To all:The following is a rather lengthy account of a problem I had running DVD Movie Factory 4. I sent a note off to Ulead support and posted a question elsewhere in this forum. Through quite a bit of experimentation, I managed to resolve the problem, but it was not easy and took about three hours. The original problem was that the Jog Bar where you can go directly to a particular frame of video wasn't working properly in playback. If I set the bar anywhere in the video and clicked the Play button, most of the time the bar would jump back to "0:00:00.00" and not play at all.
I am re-posting all the steps I took not because I want to bore you, but because I'm hoping it will spark some thoughts about other things you can try to get other DMF 4 problems resolved. I am hoping you'll find something useful here, but believe me, whatever you try will take patience.
One thing I recall about my Jog Bar problem was that I had installed the DMF 4 "Try Before You Buy" trial version of the program on my computer and that Version 3 was still residing on my PC. When I installed DMF 4 with these other two versions present on my PC, I got alarming results. In addition to the Jog Bar not working correctly, during the installation process, I got a UAE CPU STOP situation – that's the blue screen that tells you your system has, effectively been halted and a dump has been taken. ("UAE" stands for Unrecoverable Application Error. You thought those went away with XP? Not a chance.) For the second go-round, I used Windows XP's System Restore to go far back enough before I installed the trial version of DMF 4. But I do recall seeing a cautionary message saying that I had a previous version of the program. But it didn't make me go back and uninstall it, nor did it automatically uninstall the previous versions (and it really should, now that I know what can happen!).
Also, I decided to use the installation settings exactly as they appear when you run the setup program – this meant installing the Windows Media support and Apple QuickTime 6 files, even though both were already installed. I left the checkbox for the Read Me and Register options checked also. Then I kicked off the installation and watched for problems.
One other thing I did was to bump up the virtual storage (In XP, choose Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced, and in the Performance section click the button to check the amount of space available. I use 3 GB now; it was a maximum of 1.8 GB before, I think.
Most reassuring was installing the program on my Dell Inspiron 1000 notebook computer, which also had Windows XP installed (although the Professional edition). The program worked flawlessly on that system so I figured there must be something I can change on my desktop system (where I want to run it) that's stopping it from working.
So DVD Movie Factory 4 does work – at the moment. I will be watching for irregularities during the "honeymoon" phase of using it.
Here, for the benefit of anyone else who may appreciate it, is a "log" of all the things I did to get DVD Movie Factory 4 working, including the Jog Bar:
DESKTOP COMPUTER
1. Ran the Repair option from the setup program. (Remember to place the Ulead DVD in the drive when doing this; I thought Repair didn't require it and got an error message saying it couldn't run it.)
2. Visually inspected the DLL files in the Program Files\Ulead directory. (I happen to be pretty knowledgeable about computers, software and programming and figured I might find something that would lead me to figure out what the problem was.) The only thing I stumbled across was that "keys" and "key frames" seem to have some importance (although they're not listed in the manual's index or glossary).
3. Started DMF 4.
4. Tried importing two MPEG2 clips from my D-drive (the program resides on the C-drive and I store video clips on D) and using the Jog Bar. Failure.
5. Tried running the Capture feature to see if an internally-created clip would behave differently with the Jog Bar. No difference. Failed.
6. Uninstalled DMF 4. Noticed that the entire program folder was erased from under Program Files.
7. Installed DMF 4 Try Before You Buy (hereafter, "TBYB"). Noticed it was the Disc Creator version rather than the vanilla DMF 4 I bought (no wonder it was only $50). Noticed it created a differently-named program folder than the full version of the program.
8. Restarted my desktop computer. Encountered a blue-screen error "PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGE AREA". I shut down the computer entirely then restarted it fresh.
9. Went to the program's files and checked the DLL dates – a few were from April 2005; some were from March and the vast majority were from January 2005.
10. Started DMF 4 and got the error message "System OS has updated: reinstall launcher." Huh?
11. Went to the program folder and started the program from the EXE file (a no-no, perhaps, but I was feeling pushy). Got the message about the number of days left, a mysterious quickie message box reading "Key error" (very descriptive), and a start screen that looked like an "SE" version of the program. (I would later discover this pared-down interface is what you get when you start the DiskRecorder program that also comes with the package.
12. Tried importing an MPEG2 video and got a message I've seen in other forums – "Contains no video data". Tried other files and got the same.
13. Tried a video capture with DMF 4 TBYB – got an error message saying "capture parms were bad".
14. Copied the DLL's and EXE's to a holding folder elsewhere on the C-drive (with the thought that maybe an old version of one of these things would work better than a new version).
15. Went to Windows Add/Delete Programs; couldn't find DMF 3 to uninstall. Decided to use System Restore.
NOTEBOOK COMPUTER
16. While the System Restore was humming away on the desktop computer, I tried installing the program on the Dell Inspiron 1000. This machine uses a similar CPU (a 2.2 GHz Celeron, albeit the Mobile version) and has about 400 MB RAM. (The desktop system has 512 MB RAM.)
