Hi Andy -

The James Last clips - they're downloaded from YouTube - yes? What format did you download them in? It wouldn't have been .WMV I don't think. Have they been converted in some other software?

oh - and it'd be a good idea to download & install the latest patch for PD (3305) http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/support/powerdirector/patches_en_US.html

Cheers - Tony
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Indeed, yes, correct on all assumptions. It was Downloadhelper converting flv to wmv.

Looking at my own screenshot again I noticed that the audio "curve" stops at some stage, which seems to represent the crash points.

I have abandoned the clips and have redone it using only the audio, which then went through smoothly.

Any idea why PD does not like the wmv conversions?

Thanks.

Hi Andy -

Just to test my theory I found and located the clips - then used Download Helper to grab them. I didn't use the converter facility - just downloaded as MP4.

PD very happily imported them!

When I'm grabbing videos using DH in Firefox, I always choose the highest quality option available. Even the MP4s were pretty ordinary - 480x360.

Cheers - Tony
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Any idea why PD does not like the wmv conversions

My guess, the encoding profile was not correct.

If you want to download Youtube Videos, try the free You Tube Downloader HD.
It can convert The FLV file to MP4 or AVI (Xvid) when you download a video. 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.

Carl - there's a whole lot of guessing going on here!

Here's the MediaInfo report from the clip (using the WMV conversion option - default settings)...

General
Complete name : C:\Users\Tony\Desktop\James_Last_and_his_Orch._-_Silvermachine_Children_Of_The_Revolution_Schools_Out.wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 42.6 MiB
Duration : 5mn 29s
Overall bit rate : 1 084 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 1 064 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00.000

Video
ID : 1
Format : WMV1
Codec ID : WMV1
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 7
Description of the codec : wmv1
Duration : 5mn 29s
Bit rate : 969 Kbps
Width : 480 pixels
Height : 360 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Bit depth : 8 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.224
Stream size : 38.0 MiB (89%)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : WMA
Format version : Version 1
Codec ID : 160
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : wmav1
Duration : 5mn 29s
Bit rate : 64.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 16 bits
Stream size : 2.51 MiB (6%)


The clip I just got didn't cause any crashes, but it played without audio in PD. The audio was fine in VLC player.

I think Carl's "guess" is correct... there's a problem with the profile. Personally, I'd steer clear of that converter.

Cheers - Tony
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Software that works sometimes, most of the time but not always?

It seems I only have a problem in 1 out of 20. And normally, I download using the [Medium] option, using mp4, which integrates without problems.

Or maybe, if I were not so lazy, I'd find the CD and extract from there. I bought a whole lot of these exactly for background music.

Andy -

The fact that the downloaded/converted version caused crashes for you & missing audio for me probably means that the codecs needed to read the file weren't available to PD... that's often what will cause it to "work" or "not work".

If you look at the conversion options for WMV in that particular software, you'll see that it uses WMV1 by default & WMV2 is the only other option. To me, it simply comes down to poor conversion - as Carl originally suggested.

Converting the same MPEG-4 file to WMV in FormatFactory (another piece of conversion software) allows PD to read the audio happily. No errors. No crashes. By the way, FormatFactory will happily convert any video to an audio format. In fact - PD can do that too, by (a) extracting the audio from a clip or (b) producing to an audio only format.

It's about finding a process that works consistently for you & your PC.

Cheers - Tony
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Yep, that sounds like the explanation.

I get shudders when it comes to codecs as I once killed an XP system by installing codecs which rendered the entire PC unable to play anything at some stage.

I used to have an standalone audio proggy, which I have abandoned since I have found the working with PD easier and it keeps everything in one place.

Thanks for the moral support.

Now I need to open up a separate thread on why the mp4 container produces rubbish.