MyDVD Crashing when attempting to edit files

[wwpeteww]

:confused:

Howdy all,

Heres an interesting one. Let me provide step by step exactly what I am doing.

Software - Sonic myDVD version 6.1
Machine - Laptop - PentiumM 1.6 GhZ - 2Gb Ram installed - Win XP Pro sp2

1. Launch Sonic MyDVD Studio
2. Click on "Create Project"
3. Click on "DVD"
4. Click "Add Files" on left
5. Select Tivo Recording to Add
6. Double Click on the imported file from within the DVD Title Screen (in order to edit it)

Thats where I get the error. (The usual on that says the following)

Sonic MyDVD has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I click on the link to see what data this error report contains and get the following.

Error Signature
AppName: mydvd.exe
AppVer: 6.1.0.0
ModName: standardfx_plugin.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0
Offset: 00010280

Then it closes out....

Heres what I have done to attempt to remedy the situation.

Clean Reinstall - Including registry cleaning, removal of all Sonic Folders, (including hidden)

Even after the clean reinstall, the same exact problem happens.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Pete

[Justin Thyme]

Presumably, this happens on all .tivo files, but not on other files, like standard .mpg files. Also, I presume that WMP10 does play the .tivo file just fine.

Here's just a wild shot in the dark, but you can undo it.

Search for the location of standardfx_plugin.dll and you will know the full filename
An example full filename is:
C:\Program Files\Brain damaged APP\standardfx_plugin.dll
At the Start menu.Run dialog, type:

regsvr32 /u "filename"

Where quotes are around the full filename found above.
Try MyDVD on the .tivo. If it still does not work, you may undo the command by typing
regsvr32 "filename"
Attempt solutions for Codec problems with MyDVD. There are several good notes describing strategies for fixing them, but all have varying success. DaveZatz has a nice page (http://www.zatznotfunny.com/ttg.htm) that explains some of the codec issues and has links to a few sites with good codecs.

[jmilender]

I had exactly the same problem. There is little documentation available. Go to sonic and search for how to do a complete uninstall including a registry cleaning. If you haven't done it yet, make sure you delete Cineplayer and all the registry files and directories.

Do a reinstall and open Cineplayer. Go through the registration process online. Make sure something (anything) will play in Cineplayer.

Then go back to MyDVD and try to edit or burn. This should take care of it.

It seems that the key thing is to get the codecs that Cineplayer uses in order adn running before trying to do anything in MyDVD

[wwpeteww]

jmilender

Good Idea. I did do the complete uninstall - clean reinstall, but left out Cineplayer as an installation. (Trying to save space although I have 60gb free)

I'll give it a shot and let you know!

[wwpeteww]

OK, I did all the above mentioned things to no avail... HOWEVER!!! I do notice something that ISN'T happening that should... I am no longer prompted for my playback password at any time, whether it be In Windows Media Player or in Sonic DVD... Is it possible that none of my applications are "tied" into the tivo files anymore? (if that makes any sense...) FYI... Windows Media Player will still play the tivo files, it just doesn't ask for the playback password...

[Waldo50676]

If you have Tivo Desktop 2.1 it doesn't require a password.

[wwpeteww]

Waldo50676

Ah, that answers that then.. I upgraded to 2.1 after MyDVD flipped out.
Oh well... Back to the drawing board

[edaltman]

i am having the same problem and sonic tech support doesnt seem to be of much help. has anyone successfully "fixed" the problem wwpeteww reported?
many thanks
ed

[RonnieT24]

i am having the same problem and sonic tech support doesnt seem to be of much help. has anyone successfully "fixed" the problem wwpeteww reported?
many thanks
ed


I fixed my problems with Sonic MyDVD by SIMPLY NEVER USING IT AGAIN! I wasted many hours of life not to mention quite a few DVD-Rs mucking about with Sonic and its sister editing application Showbiz. I got Sonic with one of my burners and Nero with the other.. What I found after testing them both side by side for about a month is that Nero is just plain superior at about every turn. Not that Nero is without its own set of issues.. However I've burned something on the order of 30-40 DVDs in a row with no failures since I settled on Nero as my one and only tool. It's gotten to the point where it's so reliable I don't even stop to test each burn in my DVD player downstairs anymore. I simply burn a half dozen or so in a row and my test is truly when I get ready to watch the show again. Nero also allows me to edit the commercials out of my shows in under 2 minutes.. now that I've got the hang of the process. Even if Sonic does manage to improve their stuff over my experience.. I'm a Nero user for life.. It's cheap.. it works.. and I'm now really good at using it..