17. Ran DXDIAG, the DirectX diagnostic tool to check a few system settings.
18. Read the ReadMe file a little more closely. Noted suggestions to try lowering display card's hardware acceleration level (didn't need to), get the latest display driver, bump up the amount of virtual storage. Both computers are at DirectX 9.0c.
DESKTOP COMPUTER
19. System Restore completed on the desktop computer. Found the files for DMF 3 but couldn't start it.
NOTEBOOK COMPUTER
20. On the notebook computer, tested out DMF 4. Behaved as expected, everything ran correctly.
DESKTOP COMPUTER
21. Back on the desktop computer, I bumped up the virtual memory page file to a range of 2000 to 3000 MB (2.0 to 3.0 GB).
22. Went to the website of my monitor's manufacturer and installed the latest driver (an unsigned generic version for Windows XP). This driver hasn't changed in the last three years.
23. Tried uninstalling DMF 3 but the launcher wouldn't start up. Went to Safe Mode. No good. Went back to a regular start-up, then uninstalled with the disc in the drive. This time the removal was a success.
24. Rebooted the desktop computer.
25. Ran the DirectX diagnostic tool DXDIAG.EXE and conducted some graphics tests. All passed.
26. Created a new System Restore point.
27. Noticed the folder for Ulead DMF 4 TBYB had, somehow, been left over, but there was no option for it off the Start menu, so I deleted the folder manually and rebooted the system again (just to be sure). At this point I also disconnected my DSL USB receiver.
28. Reinstalled DMF 4 from DVD; specified "self" for the Company on the screen where you type the serial number (before I had left it blank). Used the installation defaults exactly as they showed up – QuickTime 6, Windows Media 9, ReadMe and Registration were all checked "yes".
29. Watched the installation process; noticed Data-Add 2.0 being installed. No blue screen condition this time.
30. QuickTime installation completed successfully.
31. Windows Media installation presumably went fine; there was no message.
32. Rebooted the system again; restart was successful.
33. Tested DVD Movie Factory 4 and discovered that, wonder of wonders, the Jog Bar was working correctly this time.
34. Set a System Restore point.
35. Downloaded and installed the 4.02 patch for Dual-Layer support and other bug fixes.
36. Set another System Restore point.
37. Proceeded to use the program normally.
That's rather a lot, I realize, but I wanted someone else – particularly someone else who's a good detective or problem-solver, to see what went into resolving this issue. I still don't know exactly what the nature of the problem really was, but if I had to guess, I would say that not having uninstalled the older version of DVD Movie Factory, and not having uninstalled the trial version, probably played a role. Of course, running all the other tests and checks probably didn't hurt either. (I apologize for any apparent inconsistencies and out-of-order things from the above list, but the idea was to let others know things they could try to resolve an issue.)
Here, by the way, are the specs on the desktop computer (where the problem with the Jog Bar occurred) and the notebook computer (where it ran flawlessly from the start):
DESKTOP COMPUTER
eMachines e-Tower Model T-2240
Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2
2.20 GHz Intel Celeron CPU
512 MB RAM
C-Drive: 40 GB
D-Drive: 80 GB
Other Installed Peripherals: Canon Pixma iP3000 inkjet printer, two Pioneer DVD burners (models DVR-A07/8X8 and DVR-A08/16X16), Netgear USB Network Receiver, ATI TV Wonder Pro video capture card and software.
Other Applications Installed During All This: Microsoft Office 2000 (including Access and Outlook), Ulead VideoStudio 8 SE, Corel Draw 7 Select Edition, Paint Shop Pro 8, Norton Anti-Virus 2003, Nero 6 Express, Ulead PhotoExplorer 8.5 SE, Microsoft FrontPage 2000 and CuteFTP.
NOTEBOOK COMPUTER
Dell Inspiron 1000
Windows XP Professional Edition, Service Pack 2
2.20 GHz Intel Mobile Celeron CPU
446 MB RAM (don't ask)
C-Drive: 30 GB
No installed peripherals.
My final advice to all of you having problems with DMF 4:
* If you have older versions of the program, remove them COMPLETELY. Be sure the folder under "Program Files" is completely gone.
* Try installing the program using ALL the defaults – which is to install everything. I know, even if you already have QuickTime and the Windows Media stuff it shouldn't be necessary, but do it anyway.
* Make sure your virtual memory's page space is a decent amount, like a maximum of 2.0 GB, more if you can manage it. Ulead's ReadMe file also indicates this may help speed up video rendering also.
* If you're fortunate enough to have another computer to test it on, install the program over there and try it.
Frankly, I think Ulead's setup program should FORCE you to remove any older versions of DMF it finds. If it WAS designed to do that, then it has a bug itself and needs to be serviced. No one should have to go through all this nonsense because of lingering old files.
As I mentioned, this is what I did to resolve this particular problem with the Jog Bar control. All these gymnastics may not resolve the issues many of you have with other parts of the product, but who knows? Maybe something might.
Good luck to all!
Cheers!
Charles
