'copy And Convert Dvd-video' Making Coasters

[Midnight_Voice]

I have a DVD+R with 3 AVI files on it. All play fine in my Toshiba Equium A100 (spec at bottom, no changes from as bought save a new 2Gb to replace an original 0.5 Gb memory module). The Tosh burns very reliably on its DVD drive using DVD+Rs from the spindle I have, in WMP and the DVD-burning software originally supplied with the laptop.

 

But this isn't as versatile as the Roxio products set out to be, hence me having Cremator 10 (which I never tried using Copy and Convert in, as it happens) and now Cremator 2009.

 

So: trying to copy the middle AVI to a new DVD+R with Copy and Convert, it reads the AVI just fine, puts it in the list. I elect to copy it as a DVD (it says I can, and implies that will be better quality than just copying the AVI byte for byte).

 

It asks for a DVD blank, I give it one. This involves swapping out the Source DVD+R, as I have just the one drive. But that's OK, as it's already copied the AVI somewhere on my hard disc (hasn't it?) Starts up very promising, gets to 8% complete, which seems to be no more than writing a label on the target disk - and then sits there, burning up 50-70% of my twin processors, for as long as I let it. Though I got bored after 12 hours with no progress beyond it eating CPU, flicking the hard drive light from time to time, but no light or discernible sounds of movement from the DVD drive.

 

I'd have knocked it off sooner, but it said on here it might take a while. Ho hum.

 

Then I cancelled it. It took the instruction straight away, showing the program wasn't hung. This time, though, I only waited six hours before knocking it off with no further progress beyond the program saying 'Cancelling - Please Wait'.

 

Well, duh. So I killed the process in Task Manager (after which Cremator 2009 wouldn't talk to me any more), and ejected the disc - which I had to do in software on the mysterious new F: drive as the real life button on my real life E: drive wouldn't do anything.

 

And then found, after a reboot, that I had a coaster, as Cremator 2009 didn't think my disc was blank any more. Though Windows Media Player said it would be very happy to do pretty much anything I wanted, on this disc with 4.7Gb free, even though it did have a label...

 

Being careful, I read all the advice I could get in here, updated DirectX, checked my DVD firmware (Toshiba reports no updates available), bowed twice in the direction I imagine Roxio's head office is in, and then tried again, in case I had missed something. Now, a day later, I have two coasters

 

One final thought, though, than might be relevant. This laptop still has Easy Media Cremator 10 on it. The install of 2009 didn't remove it, not even partially. At first, I thought maybe the two had slightly different feature sets, and if 10 stayed on there, then Roxio would have ensured they would play nice together.

 

But, again from what I read in here, they don't; so much so that a mere uninstall will never suffice, and I need to do some root canal work on the file system and registry as well, before reinstalling Cremator 2009.

 

But before I do (i) is this true? (ii) if so, why do Roxio allow the two to apparently co-exist on the same PC? and (iii) is this likely to make a blind bit of difference to the problem I am having?

 

 

 

System Model

TOSHIBA EQUIUM A100 PSAAQE-00N00LAV

Operating System

Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1 (build 6001)

Processor

1.73 gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo

64 kilobyte primary memory cache

2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Memory Modules

2550 Megabytes Installed Memory

Main Circuit Board

Board: Intel Corporation CAPELL VALLEY(NAPA) CRB

BIOS: Phoenix Technologies LTD 6.00 07/12/2007

Drives

MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]

ROXIO DVD-ROM EMULATOR SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]

TOSHIBA MK8037GSX [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 27SWF2IOS, rev DL230M, SMART Status: Healthy

Display

Mobile Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family [Display adapter] (2x)

Generic PnP Monitor (15.4"vis)

Multimedia

Realtek High Definition Audio (With SRS)

 

[Midnight_Voice]

No, something not right…

 

While a Core2 1.7 is hardly an earth shaker, I would expect more.

 

Use VideoWave or MyDVD and under Tools – Options – Render, set it to Software

 

I have a desktop that is similar, with a board chip and no Video Card and my 2.2Ghz and it does a compliant 1 hour video in 8 minutes (AVCHD in 4 1/2 hours)

 

If that doesn't help a Clean Install might be in order - Vista

 

Further results: - Yes, it spent 14 hours at 8%, and then an indefinite time Cancelling until I killed the process in Task Manager.

 

Trying a less ambitious(?) conversion to DivX format, it did progress - a little copy of the video opened up and ran at something less than realtime. I Cancelled it at 3%, but I think it would have got there in the end.

