Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

"Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting."

"Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting." That is what read after my attempt at burning (several times)an archived and non archived iDVD project with five, no music, no transitions, slide shows containing 203 photos total. I also deleted all encoded assets before burning. I never had problem before. Everything (Quicktime, OS is updated) the only recent addition is the "update" of iLife 08. According to Apple (support page for iDVD 08) there are under a dozen possible solutions that all seem to be a smoke screen for the ill application. Complicated and time consuming possible solutions. This is Apple right? Why after so long since its release have there not been an update of iDVD fixing its problems? I have noticed the updates for other parts of app. (Like iPhoto and iWeb) but nothing for iDVD that obviously has some issues. This was such a simple project. I defy anyone to help me with a simple solution to resolve it. Isn't that what Apple and its philosophy is all about. What has happened to Apple? ( that was a rhetorical question.) What should I do about my "Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting." Problem.
Do not be tricked by my profile and how many posts it says I have. I have been a Mac user for over twelve years now. The simple explanation is that I could resolve any problem or dead end in regards to my Macs and it's products with ease just by putting in a little effort and doing a little investigating. But I have never encountered so many problems and obstacles as I have with the new iDVD and it's suite application iLife.

PowerPC G5, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Sep 2, 2007 4:17 PM

36 replies

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Sep 9, 2007 7:34 PM in response to fournierstudios

That no one seems to be taking the time to read rather assume what I am trying to do with my project

Whatever you are trying to say isn't getting through to us - that's why I made the comment I did. There are MANY things that can lead to a " Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting." error. The only way to figure out what YOUR particular problem is caused by is through a process of troubleshooting by elimination. You need to work WITH us if you want an answer. It's all up to you.

Sep 10, 2007 5:18 PM in response to F Shippey

I was having this problem, too. After trying everything under the sun to isolate the problem, I finally figured it out. At least I'm 99% sure I figured it out...

I was naming the iDVD project with date ranges, e.g. "1993.03 - 1993.07". Apparently, this is not cool. I do not know exactly what is allowed. But naming the iDVD project somehting with alpha characters, like "May 1993" has fixed the problem.

I would like to hear from others if this fixes their problem in order to support my theory.

Thanks,

-greg.

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Sep 10, 2007 5:39 PM in response to Greg Stiehl

I was naming the iDVD project with date ranges, e.g. "1993.03 - 1993.07".

I suspect the problem is the decimal point.

F Shippey

Sam Kivi

Level 1

25 points

Sep 18, 2007 6:45 AM in response to F Shippey

I also am getting the same exact Multiplexer Error.

just to add info to the mix:

I'm running macbook latest osx 10.4 and latest idvd.
I'm writing a disk image to a firewiredrive, from idvd, which is encoding widescreen professional quality. i believe the project only came 3.6gb or something as project manager says.
I had about 8gb free on my startup disk, now, while I look at idvd 6 hrs later, with it's multiplexer error, I have 6gb startup disk free.
in the last few minutes of the idvd 'burning' process I got a "startup disk almost full" message so quickly moved about 3gb of stuff onto the firewire drive.
this didn't seem to affect the operation on idvd.

I acknowledged the said error with 'ok' and idvd then loaded the main menu of the dvd i had made.

the disk image seems to play fine in every respect except the chapters i had idvd assign do not work, either in the menu, selecting say, chapter 3, or while playing and trying to skip ahead to the next chapter... dissapointing, but at least the dvd works!

Sep 18, 2007 8:43 AM in response to fournierstudios

We got the same error message. A Mac using friend told us to save the encoded program in a folder other than "movies" on another drive and the problem went away.

Sep 19, 2007 2:21 PM in response to fournierstudios

Fournier, you are so right. ILife, in particular, IDVD, is a joke.

Another product from Apple being sold to consumers when it should still be in beta.

I'm on my third Iphone. Maybe I should buy another ILife 08 suite with my $100.00 store credit.

RS
A mac user for over 13 years.

Sep 19, 2007 10:18 PM in response to fournierstudios

I got this message: multiplexer error
There was a problem during multiplexing/burning.

no triangles to open for further info. I was burning an imovie that had no problems. created the imovie
about three months ago and burned an idvd with music from itunes. I launched idvd and burned the same project several days ago and got the multiplexer error message and another message saying my
computer was not authorized to play the song in my project. After much searching and emailing to apple support I may have a fix for you. I downloaded "Compatibility Update for Quicktime 7.1.0".
I relaunched idvd and burned the dvd project w/o error messages or authorization notices.
I also launched imovie hd 6.0.3 and opened the same project but replaced the song with another one that I bought on itunes store. btw, my mac has been authorized for several years. this burn was ok. I am using OS X 10.4.9, ilife 06.

