Encore: Recorder "None found" issue

[Dan Parkes]

I am hoping someone might be able to help with an issue that has just occurred with our CS3 Encore. We recently and successfully burnt a Blu-ray disc a few days ago and have been doing so for over a year. Today, with a different project, we went to burn a Blu-ray disc and suddenly have the Recorder "None found" issue.

Some info:
-We definitely do have a Blu-ray drive installed and it shows up in other programs etc fine (LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H20L (Firmware YLO3))
-We are using Vista OS.
-If we change the format tab from Blu-ray to DVD, the LG Blu-ray recorder instantly appears!
-We have tried the BurnRights application Adobe recommends and it did not work
-We have checked the list of programs that often cause conflicts and do not have any installed
-We have burned an IMG file, but strangely, although Encore said the project disc size is 21GB, when it created the IMG file it took ages (indicating it was unnecessarily retranscoding) and the file size ended up 35GB! So could not use IMGBurn as I was hoping....
-We went to check the System Restore points to see if we could take it back two days and discovered to our surprise this function had been strangely disabled.
-We have tried reinstalling Encore, but issue still occurs.
-We reopened the previous project that did burn ok and it also has the same issue -so it is seemingly not project related.

All in all very mysterious! But we are fast running out of options. Am hoping there is someone who has experienced something similar and can help or offer some advice, as it would be very much appreciated!

[Adam Gold]

I had a similar problem with the exact same drive but in a slightly different situation. My problem was that the "device cannot start" once I upgraded to Win7 from Vista. It was in Device Manager but not any programs.

One thing you might try is upgrading the firmware, which I think is YL05 in its current version.

Others report no problems with this drive at all, but I had to download and install the latest version of the Intel Rapid Storage Manager to even see the drive, at which point I did the firmware update. Seems to be okay now.

Not sure if this helps at all...

Have you done any software updates recently?

[Dan Parkes]

Thanks Adam.

The YL05 firmware upgrade readme reads...

"Never update the firmware if the problem you’re having is the drive isn't seen by windows, won't write with the included software, or other interface related problems, unless the firmware specifically states it fixes the problem you are having. Firmware updates normally don't fix these types of problems. Trying to update the firmware when there are interface address these problems can damage the drive's firmware."

Also it mentions: "This firmware software only works in windows mode with Windows
2000/XP."

So at this point have avoided this option for fear of damaging the drive. Since other programs have no issue picking it up and Encore itself identifies it when switching to DVD, my feeling is that it is an Encore issue. However in your case it seemed to work for a similar issue, and because we are fast running out of options, may be this is our last resort....

[Sherri Nestico]

I've also experienced blu-ray writing problems with this drive. In my case, the drive refused to write to a Memorex blu-ray dvd. It wrote to other brands of media just fine.

Once I updated the drive's firmware, the problem was solved.

[Don Blish]

I've always made it a practice to wirite a disc image (DVD or BR) and use my regular burning software as needed for copies. This leaves a handy and compact backup file.

That said, CS4 encore would not convert a DVD project to a BR on my machine, hanging even though I asked for an image and the program had no business even looking for a drive at that point. I solved it by disabling the drive in the device manager and rebooting before going into Encore.

Under CS5 Encore with no change in drives, this hitch has been solved so no disabling needed. With CS5 and a Quadro3800 card, encodes are vastly faster now. It uses all four cores in my i7-975 and recently encoded to 25mpbs Mpeg2, 100 minutes of HDV footage (Cineform codec, 1080x1440 30i) in about 40 minutes! Thats easily 8x faster than CS4.

If on doing an older project, the dynamic link to a Premiere timeline complains about not finding the codec, Start by opening the timeline in Premiere, minimize it rather than closing it, then start Encore. Obviously this works lots bettern now with x64 and lots of RAM. I'm currently running 12GB.

[Dan Parkes]

Thanks for the messages guys. Have now updated the firmware to YL05 but there is no difference unfortunately. It still says "Recorder: None found"....

I also uninstalled any programs installed in the last few weeks. But no difference.

I would most certainly create the BD image file, if only it didn't re-encode it so that it balloons to over 30GB, rendering the file useless..... (unless able to do a dual-layer BD).

To me it still seems to be an Encore issue, as it is the only program that has the issue (I have burned about half a dozen data Blu-Rays recently with other software). Most interestingly, when opening an older version of Encore (1.5) it has the same issue... "No devices found" ...and it only burns DVDs! Fortunately in the CS3 Encore the DVD burning function is still available...

Anyway, now completely out of options..... so any other suggestions much appreciated!!

