Unable to burn H.264 folders or discs

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Solved by

Aug 27, 2010 12:38

Hi to all,

I've been doing lots of reading of the forum, manual and PD8 help files, plus experimenting with the PD8 Trial for about two weeks and now the Ultra version (3022) for the last week or so. Since I'm a total newbie to video shooting and editing, I've got a lot to learn, and I appreciate any advice you can offer, thanks.

I've shot a 54 gigs of 1920x1080, 30fps H.264 MOV footage with a Kodak PlaySport for a couple of projects I want to video edit to DVD, Blu-Ray, hard drive and YouTube formats. I selected PowerDirector because it got good reviews and, unlike most of its competition in the prosumer category, my pc falls just within its stated hardware requirements.

My video designs are pretty simple: I'd like to incorporate video and stills with a minimum of effects. I want to incorporate the photos in alongside the video clips with associated voice overs mixed in, as well as totally overlay the master video with PIP track photos in spots. I've been successfully testing the use of transitions and fades between the clips and photos, as well as adding chapters and menus.

I have done successful tests with just over an hour long project, put together as mentioned above, so I'm feeling like my hardware is up to the task. I did update my ATI video driver and loaded Avivo, and could definitely notice an improvement with the GPU processing.

In Produce, I've been able to create any kind of output file desired, and can burn both HD widescreen DVD and Blu-Ray MPEG-2's to both folders and discs. I'm very pleased with the quality of the MPEG-2 results.

However, I'm unable to burn the H.264 encoding format in either the Blu-Ray or AVCHD setting. In both folders or disc output selection, the progress stalls at 21%. The "time remaining" will tick down to 1 second and stay there indefinitely. Then, in some cases PD8 crashes. Otherwise, if I cancel the burn, then it crashes. No PD8 error messages are produced in either case. In Windows Event Viewer, I get: "Faulting module name: AuthorBRM.dll, version: 7.4.13.3617, time stamp: 0x4b2a2b5e
Exception code: 0xc0000005." From reading the forum, I learned that others had a "stuck at 21%" problem over a year ago, but I didn't see any resolution. I tried pre-producing MPEG-4 output and putting just that in the timeline to subsequently burn, but I got the same result. I should mention that the tests to replicate the H.264 failures have all been done with no effects, menus or any add-ons - only a short (1 to 3 minute) .MOV clip.

I want to be able to get more data on the discs, so it would be great if I could use H.264. Is it possible that this Kodak .MOV format is causing the problem? Does H.264 require more resources than my box provides? Do I need some system level codec loaded? Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I might try?

If you've made it down this far, thanks much

, and thanks for your advice,
Ben

Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Aug 27, 2010 13:24

Hi Ben,

I see your OS and PC data (please add the ram size of the graphics card) and I think you're perhaps "under-powered" to edit HD video. I realise you're just above minimum spec but that minimum spec does not give you any leeway to alter and render clips with many changes etc.

I'm also guessing you've got shadow edit files running.

Please could you attach a screenshot of your project in the timeline, it would tell me (all of us) a lot more?

Thanks

Dafydd

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 27. 2010 13:26

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 27, 2010 14:14

Dafydd,

Thanks for responding.

Let's see:

1) Have 1 GB memory on the video card.

2) I did have shadow files on in the trial, but turned them off in PD8 Ultra, because the image in the Preview Window was degraded a little with them on. Once shut off, the image quality was great.

3) Here's the web address of a test project that I was able to successfully burn in MPEG-2 both to DVD and Blu-Ray:
http://images112.fotki.com/v590/fileelSz/00589/7/1358727/9018926/PD8Screenshot.png

The 21% hangs and crashes when attempting burns (folders or disc) to AVCHD or Blu-Ray were just one short (under 3 minutes) native .MOV clip with no edits or additions (chapters, menus, etc.)

I also had turned off Aero to save resources.