Message was edited by: BigWaveDave

Kjolner

Level 2

354 points

Sep 24, 2007 6:05 PM in response to fournierstudios

Hia there!
I do believe there is a bug in iDVD8? I am also getting the there was andso on! I use toast popcorn for compressing to a sl disc at 2x speed, now with this uglyness going on its only possible to save as ts-folder never disc-img. I am deleeting the p-list everytime and idvd dosent crash as much when touched anymore.
I am not shure how to re install idvd 6 I did a save and reinstall, but I did not reins i8 and then iweb
gb iphoto never opend? so I reinst i8 after all.
You say send a bugreport to A but by now there should be a idvd update or what, I guess its suposed to be like this and sombodys head should be offed! I makes me sad to watch the Jobs keynote knowing now from my own experienses. I do regret the i8 and will wait with new iMac
Go with tiger!
Ivar...

Kazazi

Level 1

0 points

Sep 24, 2007 11:53 PM in response to BigWaveDave

I get the same error message when trying to burn a disc image from my latest project. It contains only one movie, created with iMovie HD (6.0.3), which is about 83 minutes long, plus the main and four chapter menus.

I have now tried both the "high quality" and "professional quality" encoding settings, which should both be suitable for my project, right?

iDVD goes through the entire encoding process without problems, and then the error is shown at the very end. A disc image was created and everything seemed almost fine except I get a blank green screen for a few second at the beginning of the first chapter menu.

However, towards the end of playing the disc image, DVD player crashes with the error message "DVD PLayer encountered an error it could not recover from. There was an error reading from disc. It might be scratched or dirty. [-36]". BUT - this error happened with a different scene on my DVD in both disc images.

From within iDVD and iMovie, both scenes play fine.

Can anyone help?

Walley

Level 1

0 points

Sep 25, 2007 8:08 PM in response to fournierstudios

"Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting."

Funny thing is I've made about 4 DVD projects with iDVD 8 with no problems. Now if I try to do any project in iDVD I get a "Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting.". I have tried doing a reinstall, redoing the iMovie project, changing blank media brands, dumping the p-files. Project is only 15 minutes long. I've tried about 20 more times based on online tips- no luck and no change to when the error happens- right after the video and audio encodes... getting ready to re-instal my old iDVD if I can find the box its in : ( I made two short DVD projects in iMovie 8 & 1 project in iMovie 6 with no problems going to DVDs and the project that the error first showed up on was a re-edit of the iMovie 6 project that burned fine ( but not now after the re-edit )

Walley

Level 1

0 points

Sep 26, 2007 2:21 PM in response to Walley

Well I needed a quick fix so I just imported the iMovie project from the G5 over to my eMac and the project worked fine in iDVD 5 and I was able to burn 11 DVDs with no problems.

Oct 16, 2007 3:14 PM in response to fournierstudios

I am also getting "Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting."

I created a movie in iMovie 06 and shared with iDVD 08. The movie is 80mins long. I got the error trying to burn straight to DVD. I also got it trying to created a disk image, so it can't be a hardware issue.

Any ideas of what I can try?

Nov 7, 2007 9:56 PM in response to fournierstudios

I am getting the same error.

Situation: PowerBook G4 Running 10.4.10 and iLife '08. I've been making dozens of DVDs through iDVD that consist only of a simple menu and a slide show. This one particular slide show refuses to work. I've been using the same types of files and the same media for each project, and I've tired several different DVDs, so it's not just a random bad DVD. I also tossed the original iDVD file and redid the whole project. Same thing. I'm perplexed.

I completely agree with the original poster about iLife (iDVD in particular) being WAY below Apple's standards. I could elaborate but I'm too tired after battling its various flaws all day : (

Nov 13, 2007 6:53 AM in response to fournierstudios

I found out that I was getting this error because I ran out of enough free disk space. I was trying to burn a 3.6GB DVD and discovered that iDVD needs around 3 times that space to generate the image and then burn it. So if you see you have 8 or 10GB free on your disk.... think again before using iDVD... you will need to remove some stuff and make sure you have at least 12GB of free disk space.

cykz

Level 1

5 points

Nov 13, 2007 5:58 PM in response to barretoconsulting

Please find related problems and tips over here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1203323&tstart=0
I have posted my findings there as well.
Good luck!

"Multiplexer Error-There was an error during formatting."