No Video In Playback / Preview Screen

[Jim-R]

I would appreciate help on my problem. Using VS-8 for some time now and this problem is a first for me.

Either in CAPTURE or EDIT mode I can not get video on the preview screen.

In capture, the Caprute will capture the video, but NO preview on the screen. Audio, yes, but no Video.

In EDIT, I can play a clip and get the audio, but again, NO VIDEO in the preview screen.

I am using a Sony Digital 8 TRV 525. The Capture settings seem to be correct as Sony is showing up in the option screen, and set to DV.

I tried to troubleshoot by trying one of the small clips that come with the program and it seemed to work.

Please, any help will be appreciated.

[THoff]

Assuming you've made no changes to the system configuration (new video driver, Windows Media Player update, DirectX updates, codec installation), make sure that in the Preferences, the playback target is set to the Preview window and not a DV or dualhead device.

[Jim-R]

I have tried everything that I can think of but I am not having any luck.

If anyone has any other ideas to help I would appreciate it.

I am using Sony TRV-525 Digital 8 Camera with VS-8. When I drag a clip to the timeline or storyboard and play click on Play, I can hear the audio, but the Preview screen goes black. Then when I click on stop, the video position shows on the preview screen.

As you can imagine, it's virtually impossible to edit like this, I never know where I am in the viedo. Any help to resolve this will be great.

[GeorgeW]

have you installed (or uninstalled) any software between when it was working and now?

As THoff said, have you changed anything in your configuration?

[Jim-R]

In reply to George,

George, I do not recall for certain if I installed (or uninstalled) any new software, I believe I did, but can't place the timing for sure if it was done before or after VS-8 was working. In any case, I don't think it was any significant software that woudld be video sensitive.

In the event that was the case, that it was a software, install/uninstall, then how do I troubleshoot to determine what is wrong and then go about fixing it. Thanks for your first reply. If you can help me further on this it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[GeorgeW]

What format are you capturing? DV .avi's?

Do the captured videos play video when using Windows Media Player?

If you have your auto-backup turned on, see if you can restore to an earlier date (like to the last time you remember it working.

I had a video-display problem once when I uninstalled an application called WinAVI. I had to re-install WinAVI in order to get video to play again.

Try uninstalling, then re-installing VideoStudio.

Do other types of videos play ok, and just not the dv .avi's?

Do older captures play ok, or is this for all captures -- old and new?

Sorry to throw so many questions out there, but I am just thinking of random things to check/try...

[Jim-R]

George,

I have captured both MPEG and DV-AVI's.

I took some of the earlier caputures that I did, both in MPEG and AVI and tried them in Windows Media Player. The AVI played great in WMP for both audio and video. The MPEG that I tried in WMP played the video portion but the audio was inaudible, (sounds like a high speed scrambled noise).

I tried another old MPEG in the WMP and it worked also fine.

I took some of the AVI's that came with the Video Studio 8 program and they worked fine in all respects.

The Win-AVI file that you refer to. Is that something that I can locate and uninstall and reinstall, and safe to do. If so, where would I find this.

I tried new captures and they didn't work for me. I guess I have the capture settings lined up right with the camcorder...is there anything I can do to check this.

With regards to reinstalling the VS8 program, I want this to be the last resort because the program I have I started with VS-5 and purchased the upgrades along the way.... as far as I remember, to do a reinstall I need to get out the older versions and install in the same order. I did that one time before when I had a hard drive crash and it took a lot of time to get it working okay again.

I have my nephews wedding - 5 full tapes and I told him I would do the edit and DVD for him. Ooops, I am in trouble if I don't get this working.

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it. If you think of anything it would be great if you pass it along.

Thanks!

[GeorgeW]

hmmm, just a thought

Download and install the VideoStudio 9.0 Trial. It gives you all the new features (might not do AC3 audio in the Trial version, but the full version supports AC3 decode/encode 2-channel audio).

Installing the VS9 Trial might fix whatever got out of sync in your current setup. And afaik, you can have VS9 installed alongside VS8 and earlier versions.

You'll have 30 days with the Trial -- which should be enough to get you through the wedding video

[Jim-R]

George,

that sounds like a good idea. Looks like all other options are used. I don't want to try to reinstall my VS8 because it's way too many files and versions and I had a lot of trouble before.

Can I install VS9 Trial, use it, then uninstall it without doing any damage to VS8 ? From your last post, I take it that you can. Just want to be sure before I mess things up. Also, is the Trial a full functioning version other then the AC3.

Thanks again.

[Jim-R]

George,

I downloaded the Trial Version of VS9 and installed it. It resolved the problem whatever it was. Great suggestion. It worked!!

So far VS9 looks good with some new enhancements. I will give it a try.

Likely I will end up purchasing the upgrade to 9.

Thanks again.