Totally Buggy - Should This Work?

[jethrodesign]

Hi, I just purchased EMC 8 retail to burn TiVo shows to DVD. When trying to use MyDVD program:

- I get no main menus (File, Edit, Etc) at the top;

- When I press 'Change Menu Style' nothing happens;

- When trying to 'Change Menu Background' I get an error 'Set menu background operation failed ffffff';

- When I switch to movie mode, it usually crashes;

- The 'Show/Hide Tasks' button at top does nothing;

- Sometimes the Menu Task and Edit panels start flashing randomly and become unusable

 

I'm wondering if my system is not up-to-speed and I just wasted $100 (package is opened now).

 

In the included manual, and somewhere else, my computer appeared to meet the basic requirements. But here on the site the requirements for video are much higher. But usually, even if a computer is a little under the requirements, it will work, but maybe poorly. This doesn't work at all.

 

My specs are:

- PIII 1Ghz tower that is TOTALLY optimized in every way. This was built specially for doing multi-track audio (Cubase) and handles the latest Photoshop, a video slideshow software editor, various pro-audio apps, various photo editing & graphics apps, etc.

- 512MB RAM

- 3 fast 7200 rpm drives with plenty of space

- Matrox G450 video card. This is Direct X 9 compatible (everything checked out OK on dxdiag)

- Very latest updates of Windows XP (again optimized to not be so bloated)

 

So, SHOULD this work at all? Or did I just throw $100 down the drain? If so, anyone want to buy a 2-day old version of the software and recommend something that will actually work?

 

THANKS!

[grandpabruce]

Hi, I just purchased EMC 8 retail to burn TiVo shows to DVD. When trying to use MyDVD program:

- I get no main menus (File, Edit, Etc) at the top;

- When I press 'Change Menu Style' nothing happens;

- When trying to 'Change Menu Background' I get an error 'Set menu background operation failed ffffff';

- When I switch to movie mode, it usually crashes;

- The 'Show/Hide Tasks' button at top does nothing;

- Sometimes the Menu Task and Edit panels start flashing randomly and become unusable

 

I'm wondering if my system is not up-to-speed and I just wasted $100 (package is opened now).

 

In the included manual, and somewhere else, my computer appeared to meet the basic requirements. But here on the site the requirements for video are much higher. But usually, even if a computer is a little under the requirements, it will work, but maybe poorly. This doesn't work at all.

 

My specs are:

- PIII 1Ghz tower that is TOTALLY optimized in every way. This was built specially for doing multi-track audio (Cubase) and handles the latest Photoshop, a video slideshow software editor, various pro-audio apps, various photo editing & graphics apps, etc.

- 512MB RAM

- 3 fast 7200 rpm drives with plenty of space

- Matrox G450 video card. This is Direct X 9 compatible (everything checked out OK on dxdiag)

- Very latest updates of Windows XP (again optimized to not be so bloated)

 

So, SHOULD this work at all? Or did I just throw $100 down the drain? If so, anyone want to buy a 2-day old version of the software and recommend something that will actually work?

 

THANKS!

 

Your computer will not run the software very well, if at all. It just doesn't have the horsepower.

[Larry]

I agree with Bruce, your hardware is falling short of being able to handle video work very well if at all. The only suggestion I can make, which "may" help, would be to check for an update from Matrox on your video card. The symptoms you describe are often related to video compatibility. While you're at Matrox's site, see if it has any info on your card and DirectX compatibility. Just because the dxdiag tests seem to be ok, doesn't mean your card is "fully" compatible with all of the directx9 functions the program requires.

[ggrussell]

I have to agree. Your computer really is barely within specs for running Windows XP. I checked Matrox's website and found only 3 models of the Matrox Millennium G450 and they only have 32MB of memory. They have apparently updated their drivers for Windows XP, but mostly likely do not support all the functions of DirectX 9.0c.

[jethrodesign]

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

OK, so my bad in thinking my vid card was directX 9 compatible. It turns out it is not. I have found an innexpensive nVidia card that is fully directX 9 compatible (FX 5200). It has the dual-monitor functionality I need. It appears that there are not too many directX 9.0c cards on the market, and most are all PCI Express cards, and pretty expensive. Does it have to be DirectX 9 "C" to function at all? The requirements don't state this.

 

I know I need a new computer. It will happen in the future, just not the 'very-near' future. Believe it or not, because of the components and build of this computer, it still runs OK apart from this.

 

So:

- Does the problems I stated above sound specifically like a graphics card malfunction?

- Do you think a newer DirectX 9 card may at least allow me to use the software, even if it's a bit slow?

- Would a slow processor cause the menus to not show up or the screens to flicker??

 

All I really need to do is put the TiVo shows on DVD. I don't have to even edit them. Just a quick menu and burn to DVD. I've already downloaded and used the DSD software to convert the .tivo files to mpegs so I don't have to worry about the conversion process. That didn't take too long.

 

I have made DVD slideshows with transition effects, audio and movement using this machine and different software. It was slow, but it did complete. So I know it's possible.

 

THANKS AGAIN!

[ggrussell]

The FX5200 will do fine. I had an FX5200 and it worked fine for me. Make sure you have the latest nVidia driver (81.98 Dec 2005). I would say 'most' of your problems was/is the video card.