Encoder activation

[Ken Jarstad]

I just recently "upgraded" to PRE3! I created an HDV 1080i 30 (Sony 60i) project. I was prompted for encoder activation. I went through the steps for activation and printed out a page from Adobe with my activation code saying 'Encoder activation successful.' After importing an HDV file the usual and expected behavior is to watch the audio conform in the the little window on the bottom-right of the Timeline. My system conforms over and over again! Also, the video is replaced with the multi-lingual screen you usually get when Elements can't find a clip that has been moved or removed from your HDD. Playing the Timeline gets no audio or video. What am I doing wrong?

[Steve Grisetti]

That's usually what it does when it's not done conforming, Ken.

is this a long clip? It could take awhile.

[Bob]

If I'm remembering correctly, PrE 3 requires you to manually enter the activation code you got from the web page. You did that, correct? And, you installed the 3.02 patch, correct?

[Ken Jarstad]

I knew there was something I forgot to tell in the original post. Yes, I applied the 3.02 patch first thing. I tried a 4:3 720x480 project first. All worked as expected. Then I decided to try an HDV project. PE3 would not let me proceed until I had activated the MPEG2 encoder. I followed the procedure of pasting in the supplied code from the Adobe web page and PRE3 seemed satisfied.

I tired importing two clips from my HV20, both having a .m2t extension. Both exhibit the same symptom. The one currently imported is only 57 seconds long. It always shows the multi-language frames, no audio waveform on audio track one and the little progress bar in the lower-right says 'Indexing filename.m2t' It has been running now for several minutes; it only takes a few seconds to go from left to right and it keeps doing it over and over and never stops.

[Bob]

What happens if you rename the files from .m2t to .mpg?

There's something in the back of my head about Mpeg-2 on PrE 3.02, but I can't seem to remember just what that was (or whether it was even pertinant to your situation). I have to go out for a while. Maybe I'll remember by the time I get back.

[Ken Jarstad]

Same symptoms. PRE3 includes .m2t as one of the possible file types.

<Edit1>I just did a repair re-install. Interestingly, a check of Help/About still shows version 3.02, the MPEG2 encoder did not ask to be registered again and the strange HDV file behavior is still there.

<Edit2>Did a complete uninstall/re-install and symptoms are the same. <shrug> What now?
BTW, PRE3 seems to be a fine DV-AVI editor!

[Ken Jarstad]

I found I had installed ffdshow codec set on my PC. I don't even remember why I did. One of these days I'll probably try to run an app and I will find out. Anyway, I uninstalled ffdshow and the problem still exists. I downloaded Paul Gaglia's filmerit and discovered 21 problem codecs!

You know, we recommend downloading and testing video applications to see if they will work for us. With my new rig I did just that. I downloaded Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 and Elements 8. I decided not to use either of them and removed them from my PC. I have already complained elsewhere on this forum about the debris left behind in the file system after a program uninstall. I have complained about the inability of registry cleaners to remove all the debris from the registry after an uninstall. Well, the application called 'filmerit' found 21 errors is the registry regarding codecs!! Unbelievable!

About a third were Magix. Almost half were Adobe. A couple were AVC/H.264 codecs which are not in PRE3 so I know those were left behind by the Elements 8 trial. The remainder were not sufficiently identified. This is unacceptable. Microsoft could make this situation much better by simple refusing certifications until application uninstallers removed ALL program items from the system. That would raise the bar of performance and is certainly doable. And it would remove the bad reputation Microsoft has for older PCs developing what I call "asthma", the inevitable slowdown in performance over time that registry cleaners can help and only a reformat can cure. (Insight flash: maybe they WANT it to slowdown so people will buy NEW PCs..... Naw - they wouldn't think that - would they?) If so, this is pathetic.

I recall a number of us going through codec file merit exercises several years ago. Is it possible PRE3 is somehow pointed to the wrong codec? I just tried GSpot and got this response:

Warning: DirectShow crashed while attempting to render this file.

