Stuck with PE4

After looking over the various threads, I guess I need to add one to get even more help. A couple of people made suggestions, and I have tried the things they recommended, but I am still stuck.



I am running XP32/SP3 on an Athlon X2 machine, 4G memory, oodles of disk space (74G free on my primary disk and 83G free on my second/scratch disk), and Premiere Elements 4.



I have a Humax Tivo with built-in DVD recorder. I have been saving shows by recording them to DVD, then editing out commercials so more shows will fit on a DVD (personal use only -- I am a cooking show addict).



All was well until recently, when I tried to get PE4 to load one of the DVDs and I got the ominous ''unsupported format or damaged file/the necessary components may not have been installed ...'' (and what sort of error message is that, anyway?)



I thought perhaps the DVR had gotten whacked somehow, but I got the same error when I tried to read in a DVD that had been authored weeks ago with PE4!!



Have uninstalled and reinstalled PE4, using proper permissions.



Have followed advice from this forum to update to latest video drivers and have also updated Quicktime. I have cleaned out temp directories, I have run Advanced System Care, I have talked sweetly to Premiere Elements...



Symptom is that PE4 seems to read all video chunks fine, but then burps when it tries to conform them (?) ... anyway, right after reading the last bit of the last video file, it spits out that singularly unhelpful error message of ''Unsupported format or damaged file/one of the necessary components may not have been installed ...'' for each of the files it read. (And what kind of error message is that anyway? It appears to be DOS-based.)



HELP!! TIA
Stuck with PE4
Andrew,



I am assuming that your Humax TiVo is writing DVD-Video disks, and not DVD-Data disks. The check for this would be to place the DVD's into your burner/player on the computer and look in Windows Explorer/My Computer. If the disk contains .AVI, .MPG, .WMV, /MP4, etc. files, it's a DVD-Data disk. If it has Video_TS, then it's a DVD-Video disk. Might also have Audio_TS, but that would only be used in a DVD-Audio disk, and should be empty.



Now, depending on what you have, there are several ways to approach the editing. PE is pretty good about handling .VOB (the main files, along with .BUPs and INFs, contained within the Video_TS folder. However, sometimes, depending on what created these, and how, it will choke. One method is to copy the .VOB's to your HDD and try renaming them .MPG. This often works. Another is to use a 3rd party program to convert these to DV-AVI, the file format that PE likes. The FAQ's contain recs. for programs, and exact methods for using them.



Now, if your disk is a DVD-Data, it will depend on the exact format that the AV files are written in. Again, PE likes DV-AVI files best.



If you are getting Unsupported format, then it is likely that you are missing the proper CODEC on your system to handle the particular file type. G-Spot (www.headbands.com/gspot) is freeware that will tell you what the CODEC is, its official name, and whether you have it installed. You may need to Google on the CODEC name, download and install. PE *might* be able to use that CODEC, or you may have to use a conversion program, mentioned above.



Going from an existing DVD can involve 3rd party software to get things to work perfectly.



Good luck,



Hunt
Stuck with PE4
Thanks, Bill.



The disks are DVD video. As I mentioned in my first message, I get the same error condition when I use a Premiere Elements-created DVD as the source.



gspot says:



DSH BDA MPEG2 Transport Information Filter ** File Missing:



Seems to be part of the Micro$oft Television Technology stack.



Thoughts?

Bump

Have you tried converting the DVD to a DV-AVI, per the FAQs at the top of this forum?

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc4800e

Steve: Surely you are not recommending that I must convert any DVD source material to DV-AVI before I can edit it with PE4! Remember, this symptom occurs no matter what the source -- DVD from my Humax DVR, unprotected commercial DVDs, and DVDs authored by others from their cameras.

Not only am I recommending it now, but I always recommend it, Andrew. Even in my book (where I go into the reasons why).



But, if you've got a better solution, I'd certainly like to hear it.

So this approach produces a 25 GB file after a VERY long time (longer than Premiere Elements takes to create VOB files). I still need to edit these monsters to see if there is any advantage there, other than overcoming a feature failure in Premier Elements.



I wonder why no one is able to suggest a fix to Premiere Elements or to my video codecs to make PE4 work the way it is supposed to work...

To contact Adobe, click the Contact button at the top of this page, Andrew.



