Project possibly corrupted, looking for opinions...
 

Hello everyone! :)

Let me give you details before I spell out my problem:

I'm running Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 on a Dell Precision PWS370, Pentium 4 CPU 3.20 GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM. (XP SP2)
With this set-up, I'm editing a 2-hour HDV independent feature heavily enhanced with the Magic Bullet plug-in. Until recently, the computer has been ROCK-SOLID. No crashes or problems- apart from the video section occasionally freezing up, but this is not the issue.

About a week ago, I'm got the "Adobe Premiere has encountered an error and needs to close" message, and I've tried several of the solutions offered on this forum:

- I've imported the project into another new one, but within minutes the project gives me the message and crashes.
- I've tried to open the project, re-name it & save it elsewhere, with the same result.
- Opening up a previous auto-saved project has the same result.
- I've tried to search for corruption with the XML Wrench program, but no results came of it.

I'm not running any other programs during this project, and I even turned off my antivirus software temporarily to check to see if it was the culprit- it wasn't. I also tried a new user account, but that wasn't causing the problem. Also, there are three other shorter HDV projects on the computer and none of them suffer this error message.

The only possible culprit may be an audio plug-in I just installed: Bias' Sound Soap 2.1- as the trouble began some time after this program's installation. I haven't un-installed Sound Soap yet, because if it isn't the cause, I've just un-done more of my work for nothing. (But that doesn't mean I won't if I have to!)

I'm wondering if there are any other solutions out there that might save this project- I desperately don't want to start from scratch, because I don't want this to happen again without knowing why it happened! It seems to be corrupted, but nothing I do can fix it so far.

I'm debating if an upgrade to PPro 2.0 (or even CS3) might help fix this situation. Any other suggestions would be appreciated! :)
(You'd save me from being lynched by my actors!)

Hi Jonathon...........
 

Hmm, seems a tricky one.

1. Have you re - installed the app from scratch? (always worth a try)

2. Are all you drivers up to date? (And I mean ALL!)

3. Are there any download patches for the app that have not been applied? If so, do them after re - installing.

4. I don't know what format this project is held in on your disc drive (s) but it may be worth (if the above doesn't do the necessary) to download a "trial" version of anything that can read that format and see if that falls on it's face.

I'm certain there'll be a lot more options posted so don't despair quite yet.

CS

I don't know if this can help you, but many times when I have an error message from premiere, there is a preview video file corrupted (I am talking about DV video anyway not HDV).
you can try to delete all the preview files (those premiere create after rendering into the preview folder) or move them into another folder, then you can open up premiere again and see what it happen.
of course the negative side of this is you have to render again.
I hope this can help you.
bye
franco

Chris and Franco, thanks for the input- I appreciate it. :)

Taking the steps one at a time, I made sure my drivers are up to date- I also installed an upgrade for Sound Soap. I found the preview files, but haven't moved/deleted them yet- I'm checking each possibility one at a time.

As of this writing, the Sound Soap upgrade hasn't helped-my project still crashes. I will try moving the prv files next.

I'm a bit worried about uninstalling PPro- I have a few other projects that work fine and mustn't be lost. I know I can store the pproj files elsewhere to save them (right?), but wouldn't I lose any plug-ins as well? (I dropped some serious cash for the surround-sound encoder plug-in and I ain't losin' THAT!)

I might just un-install Sound Soap as the next move, after the prv test.

Jonathan,

The only times I have had that problem is when I was mixing different types of footage in the project or when I accidentally opened up a project with the wrong preset for the type of footage I was importing. Just thought you might want to verify you have not done either of these.

Good Luck---Mike

Deleting the preview files won't hurt a thing...dump em all. You'll have to render again...that's it, no other consequences.

If that doesn't work, this plugin you mentioned might be it...BUT, usually plugins will crash the app on launch if they're a conflict. It's very unlikely that this would be the case. On the other hand, obscure plugins aren't something I even attempt anymore...too much productivity at stake.

As far as uninstalling-installing...you won't lose a thing as far as projects go. They're separate files stored elsewhere...hopefully somewhere designed by you so you can keep track of your work. You may have to go find the project files as they won't pop up in the open recent window after a new install, but that doesn't mean that they're lost...PPro just needs to be reminded where they are.

The last point here is just one of those painfully obvious diagnostic questions...
What change did you make just before the crashing started?

