Subject:Lost video capability

Posted by: Strangeman

Date:2/11/2008 1:29:00 PM

I needed some space the other day, so I ununstalled Sound Forge 7 (upgraded to 9 some time ago). Now I can't play mpeg video in other software such as cubase, and Windows Media Player.
I am assuming something got thrown out with the ininstall, but can anyone tell me what, and how to reinstate without too much disturbance to my system ?

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: sergiob

Date:2/11/2008 5:31:47 PM

Did you try reinstalling version 9?

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: Larry Clifford

Date:2/12/2008 6:45:48 AM

Sometime when you uninstall a program you will be asked if you want to uninstall a shared file. I almost always reply no unless it is in a folder that is unique to that program. Freeing up the potentially unused space is not worth the problems.

If you have several programs that are from the same vendor, e.g., Sony or anyone else, there may be a shared folder for several programs. Never delete those shared files or programs unless you will be deleting all of the programs.

Try the previous suggestion and reinstall the program you deleted. See if that helps.

Please tell us what the results are.

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: Strangeman

Date:2/12/2008 7:08:24 AM

I haven't tried it yet, as I was hoping to avoid doing that, but I guess it's worth a go. (I didn't get any questions when I uninstalled V7, but I know the sort you mean).

I will post back when I've tried this ..

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: Strangeman

Date:2/13/2008 3:28:56 PM

Re-installing SF9 made no difference, unfortunately.

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: Strangeman

Date:2/14/2008 3:52:58 PM

.. but reinstalling SF7 did.

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: Larry Clifford

Date:2/15/2008 7:15:00 AM

Looking at your profile, you have been using Sony products for a few years.

Please fill in you hardware/software configuration. It may help us help you.

Unfortunately, I don't have any idea why reinstalling the program did not fix the problem. Are all of your other programs working? Maybe a system component in the operating system was deleted when you uninstalled SF7, however I doubt that.

I don't want to appear rude, but if your hard drive is becomming full, are other parts of your PC becoming out of date?

Possible solutions:
1. Replace the currend hard drive with a larger one. That will require saving all data and restoring it and reinstalling all programs. Do you have all of the installation programs and registration keys?

2. Add a second hard drive and copy all data to it. It depends if you have space in you PC. That will free up space on your hard drive with the operating system. It won't hurt you to keep the sold SF 7 installed. (This is my personal configuration.)

3. Buy a new PC with plenty of horse power, storage, and memory. There are other threads in this forum to offer suggestions for the audio hardwre options if you have any questions.

I understand this all depends on finances, whick I cannot address here.

I hope everything goes well with your decision.

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: ForumAdmin

Date:2/15/2008 8:07:16 AM

Yeah, MPEG-2 support in Sound Forge 7.0 installed and relied upon a shared DirectShow component, which is what the other apps found and used.

This particular component caused a laundry list of other issues, particularly on systems that had alternative MPEG components installed (Windows Media Center, third party codecs, etc.). So the dependency on said component was eventually removed.

In other words, it was a happy side effect of having 7.0 installed on your system, but not a designed or advertised feature. If you wish to keep that behavior, you'll have to either keep 7.0 installed or find a different MPEG solution the other apps can use.

J.

Subject:RE: Lost video capability

Reply by: Strangeman

Date:2/15/2008 2:37:59 PM

ForumAdmin - thanks for the reply, which confirms what I suspected. I resisted the temptation to install a different MPEG solution, in case it caused its own set of problems. I shall leave well alone in future.

BigRed - You weren't to know, but both my hard drives have plenty of free space, it was just the O/s partition that was getting a bit low. I run a multi-boot system where my music and video is kept well apart from anything else which might interfere with the smooth running of my operation. This means I get to spend most of my time working on music/video projects rather than reformatting etc which seems to occupy a lot of people. I keep the partition as small as possible for ease of backing up, and also for the discipline of only being able to install new software if it is essential to my work, although it has inevitably grown to about 6Gb over the years.
The first thing I do when installing any software, is to go through and change the default settings so that all temporary files are written to another partition (called Temp) and pagefile is kept somewher else out of the way. So I guess we're both working along the same lines :-)

Looking back, I probably didn't appreciate that my mpeg capability was due to Sound Forge, as it was one of the first pieces of software to be installed on my first PC, and has always been with me. Now I know, 7.0 will stay.