Such a deal!!


Ronnie T.

[morac]

Sonic MyDVD is a poorly written program that barely works with TiVo files. I get a similar crash if I try to edit the movie image in a DVD's menu if I've editted the TiVo file. My advice is to convert any file you want to burn to a regular mpg2 file before even attempting to use MyDVD.

Oh and MyDVD's PXHELP20.sys driver locks up when I try to burn DVD-R's which basically causes Windows XP to act very strangely (for example I can't shut down or open any new programs). Other programs such as an old copy of Easy Creator 5.1 and DVD Decryptor have no problems burning DVD-R discs meaning it is a problem with Sonic MyDVD's driver. Sonic MyDVD will burn DVD+RW discs though.

Don't bother with support from Sonic as they don't seem to give any. They responded to my report of Sonic MyDVD crashing by closing my ticket without responding. They responded to my report with problems burning DVD-R discs by recommending I "upgrade" the PXHELP engine that comes with MyDVD 6.1 which might be helpful if such an upgrade existed. :rolleyes:

[cfeltenberger]

I too am having the EXACT same issues. MyDVD used to work perfectly and I burned 30+ DVD TIVO movies. Now it doesn't work and no one seems to know how to fix. I'm working with Sonic tech support, but they really have no idea. Does Nero allow you to burn .tivo movies?

[RojCowles]

Had exactly the same problem.

With MyDVD 6.1 + TivoDesktop 2.0 setup it worked perfectly (yes, really !) as I've successfully archived (for my own personal non-commercial use :)) 30+ DVDs from TV shows and also several home movie DVDs from my digital camera.

Upgraded to TivoDesktop 2-1 last night and every attempt to edit .tivo files in MyDVD both as an Admin user and a regular "Power" user (Running Win XP Pro SP2) caused Sonic to crash.

Oddly even after the first install of TD 2-1 I was getting prompted for the password whenever I opened a project with .tivo files, as well as when I played them in WMP 10. I uninstalled TD 2-1 and MyDVD, cleaned every "tivo" reference from the registry, reinstalled TD 2-1 and MyDVD and the password request went away but the Edit Movie crash didn't.

Uninstalled TD 2-1, removed the "Tivo Shared" folder from C:\Program Files\Common, installed TD 2-0 from my backup copy and voila, I can edit .tivo files again in MyDVD.

My guess is that theres an incompatibility between MyDVD and the 2-1 DirectShow DLL but I don't hold a lot of hope for an update. I've got Sonic Tech Support to acknowledge a couple of MyDVD bugs but the invariable repsonse is that they will be fixed in a future release, which I read as "pay us $$$ for a new version if this annoys you and you want it fixed" :(

--
Roj

[morac]

My guess is that theres an incompatibility between MyDVD and the 2-1 DirectShow DLL but I don't hold a lot of hope for an update. I've got Sonic Tech Support to acknowledge a couple of MyDVD bugs but the invariable repsonse is that they will be fixed in a future release, which I read as "pay us $$$ for a new version if this annoys you and you want it fixed" :(Just out of curiousity, what bugs have they acknowledged?

Also if they don't bump up the version number from 6.1 to 7.0, the upgrade should be free.

[edaltman]

could our problems be in any way related to the fact that we seem all to be xp pro sp2 users?

[RojCowles]

Just out of curiousity, what bugs have they acknowledged?

Also if they don't bump up the version number from 6.1 to 7.0, the upgrade should be free.

Well a couple that probably aren't really Sonic's that I saw were

1) Unable to access files over a network share. Sonic just refuses but this might be a "Broken as designed" as oppsoed to a design flaw. PITA mind you as I had centralised all my media files on a cheapo linux box ...