I then tried another AVI, this time on a CD-R - exact same results trying to make a DVD, and a DivX copy respectively, either to a 'DVD' or a 'CD-R' target file.

 

For comparison, Div-X Pro could convert the second AVI to Div-X in well under ten minutes, so Creator 2009 was going some 10 to 25 times slower than Div-X Pro on the task, even though it was getting through it.

 

I reckon Div-X Pro was hitting the sort of speeds this machine is capable of.

 

The Vista Experience score of this machine is 2.6, that being the Aero figure, 3.0 being Graphics otherwise, and CPU/Disc/Memory batting 4.8, 4.8, 4.4. It was 3.1 when I bought it, but it's been 2.6 for a long time now. I just checked it again, and it was weird; it ran several times more slowly than ever before, but still gave the same scores as last time.

 

Yes, I think a clean install is next.

 

BTW, how do I get to MyDVD or VideoWave in Creator 2009? Nothing seems to have these Creator 10 names any more, and the Help tells you only about them, not where to find them

[ggrussell]

They are still on the Start Menu>Programs>Roxio Creator 2009>Applications

[Midnight_Voice]

You really have no idea what you are doing…

 

You can't simply throw files at a DVD and hope they will stick and work! – they won't!

 

Once a DVD Movie is Authored, nothing can be added to it. If it is RW it has to be erased so that it is blank. If it is an R disc, it is done.

 

Please go back and try what I suggested.

 

If that works then erase and start an new project and add one of your movie files and see if it will burn.

 

JH:You really have no idea what you are doing…

 

MV: That's why I'm here - to learn. But I think if you read my posting more carefully, you might conclude that I do know what I'm doing - up to a point at least. And that I did try to do what you suggested, but Creator 2009 makes it hard to translate from a general suggestion into the exact actions to be taken in a particular sub-product

 

JH: You can't simply throw files at a DVD and hope they will stick and work! – they won't!

 

MV: But I did throw files at a DVD and they did stick, and they did 'work' - as I described above, using my wife's PC and her RecordNow! It was an 'open' DVD+RW, with some earlier backup files on it - not a movie - and RecordNow allowed me to add those Sample Pictures incrementally to that disc, in Windows Explorer.

 

But trying to do the exact same thing in Windows Explorer on my Vista machine, on which Creator 2009 has altered how my DVD-RAM drive appears to the system, I was told that I could not add to the disc. So even though I was completely outside of Creator 2009 at this point, it appears to have removed some of my standard Windows functionality. (As Vista has - or had - such burning capabilities built in, and does not need an add-on like RecordNow! in order to support this).

 

I do realise this isn't what you asked me to do above, of course - just something I discovered in the course of trying to do what you said, and not realising that a completely blank disc would be needed.

 

JH: Once a DVD Movie is Authored, nothing can be added to it. If it is RW it has to be erased so that it is blank. If it is an R disc, it is done.

 

MV: I realise that now, for a DVD movie. But I had no idea that in putting a few static pictures on a DVD, I would be 'authoring a movie'.

 

JH: Please go back and try what I suggested.

 

MV: I'm not absolutely sure what you suggested, though. I ran up MyDVD, and the only option I could find for using a few Sample Pictures was to make a Slideshow of them. Is there some other option I missed that you wanted me to use, and if so, what and where is it?

 

JH: If that works then erase and start an new project and add one of your movie files and see if it will burn.

 

MV: If Slideshow is what you intended me to use, then I did, and I described above that it worked. So I will try a movie next.

 

But: (i) As the Copy & Convert issue occurs when just making a file, I have already suggested that it may be a rendering issue, not a burning one

and: (ii) I still need to know how to get back the incremental file copy to DVD burning capability in Windows Explorer that Vista arrives with, and which I seem to have lost.

[Jim_Hardin]

If I am following this, you still can't do a DVD???

 

Assuming you have a DVD RW disc or 2 laying around (everyone starting out must!) make a new MyDVD project.

 

Add 2 or 3 still pictures from My Pictures – Sample Pictures and burn. What happens?

 

[Jim_Hardin]

The Roxio program doesn’t do anything to any drive or operating system… What I think you are talking about is Vista Live File System. Put in a blank RW disc and it will work. It also has no place whatsoever in Authoring and a disc formatted for it is unusable for anything else.