[Khoi Pham]

Encore has the most bugs I have ever seen in a program, try this, leave Encore open, go into window explorer and find your project and delete "AuthorScriptHDMVSessions" folder, and back to Encore and make disc image and build and see if it work and use a seperate BD burning software to turn your disc image, if not you might try buying a errorwiz software, it fixes a lot of window registry problem including can't find burner problem.
Good luck.

[Don Blish]

Originally Posted by Dan Parkes

.

I would most certainly create the BD image file, if only it didn't re-encode it so that it balloons to over 30GB, rendering the file useless..... (unless able to do a dual-layer BD).

!

To reiterate, resist the temptation to use Premiere's Medita Encoder or whatever to do the encode.... Let Encore have a regular .avi export (or dynamicly link the Premiere timeline) and let Encore do the first and only encode. It will be compact and fast

[Dan Parkes]

Thanks Khoi, I tried removing the "AuthorScriptHDMVSessions" folder as you instructed, and at first it looked very promising... as it rebuilt the session files ready to create the IMG file it said 0 of 19GB data written..... then it suddenly changed its mind, and states "building movies" and now 0 of 34GB..... so unfortunately that does not work!

Don -yes the files imported are .avi files (Cineform codec) and I have let Encore transcode them automatically, so that in the Project Window all of the movies are listed in the Blu-ray column as "Transcoded" and the entire project listed as having 3.87GB free/spare under Disc Info . So I don't understand why when it starts building the IMG file the disc size jumps to 34GB... It has never done this before when building discs/IMG files so I do believe something in Encore has been corrupted...

We will (hopefully) be upgrading to CS5 in the near future, but that is not any help with this project which needs to be finished this week!

Thanks again, guys, am appreciating the suggestions!

[Don Blish]

Yep, thats a unique bug. I've had BluRay projects with a mere few megabytes reported as free....and had it complete and fit! So perhaps CS5 will do the trick for you

[Adam Gold]

In terms of not seeing the drive for BD...

This is really stupid, but have you checked to see if maybe Encore thinks it hasn't been activated? Maybe there's some licensing or registry screwup and Encore thinks it can't do BD anymore.

I had a feeling the FW update wouldn't help but I thought I'd throw it out there. Are there any exclamation points in Device Manger near the line for the burner?

You might try downloading the trial of Encore CS5 and see what happens then. Premiere can't do any form of HD in the trial version but maybe Encore can... not sure. Might be able to get you through this project until you can track down the culprit.

Another thought: Are you opening Encore and importing the Premiere timeline into it, or simply going "Export to Encore" from the Premiere timeline? If you've only tried one, try the other.

Edit: Looks like you're not alone: Adobe Forums: Adobe Encore CS3 Recorder: None Found?

And here's an interesting Known Issue:

•Selecting type as "Blu-ray disc single layer MPEG-2 or H.264" for "Author with menus" option in Premiere Pro Export to Encore dialog creates an encore project with DVD authoring mode instead of Blu-ray authoring mode (1499065)

Could it be related to this? Just a random shot.

[Dan Parkes]

Thanks Adam!

Yes, I did check the licensing situation -I have deactivated and reactivated Encore with no issues and it is registered, but this seemingly has no effect.

There are no exclamation points etc with the drive in the Device Manager. It is working fine (over the last few days we have been burning data BRs with no issues).

Unfortunately the CS5 trial version does not include Encore -I checked. Was a very good idea.... if only!

Regarding the exporting from Premiere to Encore....we are running this as a completely separate project. We have exported avi's out of Premiere and then imported them into Encore, let Encore automatically transcode them in the project window etc. But the Premiere exporting and file types etc I do not think has any bearing....as we have created a completely new Encore project without any media and if clicking on the Blu-ray tabs in the Build menu it still reads "Recorder: None Found". But then click on DVD and instantly the BR recorder is found! So it is not just this one project that is the issue, but Encore as a whole.

I have read and reread those Adobe threads and many others... most refer to packet writing conflicts especially apparant in XP. On that front I have uninstalled loads of programs that access the BR burner, but so far with no effect, so not sure this is the issue...

Thanks again Adam, your points are all good ways of rethinking the issue.

[Adam Gold]

This is really puzzling and must be quite frustrating for you. No matter how many workarounds you can come up with, you really just want the software to work.

Obviously something has changed but the challenge is figuring out what. For me it's merely academic and an interesting mystery but for you it's compromising your ability to work.

Please let us know if you ever get this figured out, as you've obviously already done everything I could possibly come up with.