DVD Architect Error: An Invalid Pointer Was Specified

Darian-Gorman wrote on 10/26/2023, 1:58 AM

I have DVD Architect Build 100. I am trying to create a Blu-Ray, well actually a series of Blu-Rays but I'm starting with disc 1. Anyway, I got all my menus, music, chapters, ect all figured out and when I tired to make an .iso it would stop at about 50% and give me the error: "Warning: An Error occurred while writing a file. An invalid pointer was specified."

I asked on VideoHelp and nothing really worked, not that I got many replies. I did a lot of digging on this issue and there was like one somewhat thorough comment with suggestions and I tried all of them, nothing worked. I also asked on reddit and no one has responded.

I've tried:

Deleting what I thought were the problematic video files

Removing chapter points that could have been deemed to close to the end of the video files

Making sure all the buttons were linked correctly

Making sure all buttons were inside the "safe areas"

Running DVD Architect in administrator mode

Reinstalling DVD Architect

Saving .iso to HDD where the project files are not located

I watched the iso being made and tried seeing what file it was on when it failed and it didn't show me and I don't know if there's an error log anywhere.

Checking ALL of the video files for bad frames using HBBatchBeast (all of them were good)

Getting rid of all warnings from the warning screen prior to being able to make the .iso.

All the warnings had to do with recompression, so I pressed the little help button and it brought me to the part in its in-program manual talking about how to properly prepare you video and audio files for DVD Architect so they won't have to be recompressed. I thought, this has to be the solution, and I got all of the warnings to go away successfully, and that still didn't solve my issue.

Does anyone have any ideas, any leads here? Does anyone know what invalid pointer even means? If I could understand that, I might be able to figure out what the issue is.

I have successfully made .iso's with this software before so I don't know what's wrong with this specific blu-ray I am making.

Comments

Dexcon wrote on 10/26/2023, 3:04 AM

There's only been one other post on the forum (from 2018) about this error message that I could find ...

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/invalid-pointer--114048/

... but unfortunately there wasn't a resolution given by the OP if in fact they resolved the problem.

There is another post (from 2020) with what could be a similar problem ...

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/preparing-blu-ray-warning-an-error-occurred-while-writing-a-file--121972/

... and the cause of the error was clashing buttons.

In the end, the error appears to have been caused by a single menu which had two buttons with "Resume" actions set. If I changed either of them to standard "Link" actions, so there was only *one* Resume - it looks like it will output without issue (it's just processing now). If *both* buttons are set to "Resume", the export immediately fails with the error above.

It would be worthwhile to check the buttons in your project to see if this might be a cause in your case.

Darian-Gorman wrote on 10/27/2023, 3:33 PM

There's only been one other post on the forum (from 2018) about this error message that I could find ...

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/invalid-pointer--114048/

... but unfortunately there wasn't a resolution given by the OP if in fact they resolved the problem.

There is another post (from 2020) with what could be a similar problem ...

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/preparing-blu-ray-warning-an-error-occurred-while-writing-a-file--121972/

... and the cause of the error was clashing buttons.

In the end, the error appears to have been caused by a single menu which had two buttons with "Resume" actions set. If I changed either of them to standard "Link" actions, so there was only *one* Resume - it looks like it will output without issue (it's just processing now). If *both* buttons are set to "Resume", the export immediately fails with the error above.

It would be worthwhile to check the buttons in your project to see if this might be a cause in your case.

I found two buttons that could be considered overlapping even though they weren't red (and I would think my warnings would let me know) but I moved them and it didn't do anything. I feel so stuck. I have no clue what to do.

Dexcon wrote on 10/27/2023, 8:01 PM

@Darian-Gorman ... Though very time-consuming, you could try the 'isolation' approach. To do this, start a brand new .dar project with nothing else but the video - and then create an ISO; then add the audio and create another ISO; add the chapters and create an ISO; and so on. This way, you'll know what element of the project is creating a problem if the warning reappears. For example, if there are no problems creating the ISO with only the video media being used on DVDA's timeline, but the warning occurs during ISO creation after the audio media is added, then the problem likely is related to the audio media.

Just to check, I take it that the ISO being created is less in size than the size of the BD disc and thus there's no yellow/red warning in the bottom RH corner of DVDA's window to indicate that the project is close to, or is, over-size for the BD disc?

Darian-Gorman wrote on 10/27/2023, 9:22 PM

@Darian-Gorman ... Though very time-consuming, you could try the 'isolation' approach. To do this, start a brand new .dar project with nothing else but the video - and then create an ISO; then add the audio and create another ISO; add the chapters and create an ISO; and so on. This way, you'll know what element of the project is creating a problem if the warning reappears. For example, if there are no problems creating the ISO with only the video media being used on DVDA's timeline, but the warning occurs during ISO creation after the audio media is added, then the problem likely is related to the audio media.

Just to check, I take it that the ISO being created is less in size than the size of the BD disc and thus there's no yellow/red warning in the bottom RH corner of DVDA's window to indicate that the project is close to, or is, over-size for the BD disc?

Okay. I don't need to create the menus right? Just do audio and video? Because with the menu stuff, that would take longer.

You would be correct. I am using about half of a standard 25GB disc.

Dexcon wrote on 10/27/2023, 10:21 PM

Okay. I don't need to create the menus right?

What I'm suggesting is to go through the entire DVDA project creation process including menus, chapter points, buttons etc, but immediately after each element is added (video, audio, menus, chapter points, buttons), create a new ISO each and every time (e.g. video then create ISO, add audio then ISO, add menus then ISO, add chapter points then ISO, add/edit buttons then ISO). After the video and audio is added, the order of the rest doesn't matter so much - it's just that another ISO is created after each stage. If the ISO creation problem returns, it should occur during the ISO creation after whatever stage has last been done. and then you can go back and seek out the cause knowing that that last stage is likely where the cause of the problem lies.

Yes, it will be time-consuming.

Darian-Gorman wrote on 10/27/2023, 11:41 PM

Okay. I don't need to create the menus right?

What I'm suggesting is to go through the entire DVDA project creation process including menus, chapter points, buttons etc, but immediately after each element is added (video, audio, menus, chapter points, buttons), create a new ISO each and every time (e.g. video then create ISO, add audio then ISO, add menus then ISO, add chapter points then ISO, add/edit buttons then ISO). After the video and audio is added, the order of the rest doesn't matter so much - it's just that another ISO is created after each stage. If the ISO creation problem returns, it should occur during the ISO creation after whatever stage has last been done. and then you can go back and seek out the cause knowing that that last stage is likely where the cause of the problem lies.

Yes, it will be time-consuming.

Damn. I don't really have the time or patience for that. Sucks, I really like this software but I'm just not willing to put in that kind of time, that's obnoxious. Thanks for your time and advice.