 

Apples and Oranges… I can do things in WordPerfect that you can only dream about using Word! Likewise there are things in Sony Vegas that I can do that you can't with RecordNow or Roxio.

 

If you want to learn how to use Roxio we can help.

 

The slide show was a simple test to confirm that with a proper file added to a MyDVD project it would burn a properly Authored DVD Movie. – and from what you said, it did.

 

I recommend using RW media because you can erase and reuse it. Great for learning and testing!

 

Where would you like to go next?

[Midnight_Voice]

Yes something is totally out of whack with your OS…

 

Were it mine, I would buy a new HD – Install Windows – Install Roxio. All should work fine.

 

At that point I would decided just what do I really NEED from the old drive… Then attach the old drive as a slave and copy over what is needed. After a month or so when I am sure everything I need is copied, I would format the old drive and use it for more storage.

 

At first glance it sounds extreme but when you think about the hours you will waste trying to track down a problem… It starts making more and more sense.

 

@Jim

 

Back on 12 Dec 2006, you were helping out 'Mainmann' in this thread:-

 

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=13790

 

Lower down, 'Larry' nailed it cold, to a Disc Image Loader function. I followed his advice there, and the emulated drive is now gone.

 

Like Mainmann, I have no recollection of ever using Disc Image Loader, though, but I do have a very clear recollection of deleting the emulated drive as part of the clean-up before reinstalling Creator 2009, and of it being back there afterwards. (N.B. the reinstall, while being largely a waste of time as far as I can see did achieve one thing; I could pop the 'F: drive' open, when there was a disc in it, with the physical button on the drive, whereas before I had to use the software eject. So something changed, at least).

 

However, the DVD-RAM drive then became F:. Not a big deal; I'm used to my drive letters above C: moving about, as D: my portable USB disc drive is sometimes mounted and sometimes not, and my U3 thumb drive often appears as F: and G;. None of this is odd, or screwed up.

 

@gi7omy

 

I'm pleased to confirm that Vista has a similar feature in:-

Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management

where, as long as there was a disc in the DVD drive, it let me right-click it and change F: back to E:

 

Thanks.

 

@Jim

 

I'm afraid I can't take your advice about replacing my hard disc at all seriously - its stats show it is perfectly healthy, and Chkdsk likewise reports it as healthy. There is nothing wrong with this machine that uninstalling Creator 2009 won't cure - except that I don't want to do that.

 

Apropos your WordPerfect/Word comments, it looks like RecordNow 7 became 8, then was crippled at 9, the first Vista version, to be just audio (MusicLab 9), and then became 10. Which, according to:

 

http://www.roxio.co.uk/eng/products/recordnow/recordnow.html

 

is included in Creator 2009, though no such claim appears on the US page, and it isn't clear if it just means the functionality, or what.

 

So it shouldn't quite be the apples and pears that WordPerfect and Word are, should it? Because, AFAIK, WordPerfect was never subsumed into WinWord the way the Sonic products have been subsumed into the Roxio ones.

 

The nearest thing to the clean interface I liked so much about RecordNow seems to be 'Creator Classic'. Here, at least, I can add files to an existing DVD+RW by the simple expedient of letting it include the existing content from the disk; I imagine it must copy them, erase them, and then reburn the lot, though it seems to do it extremely quickly.

 

Maybe that's what RecordNow used to do under Windows XP, but just made it so transparent to the user that I didn't realise this is what was going on?

 

Anyway, enough for this posting. Back soon with details of my struggles with MyDVD.

[Midnight_Voice]

Not a problem – good luck!

 

Thanks!

 

Well, I ran MyDVD and tried to feed it the .AVI I mentioned in the very first post above, but it was on a DVD-R, and I only have the one drive, so all went well until I tried to put in the disc to burn the output file to, whereupon MyDVD got confused. It looks as if, unlike other programs in Creator 2009, this one doesn't stage the source file on the hard disc. Or have I missed an option here?

 

Anyway, not to worry, I copied the AVI to the hard disc manually, and then tried burning from there with 'fit to disc' to a blank DVD+RW. No problems at all, apart from it taking a little longer than real-time to render the title, but it did it steadily enough, and the DVD+RW ran on both my domestic DVD players, BluRay and ordinary. (As borne out by the manual for each, the ordinary DVD player would play the original AVI, but the BluRay player wouldn't). Played side by side at the same resolution, the two files look identical, so the rendering neither added nor subtracted anything.

