I have the EXACT same problem and I suspect by the lack of response to your post and the numerous others on this subject that there is no fix. I've read almost a dozen posts on it, most with variations of this problem - some people for example report getting to 85% or having difficulties actually burning. I have the same problem as you do - when I click the 'create disc' menu option it gets to 5% and gives me the initialization error and says items may not have installed properly.

In response to everything I have read I have tried the following:

1. Uninstall and reinstall PD7
2. Disable all antivirus, firewall, etc
3. Remove patch and reinstall
4. Trying a basic project with only 1 picture or movie clip
5. Different PC's (mine has Vista, tried one with clean XP -SP3 install)

My question - is Cuberlink working on a patch for this and if so what is the timeline? Is there a workaround to burn my project another way? I can produce the movie okay as MPG-2 but I want a proper DVD with chapters etc. I spent hours making the project and it would be gutting not to be able to get a DVD from it.

Would really appreciate any advice people can offer.

I have tried contacting support but I recieved a really bizaare reply
to check my aspect settings which has nothing to do with it crashing.
I managed to burn one (yes 1) disc the other night by saving it to a folder then using another program... but no luck after.
Has anyone figured out what is causing it? At first it crashed at 85% then later I ran the same project again and 45%... makes no sense.
I have Vista 64 bit. I printed both errors out... the first refers to "CLAVCVs2.dll". The other crash message refers to "StackHash_1246" (whatever that is...) Any help or clues would be appreciated... I did all the normal uninstall completely/reinstall bit...etc but nothing seems to help. I increased virtual memory also.

I am also disappointed that it doesn't support full HD 1080P using .264 editing capabilities...

I just tried installing the latest patch (released yesterday) but unfortunately it made no difference. The problem is exactly as it was.

Same kind of problem ! 'Create Disc' will start and work up to a point. The program then shuts down without any error message whatsoever !

I have worked around by producing a movie of the project in question to the hard drive. I then pulled the produced AVI movie into PD as a new project. The disc burning then proceeded with normally.

Never had this problem with PD 6 !!

I also gor around the problem by creating an MPEG-2 of my project, pulling it into another software program entirely and burning the cd from there. No problem but a huge hassle.

Same problem here, but seems to be just since I downloaded the patch. Even saving to a file it stops are about 85% and PD shuts down on its own. When trying to burn to a disk the disk just keeps running and running and running. (A good marketing practice for batteries, I guess, but not for computer DVD burners. I dics comes out almost too hot to handle.

I have a love/hate relationships with PD. Love the "idea" of the program but hate the prblems and the fact that it is the most unintuitive program I've ever used and has a downloadable "manual" that is all but totally useless.

Yep, forgot to mention that disc that just keeps running !!. Have to re-boot the computer to stop the thing.

Surely there must be some investigation by support?

I've sent the 3 of you an email and 2 PM's.

Please complete the Report Form and return. Let's see if we can get something recorded and sorted out asap.

Dafydd

Ok- will someone try the following.

Open the project. Without doing any editing whatsoever proceed to Disk burning. Should be OK

Open the project, add some transitions, titles etc. Burn again. I think you may once again find a problem.

I may be wrong, but maybe we can isolate the problem

Here's the error details I get. I've only received this error recently. I've been on 7 for quite a few video's now. By the way, I actually got past the error. I had recently been able to Create Disk with no problem. I added an mpg created from another program that saved it as (NTCS/PAL). Then my problems began. When I deleted that mpg from the Master Video Track, I was able to Create Disc without the error.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: PDR.exe
Application Version: 7.0.0.1915
Application Timestamp: 487ca5e2
Fault Module Name: PDTLMSplter.ax
Fault Module Version: 3.3.0.1401
Fault Module Timestamp: 47a31344
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00017941
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: ddd4
Additional Information 2: 417e35773eba32d1520469ecb8fb26a5
Additional Information 3: cd85
Additional Information 4: cead9482e8ac4b9d9b97a69dbe15b784

Hello All - I was fighting the same problem for a while, using Vista 32 Home Ultimate. After trying many things with no joy, I removed all my codecs using remove programs in control panel, rebooted and then reinstalled PD7 and "create disc" now works just fine. I have since reinstalled the "Vista Codec Package" from Shark and also the DivX codec from the DivX website. Everything is stable and create disc is working fine. Hopefully this will work for you others that are having the same trouble.

Also, I downloaded the upgrade to Photoshow Gold that allows saving as HD mpg. I imported the HD mpg-2 into PD7 and all is well now.

Thank you for the follow up information - really interesting.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

I have had this same problem and after much brainstorming I was able to find the solution myself. This may or may not work for all of you but perhaps it is worth a try. Once I finished my creation I watched the preview on the create page (as a movie not clip option). I watched each clip as it played and found that there was one that just did not want to play. It would hang at the beginning of the clip and then when I changed the option to "Clip" from "Movie" to just play it alone it would not play at all. I then removed that clip and tried once again to "Create Disk" and WALLA it worked just fine. Apparently there was just something about that one clip it did not like. This happened to me again later during another project and I did the exact same method and it solved my problem again. When you click "Create Disk" look at the %. The first project it would only get to 5% before I got the:

"Initializing error! Components initialization failed. There might have been problems during installation. Please install again."

and the clip that was causing the problems was in the beginning few clips. The second time I got the error it would get to 40% and the clip that was causing the issues was around the middle of my project.

I hope this might help a few...

My error is different but I've read many posts about it with no solve. It gets to ~95% every time and then I get an error that says "Burn failed. Error c0040004". I updated to the latest software version with no luck. I have done nothing with the project other than apply a template. I've had this software for 3+ months and have yet to successfully burn a single DVD. Brand new Dell system with 4GB of DDR ram, Intel Core 2 duo at 2.2Ghz 32 bit and Vista for business so it shouldn't be the system. I'm reaching the end of my rope.

I have a Dell also and have had an issue with burning errors since day one. No matter what DVD I was burning and with what program I was using I would get almost to the end and to the Final stage and get an error. My fix was Nero 9. Once I installed it I never had another issue with burning anything with any program unless it was an issue within the program itself. I know that Dell comes with Roxio to burn DVD's and CD's and I found that it just did not like to burn CD's or any DVD's. Perhaps you should try this route?

I purchased the entire Nero 9 package; however, there is a free Burning Rom from Nero that may work alone. You can get this at http://nero.9-ultra.com/
I am not sure if the burning Rom alone would help but it is worth a shot.

Hope this helps to solve your issue and good luck.

I'm downloading the trial version of that very thing now. I have actually never had a problem burning anything on this system in the past, only DVD's via Powerdirector. I'll try the Nero and see what happens. More than anything I'm upset that I paid for Powerdirector after much research on it being the best program only to have it not work.

You will have to let me know if it worked for you or not. I am hoping that it does to end your headaches!!

Thanks for the added info Chae. If it happens again to me I'll have to look at that. In my guess I never even got far enough for a percentage reading. I got the same error message as you, but it happened instantly with no percentage happening.