So, I'm making a video project with powerdirector 8, and suddenly when I reopened my project, some videoclips have gone all black, and instead of file name there reads only 0,0,0. Video clips are MKV type, and I have not changed clips names or removed them of my computer.

OK, you have not removed the original Video clips, they are still in the same location (on your hard drive) as when you added them to the PD Media Library. Correct?

Did you try the Browse button when the project is first opened?

If there is something wrong with the MKV file(s) you may have to convert them to some other format.
Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Hi Mari and Carl,

I *often* have exactly the same problem.


In my most recent case, most video clips are fine, but the video "Try 2 with BAT.TOD" has been "turned black". Why?

Note: "Try 2 with BAT.TOD" is still in the media room, but it doesn't have the green check mark anymore. [Obviously].


I can create a new project with "Try 2 with BAT.TOD" and it works perfectly, so we can be sure there's no issue with the .TOD file itself.

All of my my video files in all of my projects are .TOD files created in the same video camera.


I've spent a long time matching the audio to the clips to the videos in this project, so I'm totally afraid of re-adding "Try 2 with BAT.TOD" to the time line and redoing the cutting, transition effects etc. etc.


My PD8 creates shadow files for my .TOD named like this "Try 2 with BAT_0.MPG". Checking out the ShadowEditFiles folder, I can see "Try 2 with BAT_1.MPG", "Try 2 with BAT_2.MPG" etc.

Another project, using exactly the same .TOD files, opens well. This working .pds text file doesn't have any .MPG file references.

The project file with issues, has a few .MPG shadow file references.

Is this related to my issue?


A while ago, I was greeted with the same "black clips". That time however, it was because I moved my folder. So, I opened the .pds file and changed my clips paths. Hey presto! The black clips disappeared.

We can all be sure this latest issue isn't caused by changing the .TOD file's name or location.


This issue is causing my hair to fall out! Any clues?


Thanks,
Andy

Without knowing your system specs to give a full picture, you have 2 basic choices - use shadows or don't.

In both PD8 and 9, my personal experience, with both 32bit XP AMD dual core and with 64 bit win7 AMD PhenomX6, of the shadow files has been "mixed"- so mixed I never, ever use them. Unless you cannot edit at all without them, I would turn them off, live with the constraints, edit slowly, and maybe alter your workflow by producing part projects or pre-produce segments and bring them back in to the final project.

They are a great idea but, for me at least, very, very - VERY- temperamental.

Cheers
Adrian


Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Thanks Adrian,

Yes, I've noticed PD8 can be very temperamental!

The "Black clips" aren't caused by the shadow files.

They're caused by a serious bug with DB8: the .pds file isn't saved correctly and I'll detail the fix in another post.


I have fixed other issues like this before.

Hi Mari,

I've found the issue for you [and me]!


It's because PD8 didn't save your project correctly, or when it opened the project, PD8 *believed* it couldn't find the movie clip.

To confirm you have the same issue save me: Your movie timeline looks great with transitions, effects etc, but the video clips are black. Correct?

If you're new to computers, it may take a while to fix, but you can get your movies back!


To fix this issue:

I'm using Windows 7, but this will be the same in XP.

1) Make sure you can see the extension of the files your using, by unchecking "hide extensions for known file types". In your windows folder: Alt+T > Folder options > "View" tab > Uncheck "hide extensions for known file types" > Ok


2) Make a copy of your .pds project file. [Click and drag into a white space in your windows folder]


3) Open your .pds file in notepad:

A) [Right click the .pds file > Open with > Notepad.] If you can't find notepad in the list:

B) [Right click the .pds file > Open with > Choose default program > "Notepad" [you may need to click the little down arrow on the right to show all the programs] > Uncheck "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." > OK]


4) Notepad is opened and you can see a lot of text! I suggest you don't try to read it all!

*** Do not add any new lines or spaces, because you may destroy this file! ***


5) Let's check you have the same issue as me. Search for IDREF="-1" [Ctrl+F > IDREF="-1" > Enter]


6) If you find one great! The text around the "-1" should look like this:

CLIP ID="6" IDREF="-1" NAME="Try 2 with BAT.TOD" START="249...


"Try 2 with BAT.TOD" is the name of the black video clip! Now, we just need to change the -1 to the video's ID. Easy! But, what *is* the video's ID?


7) Go to the top of notepad [Ctrl+home]


Search for your video clip in the media library. [Ctrl+F > Try 2 with BAT.TOD > Enter]


You should find something like this:

VIDEOOBJECT ID="3" SRC="D:\My Videos\BAT 100411\Try 2 with BAT.TOD|0000" NAME="Try 2 w...

You can see the ID! It's "3"!


9) Go back to your -1. [Ctrl+F > IDREF="-1" > Enter]


10) Make sure it's the same one and the movie clip name is the same. Change the "-1" to "3"! Easy!


11) Check it worked by testing it in PD8. [Save [Ctrl+S] *** don't close notepad ***; and double-click the .pds file]. Can you see your clip instead of the "black clip"?

Close your PD8.


12) Return to notepad. Look for another IDREF="-1 [F3]


13) Repeat from step 6!