2) Preview video in Edit Movie mode offset from the actual Window so I had to change the Window from full screen and reposition it to see what was going on. I fixed this by upgrading my ancient Diamond Stealth 3D (Savage 4) based card with a more recent Direct X 9.0 part (9600 Pro based)

3) The bona-fide bug is this. If you create a multi-line title for a project screen say

Perry Mason
Season 2
Episodes 41 - 43

By adding "CTRL-J" characters to force a line break, i.e. the above would be input as "Perry Mason[CTRL-J]Season 2[CTRL-J]Episodes 41 - 43" you are completely unable to save the project. The Save As doesn't work and neither does Save. Lost a few hours work by setting up the title, adding the files, editting the commercials and then having to start over.

Theres a simple workarond though. If you create the project, add a simple title, save immediately and then go back and edit the title you can continue to save without any problems. In fact if you get stuck with this bug you can go back and edit the title down to a single line, save properly, and then put the title back the way you want it.

Sorry for burbling on so long !

[RojCowles]

One other tidbit.

If you rename the StandardFX_Plugin.dll in "C:\Program Files\Sonic\MyDVD Studio\MyDVD Studio\SFXPlugins" that gets referenced in the Microsoft crash message and the Win XP Application Event log two things happen

1) MyDVD tries to reinstall itself (guess it checks all its DLL for consistency)

2) If you hit Cancel enough times and actually get MyDVD to startup you *can* edit .tivo files without crashing again, just like we can with Tivo Desktop 2.0.

I presume that something gets disabled with StandardFX_Plugin.dll gone but I didn't try anything fancy once I got the Edit Movie screen up so I've no idea whats now missing.

Renaming the backup StandardFX_Plugin.dll back to the real name fixes the MyDVD "Infinite reinstall loop" but the Edit Movie crash is back.

Sonic Tech Support is trying to help out, very attentively I must point out, but the focus seems to be on my installed Codec's and other applications, such as PowerDVD, RealPlayer, etc and the issue might be more to do with a core component, like StandardFX_Plugin.dll for example or the TiVoDirectShowFilter.dll.

[zartog]

Was this ever resolved, I just upgraded to Tivo Desktop 2.2 and am hitting this error myself....

Thanks!

[morac]

Was this ever resolved, I just upgraded to Tivo Desktop 2.2 and am hitting this error myself....

Thanks!
Nope. You'll need to use TiVo Desktop 2.0 with My DVD. That said the only piece from TiVo Desktop 2.0 that you really need is the DirectShow Filter. I posted this work around (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=257199) a while back that, while convoluted, works.

Sonic told me they were working on a patch which was supposed to come out in November, but never did. It's much easier to free the mpeg2 video from the tivo file. Don't ask how since discussion about how to do that is banned from this board, but it's very easy to find out how via Google.

[RojCowles]

Was this ever resolved, I just upgraded to Tivo Desktop 2.2 and am hitting this error myself....

Thanks!

Oddly enough when I upgraded to Tivo Desktop 2.2 from 2.1 the crash went away for me.

The only thing I think I did differently than when I went from 2.0 to 2.1 was to be a bit anal about reboots and clearing out old Tivo files, i.e.

1) Uninstall TD 2.1
2) reboot
3) Remove the following folders

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\TiVo Desktop
C:\Program Files\Common Files\TiVo Shared

4) Install TD 2.2

No idea if this was the magic ingredient or whether 2.2 just plays better with my particular installed set of codecs than 2.1 and I got lucky. No change made to MyDVD at all.

The call I had open with Sonic Tech Support got closed without any sort of patch resolution though. Mainly due to inacivity, I guess, as they and myself ran out of things to try to fix the problem.

[jkalnin]

I had Sonic MyDVD crashing while trying to edit files as well. I uninstalled it completely, restarted the PC, and the reinstalled MyDVD and it's worked fine ever since.

[ray08]

This is ditto for me. What's weird is that mydvd 6.1 worked great for me one time only. Now all .tivo files cause a crash when I try to edit any of them. I removed all of mydvd and all of tivo desktop by using Acronis Trueimage to recover my disk images to what they were prior to installing and running mydvd/td, but it still crashes! Apps I also use are Powerdvd and Divx 6.1.