Install the Sound Soap plug? (again-plugin may be the cause)

Import some new media? (are those media files corrupt?)

Did the system have a bad crash? (again-could be media file/project file corruption as a result, but importing the project into a new one should've solved it if a corrupt-but-launchable project was the culprit.)

Did you move the files to a different drive that's having trouble keeping up?

Are any other projects a problem?

Are you scrubbing/playing the same spot in the timeline when it crashes? (again-pointing to the media in that spot being corrupt...move it somewhere else where PPro can't find it and make it "offline" when it asks for it on project re-launch and see if it crashes, if not...it's that piece of media most likely)

This is all pretty basic obviously...but 99% of the time, it's one of these obvious things that is the problem.

Got the project back by uninstalling the Sound Soap software. Apparently it must be used sparingly, as the problem didn't occur until the plug-in had been used frequently in the timeline.

Of course, now I'm having problems exporting! (the old "failed to return a video frame" message.) I downloaded the Media Encoder update (which had no effect) and am now trying the Windows XP update to see if that does anything.

(It takes a while to see- the estimated time is close to 35 hours!)

If you can determine what part of the timeline is hanging up, try a few short exports until you find the spot that is the problem (if it's always in the same place)...it may very well be a problem source file.

It's failed in three different areas, surprisingly. The first time was about 30% into the project, the second was about 20% and the last time as of this writing it got as far as 70%.

Were you able to see the frame count when it failed in each of these cases?

Is there a length that you can export?

please tell me there is adequate available space on the target drive and that it is not incredibly fragmented...

Can you open a new project, plop some media on it from this project, and export from there?

(Thanks for sticking with me on this one, Mr. Kolb!) :)

I have been able to see a frame count every time. I've also been able to export the entire 2 hour movie before, and this latest export only has had changes to the sound, and not the picture.

(The drive has been defragmented recently, and has almost 100 GB available for the export- in the past, the end file is usually just under 7 GB.)

Just an update- I was able to export an AVI... sort of. I had forgotten that the Magic Bullet plug-in exceeds resolution for AVI, so I ended up with some nice opening titles, almost two hours of a black screen and the end credits! (lol)

I'm going to try to export again, but I'm going to turn off the plug-in. (Exporting AVIs only takes 8 hours as opposed to the 35 for an MPEG2!)

Once this is done, I may try re-importing the AVI into PPro and export that file as an MPEG2 instead.

Have you uninstalled sound soap yet?

Yes, uninstalling Sound Soap is what enabled me to get the project into the exporting stage. :)

What are your project settings and target file settings?

have you removed the instances of Sound Soap from all the clips?

Settings are:

(General) HDV Playback
1280 x 720
Timebase 29.97 frames/second

Progressive Scan
Square Pixels

Compressor: Cineform HDV

Target file settings are pretty much set for maximum quality (highest bitrate)- I figure Encore will transcode it down to fit, and I've never had an issue with this before...

I will have to check back to see if ALL traces of Sound Soap were removed- currently, I'm trying another AVI export and that will take about 8 hours.

Well, how about that? I set it to export, turned in for the night and woke up to find it had "Unknown Error" somewhere! Ain't that a peach?

(shakes head in disbelief)

Anyway, I found this potential fix:

"Once you've finished editing you project and are ready to export your project as an MPEG file, use the old 3 finger salute to open Task Manager. Select the processes tab and select Adobe Premiere Pro.exe from the list of processes. Right-click the Premiere process and select "Set Affinity". Deselect all CPU listings except for the first one in the list (CPU 0) and click OK. Now export your project as an MPEG file. No more Failed to return a video frame error messages."

I'm going to give that one a shot, after confirming that all traces of Sound Soap have indeed been removed. See you in about 35 hours!

Oh for crying out loud....

Do me (and possibly yourself) a favor and uninstall and reinstall PPro before starting. I can't believe that the app is completely undamaged at this point...

You don't have Dual Opteron processors on a Tyan motherboard do ya?

Interesting fix. I've never seen that one. I'll definitely be curious if it works...

So much for the "fix"- my Task Manager does not have "Set Affinity"- only "Set Priority", and I get some interesting warning messages about system instability if I dare change anything.

That "fix" was from a thread in 2004, so it's outdated.

There was also another fix recommending changing the .exe file from "Adobe Premiere Pro.exe" to just "Premiere Pro.exe", but I can't find that .exe file in the Adobe PPro folder! (Assuming this fix is current.)

