Most video clips replaced by black clips on PowerDirector 8? >:[

Sn0wGl0be

Newbie Joined: Oct 25, 2011 00:50 Messages: 4 Offline

Solved by

Oct 25, 2011 02:05

Hello everyone, I am having a serious problem with PD 8, I was working on a video project with no problems at all and when I opened it up today most of my video clips were suddenly replaced by these black clips! And by "black clips" I mean there was no video at all and the names were changed to "0,0,0". I cant say if the sound was affected, I split the audio and deleted them because I had a seperate sound piece altogether. I was also working with multiple videos to create the clips, some were HD which may be part of the problem, I dont know.....But what I do know is that I didnt put this much hard work and dedication into the project just to have most of it turn into little black empty voids! Ugh!

I also took a screenshot of the problem if needed. Any help on this would be really appreciated.

And sorry if I come off as aggressive, I'm not trying to be, its just I am very frusterated by this and even promised some people that it'd be done by thursday. :[

Please help.

Screenshot-

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ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Oct 25, 2011 02:39

Hello Sn0wGl0be -

That will generally happen if you've:
1. moved any of your original media to a different folder/location
or
2. renamed any clips or images

It can also happen if the drive containing the clips/images is no longer connected (e.g. if you imported them directly from your camera & now it's unplugged).

When you open PD & it can't find stuff. it always asks you to "Browse" or "Ignore" - you should Browse to locate your media & show PD where it is. If you do that, your 0,0,0 voids will be avoided.

Cheers - Tony
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Sn0wGl0be

Newbie Joined: Oct 25, 2011 00:50 Messages: 4 Offline

Oct 25, 2011 15:04

Quote: Hello Sn0wGl0be -

That will generally happen if you've:
1. moved any of your original media to a different folder/location
or
2. renamed any clips or images

It can also happen if the drive containing the clips/images is no longer connected (e.g. if you imported them directly from your camera & now it's unplugged).

When you open PD & it can't find stuff. it always asks you to "Browse" or "Ignore" - you should Browse to locate your media & show PD where it is. If you do that, your 0,0,0 voids will be avoided.

Cheers - Tony

Hi ynotfish, thanks for the reply.

I know the issue you are talking about but sadly that is not the problem. The program does not ask me to Browse or Ignore any missing files as it would if I simply changed their location. All of my files are named and located exactly as they were when I started this project and some of the clips that are still working (arent blacked out) are from the same source as the blacked out vids. =/

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Oct 25. 2011 15:15

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Dave456

Senior Member Location: Youngstown, Ohio Joined: Oct 30, 2010 06:46 Messages: 280 Offline

Oct 25, 2011 16:11

Tony,

Looking at that timeline I see a lot of short black clips, the actual clip isn't that long but it looks like a lot of edits, isn't there a time limit for video, like it has to be so long of duration before the edits work? I hope I worded that correctly...

Dave HP Envy 17
Win10 Pro (64-bit) Intel i7 Core - 4510U @ 2.00GHz 2.60GHz
16GB ram
PowerDirector 11 Ultra 64-bit ver. 11.0.0.3625
Cyberlink Power2Go Deluxe 7.0.0.1827
PowerShot SX40HS
Canon Vixia

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Oct 25, 2011 16:27

Hi Dave -

That's not a bad thought, but I very often have much shorter clips/images in the timeline (durations of only 1 or 2 frames) & those edits are retained when I save the project.

Right now, I don't have PD8 available to check whether it's the same as the version I'm using.

SnOwglObe - if you haven't renamed or moved any of the files, & the drive is still connected & recognised, I'm at a bit of a loss as to why they're showing up as black "voids". Whenever it's happened to me, it's been "user error".

Is there any other information that might shed some light on your issue?

Cheers - Tony
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Sn0wGl0be

Newbie Joined: Oct 25, 2011 00:50 Messages: 4 Offline

Oct 26, 2011 02:33

Quote: Hi Dave -

That's not a bad thought, but I very often have much shorter clips/images in the timeline (durations of only 1 or 2 frames) & those edits are retained when I save the project.

