Single Picture Fails to Encode

[ArmandLiberi]

Using Nero 11 Video with Windows XP, SP3:

I tried making a 10 second long video containg a single picture and it failed. I have attached screenshots 1_... thru 8_....

1. Choose a 720x480, 4:3 video.

2. Add the sample butterfly picture.

3. Export using defaults.

4. Error occurred - no explanation whatsoever!

5. Try changing the output size from 960x720 to 720x480.

6. Error occurs again during export.

7. Add a theme.

8. Export using output default - no errors.

Any explanation of this would certainly be appreciated.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[wither]

I'm going to take a wild stab. You chose NTSC but you used a custom 25 fps which is PAL. In the successful one, you used the standard NTSC frame rate. I didn't try it.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

I have tried many combinations. One of them is to choose the DVD Quality profile. This seems to make the parameters match those that are used when I use a theme with the default settings.

Aside from that, if the parameters are somehow incompatible, it seems that the program might point that out instead of issuing a vague error message.

Not mentioned before is the fact that if I do not acknowledge the error, the encoding continues and issues two more error dialogs like the first. At the end, trying to acknowledge the errors results in one of those "has to close" errors followed by a visit to Dr. Watson and a subsequent reboot as the only way to recover.

Maybe you could give it a try?

[ArmandLiberi]

wither and other willing participants:

I deliberately tried changing the output frame rate to 25 fps. A warning dialog appeared - see the attached picture. So, even doing that should not cause an error.

In addition, I found that including the sample video prior to the single picture works. Starting with the NTSC 720x480 4:3 default, I made three output videos: "DVD Quality" (720x480 29.97 fps), "HD720p" (1280x720 29.97 fps), and "HD1080p" (1440x1080 29.97 fps. See the attached videos (one was too big!).

Also, I found that using a simple background as the input results in the error.

Thoughts? Results?

February 12, 2012: Videos deleted to recover needed space. Armand





This post has been edited by ArmandLiberi: Feb 12 2012, 06:44 PM

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[ArmandLiberi]

I don't know how to delete this mistake!

This post has been edited by ArmandLiberi: Jan 10 2012, 02:56 AM

[wither]

Ok, I imported the butterly into Make Movie and dragged it to the Timeline. I then went to the next screen and selected Export\Export to File. The Default profile was AVC and the configuration was custom. Clicked on export. It worked fine.

here's what's strange. I went back in to check the configuration and it showed AVC CUDA/AVC and the framerate was 29.97. I changed the type to mp4 with the mpeg-4 profile but I also changed the frame rate to 25. Exported just fine.

So something else is going on.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

Actually, I clicked on "Export" on the editing screen, but I've got the same problem when I do what you did. Thanks for trying. You use Vista, right?

Do you know of any way to entice people with XP, SP3 to try these things?

This post has been edited by ArmandLiberi: Jan 10 2012, 05:25 AM

[wither]

I actually did the test on Win 7. I just repeated the second test on my Vista machine. Took a little less than 10 seconds to export. Works fine.

I don't think you're ever going to be able to do anything until you get your disk free space problem squared away.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

I have replaced my N: with an 80 Gb drive and I have added RAM (total 3 Gb now).

Today, I found that adding a snippet of audio to either the music or narration track solves the problem. There are three videos attached:

1. Success with music. After this I tried without music and failed.

2. Success with music after the failure.

3. Success with music in a second picture frame.

Attached File(s)

 GrayAndMusic.wmv ( 497.58K ) Number of downloads: 70
 GrayAndMusicAfterError.wmv ( 466.33K ) Number of downloads: 73
 MusicSnippetIn2ndFrame.wmv ( 942.96K ) Number of downloads: 68

 

[wither]

Both of the first two videos are all gray with only the music playing on the second one.

I don't know what the music has to do with anything so can't explain it's effect.

I'm going to make a suggestion. If you can, temporarily transfer about 20 Gb of personal files or things you don't use from your hard drive to the 80 Gb drive. Run cleanmgr.exe on your hard drive and reboot. Try working with the video again without music.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

First, about the videos: Some time ago, I found that the error does not occur if I add a theme. After that, I tried encoding a single frame with only a background - that failed. I added text - that failed. Now, I tried a little music - that "corrected" the problem. The "gray", etc., was just me using background colors instead of pictures for the frames. Like you, I don't understand what adding music has to do with it, but it clearly affects the results.

Now, about the hard drive. Luckily, I came by an 80 Gb hard drive. I named it "ForNero" and assigned it the letter "N:". It rests comfortably next to my "C:" drive inside my computer. I installed the Nero 11 suite on the N: drive. Within each Nero product that I have used, I assigned folders on the N: drive to all of the optional storage locations. So, e.g., Nero Vision stores project files, output files, temporary files, etc., on the N: drive, not the C: drive. As we discussed before, the one product that doesn't use the N: drive is Kwik Media. It ignores the temporary file folder assignment I give it and uses C:\...\temp. You confirmed this on your system and reported it to tech support. Have they acknowledged the error? Will it be corrected?

