Encoding Error

[themimi]

I have a slideshow in Premiere 4.0 that I cannot get to burn to DVD. I have jumped thru all the usual hoops; stopped firewalls, screen savers, defragged, etc. It gets to 84%, then we're finished. I've read all I can, and realize that it might be a gap or transition problem, but I don't see it. But I don't even know how can I find the problem. Does the repeated stop at 84% mean that I can do the math and find the specific place? I am about ready to lose my mind!

[ATR]

Regroup time....

First, my usual start questions
1. Computer operating system, installed and available RAM, total and free hard drive space. Also include how much free space that you have on any external hard drive to which Premiere Elements preview files are directed. Any multitasking going on during the Burn to Disc?
2. What did you put on that Premiere Elements 4 Timeline...photos (what pixel dimensions, how many), video (formats, duration), stop markers, unrendered or rendered titles/effects/transitions... What DVD Menu template did you use and how many DVD Main Menu pages and DVD Scene Menu pages do you have?
3. After you have your DVD disc in the DVD burner tray and your project is at the Burn Dialog, in the Quality Area of the Burn Dialog, what does it show for Space Required and Bitrate?

Once we share some of these basic details,
a. you start doing some subtracting troubleshooting to see if you can find the offending ingredient.

Let us start here and see where that gets us.

ATR

[themimi]

1.) Computer operating system Windows XP Professional Service Pack (Build 2600) 2.40 Gig Intel Pentium 4, 1280 Mg installed memory, slot J6G1 has 1024 MB, slot J6G2 has 256 MB. Local drive volumes: C- 40.01 GB 7.89 GB free. F: 320.07 GB 290.00 free. No external harddrives. No multitasking; no screen savers, firewall, security, no other programs open.
2.) I have 290 photos in on the timeline. Various sizes, but I would say an average of 450 KB. No video. I don't know how to use a stop marker, so I don't think that I have any. My text was all put on the photos in PS Elements 6.0. Transitions done there as well. No effects. I did not use any template, I have no menues, scenes, etc. Here's the deal: I made this slide show for my Dad's 80th birthday. I organize all the photos in 6.0, do the transitions there as well. Then I send it to Premeire, and add the music there so that I can use the mixer. I have five songs. I burned this show successfully the first time. BUT, my poor father, bless his heart, thought that the show was 'too fast'. Since I'm more comfortable at this point to change the slide lengths on 6.0, I went back there and started over. I changed the slide lengths to 4 seconds, changed a few transitions, and sent it back to Premeire, where I added the music. I have always had trouble with my computer 'keeping up' when I run thru the show, so I stop and let it catch up to itself. This show runs perfectly until it gets to about the part where is stops in the encoding process, and there it gets a little behind. Have I put you to sleep yet?
3.) in the burn process: Space Required is 1.21 GB, Bitrate is 8.00 Mbps.
WOW! That took a while! I hope I have provided a good enough look into this for you. You have no idea how thrilled I was to find this site! Thank you so much!

[ATR]

themimi

Thanks for taking the time to put all that information together. I appreciate details, so it kept my interest throughout.

But, I do need to double check some of the information:
1. Installed vs Available RAM. Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information. In System Information, scroll down until you get to Available Physical Memory and Total Physical Memory. What value is given for each (in either MB or GB)?

2, Local Drive (C:) Total and Free Hard Space. Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disc Defragmenter. In the line for the C: drive, what value is given for each.. Capacity, Free Space, and % Free Space.

3. Pixel Dimensions of a Typical Photo. Take one of your photos into Photoshop Elements 6 Full Editor. Then go to the Image Menu/Resize/Image Resize and look to see what the pixel dimensions are in the Image Size dialog (width and height in pixels). When you create the slideshow in Photoshop Elements 6, what output option are you using: Send to Premiere Elements or something else. How long (in minutes) is the slideshow that you bring into Premiere Elements? How long (in minutes) is the slideshow on the Timeline that you send to Burn to Disc?


Also, when the program stops in the Burn to Disc process, do you get any type of message, like low memory, transcoding error, other? And, if you were to Burn to Folder (which saves the video files to a hard drive save location instead of putting them on a DVD disc) does the process go to completion?

