Some progress - but similar end point.
I have re-installed MF3 along with ALL updates. One (which I hadn't previously installed) pre-dated my download - but seems to make a difference in templates (now includes Dolby templates). Re-did everything, but Output still failed at the "Preparing title data" stage - this time at 16% in.
My only guess is that (maybe) the sound is Dolby 5.1 and hence not supported - although the clip properties don'e help in identifying this.
If you suspect this is the case - then I will try to get whatever software Sony provided with the camcorder, and see if this moves us forward.
Thanks for you help - I may be bak soon!
paulus
why is the movie longer when I join clips
Sorry to start this up again, but there is still a MF4 file sizing problem when joining MPEG files. I have 2 MPEG files with identical properties, captured in the same way by the same devices. The properties are the same as the "gear" properties, but with one small exception. They were captured with a "quality" setting of 88 rather than the 80 default in the "gear" settings (this should not make a diffence though). When the clips are sitting side by side the scale below says they are a combined 3.9GB. As soon as I join them the size shoots into the red zone. I have also noticed that the first size is correct because when I output to an ISO file I get the correct size on disk, even though as soon as I press the "Burn" bottom, MF4 complains that the project size is too big, but it still allows me to continue to burn. The joined file size shown is incorrect so the thing to do is ignore the false size report and burn anyway - it should work.