Ulead 11 Plus Exporting TROUBLES, I need HELP

[angela123]

firstly, i have windows XP, 2nd i have downloaded the FULL version of Ulead 11 plus, 3rdly i have been workin on a new video for a guy that needs it tomrow afternoon(june 24th, 2007), i have finished the video completely, looks good, i go and try to export and i get RUNTIME ERRORS, so what i have done is disabled my virus scan, i have also updated the most current windows media DIRECTX 9X, as well i have went into Uleads Properties and changed the "edit file format" from MPEG to AVI, thinking that these changes might help the situation and create a smile on my face when i seen it fully export, i was wrong, BUT instead of giving me RUNTIUME ERRORS, the video just stops automatically by itself at the EXACT same spot that the RUNTIME ERRORS wud occur, so im guessing that something i have done sort of made a progress? i am desperatel;y looking for help as this video needs to be on DVD tomrorow afternoon ( june 24th 2007) for my client, if not, its not going to be happy days, so i would like to give my deepest thank you's in advance to anyone who can lend their hand and guide me through this, as having this video exported is a major deal to me, Thank you

[Ken Berry]

Well, you given us some information about your work flow, which is of course useful. But it is only useful if we also have a detailed idea of what sort of video went into the original project: what was it captured from, what devices were involved and what was its format (right click on a captured file within Video Studio and copy the properties here)?

We also need to know what your project properties were, if they were different from the captured video's properties.

What editing did you do?

And what exactly do you mean by 'exporting': actually exporting your finished project to another device? Or do you mean you want to burn it to DVD or some other media?

In either case, we also need to know what steps you took *after* you finished editing. Did you choose Share > Create Video File? If so, what format did you first choose (i.e. before you later tried 'AVI')? Indeed, what version of 'AVI' did you try -- uncompressed AVI? DV/AVI? Or one of the highly compressed mpeg-4 formats which like DivX which use '.avi' as their extension?

[angela123]

the video was captured from a camera, not an HD cam, one of those Vivitar video cams's with multi feautures built in such as a picture cam and mp3 etc, so it runs on memory stick, n the file format that comes outta it is .ASF file format, im not to clear with understanding when you ask "know what your project properties were, if they were different from the captured video's properties. " the editing i have done are such as effects, the music , cutting the video etc you know video editing, mostly ive used the cropping effect to make it wide screen, and when i say Exporting im talking about exporting it OUT of Ulead so i can upload on youtube.com etc, and yes to burn to DVD and yes i went to share clicked create video file, at first i tried MPEG1, dint work MPEG2 dint work WMV HDV1080 dint work, honestly im not even 100% sure as to WHAT kind of file im sapose to convert it to, and as for the AVI...go to File then properties it says "edit file format" n theres a drop down menu... that say MPEG n the 2nd option for me was AVI so i chose AVI i guess since MPEG wasnt working...do you understand? , thanks for replying hope to hear from you soon

[Ken Berry]

Ah... I am afraid I have never used .asf video, and I know next to nothing about it. Sorry. Hopefully someone who does, will quickly jump in here.

All I *do* know is that it is a special Microsoft format, and an advanced form of the Windows Media format .wmv. It used to be that .asf stood for Advanced Streaming Format, but I think Microsoft may now call it Advanced System Format.

Frankly, I did not even know you could capture it with Video Studio, but obviously you can. Indeed, I have just cross-checked with my own VS11+ and see that you can insert it under the general heading of Windows Media Video (which then shows .wmv and .asf as the two possible extensions).

If faced with your situation, I would first ensure -- before importing the first clip into my project -- that in File > Preferences, the box beside 'show message when first video clip inserted in timeline' is ticked. That way, when your first clip is inserted, you will be asked if you want the project properties to be the same as those of the clip, which you would say 'OK' to. Then you would do your editing.

But if you haven't, it doesn't really matter. After you have finished editing, select Share > Create Video File. Now here, in the drop down menu which appears, you will see that there is a category for Windows Media Video. Click on that and choose one of the preset templates -- though not the top two, which are High Definition WMV.

Or you can instead choose Share > Create Video File > Custom (or Same as First Clip). If you choose Custom, then in 'Save as Type' you again choose Windows Media Video, and then click on the Options button, and you will be given a much wider range of templates.

This will at least produce a .wmv file of your project which can be posted on the web.

To be burned to a disc, however, that new .wmv file would have to be converted to mpeg-1 if you wanted to burn it to a CD as a VCD; or to mpeg-2 if you want to burn it to a DVD. In either case, you would first need to produce a .wmv of your project. Then I would close the existing project and open a New Project, insert the new .wmv and then Choose Share > Create Video File > DVD (if you want to burn to DVD) or VCD if you want to burn to CD.

You need to be aware, though, that .wmv/.asf is a highly compressed format, and the conversion process can be very long and complex. I cannot comment on the end quality either, since I have never done it. But I would not have high hopes of a high quality output in a wmv > mpeg conversion. That sort of conversion inevitably involves loss of quality.

It might also be quicker to use a special conversion program such as SUPER which you can do a Google search for. It is free, and I suspect the conversion from .wmv to mpeg-2 would be quicker than in VS, which can apparently take hours on such a conversion (going by comments from other users of the .wmv format).

[sjj1805]

For an Explanation of the ASF (Advanced Systems Format) Please view:
WikipediA
In a nutshell it is a similar format to Apple Quicktime.

Regarding the format to use to render the video for Youtube please view:
VideoStudio: Rendering for You Tube.

Before rendering you need to save the project giving it a meaningful name.
Then after rendering for YouTube, close the project without saving changes. Re-open the project and now you are in a position to render it to a format suitable for creating your DVD.

Depending upon the duration of the video you may be able to select a pre-defined format
such as PAL-DVD or NTSC-DVD (Dependant upon the part of the world you are in).
This creates a DVD compliant MPEG2 file. Be careful not to select the similarly named ones that don't have the D on the end - PAL-DV or NTSC-DV - these create rather large files of 13GB per hour with an avi extension.

You can create custom settings so that your DVD will fit onto your DVD disc.
For a list of suggested settings please view:
What bit rate settings should I use?

Regarding the Runtime Errors, this can be anything from a simple re-boot of the computer is required to some lengthy prodding and poking to establish the cause. You mention that you have added audio, if you have used the MP3 format then some users have reported problems with MP3 created by use of the Lame MP3 Codec - perhaps that's why they call it 'Lame'!
If so then try converting your audio to WAV format instead - you can do so with a free utility called Audacity - found in our links to FREE stuff

Perhaps you have asked your machine to do too much, you appear to be converting a 4.3 to 16.9 plus inserting transitions, cuts, sound and titles all in one go. Normally we suggest rendering Once to avoid loss of quality. This particular project might be one of those esceptions to the rule. Try converting it to 16.9 beforehand using the cropping filter and then doing the rest.