Also, if you go Edit Menu/Preferences/Scratch Discs, where are those files directed…same as project or other?

Also, if you go to the Default location for the Adobe Folder (My Documents/Adobe/Premiere Elements 4, how much content do you have in those folders and how many old projects (with .prel file extensions) do you find there? Try to estimate in MB or GB.

That is it for now.

I will be looking for your response and am looking forward to working this out together.

ATR

[themimi]

Available Physical Memory 826.96 MB, Total Physical Memory 2.00 GB.
Capacity 37.26, Free Space 7.33, and 19% Free Space.
Pixel Dimensions of a Typical Photo: 960/1280. But it varies; some are old photo scans, others are from my Nikon D-40 and are bigger. I tried to find a happy medium.
output option : Send to Premiere Elements
the slideshow that you bring into Premiere Elements? 19.49 minutes
the slideshow on the Timeline that you send to Burn to Disc? 19.50
the program stops, the message is transcoding error at 84%. Burn to folder, trancoding error also at 84%. I've come to hate that term!
files directed…same as project
And the final question may hold the final answer:
My Documents/Adobe/Premiere Elements 4, how much content? 2.15 GB
how many old projects (with .prel file extensions) do you find there? EIGHT. Try to estimate in MB or GB. - 96,508 KB
And a lot of that was after I burned the first ('moving too fast') video.
Thanking you profusely once again!

[ATR]

Themini

You do not have enough available RAM and free hard drive space to support your project.

It is late here. First thing tomorrow morning I will suggest some ways to optimize your computer, starting with cleaning up that Adobe/Premiere Elements area, freeing up hard drive space, and seeing what we can do about more available RAM.

ATR

[Chuck Engels]

You do not have enough available RAM and free hard drive space to support your project.

ATR

I have to disagree that there isn't enough RAM, but totally agree that you don't have near enough hard drive space. Over 800mb of RAM is plenty, although there could be Page File/Virtual RAM issues as well.

Getting your free hard drive space to over 40GB should help a ton.

[ATR]

themimi

First, since your hard drive capacity is 37 GB (as per your post #5), it is not possible for you to get over 40 GB of free hard drive space. With a lot of cleanup, maybe around 25 GB (guess-estimate).
a. can you move any of your files (not Premiere Elements source media) off the computer or delete them.
b. any program that you rarely use and that could be uninstalled.
c. use of junk file remover, such as ccleaner
d. cleaning out the pile up of review files and old projects in the Premiere Elements Folder in the Adobe Folder (default: My Documents/Adobe/Premiere Elements). For those old projects, if their source media is still in the same place as when you created the projects, then try to use Premiere Elements Project Archiver/Archiver or Copy option for saving. If appropriate, delete them.
e. moving files to an external hard drive (not Premiere Elements program files)..you need to proceed with caution with regard to media since you do not want to create a reconnect problem with regard to your Premiere Elements project .prel file.
f. to be discussed

As for the part of available RAM, I stand by my original comment:
You do not have enough available RAM and free hard drive space to support your project.
in view of your details (your post #3) where you say that 290 photos are involved and Burn to Disc detail of space required 1.2 GB. By comparison, I have a laptop that has 500 MB of available RAM and 25 GB of free hard drive space. (pity full, I know, but...) I can create a Premiere Elements project of maybe 25 to 50 photos, but not 290.

Did you say some place what the length of the Timeline content is. I recall the guideline that for every hour of Timeline content you should have 1 GB RAM.

A lot of food for thought.

Please check it all out and let us know your thinking so that we can fine tune whatever and whenever possible.

ATR

[ATR]

Add on....

In all of this, did we previously discuss whether your computer virtual memory is set up to be handled by Windows or by customized settings? My preference is to let Windows handle it, and then, if problems, customize the settings.

If it gets to setting Virtual Memory manually, check out the source (Microsoft) for the details (scroll down to the section on Manually....)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308417

You have a lot ahead of you. Good luck. Looking forward to your results.

ATR