OC1,

Have you tried producing a very short video with just the single jpeg file and the avi file to see if your error still occurs ?

Another method is to first produce an mpeg or m2ts video file from the avi file and then trying it in the project to see how it behaves. sometimes some cameras do not generate a clean enough avi video. Win 10, i7

Jeff and HDedit,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try them both at the first chance I get and report back. I am thinking there's something funky in the jpeg, the avi, or, as Jeff suggests, maybe the MP3. I have tried pulling the jpeg out. That didn't work. And I tried turning the entire sequence of low-quality AVIs into a wmv file and then reinserting it. The interesting thing is I was able to create the wmv file of the AVIs, but when I reinserted them as a wmv and tried to render again, it hung up in the same spot. Maybe something is weird about the MP3 ...

Jeff,

Tried removing the song and substituting a different one. Still hung up at the same spot. Today I also tried creating my first video entirely in PD9 from footage from my camera (the one I'm having trouble with I started in PD8 and has a mixture of content from various people's cameras). No issues, except one of the fade transitions didn't work--the screen goes black in the bottom half and shows the image at the top. Not sure what caused that--it doesn't happen in the preview, just the rendered video.

Okay, this time I tried creating a wmv video file from just the two jpegs and the four waterfall videos that follow. I first tried with the music that currently runs during that section of the video. This crashed PD9 and brought up the message about windows looking for a solution (which of course it never finds). I tried that twice, with crashes both times.

Then I took out the two jpegs and put in two jpegs from my own camera. Again PD9 crashed.

Then I put in the original two jpegs back in and removed the music and put in a different MP3 that I've used successfully in another PD production. It worked. I was able to create an WMV file.

Now what's really weird about this is when I removed the suspected problem MP3 yesterday and tried a different MP3, it didn't help. So now I'm really scratching my head.

PD and most other consumer video editors are not great at giving adequate errors type feedback to the user (I use two other types). When video data does not fit the software's design criteria it either ends in hangs are crashes. PD9 does less of it than it's predecessor. But it sometimes still gets confused when the data at hand is not in the "range" that it was designed for. Win 10, i7

I'm beginning to chalk this up as something, as you suggest, that is simply related to the media itself that I'm trying to process. The good thing is I did get what I needed--a video file I can play on my computer and project on a screen for an upcoming event, plus an image I can use to create DVDs to hand out. What I didn't get was the usuial WMV file I like to end up with. It's not worth taking this any further unless someone has a really good idea on what my system needs or what I need to do with the media to produce a WMV. As for continuing my evaluation of PD9, I'll be producing more videos over the next few months that have just content from my camera and will be able to see how that goes. I've always liked PD and have recommended it to many people. This has been the first serious hiccup I've ever run into. (I started with PD7 two years ago.)

Thanks to all those who chimed in with advice. I appreciate your time and effort.

In case anyone's interested, I have the same problem and I cannot get it resolved at all. I have got on tech support on the phone and I have to say it's painful and also fruitless after two weeks.
Personally, my feeling after wasting a huge amount of time (as well as a lot of lost revenue by not being able to create the DVD), is that I'm for burning it publicly, or at the very least asking for my money back.
It simply can't do what it's meant to do. It keeps hanging at different places on different clips with no rhyme or reason to it.
I am, needless to say, extremely disappointed and more than a little disgruntled at the level of support I supposedly paid for. If, in the future, I do get it fixed and tech support does come through I will willingly come back on here and sing praises to all concerned.
However, I don't feel very confident about that right now.

I guess this is a good time to chime back in. I've been using PD9 now for a year since my original problem and only one or two times have I had a similar issue. In both cases, PD9 would hang up while I was producing either a wmv or MP4, Oddly enough, I would be able to produce in the other format. In other words, if it hung up on producing a MP4, it would create a wmv, or if it hung up on producing a wmv it would create an MP4. These were usually longer videos (30 or more minutes) with media from a variety of cameras. Many other videos, probably at least 30, came out just fine and could be produced in either format with no issues.

Overall, I've ended up being happy with PD9, though the learning curve from PD8 to PD9 was painful because of the different way certain functions/features worked. I notice that PD10 is still out and after suffering that learning curve once, I'm not sure I want to make the leap and possibly have to relearn a bunch of things again. It will be interesting to see what people say about PD10 on this forum.

NigP, I'm sorry to hear of your problems. If you ever do get it resolved, it would be interesting to hear what exactly was the problem. Perhaps some of the experts here can provide better advice than tech support if you provide more information.

The amount of info I've passed on to tech support I have no wish to go through again here...no offense intended. I just don't want to keep doing the same things time after time.
Different format clips, different places in timeline, cannot reproduce it at all (and believe me I have tried really hard to do just that). It just makes me angry, sad, frustrated and really annoyed in turns,
I'm thinking of moving to Lightworks instead.

My advice in trying something different would be to make sure you properly uninstall PD9, do a registry clean, and then install the new video editor.

From what I understand about video editor software, it's best to only have one installed on your machine and that your machine should be relatively clean of junk from uninstalled programs.

Been there. Done that....

Just out of curiousity, what kind of computer are you using, what's the processor and how much memory do you have? Are you a professional videographer? It sounds like you were going to sell your video. If so, what video editing software have you used in the past? And did you use it on this machine?

Not a professional, but certainly using it for my business (hence the selling). HP laptop, 8Gig Ram Intel i5. Have tinkered with Corel and one other (forget the name). And yes, on this machine.

Frustrating. Your laptop sounds up to the task. I don't have to guess at how frustrated you must be--I was at the same place nearly a year ago. If you find a new program that ends up working, please come back and post your result.

i also have this problem i just got it today when loading but i did use a external hard drive to import things i guess the project and files all need to be in the same location?

I don't think the files all need to be in the same location, but the drives all need to be connected and if your external drive was drive "e" when it was connected when you did the import, it will need to be that again. In fact, it would probably be smart just to keep the external drive connected throughout the process of import, editing and production. PD doesn't really "import" a file. It simply keeps a record of where that file can be found. That means if you move a file, PD won't be able to find it anymore. You won't be able to work with that file on the timeline or produce a video with that file in the timeline until you re-import that file.

i dont suppose you know what causes this error? i was working on a project last night saved it and turned it off came to work on it this morning and get the media error on load. it finds the images ok just the music track doesnt play. when i remove the mucsic and try reimporting the music nothing happens. external drive wasnt unplugged. am writing down all the transistions and images now to be able to re create this slide but its going to suck if i cant save to re edit them later it means i have to do the project in 1 go going to try moving the files of external hard drive the first project i did in power director 6 loaded fine and this is power director 10 ultimate that i have

This is out of my experience realm. I suggest starting a new topic thread that explains your problem with PD10 and then the experts will chime in. I don't think they monitor the thread we're on anymore.