People are saying that td 2.0 works. Where can I get a copy of that version?

[mydvddevotee]

MyDVD can work with TivoDesktop 2.2, but my solution was expensive.

On my laptop, I was having the crash of standardfx_plugin.dll whenever I used "MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite 6.1" to edit a .tivo file. It really frustrated me for two reasons.

One I had it working at some point in the past, and two I had it currently working on my desktop *with* Tivo Desktop 2.2, installed from the same media.

So I knew it could work. I tried a variety of uninstalls, reinstalls, and codecs, but whenever I had the MyDVD>>Create Project>>DVD program open, with a DVD menu up on the screen, and I would double-click on the DVD-Menu button so I could edit the commercials out of the video before burning, MYDVD.exe would crash standardfx_plugin.dll

I could edit avi files and even DVD's made with tivo files on the desktop - MyDVD>>Edit Disc>>Edit an Existing Disc. But I could not edit fresh or old .tivo files transferred from either of my dvr's.

I found some talk about a pxengine patch, but it looked like that was for MYDVD5, not 6. Researching the pxengine thing, I came across some registry entries I hadn't seen before.

Ummm, backup your registry, and create a system restore point *now* if you're going to poke into the registry. I didn't fix it with registry hacks, but back it up anyway :)

There were registry entries about "lowerfilters" that differred between the two computers. cdralw4 was referenced. I found an old document on Microsoft's knowledgebase KB # 315345 about older versions of roxio's software interfering with xp, so I went through and followed those directions as closely as I could but there were some differences. Cleaned the stuff out as best I could, rebooted, re-installed. Still no editing.

Well, I knew that I had invested heavily in MyDVD, so I went back and found the order number from my purchase through Digital River back in April, re-downloaded the expensive Deluxe Suite 430 Megabyte version (I had paid for the extended download service), with a special TivoToGo plugin. It had a CinePlayer of version 2.3 instead of 2.0 that my desktop has, and that I was previously installing on the laptop. Also MYDVD Deluxe Suite was 6.13 from the DigitalRiver download vs 6.1 for the CD I had used on the desktop and laptop.

The CD I successfully used on my desktop was a lighter footprint, and didn't have the nifty TivoToGo plugin, and I had wanted that lighter footprint, at least on my laptop with all its running processes and slower drives, but...

Create Project>>DVD is working now, with the video editing that I like. The tivo plugin is pretty cool, the way you can manage your .tivo transfers and files from right within MyDVD. I paid a *lot* back in April, but I really do like the product, though not the support, and its working sweet right now.

Most freaking annoying thing is the Sonic Update thing should have given me *some* indication I could increment from CinePlayer 2.0 to 2.3 etc, etc, etc, but I ran it several times and it always reported no updates were found. I got nothing from submitting a web-based incident report a couple days ago.

And back to standardfx_plugin.dll
The desktop has two. I can't bring up the regular Version tab on the properties page, for reasons I don't understand, but

Desktop's C:\Program Files\Sonic\MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite\Sonic MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite\SFXPlugins\StandardFX_Plugin.dll has a created date of Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 6:10:00 AM

I believe Jan 12th is when I reformatted the thing, but the 6:10:00 am indicates the version.
Its a Windows XP Media Center Edition desktop and so has a copy in windows\ehome for creating DVD's from the Windows Media Center program...C:\WINDOWS\ehome\CreateDisc\SfxpluginsStandardFX_P lugin.dll has a created date of Wednesday, November 24, 2004, 1:47:10 PM with a modified date of Friday, August 05, 2005, 1:25:00 PM

Both of those files, Windows reports having a size of 532 KB (544,768 bytes).

Okay Laptop is also a Windows XP Media Center Edition.
Once I got the laptop's MyDVD editing again with the re-install from Digital River with the apparently updated software, C:\Program Files\Sonic\MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite\Sonic MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite\SFXPlugins\StandardFX_Plugin.dll has a created date of Thursday June 23, 2005, 6:13:00 am.

