More info. When I click on a clip in the media clip area, there are two ffdshow items in the tray. One shows Video Renderer, Audio Renderer, Cyberlink Video Regulator, AC3Filter, ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Recorder.

The other tray item shows just the Video Renderer and the ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Recorder.

When I click on 'movie' or go to any movie or DVD preview in Powerdirector, the first tray item with the audio and other filters disappears, leaving only the second.

Gidday Mig -

What "tray" are you talking about?

Cheers -

Tony

Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

System tray, where, depending on which codec pack you have installed, it often puts an icon there to show it's in use. DivX, Xvid, ffdshow, etc. ffdshow, when right-clicked on its icon in the system tray, shows which codecs it's using at the time.

Out of curiosity I tried the ridiculous step of extracting the audio from one of these clips in PD7, which created a huge wav file in the library. I dropped that into the voice track and it STILL won't play! (Again, plays in the library as a clip, but not on the timeline or preview.) Just to test, I made a DVD from another (non-AC3 audio) video I have and it plays fine, both in the timeline and the DVD preview.

Having uninstalled and installed various codec packs over the last five hours my conclusion is that PD7 doesn't work with avi files using AC3 audio. It can play them in the library but not on the timeline or anywhere else. Very frustrating since I have 80 hours of video I produced in that format and expected to be able to edit and burn them with PD7.

All the clips show identical audio properties in both the library and the timeline, so nothing is disappearing or changing in the move. It just won't play or encode them.

Hi Mig,

Which version of PD are you using?

Click on the Powerdirector title at the top right.

or (for the older members) Directors Chair>Help>About.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

PD 7, 2726. Should be the latest, though from what I can tell from scouring these forums others had similar problems quite a while ago with no resolution posted. Has anyone ever successfully worked with avi files using AC3? With what combination of codecs? I tried uninstalling the big packs and using only the latest vanilla Xvid and A3C with the same result.

Hi Mig,

You could try patch 3017 - I think its on :-

http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/support/powerdirector/patches_en_US.html

I'll try and find out if any solution was found for the earlier posts.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Hi Mig,

2 things to note :-

There have been issues with .avi files. Given that avi is a container format, the exact implementation can be variable and PD sometimes finds it difficult to work with some .avis. This is particularly true with some screen capture, 'non-standard' aspect ratio clips.

I also think that the xvid format causes an issue but I can't find the details so it might be from conversations which I will try to clarify with others.

In the meantime, it might be useful to uninstall and re-install PD. PD is a program that seems to benefit from being 'reset' from time to time. Do a search to find the detailed instructions.

In general terms, if you do that, also defrag after installation. I find that PD can install files all over and a defrag is worthwhile.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

FYI:

We wish to inform you that it is declared as bug in this software and RD is working hard to get rid of it.

We deeply regret for the inconvenience.