 

So here we are, me a little more savvy on matters of burning, having proved that my kit can render and burn OK with your guidance, for which thanks, and that I can do what I set out to do, but just by a different route, for which more thanks.

 

However, I still can't persuade 'Copy and Convert' to make a DVD; I did try again, but got the same 'stuck at 8%' as before.

 

Interestingly, I found this on the forums:-

 

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=28496

 

where 'rbelknap' had the same issue, with the identical '8%' symptom, on Sep 29, 2007. So EMC 10, I guess, or possibly 9.

 

'Larry' advised him to update his drivers, and the guy never came back, so maybe that worked for him.

 

But I'm pretty sure my drivers are up to date, and my kit good enough for the task, as the rendering/burning in MyDVD is fine for me.

 

Here's someone who went elsewhere for help:-

 

http://www.fixya.com/support/t1627073-dvd_...n_using_emc_v10

 

and didn't get any. EMC 10, just last month, pretty much what I'm reporting, and he gets the Cancel hang as well.

 

I am very tempted to suspect a bug in Copy and Convert, and a long-term one at that, though it may only affect a few peoples' setups.

 

OK, I'm pretty much done here, and thanks for all the help, but what's the next step? Do I contact Roxio support formally, so they can run with this issue?

[bimicher]

Thanks!

 

Well, I ran MyDVD and tried to feed it the .AVI I mentioned in the very first post above, but it was on a DVD-R, and I only have the one drive, so all went well until I tried to put in the disc to burn the output file to, whereupon MyDVD got confused. It looks as if, unlike other programs in Creator 2009, this one doesn't stage the source file on the hard disc. Or have I missed an option here?

 

Anyway, not to worry, I copied the AVI to the hard disc manually, and then tried burning from there with 'fit to disc' to a blank DVD+RW. No problems at all, apart from it taking a little longer than real-time to render the title, but it did it steadily enough, and the DVD+RW ran on both my domestic DVD players, BluRay and ordinary. (As borne out by the manual for each, the ordinary DVD player would play the original AVI, but the BluRay player wouldn't). Played side by side at the same resolution, the two files look identical, so the rendering neither added nor subtracted anything.

 

So here we are, me a little more savvy on matters of burning, having proved that my kit can render and burn OK with your guidance, for which thanks, and that I can do what I set out to do, but just by a different route, for which more thanks.

 

However, I still can't persuade 'Copy and Convert' to make a DVD; I did try again, but got the same 'stuck at 8%' as before.

 

Interestingly, I found this on the forums:-

 

http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showtopic=28496

 

where 'rbelknap' had the same issue, with the identical '8%' symptom, on Sep 29, 2007. So EMC 10, I guess, or possibly 9.

 

'Larry' advised him to update his drivers, and the guy never came back, so maybe that worked for him.

 

But I'm pretty sure my drivers are up to date, and my kit good enough for the task, as the rendering/burning in MyDVD is fine for me.

 

Here's someone who went elsewhere for help:-

 

http://www.fixya.com/support/t1627073-dvd_...n_using_emc_v10

 

and didn't get any. EMC 10, just last month, pretty much what I'm reporting, and he gets the Cancel hang as well.

 

I am very tempted to suspect a bug in Copy and Convert, and a long-term one at that, though it may only affect a few peoples' setups.

 

OK, I'm pretty much done here, and thanks for all the help, but what's the next step? Do I contact Roxio support formally, so they can run with this issue?

 

I am totally confused by what you are doing or even what you are trying to do

 

One thing though stands out: trying to burn a video DVD with the source video on a DVD is asking for failure, IMO. I always work with all my source files on the hard drive. Also I never burn any video project to DVD directly but always first to a folder set or an iso file

 

I don't understand what you mean by "taking a little longer than real-time to render the title". If the source file is not DVD compliant it will take more then "real time" to render, I doubt that there are many systems that can render in real time.

[Midnight_Voice]

If I am following this, you still can't do a DVD???

 

Assuming you have a DVD RW disc or 2 laying around (everyone starting out must!) make a new MyDVD project.

 

Add 2 or 3 still pictures from My Pictures – Sample Pictures and burn. What happens?

 

I didn't know if I could do a DVD or not - I hadn't tried. Just that Copy and Convert will still not render an AVI into DVD format, and I was using 'Output to File/Folder', so it wasn't even getting near the burning stage.

 

Anyway - I found MyDVD, and ran it up, realised you wanted me to make a Slideshow, and tried that, using an existing DVD+RW with 3.3Gb left on it. No go - MyDVD can't add to it, but wants to erase it.