This is a user-to-user forum. Nobody from Adobe here. At least not on a regular basis.

%26gt;So this approach produces a 25 GB file



DV AVI is about 12 GB per hour, so you have a 2 hour project, right?



Disk space is cheap these days, so it is easy to have a spare 500 GB or even 1 TB free. Don't be put off by file size; that is what makes these files easier to edit; PE has less work uncompressing them while editing. Another advantage with DV AVI is that there is no inter-frame compression, so each frame is independent of the others, also making the file easier to edit.



DV AVI was the defacto standard for home videos for several years, and PE along with many other editors were designed around it. Some other editors are better at editing MPEG files, so if you must work purely in this format, particularly if you want smart rendering, then you should use one of them instead.

Andrew,



Most NLE programs are built around a DV-AVI workflow. What often happens, beneath the hood (or bonnet, depending on where one is making auto references), is that the program does the conversion for you, or you do it outside of the NLE, before doing the Import.



The problem with the first is that a lot of the computer's resources are tied up making this conversion, and errors can easily creep into the process. Those large files are basically created in the NLE, but you just don't see them as readily, as with a 3rd party conversion.



For non DV-AVI material, I do a batch convert of all Assets in DigitalMedia Converter (my shareware program of choice). I load it up, check the specs. of my conversion, hit Convert and go get a cup of coffee. The files are usually done, and waiting for Import, when I return. Yes, they are large, ~13GB/hour, but they are ready to go. I just Import and begin editing.



Depending on the exact format that one's DVR records in, it might be possible to edit the MPG (or whatever the format is), but dealing directly with MPG material cna also be problematic. I try to resolve any problems, BEFORE I Import into the NLE. This is true for any myriad number of .AVI's, .MOV's, etc.



One thing that I do like about PE is that it is slightly more forgiving, than its ''big brother,'' Premiere Pro. I even use PE to tweak some AV files, BEFORE I feed them to P-Pro, 'cause it IS more forgiving. I still Export as DV-AVI from PE for P-Pro.



As has been mentioned, hard drive real estate is wonderfully inexpensive now. Video editing takes lot of it, regardless of which format one is working with. My workstation has over 5TB of internal hard drive space, and I then use about 30TB of external storage. One Project that I am working on occupies ~10TB, just to store the raw Capture files!



Give the 3rd party conversion a try. It will pay many dividends in the editing process.



Hunt

Thanks, everyone, but now I have a new problem.



DVD converted to AVI results in a smooth-playing AVI (in whatever player I use). Premiere Elements edits the AVI fine, but DVDs burned with Premiere Elements have NO SOUND!!!



What's up with that?

You need DV-AVI, not just any AVI.

Using MPEG Steamclip (per earlier suggestion here), I choose ''make AVI'' from DVD and then choose the following settings:



Compression: Apple DV/DVCPRO - NTSC

Sound: Uncompressed/Stereo/Auto

Interlaced Scaling

Interlace Chroma

Dominance: Lower Field First

No Rotation

Zoom 100%

X/Y: 1

Center: 0/0

No cropping



What settings should I be using to produce DV-AVI?



Thanks again, all.



[And - for the record - I still feel that Premiere Elements should do this without third-party software.]

That looks about right. Here are the settings we've found that work.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc4800e

Thanks, Steve:



I got the settings from that forum entry.



Now, why won't PE4 produce a DVD with sound?

I don't have Streamclip here in front of me -- but can you confirm that ''Uncompressed/Stereo/Auto'' sound is the same as ''MPEG Layer 3 to Uncompressed''?

Options are



Uncompressed

IMA 4:1

MPEG4 AAC

AMR Narrow

MPEG Layer 2

MPEG Layer 3

Pass Through

No Sound (I am assuming that is not a choice I want)

I'm sorry, Andrew. I'm not sure where to go from here.



Every indication is that you're doing everything right.

Steve:



I suspect I am doing everything right EXCEPT using Premiere Elements 4.

In case anyone is still listening, I reinstalled my codec pack and that seems to have resolved things. I am now thinking of switching to an OS that can take advantage of my dual-core processor. Running MPEG Streamclip or PE4 in the background while I try to do something else on the computer is not only slow, but asking for trouble.