Tony, unfortunately no specific details. I strongly suspect my problems started with PINNACLE, which would not start up after not using it for a couple of weeks. Re-installation seemed to correct the problem, only to re-appear after not using it again. Their Support was unable to resolve the issue.
In desperation I uninstalled with REVO and tried various other Programs including ULead (Corel), SONY, NCH and a couple of others. None of them did what I wanted to do, namely to produce HD slide-video shows to play on AVCHD enabled players.
What surprised me on re-installation of PhD, was the automatic installation of QUICKTIME. Did not notice this on 1st installation, perhaps because it was already installed. I had the impression, that WMP was the link for most of these programs. As I am not familiar with the way the link is established, there may be a good possibility, that the problem could have been there. We have a no of iPod & iPads in the family, requiring iTunes+Quicktime. Who knows what some of the updates did for that.
What surprises me a bit is, the designers of the program could not come up with a method to test the links necessary, to get the AUDIO working for the Slideshow. May have been as simple as re-installing QUICKTIME instead of WMP.
My problem was compounded at the end. I was dumb enough (I think) by getting driver update S/W which rendered my LapTop useless, as it most likely installed incompatible Drivers, making my final choice a necessity.
Hope this will help someone at some point.
Best regards
Werner