 

So I put the disc back into my wife's Compaq Win XP Home laptop, and the OEM Sonic RecordNow 7.22 that came with it would be deliriously happy to put those sample pictures onto the DVD+RW - just did in fact.

 

But it looks like my Vista machine has been fubared by Creator 2009. Instead of a powerful DVD-RAM drive E: capable of burning pretty much anything, and of allowing files to be added incrementally to an existing non-finalised DVDRW, I now have an E: drive that seems to have been crippled into being a DVD-ROM read-only drive, and I have an F: drive put there by Creator 2009, which uses the same physical device, but insists it can only burn a completely blank disc - even if I try to add files in Windows Explorer without letting Creator 2009 come into the picture.

 

I am thoroughly unimpressed at present. Why 2 drives? RecordNow seems to manage OK with just one on the XP machine. And what happened to my incremental burning capability? And how do I get it back?

 

Carrying on, though, I gave it a blank DVD+RW, and 8 Sample Pictures to make a slideshow out of. It did that, in about 6 minutes. Is that good for a 83Mb on a 4x DVD? Somehow, I rather think that's a bit slow....

 

Then I tried to watch it in Cineplayer. It's kind of hard to comprehend just how bad this piece of software is. No indication of how to get off the intro and watch the slideshow. Then, when I finally clicked the little picture of the first sample picture, it started. No wait, the first time I did it, it crashed. And the third time, and maybe one or two others.

 

But I did get it to work a few times. Wow! The last time I saw dot crawl like that was just before I got the RGB upgrade for my Sinclair Spectrum in 1982. (Timex TS1000 across the pond, IIRC). But it did run.

 

However, it was running on the monitor attached as my second screen, so I thought I'd better try it on the laptop screen itself. But it turns out that dragging the Cineplayer over the the other screen crashes it. Every mumbling time, as repeatably as you like. Can I try it with just that one screen turned on? Maybe, after I've sent this 'progress' report, and the steam stops coming out of my ears.

 

But then I've tried the same slideshow in Windows Media Player (9), Windows Media Center (9), WinDVD for Toshiba (8) and RealPlayer (7), and they are all pretty good. Which I guess means MyDVD burnt it pretty well. I tried CinePlayer again, after those, just to be fair, and it's really unwatchable. I put a commercial DVD in - not quite as bad (as far as I could tell up to the point where CinePlayer froze on me) but still dreadful by WMP standards.

 

So, yes, I can burn. But not how I want to anymore, it seems. Is this all normal for Creator 2009, or is something seriously wrong with my setup?

[Midnight_Voice]

I am totally confused by what you are doing or even what you are trying to do

 

One thing though stands out: trying to burn a video DVD with the source video on a DVD is asking for failure, IMO. I always work with all my source files on the hard drive. Also I never burn any video project to DVD directly but always first to a folder set or an iso file

 

I don't understand what you mean by "taking a little longer than real-time to render the title". If the source file is not DVD compliant it will take more then "real time" to render, I doubt that there are many systems that can render in real time.

 

Quite simply, I am trying to establish whether or not there is a bug in Copy and Convert.

 

I thought there might not be, and it might be me or my kit, but Jim has taken me on an excellent journey that I think proves that it isn't me or my kit, and that Copy and Convert is faulty.

 

While going on that journey, I have found that instead of being able to rely on the features in Creator 2009 working and being intuitive, they have often been only one or the other, and sometimes neither.

 

This is a situation I am used to encountering while testing newly developed Windows software, and I am trained to document the failed byways, as well as the highway I am trying to follow.

 

I can well understand that anyone trying to follow my actions, and who is not used to this methodology, will be a bit bewildered by it.

 

What I'm a bit bewildered by, though, is how this can be happening with a commercially released product that is now in its 11th iteration; it is a situation, frankly, which is nothing short of appalling.

 

I am sure you are right about copying files from DVD to DVD; for guaranteed results, first manually extract the file from the source DVD onto the hard disc, then stage it in the new version onto the hard disc, and then finally burn the resultant file to the target DVD.

 

This causes me to raise two questions:-

(i) if this is what is necessary, why does Creator 2009 apparently offer to carry out the process with one or more stages omitted?

(ii) if this is what is necessary, why does Creator 2009 not take you through these stages automatically, and user-transparently?

