I need to get some project to a client in .wmv format for approval. When exporting in CS3 via media encoder I get an error stating "writer initialization error". This only happens with .wmv files. I found others on the web with the same issues, and many reported that it was caused by installing CS4. The supposed fix is to go to the Premiere folder and run an executable named "WMEncodingHelper.exe /regserve" to re-register the windows media components. This did not work.

I had also installed CS4 on my laptop where CS3 exists and the same problem occurred. So I tried this method on my laptop and it fixed it! But my workstation is a no go. I have restored my entire Premiere Pro CS3 folder from a backup, and it didn't help. From what I gather form other internet forums, uninstalling CS4 will not fix this, whatever it messed up is left messed up after an uninstall.

I do not want to rebuild this machine from scratch to fix this. It must be a reg entry or something but I do not know about Adobe/Windows media registry keys.

Anyone have any ideas? How can I find out what exactly WMEncodingHelper.exe does and what registry entries it touches?

To add a little information, I searched the registry for references to WMEncodingHelper.exe and got these results:

dozens of references in long hex strings that I cannot identify.
2-3 references to it in the CS4 media encoder folders
2 references to it in Premiere Pro 2.0 folder (previously installed)

So nothing pointing to CS3

When I did the same scan on a laptop with just CS3 installed I found references to this file pointing to the Premiere Pro CS3 folder. I also found numerous instances where it was buried inside of long process hex codes but since I do not have CS4 or PRemiere Pro 2 it found nothing.

So....it appears CS4 has removed the links to CS3 and now I can no longer use CS3 for this task.

I'm going to guess that when you run the command with the /regserver switch you are attempting to reload the link into the registry.....does this make any sense?

As I stated earlier, this process actually fixed one of my PCs....but this PC is not re-associating the file with CS3.

THanks.

Marty,

Yes you are correct in that this is supposed to reestablish the link. Unfortunately part of what you are trying to connect has been removed or moved. The one positive of this CS4 upgrade is that we all have become very proficient in reinstalling our OS, updates and drivers. :)

Dave

Found this thread by searching for trouble encoding to .wmv. I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. Everything was working fine, until I uninstalled Adobe Premiere Elements 9. Now I can not encode to .wmv and get the error that 'writer is not found'. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Reinstall CS4?