Do you have Windows Media Player on your computer. You must have that for the wmv codec? Or perhaps the codec was corrupted.

From the specs:
Windows Media Player 9 or above is required .
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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Hello Steve,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I can play all my .WMV files just fine on my system. I just copied my whole project to another fresh Windows 10 test system and I get the same bogus behaviors.

So it seems to be the project file that is corrupted in some way but it was last saved yesterday at 19:44 and the crash did occur a little after 20:00 so the crash should have not affected that version of the project even earlier backup files show the same problems now.

PD14 did break something when it froze and that's the second times that it totally breaks my project in a few months. Best Regards,
-Noël

You are saying that the project did play properly on the PD14 preview screen before the computer crash. Try looking for a different pds file in your autosave if you have it turned on.

Thanks for your suggestion. When I previously wrote "backup copy" I indeed meant a PDS from the AutoSave folder in %appdata%\CyberLink\PowerDirector\14.0. I opened the oldest of them, it was 1 week old and same result.

By the way, it's not the computer that did crash but only PD14 that did freeze and I had to close it since I waited and waited and it would never recover.

Here are the few things that I already tried or noticed:

• shut down the system and power off the computer then power it back on


• uninstall PD14 and reinstall it and apply the latest patch


• copy all the project files to another test system, same results when I open the project on the test system


• if I open the latest version of the project saved before the PD14 freeze, the current clips based on .WMV files do show as 0,0,0 and plain back on the timeline (btw they show and play correctly in the library), but if I drag and drop one of these same WMV clips from the library it does show correctly on the timeline and I can play it in the preview! But the others remain at 0,0,0.


• I did edit all of these WMV clips in this build of PD14 for a week successfully until yesterday evening


• the other clips on the timeline either .PNG, .MTS, titles, transitions, effects, etc. show and play correctly on the timeline


• only the .MTS clips after the first "0,0,0" WMV clip on the timeline have their Audio and Video unlinked the other MTS clips at the beginning have both audio and video correctly linked. If I drag and drop a new WMV clip at the end of the timeline not only it shows and plays correctly but its audio and video are also correctly linked.

I'm at loss of ideas and so tired of all the lost work once again.

Thanks. Best Regards,
-Noël

Just noticed one more thing:

• if I close the project with the new WMV clip added at the end of the timeline and that did show and play correctly with both audio and video linked and I reopen the project, this latest clip also shows as 0,0,0 and audio is gone like for the other 0,0,0 WMV clips.

I suppose that all the things that I've just reported are all related to one only thing but what?! Best Regards,
-Noël

After looking further into this, I was able to repro the issues very easily:

1. Create a new project


2. Add some MTS and WMV files to the library


3. Drop a first MTS to the timeline


4. Drop a first WMV to the timeline


5. Drop two other MTS file to the timeline


6. Save the project


7. Close the project (create a new project)


8. Reload the project

Now the WMV clip is black with 0,0,0 and no audio on the timeline, and the next two MTS has audio and video unlinked!!

All the clips in the library are still OK and I can preview all of them just fine.

From the timeline I can only preview MTS clips, WMV clips give plain black preview. Best Regards,
-Noël

Re-install windows media player
Re-install PowerDirector
Re-test.
Contact CyberLink online support.
Looks to me you've possibly corrupted the above or even the OS.

Please test using just the sample clip in the track. Kite Surfing.wmv

See Part E & F, create a screen video to show what you're experiencing.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/45453.page

Dafydd

Hello,

I've already reinstalled PowerDirector 14 and the latest patch and retested. I also tested on a fresh Windows 10 1607 system to no avail.

Original view of the project and timeline:
https://1drv.ms/i/s!ArDwKxKLACvWkoQ9usJKgnPMDWvL5w

View of the project when it is reloaded:
https://1drv.ms/i/s!ArDwKxKLACvWkoQ8rwNoBefyCZmc_w

The issue does not happen when I use the same MTS files with the Kite Surfing.wmv sample file but the .WMV I have to use were recorded with a screen recorder and cannot be recorded again. I produced a few videos with the same kind of WMV files from the same recorder with PD13 with no problem though.

I also forgot to mention that the PD14 freeze that I initially mentioned is not responsible of the WMV "0,0,0" issue (it actually is another issue): it just forced the project to close and I had to reopen it and this is where I saw the actual WMV issue. The reason why I was able to work a full week on the project is that I don't shut down my PC at night but hibernate it, so I only saved the project but did not close PD14.

I've contacted Cyberlink online support, I will see if they reply. I will upload my sample project when they provide me with access to their FTP server.

Thanks. Best Regards,
-Noël

Hi noeld,
Thank you for the images.
Here are my observations and questions.
I note the project's wmv does not show as being placed in the track, no check mark.
The thumbnail is still present in the Media Library.
Can you please right click on the thumbnail and select Properties? What is the local address for the wmv?
I'd like you to provide a diagnostic of your computer please, see Part B in the guide?
You have indicated the sample, Kite Surfing.wmv displays in a track ok and when the pds is re-opened, correct?

Please move the project's wmv to a new/different location such as your desktop and then place it in a new project, save the pds, close PDR and then re-open PDR using the saved pds file.

I'm wondering if my suggestion will change the situation.