 

I didn't have a problem with the rendering, per se; I think it is appallingly slow and other products will get there a great deal sooner (e.g. Div-X Pro will convert an AVI to DivX format in 5 to 10% of the time that Creator 2009 requires) but it did at least complete.

 

As to the task that I was trying to do: it was to convert a 2-hour AVI on a DVD-R into DVD format, using Copy and Convert, something that this commercially released product that I have paid good money for purports to be able to do.

 

As to what I wound up doing; I copied the 2-hour AVI to my hard disc, and then tried to make a disc copy, again to a file on my hard disc, in DVD format, using Copy and Convert. (I would respectfully suggest that this ought to comply with even the limited subset of Creator 2009 that you would expect to work).

 

And found that it immediately runs to 8% completed, and then stays there for as long as I am prepared to let it, using 50-70% of my dual core processor, and making no further progress. And then, when I cancel it, it will display the message 'Cancelling Please Wait', and then stays there for as long as I am prepared to let it, using 50-70% of my dual core processor, and making no further progress. And needing 'End Process' in Task Manager to finally terminate this task.

 

If you need any further clarification, I would be more than happy to supply it.

[Jim_Hardin]

I didn't know if I could do a DVD or not - I hadn't tried. Just that Copy and Convert will still not render an AVI into DVD format, and I was using 'Output to File/Folder', so it wasn't even getting near the burning stage.

 

Anyway - I found MyDVD, and ran it up, realised you wanted me to make a Slideshow, and tried that, using an existing DVD+RW with 3.3Gb left on it. No go - MyDVD can't add to it, but wants to erase it.

 

So I put the disc back into my wife's Compaq Win XP Home laptop, and the OEM Sonic RecordNow 7.22 that came with it would be deliriously happy to put those sample pictures onto the DVD+RW - just did in fact.

 

But it looks like my Vista machine has been fubared by Creator 2009. Instead of a powerful DVD-RAM drive E: capable of burning pretty much anything, and of allowing files to be added incrementally to an existing non-finalised DVDRW, I now have an E: drive that seems to have been crippled into being a DVD-ROM read-only drive, and I have an F: drive put there by Creator 2009, which uses the same physical device, but insists it can only burn a completely blank disc - even if I try to add files in Windows Explorer without letting Creator 2009 come into the picture.

 

I am thoroughly unimpressed at present. Why 2 drives? RecordNow seems to manage OK with just one on the XP machine. And what happened to my incremental burning capability? And how do I get it back?

 

Carrying on, though, I gave it a blank DVD+RW, and 8 Sample Pictures to make a slideshow out of. It did that, in about 6 minutes. Is that good for a 83Mb on a 4x DVD? Somehow, I rather think that's a bit slow....

 

Then I tried to watch it in Cineplayer. It's kind of hard to comprehend just how bad this piece of software is. No indication of how to get off the intro and watch the slideshow. Then, when I finally clicked the little picture of the first sample picture, it started. No wait, the first time I did it, it crashed. And the third time, and maybe one or two others.

 

But I did get it to work a few times. Wow! The last time I saw dot crawl like that was just before I got the RGB upgrade for my Sinclair Spectrum in 1982. (Timex TS1000 across the pond, IIRC). But it did run.

 

However, it was running on the monitor attached as my second screen, so I thought I'd better try it on the laptop screen itself. But it turns out that dragging the Cineplayer over the the other screen crashes it. Every mumbling time, as repeatably as you like. Can I try it with just that one screen turned on? Maybe, after I've sent this 'progress' report, and the steam stops coming out of my ears.

 

But then I've tried the same slideshow in Windows Media Player (9), Windows Media Center (9), WinDVD for Toshiba (8) and RealPlayer (7), and they are all pretty good. Which I guess means MyDVD burnt it pretty well. I tried CinePlayer again, after those, just to be fair, and it's really unwatchable. I put a commercial DVD in - not quite as bad (as far as I could tell up to the point where CinePlayer froze on me) but still dreadful by WMP standards.

 

So, yes, I can burn. But not how I want to anymore, it seems. Is this all normal for Creator 2009, or is something seriously wrong with my setup?

You really have no idea what you are doing…

 

You can't simply throw files at a DVD and hope they will stick and work! – they won't!

 

Once a DVD Movie is Authored, nothing can be added to it. If it is RW it has to be erased so that it is blank. If it is an R disc, it is done.

 

Please go back and try what I suggested.

 

If that works then erase and start an new project and add one of your movie files and see if it will burn.

