No matter what I do power video karaoke crashes.

[Guest]

Sure, I'll do that tonight. I try many different things though--avi at different compressions and sizes, mpeg 1, mpeg 2 standard, & mpeg 2 with DVD extensions for US. It is much worse. Last night I couldn't get ANY video to go through. I can make great plain videos (no video backgrounds, only text). I even tried to go back and render my videos again with different programs--ULEAD's Video Studio & ROXIO's too. No luck. If I could just get a transparent video of text, I would be very happy as I could use that as an overlay in my other video programs. Now I have to use the solid colors with a small video superimposed on top (in ULEAD). If I could get transparent text backgrounds, then it would really help me as I have no problem with purely text in PVK.
Cyndy

[admin]

PVK can create frames as separate PNG images with transparency -- you should be able to use it in video editing software.

[Guest]

I saw that, but I didn't know how to put it together to time it to the music. I guess you would use the same frame rate as your video, but how does the png generator know which frame rate I'm using? To do one slide at a time would be terribly time consuming for a three minute song.
Cyndy

[admin]

Some more coding resulted in version 1.2.19 -- we have tested background videos and were unable to find any problems on our machines. Please give it a try.

[fortemac2]

Where's the video? Even though I checked the video file, only the black screen background came out in the capture. Also, some weird window called Active Movie Window (which I have never seen before) pops up, with the movie I selected inside it. However, when the resulting combined file is played, there is no video in the background. Very weird. I tried it with avi and mpeg movie files with the same result. Good news though, no crash! Now just tell me how to put that movie in (yes I checked it).
Cyndy

[admin]

There seems to be a problem with DirectX on your computer -- please try updating it to the latest version from http://www.microsoft.com/download.

[fortemac2]

I think I have the lastest, but I will try again tonight. It could have gotten corrupted. Could my anti-virus/firewall programs be a problem? I usually disable them and unplug the cable so that no popup warnings can occur. Also, I go into the task manager and stop about 14 programs running under my username (mostly bug killers, spybot, etc.).

Am I supposed to see that movie box window? I never have before. I think it is very close to working. I'm crossing my fingers. I appreciate all the help you have given me and the lengths you have gone to--to get your product functioning on my machine. With all the different hardware and software combinations possible, it must be mind-boggling work. Again, I appreciate your patience.
Cyndy

[admin]

Cyndy,

You should not see the ActiveMovie window. It should run in invisible mode -- this is the DirectX stuff and therefore caused my suspission that it may be the problem. Also one more thing would be helpful -- please try to open sample Mary.pkd song and create a movie (first without, and then with the background video).

[fortemac2]

Thank you so much! I did the Direct X thing, and it still didn't work. I ran the DXDiag Tool, and it said I had no problems. I ran an update of my video driver from the device manager, and it still didn't work. So I did the other thing you suggested. The Mary sample worked. I tried a looped video behind it, and it worked! I tried the video I was working with behind the Mary sample, and it didn't work. I tried more videos from the same software, and none of them worked. I rendered that video in Roxio, though, and finally got it to work! Yea! So, it seems I have a problem with a conflict or bug with the video produced from 3D Album or ULEAD Video Studio, but not with Roxio's Easy Media Creator. I'll try some more this week and will get back to you my findings. I think 3D Album is coming out with an update this month for their capture process, so hopefully that will solve some of my problems. Perhaps ULEAD has a driver for their software that I haven't updated yet. Again, thanks for your help. After the weekend I'll let you know how my video project came out.
Cyndy

[admin]

Cyndy,

I am very happy to hear that you have managed to get things done. I will try to find out what might be causing the incompatibilities though.

Thank you for your patience.