Can I not assume that the ability to burn the above test project to Blu-Ray MPEG-2 1920x1080 indicates that my pc has enough umph to get it done in HD? Or does the extra compression for H.264 require more horsepower?

Thanks for your assistance,
Ben Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Cap'n Kevin

Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline

Aug 27, 2010 15:37

Hi Ben,

However, I'm unable to burn the H.264 encoding format in either the Blu-Ray or AVCHD setting.

Does this also mean that you can't produce your project on the timeline to a H.264 AVC video file as well? I just wanted to make sure of the difference between a video file and an AVCHD Disc/Blu-Ray Disc. You might try to produce your project to a H.264 AVC video file and select one of the High Definition profiles such as AVCHD 1920x1080.

If that produces successfully....then use that file to produce an AVCHD disc or Blu-Ray disc instead of your mov files found within your project. Make sense to you? Would you need help with how to do this?

Regards,

Kevin

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Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 27, 2010 17:21

Kevin,

I thought I was producing MP4's using Produce to crank out files, but I just looked at the extensions of what I was producing using the H.264 AVC button and setting to 1920x1080, and it's always getting an mt2s extension (which is what it says it's going to create in the Output Folder indicator on the Produce page before I even hit START.) I looked up Mt2s, and Wikipedia (fount of all knowledge) says that's a BDAV MPEG-2 extension. Have I just stepped into the Twilight Zone? When you produce to AVC H.264, what file extension do you get?

Just checking, I see that, in Produce, for the following file format selection, I get output named:

AVI - .avi
MPEG-1 - didn't try, doesn't support widescreen
MPEG-2 - .mpg
Portable MPEG-4 - .mp4 (too small for my purposes in this project)
H.264 AVS - .m2ts
WMV - .wmv
RM - doesn't support widescreen
MOV - .mov

Maybe I'm missing the boat in a big way here. Do I have to use a Custom profile to get H.264 via AVS?

I had tried inputting just that same output (which I now see is not H.264) on the timeline by itself to try to burn to an H.264 folder, but I got the same results as with using my native .MOV files. I also tried converting one of my .MOV files to H.264 outside of PD8, and it looked good. But when I brought that back into PD8 and rendered it, it didn't look good any more. Maybe because the conversion program was freeware (QuickMediaConverter). I also may not have set up the appropriate conversion parameters.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong in Produce. What's strange to me is that, as I understand it, .MOV is an H.264 container format, but its container is apparently not compatible with whatever's happening with H.264 in PD8.

Is anybody else able to burn HD MPEG-2's (1920x1080 24bit) but not H.264?

Thanks a bunch for your help.
Ben
Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 28, 2010 14:52

Learned about MediaInfo from the forum, thanks, and using it, was able to see that the .m2ts files that I've been producing do indeed have an AVC video stream inside what appears to be an MPEG-2 container. So it looks like I am producing AVC files, after all!

In order to attempt to burn h.264 output to a folder or disk directly from that produced AVC file, I'm importing the .m2ts file, by itself to the timeline with no edits. Is this the correct procedure for this 2 step process?

Unfortunately, I'm getting the same result (stuck on 21%, PD8 crashes) as when I attempt to burn h.264's directly from my raw .MOV files (bypassing the Produce option.) Drat! -Will keep plugging.

Thanks for your help,
Ben

Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Cap'n Kevin

Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline

Aug 28, 2010 15:04

Hi Ben,

In order to attempt to burn h.264 output to a folder or disk directly from that produced AVC file, I'm importing the .m2ts file, by itself to the timeline with no edits. Is this the correct procedure for this 2 step process?

Yes, that's correct....and I see that you still had the error.

I am stuck for an answer......Could you attach a short 5-10 second video sample of the footage you are using? We could test it ourselves to see if we get the same error.