 

[Jim_Hardin]

Most folks are too brief…

 

Try burning to a Folder set, then put in a blank disc and burn the Folder set to that using VCC.

 

[Midnight_Voice]

Most folks are too brief…

 

Try burning to a Folder set, then put in a blank disc and burn the Folder set to that using VCC.

 

I've never had a problem with brevity, except perhaps achieving it

 

The burn to a folder set (nicely anticipating your reply as it happens) has been at the same 8% as a DVD burn for the last 2 hours. I'll be going to watch TV, and then to bed pretty soon, so it will get another 12 hours to see if it wants to behave or not.

[Midnight_Voice]

The Roxio program doesn’t do anything to any drive or operating system… What I think you are talking about is Vista Live File System. Put in a blank RW disc and it will work. It also has no place whatsoever in Authoring and a disc formatted for it is unusable for anything else.

 

Apples and Oranges… I can do things in WordPerfect that you can only dream about using Word! Likewise there are things in Sony Vegas that I can do that you can't with RecordNow or Roxio.

 

If you want to learn how to use Roxio we can help.

 

The slide show was a simple test to confirm that with a proper file added to a MyDVD project it would burn a properly Authored DVD Movie. – and from what you said, it did.

 

I recommend using RW media because you can erase and reuse it. Great for learning and testing!

 

Where would you like to go next?

 

Where I'd like to go next is for you, or anyone else, to tell me what is the expected and usual drive configuration after installing Creator 2009 on Vista.

 

Before installing Creator 2009, I had one DVD device, a MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA device that could read and burn, which normally showed up as E:.

 

After installing Creator 2009, drive E: still has the same designation, but no longer burns. Burning is now done by F: designated ROXIO DVD-ROM Emulator SCSI CdRom device, which is a logical drive that uses the same physical drive as E:.

 

F: takes upon itself all burning activities on the machine, both inside and outside Creator 2009.

 

The drivers for both devices, since installing Creator 2009, comprise of a Windows one, a GEAR one, Sonic Solutions PxHelp20.sys, and a Toshiba one, in that order.

 

So: is this normal after a Creator 2009 install?

 

If it isn't - and from what you are saying about the Roxio program doing nothing to any drive or operating system, it sounds that way - it may well explain some of the oddities I am seeing.

 

 

[Midnight_Voice]

Yes, I think a clean install is next.

 

BTW, how do I get to MyDVD or VideoWave in Creator 2009? Nothing seems to have these Creator 10 names any more, and the Help tells you only about them, not where to find them

 

Thanks ggrussell. I'll look for these as soon as I have Creator 2009 back in place.

 

Re the clean install, I did all it said; but the registry was still dripping with references to Roxio and Sonic.

 

I ran RegCleaner, and that pulled a lot of them out, but there are still a lot left, e.g.

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ARE\Roxio, which holds

6 keys with names like HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ARE\Roxio\Certificates10\{EC877639-07A

and 3 like HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ARE\Roxio\Certificates11\{1D53B6F9-E66.

 

and also

 

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\SonicLicenseManager10.DLL

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AppID\SonicLicenseManager11.DLL

 

I've left these alone, but the Registry is hardly clean of Roxio and Sonic; might these leftovers matter at all?

 

I also have a whole bunch of files in Windows/winsxs with names like:

x86_microsoft-windows-sonic-offset_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18000_none_0eebf975de85d322

 

Are these Sonic files? And if so, are they OK to leave there?

 

I wonder if this machine came with an OEM Sonic Now ever before I put Creator 10 on it, though I don't think it did

[cdanteek]

I ran RegCleaner,

 

The Vista OS built in burning uses Sonic products. Using RegCleaner to take out reference to Sonic, you could damage your Vista install!

 

All you need to do is print out the clean uninstall reinstall, for ones OS Vista or XP, and follow that.

 

cd

[gi7omy]

That sounds more like a messed up Windows installation to me - I have seen windows randomly change drive letters but that can be fixed (in XP it's in control panel, Admin Tools, Drive Management). I'm not sure what the Vista equivalent would be as I don't have it installed

[Jim_Hardin]

Not a problem – good luck!

[Jim_Hardin]

No, something not right…

 

While a Core2 1.7 is hardly an earth shaker, I would expect more.