This is usually due to damaged, misconfigured, conflicting, or poorly written codec drivers. It is possible, perhaps even likely, that other media players will crash when they attempt to play this file as well, as most of them will also use DirectShow. GSpot was able to intercept the crash, and has attempted to identify the codec or filter involved; uninstalling or reinstalling this codec or filter may solve the problem.

The codec was tentatively identified as:

C:\Windows\system32\quartz.dll

quartz.dll is THE primary codec on Windows PCs! What the.......

BTW, Windows Media Player plays those .m2t files just fine so GSpot's report could be erroneous since the quartz.dll is used most decoding chains.

[Ken Jarstad]

Another step in the hunt:

Wikipedia identifies the support website for K-Lite as [url]CodecGuide.com[/url] and in addition to codec support they have a utility called 'Preferred Filter Tweaker for Windows 7' described as:

Windows 7 uses its own codecs for decoding several audio and video formats. Using third party DirectShow filters instead of the native filters is not possible without making difficult changes to the Windows Registry.

The Win7DSFilterTweaker tool allows you to configure your preferred DirectShow decoders with just a few mouse clicks. It is quick, easy, and changes can always be undone.

If you for example prefer to use ffdshow or CoreAVC for decoding H.264 video then you can do so by using this tool.

This tool is particularly useful for the Microsoft players, namely Windows Media Player and Media Center. Certain advanced third party players, such as Media Player Classic, are already capable of using third party filters without using this tool.

Important Note

The changes that this tool makes to the preferred filter settings of Windows only have effect when a player uses DirectShow.

Windows Media Player and Media Center use a new framework called Media Foundation instead of DirectShow when playing certain file formats. In that case they will always use the Microsoft decoders, and not any third party DirectShow filters. Examples of file formats that are played using Media Foundation are: .m2ts, .mp4, and .mov.

This tool has the capability to disable the use of Media Foundation for specific file extensions. The only negative side effect of those tweaks is that thumbnails will not be generated in Windows Explorer.

This tool is also capable of completely disabling Media Foundation and other Microsoft playback components by renaming certain files. However, you should be aware that doing so might have noticeable side effects. For example, playback of live TV in Media Center could stop working. But in any case, any change made by the tool can easily be undone to restore the system to its original state.

Perhaps this why Nero says that although Nero 8 will work on Win7 it is not 'certified' for Win7. Seems they thought it not worthwhile to update Nero 7 and, besides, they could reasonably justify a major version release.

I haven't had a chance to work with this yet. Stay tuned.

[Ken Jarstad]

I have now cleaned all but one extraneous codec entry using the K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool, current verion 4.1.2. Gaglia's 'filmerit' now finds only one problem. It insists that the PRE3 plugin DVFileWriter.prm has a couple of pins connected improperly. I have not yet had a problem with plugins since I haven't used any yet. However, it doesn't seem a likely source of the MPEG2 problem.

I uninstalled and re-installed PRE3 again. This time it wanted a re-register of the MPEG2 encoder which I did. Then I again installed the 3.02 upgrade. I checked the HDV project folder/Media Cache Files folder and found that there was a new MPEGINDEX file for every time the index indicator ran its course, and that was continuously.

[Ken Jarstad]

OK, cleaned off all major video programs and debris including Nero 8 from this new Win7 PC and still no proper HDV support in PRE3. About the only Adobe troubleshooting strategy left is to reformat the HDD and install only PRE3. At this point, after getting really familiar once again with a batch of codec and registry troubleshooting tools again I am willing at this point to say that although PRE3 works very well with Win7 for editing DV-AVI files the MPEG2 editing is not ever going to work. Even Nero says that even though Nero 8 may work reasonably well on Win7 they will not certify it and highly recommend upgrading to version 9. Sounds like they 'know where the bones are buried.'

I learned a lot in this exercise and gained much familiarity with the new Win7 file structure. I like it a lot but time is money, as they say. Even on a retirement income I may have to grudgingly divert yet a few more bucks to do all the video editing I really want to do.