Regards,

Kevin

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Aug 28. 2010 15:28

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Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 28, 2010 19:07

Kevin,

Here are the links to 2 files, same 48 second scene (beach at Nags Head, Outer Banks, NC):

1) the original, unedited .MOV 71,803 KB:
http://www.4shared.com/video/JgrjWZV2/Take_2.html

2) the Produced AVC file 100,246 KB:
http://www.4shared.com/video/lQYXW7P2/Produce_5.html

This web site is safe. I've been using it for about 5 years. You have to download each file individually.

Sorry, this is the smallest clip I have. It is one that I've been using to test H.264 burning. I uploaded them to the web, due to their size. If these are too big, or you don't trust 4shared.com, please let me know and I'll gladly shoot another, test it in PD8, and send it your way via attachment.

Thanks a bunch for helping me narrow this thing down,
Ben

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 28. 2010 19:10

Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Cap'n Kevin

Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline

Aug 28, 2010 19:23

Hi Ben,

Thank you for providing the sample clips....it can really help narrow down the problem as you already can surmise. I will download them and report back to you tomorrow as soon as I can.

I am really interested to see if the clips crash my attempts at burning discs and/or folders.

Regards,

Kevin

Check out PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials and more! Over 5,000 Subscribers.

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 28, 2010 19:43

Thank you, Kevin!

I'm guessing that the clips will work fine for you and that I have some kind of local box trouble, possibly under powered, as Dafydd suggested.

Ben Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Cap'n Kevin

Senior Contributor Location: Chebeague Island, Maine Joined: Dec 26, 2008 20:22 Messages: 2011 Offline

Aug 28, 2010 20:35

Hi Ben,

Well I downloaded the video clip...very nice by the way....just my style....anything with water!

I was able to place the clip on the timeline and the selected BURN TO DISC. I selected AVCHD disc and the 1920x1080 profile. Calculated disc usage was 228 MB/4700MB. I selected Menu #3. I also selected enable hardware video encoder in the FINAL OUTPUT window in the disc burning area. Total burn time was around 4 minutes.

Burn was successful and I played it back with Power DVD 10 and it looked great.

1. I used Power director 8 Ultra Build 3022
2. I have 94 GB free on my C: Drive
3. I burned it on a Staples Brand DVD-RW disc

I burned it again using a Maxell DVD +R disc, and I selected Menu template #9. Estimated Disc usage 222MB/4700MB. Burn time was 3:06 seconds. Burn was successful and played it back and it looked great again.

So I don't know what might be happening on your system, maybe Dafydd can shed some light on it. Having the burning stop at 21% is a fairly common failure with some people....so you are not alone. I am not sure what it might be...sorry that I am STUMPED!

At least we know that it ISN'T your source video causing the problem. I am sure that Dafydd will be adding his thoughts on your problem....I'll let him know we are waiting for some more input!

Regards,

Kevin

Check out PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials and more! Over 5,000 Subscribers.

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 29, 2010 02:05

Kevin,

Thanks much!

It must be nice to be around water all the time. I was just visiting!

It's good to know that the footage I've shot is ok. Thanks for the comprehensive testing.

Well, at a minimum, I'll be able to crank out decent quality HD MPEG-2 discs, which is way better than a sharp stick in the eye! I'd like to be able to get more info on a disc, if possible, though. I don't know beans about this technology, but it's interesting to me, particularly from the hardware angle, that I can burn MPEG2 but not H.264. Maybe all that squeezing of data into a small space is too cpu intensive for my box. Being a miserly SOB, I hate to buy another box already (5 years or bust)! I've never done video editing, but have always heard that it's quite a resource hog. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a way past the 21% H.264 burn stop sign. From reading through the forum, 21% has seemed to be a common hang up for some, so I'm not all alone on this, but I believe the others may have been at earlier builds of the application.

Thanks again for your help,
Ben Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Aug 29, 2010 14:46

Hi Ben,
I'm not sure I have too many words of wisdom left, more just observations now a days.