Good luck!
Andy

Thank you all for the answers! I would never expect that you would help me so fast, thank you all! Especially you, Andy, you solved my problem, thank you so much! Now I can finally make vids again, thank you! --

Hello Carl312,
...and thank you mari275 for raising this problem
Carl, I am not a computer person but I found your explaination very interesting and I tried it.thanks. Problem is, I get to details in Search but when I enter...IDREF="-1" the search window comes back "not found"!..where can I go from there?
Thanks for your detailed answer on possibly resolving the "Black clip" problem
Note......my files are .mts....would that make a difference? And what about srill files?
Darcy Darcy

Quote: Hello Carl312,
...and thank you mari275 for raising this problem
Carl, I am not a computer person but I found your explaination very interesting and I tried it.thanks. Problem is, I get to details in Search but when I enter...IDREF="-1" the search window comes back "not found"!..where can I go from there?
Thanks for your detailed answer on possibly resolving the "Black clip" problem
Note......my files are .mts....would that make a difference? And what about srill files?
Darcy

Hello Darcy,

You may need to change your method of searching.

If you are using Windows 7, there is a search box at the top of every Windows Explorer window, you can get that window by Start > Computer > choosing a drive. Now I have no idea where you have stored your video files, so if you search the whole computer for the missing files name, you should find it somewhere on your computer.

It you know where you put your video files, that is even better.
If your videos are not on the computer's hard drive, you must copy them from your source and put them on the hard drive.

Then you can maybe follow Andy's procedure.

However, I would go about it differently,

When you open the PDS file in Powerdirector, do you get the window that has the buttons of Browse and Cancel?

If you do cllick the Browse button and browse to the location you have found your videos and load them.
After you have located the videos and they are on the timeline, be sure to save a new Project file. The new project file will now have all the correct information for opening your videos.

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Thank you very much Carl for such a swift reply.
I am away for awhile but will definately follow up on your suggestion..Thank you very much
Darcy Darcy

Thanks Andy!!! I have been pulling out my hair for a week with this! Problem solved thanks to your solution. For anyone having the problem of not finding IDREF="-1", I had the same problem at first. Here's what the problem was in my case: I had previously made a copy of the corrupt file while in PowerDirector. I opened that one in Notepad. For whatever reason, it didn't have the IDREF="-1" in it. I then opened up the original .pds in Notepad, cut and pasted the text into a new file. Sure enough, the IDREF="-1" was in that one. I then followed Andy's instructions, and viola!

I have Power Director 13 and had the same problem. Andy's solution above works like a charm. And I too was looking for IDREF=-1 in the newest corrupt version of my project. I had to go back to an earlier save to change the code. But FYI, I never had to mess with code before and I'm amazed this fixed the problem. Apparently, all you have to do is go into the program's code using notepad and essentially replace all the "-1" (as the program no longer recognizes what video you used) and replace it with the correct video ID (for me it was 20). It took me about 45 minutes finding each -1 and replacing it with 20 because I had cut up the clips so many times in my project. But it works. It's too bad that this happens, even with the newest version of Power Director.

My issue is related to this I think. My MPEG files are loaded on and appear in PD but when I load them on to timeline they play black. What's more there is no sound line transferred to the timeline. There are 765 files totalling 12.5Gb in all located in Shadow Edit Files. None seem to work. Can't see it is practical to do the notepad IDREF solution with 765 files!! Is this just too big a video for Power Director to handle?

this is crap I also have to edit in notepad for v14. All my files in correct pkace, no moving files, all in one working directory. So much for user friendly software.

arghhhhh this is nuts as Rod says its a nightmare to find all individual clips. This is unworkable

This is really a pile of crap, just edited video and cut and put 12 clips in with pip and several split screens, clicked transition button, program closed !!! Went to autosave directory, loaded file, all clips black !!! So basically get a choice, do not save as regularly or it may crash, risk working then it crashes and loose everything, or try to use the auto save version then have to edit the .pds in notepad and find all the clip id's? arghhhh think I will go back to simple movie maker

Quote: This is really a pile of crap, just edited video and cut and put 12 clips in with pip and several split screens, clicked transition button, program closed !!! Went to autosave directory, loaded file, all clips black !!! So basically get a choice, do not save as regularly or it may crash, risk working then it crashes and loose everything, or try to use the auto save version then have to edit the .pds in notepad and find all the clip id's? arghhhh think I will go back to simple movie maker

First off, you are posting on a thread that was started in 2011, you should go to the beginning of this forum and start a new topic. Assuming your do not have Powerdirector 14. If you have Powerdirector 14 you need to post a new topic in the Powerdirector 14 forum.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/forums/show/87.page

Second, you do not give any details of what your problem is.

Read Part D and Post the information in Part A and Part B.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/45453.page Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

I will post new theread, but, my problem is same as old versions:
1) When I save project and open it later, all video clips black. All my source files in exactly the same place as when I started the project.
2) HAving found this trhread tried the .pds edit for idfile and this works but is long winded when you have lots of clips.
3) Even the autosaved .pds file does not open and has same black images.

Quote: I will post new theread, but, my problem is same as old versions:
1) When I save project and open it later, all video clips black. All my source files in exactly the same place as when I started the project.
2) HAving found this trhread tried the .pds edit for idfile and this works but is long winded when you have lots of clips.
3) Even the autosaved .pds file does not open and has same black images.

The main cause for black clips in the timeline is the video has been moved or renamed or deleted. Anytime Powerdirector cannot find the files listed in the pds file it will put black place holders in the timeline. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

That's my whole point. Before I started I put the files in a working folder and not moved or renamed them.
I had response from cyberlink and they said I should have saved as packed project.
If this is the case why when you select save as you only get .pds as option ? What is that for then?
Also the autosaved is .pds.
I have not moved or renamed anything.
I think installation did not work properly as I have another pc I installed on and both autosaved and save as .pds still work with no black thumbnails. Guess I will re install on home pc.