Laptop's C:\WINDOWS\ehome\CreateDisc\Sfxplugins\StandardFX_Plugin.dll has a a created date of Monday September 20, 2004 12:49:17 pm, with the same modified date as the one on my MCE desktop - Friday, August 05, 2005, 1:25:00 PM

Laptop's ehome\CreateDisc\Sfxplugins\StandardFX_Plugin.dll has the same size of 532 KB (544,768 bytes) that the two on the desktop do.

Laptop's C:\Program Files\Sonic\MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite\Sonic MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite\SFXPlugins\StandardFX_Plugin.dll has a size of 536 KB (548,864 bytes).

So I think it is worth pursuing that Sonic has an update to standardfx_plugin.dll (ver 6.13 with a size of 536 KB - 548,864 bytes) that may correct people's problems.

Hope this helps.

[mydvddevotee]

Unfortunately I was wrong. My laptops configuration described above resulted in MyDVD.exe crashing, I think upon the beginning of burn, definitely after transcoding video had run, and definitely after transcoding audio had begun.

I uninstalled, uninstalled tivo desktop 2.2, deleted sonic reg entries and folders, re-installed my mega deluxe suite without Backup-my-pc, did not install the tivo plugin, and did not install Tivo Desktop 2.2 - at which point I was able to edit and burn to dvd .tivo files. It was kind of interesting because I was asked for a Tivo playback password, so I guess this version of MyDVD from April includes some of the earlier Tivo functionality built-in.

I re-installed Tivo Desktop 2.2 and experienced the crash of mydvd.exe again, again after editing, saving, and transcoding. If I didn't have it working on my desktop, if I hadn't seen it work on this laptop, and if I didn't value the MyDVD interface, and if I didn't value being able to edit the commercials out of my daughter's Disney shows while sitting on the couch in the living room, I would definitely bag this product. Arrrrrggghh!

[morac]

I finally got a response from Sonic for a question I asked back in November about a fixed version of MyDvd which they told me would be released in mid November. They said that MyDVD 6.2 is still being tested internally but should be released soon. Hopefully it will fix the issues (and they don't charge for it).

That said Sonic has to be one of the worst companies I've ever had the displeasure of doing business with. TiVo really should sever their ties with Sonic.

[frizzler]

like everybody else here. i'm stuck. i can do everything i need to do...right up until the actual burn, then i get the ..... Microsoft has encourted a problem, or whatever it says.

am i coming to the right conclusion here. i'm supposed to wait until their next version of the software i paid for to actually work as advertised. the only reason i got sonic was because it supposedly worked with tivo.

i saw that somebody mentioned taking the mpeg out of the tivo wrapper with windvd which sounds good......but i don't really want to pay again for something that was supposed to be included in mydvd.

help. i need somebody. help. not just anyone, hellllllllllllllllllpppppppppppp.

[wtb]

I had MyDVD working and then my PC hard drive crashed and I had to re-install all of the software. Once it was back up, I had this problem (MyDVD crash when editing files). I had the TiVo Desktop 2.1 installed at the time. I installed the 2.2 update and now it works. My recomendation would be to either install 2.2, or if you have that and have this problem, try installing a previous version and see if it works. Once working, try 2.2 then. Perhaps you need to install 2.0 and then 2.1 and then 2.2? Maybe the earlier versions install something that the later version doesn't? Or maybe for some reason the TiVo desktop just needs to be installed multiple times.

[rtn]

I was foolish enough to actually buy MyDVD. It's really a piece of junk.

Anyhow, I had the same issue after a system rebuild. According to about a months worth of working with their inadequate technical support folks, the best solution was to downgrade to TivoToGo version 2.0. It's not available from tivo any more, but you can find it on other major software sites.

Anyway, that fixed the problem for me.

--rtn

[morac]

MyDVD 6.2 is available and it works with the latest (as of today) version of TiVo Desktop. Do a search for the link.

[Scott Atkinson]

What amazes me is how little we can do about this awful software, other than not buying the next upgrade.

Sonic has, as far as I can tell, paid no attention to the fact that their latest major releases are fundamentally, deeply broken - and no attention to forums here and elsewhere that have been swamped by complaints.

I'm usually not real cranky about software, but these guys are especially bad.

s.