Video Sound Problem - bug

[phillmj]

Hi, I'm still using the eval version of AMS, and so far it's awesome. One problem crops up repeatedly, however: sound cuts out during videos in the following scenario:

I have 2-page projects. The first page has a video on it, the second page just some text and web links. If I run the app, the video starts up fine. While the video is playing, if I click to go to page 2, then back to page 1, video plays fine. If I repeat that - click to page 2, then back to page 1, the sound cuts out completely on the video.

This is for a client who will have business cd's made. While this weird problem may not come up for most users, it will come up for some. This is totally repeatable, across several projects I have worked on.

I'm concerned if there's a fix for this, and it may impact whether I buy the software or not, as I can't use it if it will be distributed to hundreds of people and there is this bug.

Thanks for any help. I did try searching this forum for similar issues, but could not find them.

Since some of you may ask, I have Vista 32 bit. The video is an mpeg.

[phillmj]

You have to go back/forth 3x before audio cuts out. Every time.

[holtgrewe]

You have to go back/forth 3x before audio cuts out. Every time.

I haven't experienced this before. Can you post a small version of a project that fails so some forum members can test it on their PC?

I assume you've tried it on several different PCs, and the audio cuts out on all of them...? or is it isolated to just one PC?

[phillmj]

Hi, thanks for your reply. The smallest sample I was able to make that still had a short video in it is 3.31mb (the video itself is only 900k), but here is a link and you can download it:

http://courses.pctrainingexperts.com/docuzip.html

I have tried it on a win xp machine, and it doesn't even play the video at all. It is an mpg 2 file; should be compatible. I'm really concerned because my a$$ is on the line here: this will be for a business card cd deployed to lots of people.

Thanks for any insights. Note, this is a trial version of the software; I don't know if this makes any difference, but if you don't try it in 4 days let me know and I'll repost it. Thanks again.

[Ulrich]

Hello,

your video, short.mpg, fails because you are using some codec that does not ship with Windows XP and Vista. I tried three vanilla Windows installations (XP, Vista and the Windows 7 RC), and only the last of them was able to play that video out of the box. On XP, Media Player just locked up, on Vista it tried to download a codec (but failed).

On my computer, where I have several codecs installed, I hear sound but see a grey screen. You should definitely review your encoding settings, or deploy the correct codec before the presentation starts. Better yet, use something that can be found on every computer.

As for the audio stopping after you jump back and forth: Try to stop the video before exiting the page.

Ulrich

[phillmj]

I appreciate your response, and time, in testing this for me.

I was using MPG2 encoding; I thought this was about as universal as it gets. What should I be using?

And why does it work perfectly on my vista box, excepting the fact that after 3 times it fails?

Thanks again for your attention and expertise.

[Ulrich]

Hello,

actually, MPG is a container specification, not a codec by itself. It is similar to AVI in the sense that you can use different algorithms to compress the video and audio streams, and obtain files with the same extension, yet completely different from each other.

To be able to playback a MPG-2 file, DVD software is required on the target computer, like WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc. It seems that before Windows 7, the operating system has no built-in support for this kind of file. And I have DVD software on my computer, but apparently I don't have the correct codec for the video - so I get a gray screen with audio.

Ulrich

[phillmj]

Thank-you again for your thoughtful and helpful response. I didn't know that about mpgs....wow what a learning curve.

So, may I ask, what do you suggest (if anything) for a video to be placed on a business card cd that only holds about 75mb? An avi probably would not fit (to my knowledge). So how does one prepare the video properly for playback on most/all win boxes? Would a *.flv be better? Then I suppose you have to worry if they have the flash player installed. Seems so silly to me that there isn't just a universal format, like jpgs, for videos. wow.

I have Adobe Premiere and After Effects v. CS3. I'm just a newbie at all this, and any guidance you may I have I greatly appreciate.

Thanks,

Mike