Have you stress tested your computer?
Simple really, just put a short HD video into each of PD's timelines (VT and PiP tracks) and then play the "movie" in the preview player. 10 tracks with one video in each, all piled on top of each other. Gradually empty a track to find where your PC is comfortable playing from the tracks smoothly.... if at all.

Ok you have MOV files and these HD video rely on Hardware acceleration for processing and the power of your CPU to render. You aint got enough.

The ram in your system will be eaten up with any additional changes you make to a video file.

Now combine the process of render and write (create to disc or burn) and you have zip for capability.

The answer is to go for bigger and better for HD 1080.

What workaround is there? Umm. Ok you can try editing smaller length video so you stay within the resources of your PC. You could output to a file format which your PC can cope with and will allow you to use SVRT (really important). make sure you've activated Hardware acceleration and checked the SVRT option in Preferences. There is the Shadow edit file route also but you'd have to wait for the file creation before starting to edit. Another option is to record video at 720p with your camera.

In conclusion - open your wallet and look at Kevin's PC compared to yours.

Sorry.

Dafydd

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Aug 29. 2010 14:47

Doctorkeo

Newbie Location: Paphos, Cyprus Joined: May 31, 2010 07:00 Messages: 10 Offline

Aug 30, 2010 04:56

Hi Ben,
I have the same problem where the disc production stops at 21% when burning a AVCHD disc. I'm trying to create a 27 minute slideshow. I don't have an answer, but I do have a work around. My problems started when I upgraded to the latest version 8.00.3022. I have uninstalled this and reverted back to version 1930 and I am now able to burn the disc. The burning on my computer did take 3 hours - but worked. If I was the believe version 3022, before it crashed at 21% it reported a total time of 26 minutes.

Hope this helps

Regards

Tony Windows 7 Professional 64 bit SP1
Core i5
12.0GB RAM
nVidia Geforce Gt 520
500 g HDD
750 g HDD
HP DVD Rewriter
LG BD Rewriter
Video cam Panasonic HDC-SD9

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 30, 2010 09:46

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the info. Good to know it's not just me! Since I've had no editing or producing problems of any kind yet, and can burn to everything but H.264, I've wondered if my pc was actually the culprit. I tried what another poster had recommended elsewhere on the forum: edit and render in PD8 and burn with different software. I have an OEM version of PowerProducer, and was able to use that to burn AVCHD discs in DVD and Blu-Ray formats with no problem. Last night I edited and rendered just over an hour long video with PD8 to MPEG-2 format with the following included:

Master Video track:
64 1920x1080 .MOV clips with transitions between all of them (a combined total of about 46 minutes)
128 photos with transitions between all of them and movement on all of them

PIP Track 1:
128 photos with 10 second durations and fades in and out of all

Title Track:
16 photos (I created a small test, then copied and pasted (appended) it to the end 16 times to get to an hour)

Voice Track:
128 10 second voice overs

The MPEG-2 rendered file was 8.32 gigs and took 3 hours to produce.
The AVC Blu-Ray disc burned contains 8.71 gigs of data and PowerProducer didn't display the time stat. Maybe it's in a log file someplace.

So I'm making progress. I don't know if PowerProducer is limited in what it can do from a menu design perspective. I'm guessing that if it is, I could use another brand of burner and get the desired output. My goal is to be able to get 2 hours of widescreen 1920x1080 DVD and Blu-Ray content at a minimum of 12 MBPS with photos and voice overs mixed in on one disc.

I'm not sure exactly which format I should be rendering to, prior to burning to AVC, to lose the least quality. I've been told to edit at the highest resolution possible before burning, but with this two step process, I don't know. It seems that to produce to a higher compression rate (AVC) and then to recompress at that rate (if PowerProducer does, in fact, recompress AVC) at the burning stage could mangle your data. I haven't taken the time to test all the possibilities yet.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Tonight I'll double the test file and see what happens and will report back. We'll see if this old box can handle it. Could be the case of where John Henry meets the steam-powered steel driver!