I'm working in CS3 today and I can change it...you found it in "processes" tab of the Task manager right?

The executable should be in C:Programs/Adobe/Premiere Pro X.X...

You don't see it there?

I found it in the Task Manager, but I cannot re-name a file there.

In the Adobe folder, I found two files which may be what I'm looking for:

One is the startup icon, clearly labeled "Adobe Premiere Pro", but doesn't say ".exe" (But I think this is the one.)

The other is "Adobe Premiere Pro.exe.manifest" (I have no idea what THAT is supposed to be...)

No...in the Task manager-processes tab, right click on it (while running) to set the Affinity...

You have to rename the executable...you may not have Windows set to show extensions, right click and select "properties' and you should be able to see if the file is ".exe" in there...

The first file says, "Application", and the second says, "Manifest".

I've got PPro running, and opened the Task Manager- The only options I have when right-clicking are: End process, End process tree, and Set Priority- no "Set Affinity" option is visible.

"Application' is the software application...

Are you logged on as administrator? i wonder if that has something to do with your access...

Yes, I checked to make sure.

Aha! I did some research and I found this:

"The Set Affinity command is available only on multiprocessor computers."

That solves one puzzle. Too bad it doesn't bring me any closer to solving my original problem! ;)

I've had similar problems with a long-form PPro 1.5 Project. Two suggestions you may or may not have tried.

-Create a new administrator account in Windows. Login from that account and run Premiere from there.

-Opening a non-jacked-up project file first and then opening the problematic one has solved some random problems for me, but usually this is to deal with the "Sorry, Premiere has encountered and error..." bug.

I did try that first suggestion earlier, but no luck. I also tried the second, but that was before I un-installed Sound Soap, so that may be worth looking into again. (If that works, thanks for the tip. If not, thanks for the help anyway!) :)

One other possibility is that the project file's size may have gotten too large for the software to handle adequately. Not too long ago before this happened the size was about 45mb. (I'm not referring to the project's size when it is exporting, but the "pproj" file in the Adobe folder.) I had no issues before, but the project has grown a bit since then.

I'm going to to delete a few small unused timelines and a thunderin' herd of takes that didn't get used in the final cut. This will take a while, but I'm running out of ideas and I need to see this project completed. Hopefully this will reduce the file size and make exporting a reality again. (IF in fact this is what the problem is.)

It's probably not the project size that's the problem. I am working on a documentary with countless cuts and sequences and it tops out at about 90mb. I have dealt with similar instability issues, and they have definitely gotten worse as the project size has increased.

I was only able to get it stable after much heartache going though similar routine fix-all type tricks. Over the 3 years this film has been in editing I must've reimported it into a new project 6 or 7 times, reinstalled Windows at least twice, and I always edit with multiple user profiles. So those may be worth trying again.

Another thing you can do, if your project is pretty finalized, is create a trimmed project. Go to Project Manager - it's fairly straightforward. it will create a new copy of your project with ONLY the files you have on you timelines. It will even trim the media to match your cuts if you select that option.

It's a great tool for archiving projects, but it may solve your problem here. Be sure to eliminate any vestigal squences first.

Oh - and it can take a while. But most editors should be pretty used to waiting on computers. Good luck.

Thank you, Mr, Thompson! :) I will give that a shot instead of the "project trim" plan. Luckily, there's no hard deadline for this- but the sooner it gets completed, the better.

Just an unfortunate update- using the Project Manager causes PPro to quit. I've also tried to export a regular AVI (non-HDV) and can't seem to do that either. (It stops without even an error message!)

It's not a corrupted file, as I've saved all my failed export files for comparison (I have ten now) and each one stops at a different point. Some get as far as 75 minutes into the movie, others stop at 24 seconds.

I'm running out of work-arounds, but there's one other straw I'm clutching at: Is there anyone whose had a similar problem that was fixed by upgrading to PPro 2.0?

Jonathan, it sounds like some random, unidentifiable part of your Windows install is corrupted. I keep all of my project files and temp AV files on a separate drive, so in the past I've just installed Windows fresh on a formatted hard drive, installed Premiere, and that's it. I kept the other drive around for other applications and documents until I had time to reinstall all of them and copy my important non-project files.

