VS11.5+ crashes previewing or burning AVCHD files

[phidu]

I just purchased VideoStudio 11.5+ and installed on Vista SP1 system, with Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz with 4GB ram. I have a Panasonic HDC-HS9 camera, producing AVCHD files, which I download to my pc harddrive first.

I can import the AVCHD folders fine into VS. They have properties of
format: NTSC HDMV
type: H.264 Video, Upper Field First
Attributes: 24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 16:9
Frame rate: 29.970 fps
Audio type: Dolby Digital Audio
Attributes: 48000 Hz, 5.1 Channels
Bit rate 384 kbps
with the size of the m2ts files ranging in size from 20 to 60 MB.

Occasionally I can preview one of the clips in VS with no problems, but normally after a few seconds of running the clip, Windows pops a dialogue box "Ulead VideoStudio has stopped working", and closes VS.

I get this same error part way through a burn operation to an AVCHD disk as well, in VS Share.

Are there any patches for VS 11.5.0157.1 that I was shipped?
I have all the lastest Vista updates, as well as the latest drivers for my video card.

Note that I can preview and burn to DVD these same AVCHD files with no problem using the Panasonic supplied software HD Writer, on the same machine.

[Ken Berry]

If your version number ends in 1, then you haven't installed the 6 November 2007 update patch which affects AVCHD. Go to the Ulead.com website and click the Download button along the top, then follow the prompts. That version number indicates you have everything else necessary except that patch, so don't download and install anything else except that one 6 Nov patch.

And as another Core 2 Quad user, I can assure you that VS11.5+ as fully patched can easily handled AVCHD, including from a Panasonic camera! I don't have such a camera myself, but was sent some AVCHD from a Panasonic by a user here who had a less powerful computer and so was having trouble with it. I cut it, did some edits, joined it together, recoded it. And it all worked just fine...

[phidu]

I just installed the Nov 6, 2007 update from the Ulead site, on top of my existing install. The version now shows 11.5.0157.2.

I created a new project, imported 10 AVCHD clips fine, and tried viewing them, but am still getting the same error, causing VS to close, after getting part way through each clip.

[Ken Berry]

Can we assume you closed VS while you installed the patch? Have you tried it after rebooting?

[phidu]

I rebooted prior to installing the patch, to ensure all VS files were closed. I then rebooted again after the install, and started VS. I imported new AVCHD clips into a new project, and am still getting the same error previewing those clips, in the Edit window, although it appears to be somewhat less frequent than before.

Note that I installed the patch on top of the existing VS, without removing anything first.

[Ken Berry]

Although the patch came out a couple of days before the Power Pack, and normally would have been installed in that order, a number of others have installed it in the same order as you, with no reported problems.

The only other thing I can think of is for you to go to the Microsoft DirectX website and download the latest update to DirectX. Note that DirectX is not part of Windows automatic update and has to be updated manually. The current version of the update is March 2008. It correct some other problems in VS apparently associated with Windows updates, and it might help with yours. My own DirectX 10 had already been updated when I carried out the AVCHD editing I referred to above, so I don't know if I would have had similar problems to you if I had not updated DirectX. But it certainly won't harm anything...

[phidu]

Thanks for all the advice Ken. I already had DirectX 10, but downloaded and installed it anyway.

I also installed the VS11 Power Pack off the Ulead site.

I've changed to a lower quality format on my camera, but I'm still having the problem but less frequently now.

[lb44]

I just purchased VideoStudio 11.5+ and installed on Vista SP1 system, with Core2 Quad 2.4Ghz with 4GB ram. I have a Panasonic HDC-HS9 camera, producing AVCHD files, which I download to my pc harddrive first.

I can import the AVCHD folders fine into VS. They have properties of
format: NTSC HDMV
type: H.264 Video, Upper Field First
Attributes: 24 bits, 1920 x 1080, 16:9
Frame rate: 29.970 fps
Audio type: Dolby Digital Audio
Attributes: 48000 Hz, 5.1 Channels
Bit rate 384 kbps
with the size of the m2ts files ranging in size from 20 to 60 MB.

Occasionally I can preview one of the clips in VS with no problems, but normally after a few seconds of running the clip, Windows pops a dialogue box "Ulead VideoStudio has stopped working", and closes VS.


I'm still having the same problem (see thread 19-4-08) After loading a clip it plays fine in "Clip" mode but in "Project" mode starts off ok, then staggers, then the windows error message "VS stopped working" appears.
Now and again on "project" mode it does stagger through to the end of the clip missing lots of frames as it goes.
I've even upgraded to a Core2 Quad 2.66Ghz processor without improvement. Ken I know you say you were able to play a panasonic clip but was it recorded in their high resolution mode "HA". Some of the lower resolution modes do perform a bit better.
Mine are failing before any editing takes place. I'm running Vista Premium 64 bit and VS uses 32 bit, could this have some impact. I can play 1920x1080 HD clips captured on Compro HD tuner card without a problem.
Hoping someone can help.
Les

[Ken Berry]

As I indicated, I was sent the AVCHD files by someone with a Panasonic camera. The properties all indicated 1920 x 1080, so full HD resolution. You don't give the bitrate for your files. The ones I was sent had a Variable Bitrate with a maximim of 16,799 kbps. They were PAL, by the way, and I note yours are NTSC though I wouldn't have thought that would make much difference to the problem at hand.

I am not sure what more I can say. They worked on my Quad. And since I don't have a Panasonic or any AVCHD camera of my own, I am limited in what more I can do...

[phidu]

I dug a bit deeper on this. The Vista event viewer details are the following:

Faulting application vstudio.exe, version 11.0.0.0, time stamp 0x4762104e, faulting module H264VDecHPDll.dll, version 1.1.1.73, time stamp 0x46ce7b56, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x000740f3, process id 0x1570, application start time 0x01c8bace39c21e72.

I found multiple versions of the offending dll on my system as follows:

Directory of C:\Program Files\Common Files\InterVideo\Common\Bin
02/05/2007 05:33 PM 679,960 H264VDecHPDll.dll
1 File(s) 679,960 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ulead Systems\MPEG
08/24/2007 03:57 PM 1,005,736 H264VDecHPDll.dll
1 File(s) 1,005,736 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\Corel\DVD Copy 6
09/14/2007 08:09 PM 822,544 H264VDecHPDll.dll
1 File(s) 822,544 bytes

Directory of C:\Program Files\InterVideo\DVD8
02/05/2007 05:31 PM 679,960 H264VDecHPDll.dll
1 File(s) 679,960 bytes

I've seen other posts around this dll, and a fix regarding renaming all but one, and replacing all instances, but that the remaining file being used everywhere won't support AVCHD. So I don't know where that leaves me.

I found one thread on a German forum, that stated that the Nov 2007 updates for VS11.5+ came out before Panasonic released my HDC-HS9 camera, and so some AVCHD peculiarities were not accounted for in the H264VDecHPDll.dll by Ulead, causing the crashes. They stated that it may be fixed in VS12.

Any thoughts on the validity of this, or which H264VDecHPDll.dll of the above I should be using?

Thanks,