Thanks to all for your help,
Ben

Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Aug 30, 2010 15:39

I am chasing this issue up with CyberLink.

Dafydd

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 30, 2010 23:22

Thanks Dafydd.

I'm starting to understand why being able to render and burn in 1 step is the way to go to preserve quality. It'd be great to be able to do that with all available formats in PD8.

The 2 hour test video I rendered in PD8 today came to 16.5 gigs, which indicates that I could get 3 hours of video on a Blu-Ray disc using MPEG-2 - not bad. But I noticed that the Blu-Ray data written to disc by PowerProducer is of the MPEG-2 variety - not H.264, so I'm not testing with that anymore. (MPEG-2 Blu-Ray burning works for me in PD8 already.) So I produced a PD8 1 hour test project to AVCHD, which came to 4.54 gigs and, by the time PowerProducer added the default menu, it was over the limit for a 4.7 gig DVD. I'm re-rendering the file in MPEG-2 to compare the size of the output. Have some dual layer DVD's on order, so I need to learn which formats make the most sense for rendering and burning. I've learned that you can't buy re-writable dual layer DVDs, which makes experimenting with them expensive!

Can anyone recommend a good forum post or discussion, website, or book with info on video editing and burning and the related file formats and compression pros and cons, tips? Something veering more toward application vs. theory.

Thanks again,
Ben Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC

Doctorkeo

Newbie Location: Paphos, Cyprus Joined: May 31, 2010 07:00 Messages: 10 Offline

Aug 31, 2010 00:46

Hi,
Just an update on my own 21% crash – To make sure that my problem was with version 3022, after successfully burning my AVCHD disc I upgraded my version 1930 to version 3022 and retried to burn another AVCHD disc using the same source file – crashed at 21%. I re-installed version 1930 and PD is working again for me. The standard un-install didn’t work – (I received other errors), so I used Revo to un-install PD, then PD worked fine –ish – I still have the same problems I posted to the forum with shadow files – and have to use a work around on that!
Tony
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit SP1
Core i5
12.0GB RAM
nVidia Geforce Gt 520
500 g HDD
750 g HDD
HP DVD Rewriter
LG BD Rewriter
Video cam Panasonic HDC-SD9

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Aug 31, 2010 02:30

When burning Blu-Ray you should have a choice of MPEG 2 or H.264. Your system specs are similar to mine and I tried to burn an 8 minute AVCHD file, but PD estimated that it would take almost 2 hours, so I use MPEG 2 now. However, I have never had it freeze or crash. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Ben0

Newbie Location: San Antonio, Texas USA Joined: Aug 10, 2010 16:06 Messages: 22 Offline

Aug 31, 2010 13:46

Hi Tony,

That's great that you retested your version changes. Thanks for chiming in. We're not hearing from folks who successfully burn H.264 in build 3022, at least in this thread, but I'd assume that it's happening or there would be more complaints. I'm new to PD, but build 1930 sounds like a long time ago. Hopefully, Cyberlink will take time to take a look at this. I haven't tried using the shadow files because I saw that Dafydd had recommended to several different posters that they turn them off. Maybe I should test burning to H.264 with them turned on.

Hi Jaime,

I do have the choice of H.264 for AVCHD and Blu-Ray - it just doesn't work. But I should be able to get the project I'm starting with done with MPEG-2, although it looks like from my testing, to get 2 hours of video, the way I'm editing it, on a dual layer dvd, I'll have to render first to a reduce bit rate custom profile and then burn. I'm not anticipating space problems with Blu-Ray. But I would like to be able to use H.264. From my reading, that seems like the intelligent choice these days.

Ben Windows 7 Pro, 64 bit
Intel i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, 32 GB Ram
NVIDIA GTX 580 1.5GB Ram
INTEL 240GB 520 Series SSD, 3TB Barracuda
LG BH14NS40 BD Burner
Kodak PlaySport: 1920x1080 @ 30fps, H.264(MOV), AAC