Dafydd

Hello Dafydd,

Thanks for your assistance. I will attach a ZIP (noeld.zip) with the information that you requested and some more. Here is a description of the provided files:

• DxDiags for both 32-bit and 64-bit:
  noeldDxDiag.txt
  noeld64DxDiag.txt


• A screencopy of the project moved to another folder (D:\PD14Test), I also tried the same project on the desktop (same results):
  Sample WMV Issue PD14Test Folder.jpg


• Media Information for two WMV files that work and for one of the WMV files that give troubles:
  MediaInfo Kite Surfing.wmv OK.txt
  MediaInfo 20160226_174616.wmv OK.txt
  MediaInfo 20160226_160853.wmv KO.txt (one of the files that give problems)


• Outputs of a command-line program that I wrote and that enumerates the clips in PDS files and ensure that the original filename of the clips exists on the disk:
  Clips Sample WMV Issue.txt
  Clips Sample Kite Project.txt
  Clips Analyseur de trames DCC avec un Arduino Uno.txt

Good catch about the green checkmark, I did not noticed it and I did not really know what it was for; the missing checkmark is probably related to the fact that the WMV file does not appear correctly on the timeline.

Thanks to the Media information of the WMV files that give troubles I realize that they were captured with audio while audio was not needed at all and the audio format is not WMA!

Thanks again for your support. Best Regards,
-Noël

Hi noeld,

Thank you for the zip file.
Following your audio observations I have a few suggestions.
1. Unlink the audio from the WMV and delete it from the track. I doubt this will work. I'm wondering if because the wmv you have, does not use wma audio, it's causing the problem. Please then test as before, pds etc.
2. Run the WMV file through a file converter, such as Handbrake and change the video to have wma audio. Then do a bit of testing with pds files etc. I believe this will work as a solution.
Could you attach a 5 second sample please? This has to be one you've specifically recorded using the same capture settings and not an edited (from a larger file) clip.

Basically I think you have a scenario where the clip is causing the issue. Members can test the sample you give and I can pass it onto CyberLink. Please advise us what the capture software is that you are using - and for us to avoid ha ha.

Dafydd

Hi Dafydd,

Thanks for your reply. I did not have time yesterday to test and to prepare some samples. I will try later today or in the next few days.

After I published my previous reply, I really had the feeling that we were on something about WMV audio but I realized later that the WMV clip without any audio that I listed as OK show OK in my main project while it does not show but 0,0,0 and black in a test project, so it is weird.

More later.

Thank you. Best Regards,
-Noël

Hi Dafydd,

Here are the latest news.

Regarding my last comment in my previous reply, I (fortunately) made a confusion between two clips that have about the same previews but one has audio and the other not.

After many kind of tests, I am almost sure that the audio of the WMVs is the cause of all the isues that I reported. When I used a WMV clip with WMA audio or no audio at all, the projects saved and reloaded fine during my tests.

I am still wondering how these esoteric WMV files were actually created (a mix of WMV video with some kind of MP3 audio), I don't see any option to do that but that's another story which will keep some of its mysteries.

Now I wish I could just strip these audio streams from the original WMV containers unfortunately I did not find a tool that can do that without recompressing the video, and WMV recompression uses WM8 not WM9. I also tried the WM ASF Reader in GraphEdit, it gives me error 0xC00D07E2 (Bad language ID) and if I try other Microsoft Windows Media tools (e.g. File Editor) they just say that they cannot open the files! If anyone has a suggestion about extracting the video stream from a WMV to another WMV or just strip audio, both without recompression I'm interested.

Otherwise, I've tested with HandBrake like you suggested and I converted one of the "broken" WMV clip to a video-only clip, video quality remains OK so I think I will go this way if I have no other choice. Initially my thought was to replace the original WMV files on disk with files with the same WMV names but without audio but when I reloaded the project the issues were still there anyway.

I will use the media times from the logs that I've created with my parser program to precisely cut the converted video clips, remove the black WMV clips from the track and library, relink Audio and Video on the other clips, insert the new clips and hopefully things will finally work. This is what I actually tried on a short sample with success.

I am uploading two sample projects one with a broken WMV clip if you can forward them to CyberLink for review. I will provide the link when the zip is fully uploaded.

Thanks for your support. Best Regards,
-Noël

Link to sample projects (PD14Test.zip) Best Regards,
-Noël

Hi noeld,
Thank you for the link, I'll pass it onto CyberLink. One more bit of information for me to pass on. What was the capture software you used?
Dafydd

Hi Dafydd,

The capture software was APowersoft Screen Recorder Pro. The clips were recorded with a previous version though, I did not try with the latest version and check whether the WMV audio is fixed or not.

If I ever have to do some other screen capture though I will either use another piece of software or make sure this time that the Audio Input is actually set to None and possibly use the MP4 container format. Best Regards,
-Noël

Hi noeld,
Thank you for the software info. Yes, please avoid the scenario, you've had a "once bitten, twice shy" event.
Mp4, good choice. Watch out for mp3's, the higher the compression the more we've seen an issue happen.
Dafydd

Thanks for your advice Dafydd and thanks again for your support. I'm now working on fixing my project! Best Regards,
-Noël

Hi noeld,
I have had feedback from CyberLink.
The issue has been passed onto the engineers. Just to clarify, the clip you gave as a sample - was it supposed to have audio on it or not?
Dafydd