSC-HDV-HDV 1080i 30. Before today, I too have had great success with HDVSplit and PR7.

RBM

[Chuck Engels]

See if any of these solutions will work to fix your problem RBM;

1. Try doing a "Save As" and see if the saved project with a new name gives better results.

2. Clearing the cache, Edit/Preferences/Media and press the 'Clean' button.

3. Try starting Premiere Elements while holding down the LEFT Shift and Ctrl keys, this will flush the cache and preferences. Ctrl shift will clear the preferences but not the plugins cache which is in the registry. To clear the plugins cache press and hold shift while starting premiere elements.

4. Another thing to try is to delete your prefences folder in C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR NAME\Application Data\Adobe\Premiere Elements\8.0 (delete the complete Premiere Elements folder) it will be rebuilt next time you start PRE. Note it might be a hidden file on your PC and so you need to go to into Tools>Folder Options>View and select Show hidden files and folders. Note that this folder also contains all your custom preset settings for projects, effects, and transition so these will be deleted as well.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

You say that you are using an external drive for the capture. Have you tried capturing and editing one of the clips using an internal rather than external drive? My question is prompted by the appearance of the "Where is the file XXX?" message.

[RBM]

Chuck:

I tried opening the project and doing the “Save as” option. That didn’t work. I didn’t continue with your further suggestions in light of what I did next, which is given below. I may be way off track, but here goes.

When PE7 opens, it takes me to the Organizer. From Select Album, I selected “Anniversary” (that’s the name of the project that isn’t working). There were no icons present, not even the green-purple where-is-it? icons that were there yesterday. I wondered why these “location?” icons were missing, so I went back to the Organizer to see if they were there. The icons were there. I’m accustomed to seeing these “location?” icons populating the Organizer since they appear for files stored on the external hard drive when it’s not plugged in. I discovered, though, that even though the external hard drive WAS plugged in, these “location?” icons were appearing for projects that I had already finished. Since the external hard drive was plugged in, these files should have been indicated by a small picture of the file’s content, the way that functioning files ordinarily appear in the Organizer.

As an experiment, I tried to drag files from one of these heretofore functioning projects into the open “Anniversary” project. The files I tried to drag in prompted the “where is the file [gives file name]” message that I was getting yesterday. When, as prompted, I located and selected the correct file from the menu generated, I got the “generic failure” message that I got yesterday. In short, nothing on the external hard drive currently wants to work in PE7, including projects that had been successfully created in PE7 and burned to multiple DVDs. The successful projects on the external hard drive, by the way, include both avi and m2t files. By the same token, all this material, which now fails to interact properly with PE7, opens flawlessly with Windows Media Player, Windows Classic Player, and with the GOM Player that I have installed on my computer.

As a further experiment, I opened a project from my computer’s E drive on which I am currently working. I wanted to see if any of the files on the external drive could be pulled into a working project from the E drive. I tried dragging from the Organizer one of the “location?” icons from the wayward “Anniversary” project. My attempt opened the “where is the file [gives file name] message and went through the same drill as I’ve described above. There is one difference though. The “where is the file” window that opened in this experiment did not make available the list of specific files that is actually in the folder referenced. From a project opened in my E drive, PE7 doesn’t even see any of the m2g files on the external hard drive. By contrast, when “Anniversary” is opened from the external hard drive, PE7 sees and lists the files, but rejects any one selected as not the right kind etc.

I also tried opening one of the successfully edited and burned projects on the external hard drive. When it opened, the timeline had nothing but a series of red-background Media offline files. Nothing showed in the Media Panel. None of my old projects is available for editing in PE7.

Finally, I recalled that I have Pinnacle 11 installed on my computer. I haven’t used it in years. I opened it and started an experimental project, going to my external hard drive for material. The program recognized and successfully imported any of the avi files to which I directed it. It didn’t see the m2t files, but that’s because I never updated program. I got a message concerning installing updates. They require activation keys which were emailed but which I haven’t installed yet.

I started my thread by wondering about PE7 working with HDVSplit. It now seems to be a matter of PE7 having stopped working with my external hard drive. My Pinnacle experiment, along with the various media players, suggest that there’s nothing wrong with the external hard drive which, by the way, is a Seagate 1T desktop drive.

John:

I didn’t try capturing a sampling of the footage on the E drive. On the strength of the steps taken above, I don’t think it’s a matter of some difficulty with the download of that specific footage that’s at the heart of this matter.

RBM

[VernonRobinson]

Some of the newer external drives have strong energy conservation built into them. On my system, the Seagate 1TB drive would go to sleep and that would trigger driver errors in the system monitor. It is a long shot, but this may be happening to you also. As a test, I would recommend that you pull the power plug on the driver and plug it back in. At that time start up Premiere and see if your problem is fixed. Ultimately, I used the utility that shipped with the drive, which I initially deleted, and set the sleep time on the drive to never. My problem was fixed. Granted it is different than yours, but they may be related.

Regards,
-Vernon

[Chuck Engels]

It could be that the catalog is corrupt, try creating a new catalog.
Something similar has happened to me in the past and creating a new catalog fixed it

[RBM]

Chuck,

Your diagnosis seems to be the correct one, though I didn’t follow your advice to rectify the problem by creating a new catalog since I don’t know how to do that. At some point, though, while stumbling around for information on creating a new catalog, I simply went to the external hard drive, selected to a project that wasn’t working, and clicked on its project file. (Yesterday, when I was trying to drag things from the Organizer, the “where is the missing file” message kept insisting that the listed files I tried to open couldn’t work in PR7.) Anyway, when I clicked on the project file for one of these projects directly from its folder in the external hard drive, the Missing File window opened with all the files for the project properly listed. Then I clicked on the file that PE7 declared it couldn’t find and, eureka, the program instantly, reconnected and the whole project opened. I had to go through this process for each of the eight projects in that hard drive, but now everything is functioning smoothly. I suppose that, since the Catalog was somehow corrupted, trying to open anything from the catalog was exactly the wrong route to take.

RBM

[Chuck Engels]

Glad to hear that your problem seems to be fixed RBM
Here are instructions on how to create a new catalog, among other things.
viewtopic.php?p=48721#p48721