Where did the media go? at DVinfo.net

Greg Laves · October 12th, 2009, 10:56 PM

Using CS4 on a PC 8 core. 64 bit OS. Plenty of hard drive and RAM. I digitized media from tape. Added time code for a window dub for the client. Rendered the entire sequence. Out put that to encore to burn to a DVD. Burned the time code DVD. Everything worked fine. Came back to do the basic cuts and now the sequence no longer shows as rendered. ?????. Try to look at the previously rendered sequence and it is about 97% red frames and 3% original content. Check the original source clip and it is the same as the sequence. Almost completely red frames. As you would imagine, re-rendering did not help at all. Any ideas where the media went? I am not doing any other projects at this time and the computer hasn't even been turned on since I burned the time code DVD.

Tripp Woelfel · October 13th, 2009, 07:20 AM

I'm not sure I follow what you did. Did you render previews or an output file? Did you render to Encore with Dynamic Link? It all matters because the answers will differ based upon your workflow.

If you rendered a preview, then those files are lost somewhere to PP. If you rendered an intermediate output file, then you'll need to search your system for it. Looking by date/time can work.

If you can recount your workflow specifically step by step, we might have a better chance to suss out your problem.

Greg Laves · October 13th, 2009, 08:01 AM

Actually there were two of us working on this. This is what I did. I had three different subjects, shot over a period of days. When I shot a new subject, I created a sequence for that subject. I added the unedited footage into the appropriate sequence. On each sequence I added timecode. And that needed to be rendered for output. I rendered each sequence. We were making a separate time code dub DVD for each sequence. From there, my partner took over and from what I remember he clicked "File - Export - Media". Past that, I really don't know exactly what he did but he made three separate autorun time code dub DVDs in Encore. I will check with my partner later today to see if he has more details. But the bottom line is that when I went to do my preliminary editing, one sequence and the original imported footage was totally useless. One sequence and the original improted footage now had a 2 frame (red) glitch that wasn't there originally. And the third seemed to be perfect. All were rendered and saved and were just fine before we created the DVDs.

EDIT Ooops, my bad. I was just reminded by my partner in crime that the program with all the problems was done by an entirely different method. The footage was imported into PP CS4. The footage was placed into it's own sequence. It had the timecode effect placed on the sequence, it was rendered and it was saved. At that time, PP CS4 was closed. The file with the time coded footage was copied onto an external drive and the DVD was burned on another computer using another program entirely. How can the sequence and original footage become corrupted by just copying the footage?

Tripp Woelfel · October 13th, 2009, 07:35 PM

Something smells like file corruption. Were you using USB drives for anything? They can be used for certain things, but you have to be careful. Plus cheap USB cables can quickly turn things to rubbish.

If you used PP to capture your footage using the source timecode, you could try recapturing. That might be the simplest solution.

Greg Laves · October 15th, 2009, 08:20 PM

I copied the footage onto a WD 320G USB drive. I have never had any problems at all using this drive or others just like it. I have done it often. For my solution, I just recaptured the footage. No problems since then.

Tripp Woelfel · October 16th, 2009, 06:34 AM

A couple of years ago I had some DV files get corrupted by copying them to the same model drive you have. I tracked the problem to a bad USB cable and after replacing it the problem has not recurred. I have, however, noticed that some of my My Book drives over 18 months old are periodically dropping their USB connection. It happens only with the older drives and is very repeatable, which causes me some concern about the overall long term reliability of the My Book series. Needless to say I'm proceeding with caution.

October 12th, 2009, 10:56 PM	#1
Greg Laves Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Corpus Christi, TX Posts: 640	Where did the media go? Using CS4 on a PC 8 core. 64 bit OS. Plenty of hard drive and RAM. I digitized media from tape. Added time code for a window dub for the client. Rendered the entire sequence. Out put that to encore to burn to a DVD. Burned the time code DVD. Everything worked fine. Came back to do the basic cuts and now the sequence no longer shows as rendered. ?????. Try to look at the previously rendered sequence and it is about 97% red frames and 3% original content. Check the original source clip and it is the same as the sequence. Almost completely red frames. As you would imagine, re-rendering did not help at all. Any ideas where the media went? I am not doing any other projects at this time and the computer hasn't even been turned on since I burned the time code DVD.

October 13th, 2009, 08:01 AM	#3
Greg Laves Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Corpus Christi, TX Posts: 640	Actually there were two of us working on this. This is what I did. I had three different subjects, shot over a period of days. When I shot a new subject, I created a sequence for that subject. I added the unedited footage into the appropriate sequence. On each sequence I added timecode. And that needed to be rendered for output. I rendered each sequence. We were making a separate time code dub DVD for each sequence. From there, my partner took over and from what I remember he clicked "File - Export - Media". Past that, I really don't know exactly what he did but he made three separate autorun time code dub DVDs in Encore. I will check with my partner later today to see if he has more details. But the bottom line is that when I went to do my preliminary editing, one sequence and the original imported footage was totally useless. One sequence and the original improted footage now had a 2 frame (red) glitch that wasn't there originally. And the third seemed to be perfect. All were rendered and saved and were just fine before we created the DVDs. EDIT Ooops, my bad. I was just reminded by my partner in crime that the program with all the problems was done by an entirely different method. The footage was imported into PP CS4. The footage was placed into it's own sequence. It had the timecode effect placed on the sequence, it was rendered and it was saved. At that time, PP CS4 was closed. The file with the time coded footage was copied onto an external drive and the DVD was burned on another computer using another program entirely. How can the sequence and original footage become corrupted by just copying the footage? Last edited by Greg Laves; October 13th, 2009 at 08:53 AM. Reason: incorrect info

October 13th, 2009, 07:20 AM	#2
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	I'm not sure I follow what you did. Did you render previews or an output file? Did you render to Encore with Dynamic Link? It all matters because the answers will differ based upon your workflow. If you rendered a preview, then those files are lost somewhere to PP. If you rendered an intermediate output file, then you'll need to search your system for it. Looking by date/time can work. If you can recount your workflow specifically step by step, we might have a better chance to suss out your problem.

October 13th, 2009, 07:35 PM	#4
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	Something smells like file corruption. Were you using USB drives for anything? They can be used for certain things, but you have to be careful. Plus cheap USB cables can quickly turn things to rubbish. If you used PP to capture your footage using the source timecode, you could try recapturing. That might be the simplest solution.

October 15th, 2009, 08:20 PM	#5
Greg Laves Major Player Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Corpus Christi, TX Posts: 640	I copied the footage onto a WD 320G USB drive. I have never had any problems at all using this drive or others just like it. I have done it often. For my solution, I just recaptured the footage. No problems since then.

October 16th, 2009, 06:34 AM	#6
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	A couple of years ago I had some DV files get corrupted by copying them to the same model drive you have. I tracked the problem to a bad USB cable and after replacing it the problem has not recurred. I have, however, noticed that some of my My Book drives over 18 months old are periodically dropping their USB connection. It happens only with the older drives and is very repeatable, which causes me some concern about the overall long term reliability of the My Book series. Needless to say I'm proceeding with caution.