Lastly, as an aside, Kwik Media, unlike Nero Video, issues error dialogs that refer to the "hard drive" without specifying the drive letter. Hopefully, if Nero fixes the folder settings problem, they will fix this, too.

[wither]

Tech support hasn't responded on the Kwik Media issue. I pinged them a couple of days ago because I have 4 e-mails, one dating back to 12/04, that they haven't resolved.

I really can't help you any longer with your problem. Tech support will have to resolve it.

[ArmandLiberi]

Progress! After cleaning up my registry, ensuring that my system files were good using sfc.exe, and then totally removing and re-installing Nero 11, I am happy to report that I can now successfully export my single picture project without music!

Unfortunately, when I added a second butterfly - it failed on that one. And, adding a music track fixes it, just like before.

So wither:

It may be that your test didn't go far enough? How many pictures can you encode without a music track? 2? 3?

Whoops! There has actually been no change with the new download - I forgot to set the frame duration to 10 seconds. Now that I have done that, the failure occurs on a single picture video as before.

This post has been edited by ArmandLiberi: Jan 17 2012, 02:34 AM

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

I made a correction to my last post which now prompts this question:

When you said, "Ok, I imported the butterly into Make Movie and dragged it to the Timeline. I then went to the next screen and selected Export\Export to File. The Default profile was AVC and the configuration was custom. Clicked on export. It worked fine." above, did you use a 10 second duration or the default?

[wither]

Originally I used the default. I just did a 6 slide show with a duration of 11 seconds per slide and exported it to avc\avc. took a couple of minutes it always wants to use CUDA which would be faster but I chose not to). I did get an error message that said there was an error during the export but then it said the export was completed successfully. There were no errors when I viewed the resulting file.

Remind me- what is your graphics card and cpu? How did you get 3 Gb of RAM? Do you have three, 1 Gb sticks? Usually one has to use pairs of sticks and they have to be in the proper slots per the mobo manufacturer.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

1. Intel 82865G Graphics Controller

2. Pentium 4, 3 GHz CPU

3. RAM: 2x 1Gb and 2x500Mb

4. Please take a moment to perform the test again using NTSC, 720x480, 4:3 setup, a single picture for 10 seconds, and output to file in WMV format using the DVD Quality profile. On my system, this results in two error dialogs and one success dialog.

5. (In the Kwik Media issue, it too reports success).

Thanks for your help on this.
[/size]

[size="2"]Addendum (Tuesday, ~10:00 A.M., EST): I tried adding a 2nd picture today and noticed the following: Two errors occur as before at what looks to be the same screen location on the progress bar. So, the error seems related to screen addressing, not transcoding.

Addendum #2 (Tuesday, ~11:00 A.M.,EST): I retruned to the scene of the crime to take screenshots at the instant the errors occur. See attached. The first two screenshots show the occurence of the two errors with a screen resolution of 1024x768; the third screenshot shows the second error occurence with a screen resolution of 1280x768.












This post has been edited by ArmandLiberi: Jan 17 2012, 05:00 PM

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[wither]

The previous test I did was with the default resolution which is what you specified.

I tried what you asked and it said there were two errors and then it said it exported successfully. The file plays fine. I don't know what is causing these errors. It may be that the resolution and aspect ratio are different than the default resolution and aspect ratio. You would have to ask tech support.

I see that you're not using a graphics card. Despite the fact that I also get errors, a graphics card is specified for v11. I'm surprised tech support hasn't commented. I looked at the specs for the controller but can't correlate with what you're trying to do. I assume you're not using anything higher than 32 bit color.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

As near as I can tell, my graphics controller meets the requirements of Nero 11 even if it is not "a card." BTW, did your two errors occur at the same place as mine? And, did you actually suggest asking tech support?

Out for a walk. Thanks again.

[wither]

Your graphics aren't even close to the system requirements. I don't think they should be an issue with a small slide show but they definitely would be an issue with any significant video project.

I don't know if the errors occurred at the same time as yours or not. I'm not going to repeat it.

I wasn't very clear but my intention was for you to mention the errors to tech support. You can tell them that I had the same errors under the same conditions. Since we're using a sample photo, they should be able to readily reproduce the problem. If they can't, we're all in trouble.

[ArmandLiberi]

wither:

I think you may be right about trying tech support. This one is readily verifiable. I'll probably write it up tomorrow. I'm also going to specifically ask about having multiple issues open simultaneously.

Now, I have to ask, "What specifically prompted 'Your graphics aren't even close to the system requirements.'?" I have Nero 11, not Nero 11 Platinum. Is that it? I looked on the Intel site. (Maybe I'll ask about this, too).

Incidentally, after choosing "DVD Quality" on the export screen, I clicked on 'Configure' and changed "High Quality (2-Pass VBR)" to "Fast Encoding (1-PASS). This resulted in only one error during encoding.



This post has been edited by ArmandLiberi: Jan 18 2012, 06:30 AM