If you're considering upgrading to PPro 2, you might as well suck it up and do the full shabang reinstall. I noticed increased stability going from v1 to v1.5, but I've heard conflicting things about v2 and CS3; specifically, that long-form projects are still buggy. If anyone else can confirm or deny this, I'd also be interested to hear.

One time-saving suggestion - if you don't have one, get a Windows disk with SP2 already installed, or slipstream (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...slipstream.asp) a CD yourself. This will save you hours of Windows updating.

Mr. Thompson, thanks for the additional help! :)

I haven't done the uninstall yet, but to make sure it's an Adobe problem first, I'm going to try to export another project that has never given me any problems. If it fails, then it looks like it's a Windows issue. If it doesn't, then it's a problem with the project itself.

From there, I'll try uninstalling Premiere Pro, re-installing and see what happens...

(I've heard the same reports about large projects not transferring satisfactorily to PPro2 or CS3.)

Just an update- the other project exported beautifully without problems- and it was only somewhat smaller than the problem project.

I attempted another export with the problem project and got the infamous "failed to return a video frame" error.

It would appear that something within the project is bad.

Just another update- I was able to change the .exe file to "Premiere Pro"; another fix that's been mentioned previously...


...but of course this had no effect. Any attempt to export causes an error randomly (it's not the same place every time.) :(

Okay, I've just about exhausted every workaround I can find to make this happen- through process of elimination, I've determined that it is NOT a Windows XP problem, nor is it the Adobe software- it HAS to be the project itself.

Here's my rather newbie question for anyone still following this thread: I want to try exporting smaller sections of the timeline and join up the segments in Encore, rather than trying to export the entire timeline at once.

I do this in AVID all the time, but PPro doesn't seem to allow me to pick a small section. The timeline bar doesn't appear to allow frame-accurate exports, and every attempt to export the work area simply results in the program attempting to export the whole thing- which, as we all know from following this thread, simply does not work anymore.

So, what am I doing wrong? What can I do (for example) to set an IN point at 00:00:00 and end it at 00:30:00, and pick up my next segment at 00:30:01???

I'm curious - did you ever wipe the drive clean and start over from scratch? From my experience, you can't always tell if it's a Windows issue until you try on a clean install. It's a tricky beast.

Try reimporting that project file into a new one also - after you do the clean install. You've probably already tried it, but it's worth doing at every troubleshooting step. Also, if you're really a hacker, you can rename the .prproj extension to .xml - the project file is just an XML document and has to be well formed, like all XML. There are XML tools that can possibly find errors and fix them - take a look at this thread:

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc3c0d8

Reinstall Windows if you haven't done it.

Just an update & question- after six weeks, this issue still has not been resolved- I'm looking at seeing if purchasing Cinemacraft Basic might get the job done.

Currently, I'm trying to export the timeline in smaller 25 minute segments as either Microsoft AVIs or the Cineform encoder, but neither one works consistently. The idea is to take all the encoded AVIs and re-import them into a completely new project, and attempt another export as an Encore-ready file.

The thing is, I don't see this as any guarantee that it's going to work, so that's why I'm looking to see if Cinemacraft might be the answer.

Any opinions are welcome. :)

Jonathan:

Just a question. I have crashing problems all the time in Premiere when I am using my USB 2.0 drives to store my captured footage. Sounds a bit like what I go through.... When I use on board hard drives no problem. But if I start accessing the USB drives, crashes constantly occur. I felt it was just a mother board driver issue in my case, but it seems to occur in Premiere primarily. Is that what you are doing ?

Hi Chris! :)

I usually export to the C drive; I've tried to export files to my storage drives before, and if they're too large, they will fail. It was explained to me that the data transfer rate from the main drive to the USB drive is not fast enough, and the process fails. The files I'm currently trying to export come no smaller than 6 GB, and have been as large as 30 GB in some instances!

I just finished a widescreen standard definition project where I had to export small sections instead of the whole timeline, it is a concert project with 15 pieces of classical music and I need them separate. What I did is this: went through the timeline and put markers where the pieces started, then went back and used the 'cut all' control+K command (is it called 'cut all'?) to cut all of the tracks at the same frame. Then selected the portion I wanted (click+drag over all of the tracks) and control+C to copy. Created a new timeline for each piece and control+P to paste. Exported each piece to the final AVI and imported the individual AVIs into Encore for DVD authoring.

The cuts seem to be frame accurate, playback of DVD is seamless. Just another idea for you to try...