 

Use VideoWave or MyDVD and under Tools – Options – Render, set it to Software

 

I have a desktop that is similar, with a board chip and no Video Card and my 2.2Ghz and it does a compliant 1 hour video in 8 minutes (AVCHD in 4 1/2 hours)

 

If that doesn't help a Clean Install might be in order - Vista

 

[grandpabruce]

[snipped]

 

But this isn't as versatile as the Roxio products set out to be, hence me having Cremator 10 (which I never tried using Copy and Convert in, as it happens) and now Cremator 2009.

 

 

Well, duh. So I killed the process in Task Manager (after which Cremator 2009 wouldn't talk to me any more), and ejected the disc - which I had to do in software on the mysterious new F: drive as the real life button on my real life E: drive wouldn't do anything.

 

And then found, after a reboot, that I had a coaster, as Cremator 2009 didn't think my disc was blank any more. Though Windows Media Player said it would be very happy to do pretty much anything I wanted, on this disc with 4.7Gb free, even though it did have a label...

 

 

One final thought, though, than might be relevant. This laptop still has Easy Media Cremator 10 on it.

 

But, again from what I read in here, they don't; so much so that a mere uninstall will never suffice, and I need to do some root canal work on the file system and registry as well, before reinstalling Cremator 2009.

 

LOLLOL! I have seen the Roxio software called many things, but yours made me laugh. ROFLMAO!

 

[Jim_Hardin]

Yes something is totally out of whack with your OS…

 

Were it mine, I would buy a new HD – Install Windows – Install Roxio. All should work fine.

 

At that point I would decided just what do I really NEED from the old drive… Then attach the old drive as a slave and copy over what is needed. After a month or so when I am sure everything I need is copied, I would format the old drive and use it for more storage.

 

At first glance it sounds extreme but when you think about the hours you will waste trying to track down a problem… It starts making more and more sense.

[Lord Roxio]

...But this isn't as versatile as the Roxio products set out to be, hence me having Cremator 10 (which I never tried using Copy and Convert in, as it happens) and now Cremator 2009.

 

...One final thought, though, than might be relevant. This laptop still has Easy Media Cremator 10 on it. The install of 2009 didn't remove it, not even partially. At first, I thought maybe the two had slightly different feature sets, and if 10 stayed on there, then Roxio would have ensured they would play nice together.

 

But, again from what I read in here, they don't; so much so that a mere uninstall will never suffice, and I need to do some root canal work on the file system and registry as well, before reinstalling Cremator 2009.

 

I have to say that this is one of the most entertaining threads I have ever read. I almost spilt my coffee on my keyboard a couple times. Do you do stand up comedy? If not you should. Your presentation reminds me of GC and Seinfeld wrapped into one. I don't have anything further to add for a solution to your problem but I have learned somethings here. Good luck and hope all goes well.

[Midnight_Voice]

The Vista OS built in burning uses Sonic products. Using RegCleaner to take out reference to Sonic, you could damage your Vista install!

 

All you need to do is print out the clean uninstall reinstall, for ones OS Vista or XP, and follow that.

 

cd

 

Thanks - I didn't uninstall or delete anything beyond what was in those instructions except for (i) the Roxio DVD driver that created the F: drive, which certainly wasn't there in Vista originally (ii) stuff that I thought was left over from 10 and 11 and which RegCleaner suggested for 'safe removal'.

 

RegCleaner is only supposed to remove orphaned harmless clutter anyway - I didn't mention Roxio or Sonic to it at all, but 12 of the 13 things it found belonged to one or other of those names.

 

I don't know why RegCleaner left in those clear references to 10 and 11 above - they don't look like anything that would have been part of Vista. But as it did, I presumed they weren't orphaned - perhaps they were hooked in somewhere - and left them strictly alone.

 

Anyway, after doing all that, I went back to my original problem - Copy and Convert apparently promising to make a DVD out of an AVI file - and got the exact same result - straight to 8%, and then 50% of my CPU socked in flat out for as long as I would let it be (across the two cores, not just one core), with no further progress at all. Not crashed, because the program is still responsive and I can Cancel, except that after that I just get the 'Cancelling Please Wait' message, with the cores still socked in at the aggregate 50% (I guess VideoConvert11.exe is polite, and limits itself to that), and I do have to End Process in Task Manager to get rid.

 

However, as it's doing this on the File/Folder option, and as I successfully burned 4 CD-Rs yesterday in a respectable time in 'Copy Disc', it means that (i) I don't seem to have a burning problem here, but rather a rendering one, so this thread it probably under the wrong topic and (ii) Creator 2009 is doing at least some of the stuff I need that Vista won't do on its own.