Right now, I don't have PD8 available to check whether it's the same as the version I'm using.

SnOwglObe - if you haven't renamed or moved any of the files, & the drive is still connected & recognised, I'm at a bit of a loss as to why they're showing up as black "voids". Whenever it's happened to me, it's been "user error".

Is there any other information that might shed some light on your issue?

Cheers - Tony

I double checked on the names/location of the media files and I'm next to certain that that isnt the cause.(if it were then the clips that are working would also be blacked out since the non-working clips are from the same source....right? xP) Like David said though, the "edits" are really short, so would that cause any problems?

Also I looked at some other posts on this problem and I think that could shed light on whats going on. This first post-http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/posts/list/1531.page

Mentions "shadow files" and not allowing them to load fully before closing PD8 could cause this.......I paid no attention to these "shadow files" and I probably did close the program before they loaded.(it also crashes many times when I am doing something else, such as browsing the internet)

The second post- http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/18835.page#97901

is a little bit confusing, but I followed "Andy's" steps toward the end but didnt really want to do anything in fear of messing the whole thing up.

What do you think? «?>=<?»

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Oct 26, 2011 03:21

Hi again -

You're right about the other files. If they're in the same location & they haven't been renamed (at all) they will appear correctly.

So - you're 100% certain that no files have been either renamed or moved? And there was NO alert from PD asking you to "Browse" or "Ignore"? Hmmmm.

Please check your preferences under General to see whether "Enable file processing to speed up HD video editing" is checked. That's shadow files. Turn them off unless you're using a lower end PC. If that option isn't checked, it's irrelevant in your case.

I saw Andy's instructions for editing the project file in notepad. I couldn't offer you a dot of advice on that, having never done it myself!

Honestly, I don't think the duration of some of the edited clips is the problem. I wish I was able to help you further, but I'm stumped.

Cheers - Tony
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Kevin R.

Contributor Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas Joined: Aug 17, 2010 15:58 Messages: 320 Offline

Oct 26, 2011 09:08

Like Tony, I have also used the very smallest of clips in my projects with no problems. I also tend to agree that the files were either moved or got "erased" when a device or source was removed. That is the ONLY time I have encountered this problem.
I sure wish I had more to offer and could help you Globe! Saving the world, one goofy video and meme at a time.

Kevin R.

Contributor Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas Joined: Aug 17, 2010 15:58 Messages: 320 Offline

Oct 26, 2011 09:14

Just curious, have you checked your auto save files to see if the clips are blacked out there? Saving the world, one goofy video and meme at a time.

Sn0wGl0be

Newbie Joined: Oct 25, 2011 00:50 Messages: 4 Offline

Oct 27, 2011 18:38

@Tony Thats correct, there was NO alert asking to browse/ignore and no files were moved/renamed. I already checked and unchecked the shadow files to see if it would make a difference, but still nothing. :[

Ok well thanks anyways, I think I'll contact customer support and ask them whats going on. :]

@Kevin R. I'm still pretty new to this program, how do I check auto save files? =P

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 27. 2011 18:40

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David 512

Newbie Location: Queensland, Australia Joined: Oct 31, 2011 08:37 Messages: 11 Offline

Oct 31, 2011 08:46

I have used PD7 and 8 for a while, but in the last months I have had this problem a lot, esp on a very long video (with c 90 clips) i was editing. I tediously had to reload the clips and re-edit them. Generally (but not always) the audio was still there (mine were interviews), so that helped me reconstruct the editing process. I think it's related to whether the 'shadow file is ready'. I found it helps to save very often--after every edit. I also haven't heard of autosave files. My clips also hadn't been renamed or moved.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 31. 2011 09:12

David

COLETTE

Newbie Joined: Jan 24, 2011 23:26 Messages: 5 Offline

Apr 05, 2015 12:57

I have Power Director 13 and had the same problem. Andy's solution works like a charm to fix this problem: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/18835.page#97901 I never had to mess with code before and I'm amazed that it worked. 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.