Dolby Audio Decoder missing after Premiere CC 2018 (V12) update

[zeno303]

I just updated to the most recent version of Premiere: CC 2018 from Creative Cloud.

When I opened a project I had been working on earlier today that has some .ac3 tracks on some of the sequences, those tracks are redded out and I now get an error message "Missing Dolby Audio Encoder." I get the same message when I try to import .ac3 files into the updated Audition program.

I have been using Premiere CC for several years, have installed all the updates & never had this problem before.

I have an individual (not Enterprise) Subscription on Windows 7.  I ran CC Cleaner Registry check after the install.  It cleared up some paths, but didn't fix this issue.

Please help.  I am up against a deadline!

Wsquared

[aeisenberg255]

Adobe - This is unbelievable and unacceptable. I know you want Premiere to play with the big boys and it can. But there is truly no excuse to leave your professional user base in the dust like this. A warning or corrective measure should have been made clear. I am crossing my fingers now, going back to the old version (2017) and not knowing if I'll ever get to use the new tools in the newer versions.

I doubt this was your intent, but you should at least offer a solution for us.

[Squirrel Face]

3-4 years of MTS footage now incompatible and it's from my only video camera I own so this has now ended CC of being of any use to me for my video production business. No idea what Adobe expect me to do from now on other than stay in CC 2017 forever whilst paying for the latest updates and staying technologically behind everyone else. Infuriating.

[ProDesignTools]

Did you read through the related thread recommended several posts up? There are several pages of different solutions suggested there.

Regarding "forever," note that Windows 7 will be EOL and end-of-support from Microsoft in just over two years... So hopefully you won't be staying on that forever.

What happened here was unfortunate and unexpected, as usually Adobe gives plenty of notice well in advance of any significant platform or requirements or support changes coming in new releases. So, something happened here that was definitely exceptional and out of the norm, and apologies for the trouble.

Going forward, consider retaining your previous versions of tools when upgrading, rather than the default behavior to remove them. With virtually any CC/CS Adobe app, you can have multiple versions installed on the same machine... (For video customers especially, this is considered a good practice.)

However, you have to explicitly tell the CC Desktop app to do this by unchecking the 'Remove old versions' box under the advanced settings of the update dialogue.

[KadeMendelowitz]

ProDesignTools, do you work for Adobe?  I appreciate your help in the forums; you are very active, and are clearly trying to help people (like me) who feel screwed with the drop of Dolby support in Windows 7.

However, saying "...and apologies for the trouble."  Feels a little out of place, since Adobe hasn't actually apologized for anything that I can tell.

[ProDesignTools]

No. And yes, just trying to help out people having trouble here... Whenever in frustrating situations, it never hurts to hear apologies from anyone.

Kevin Monahan from Adobe did say sorry for the frustration above.

[zeno303]

I'm not a lawyer. (Edited for content)  There's plenty of evidence in this thread that their actions have needlessly adversely effected many of their customer's businesses -- and those are just the ones who have chimed in here.

So, a public apology now could be construed by Adobe's lawyers as a possible admission of guilt in a future legal action.

Fortunately, after using workarounds to finish the project I was working on, I was able to reinstall the 2017 version. Unfortunately, there's no way I can bill Adobe at my professional rate for the extra hours it cost me to clean up after their SNAFU.

My experience in upgrading one of my PCs to Windows 10 has been so bad, I'll probably keep using the CC 2017 version for a while on my production PC & then buy a new Windows (?) box before Windows 7 is no longer supported by  Microsoft. (There's a good reason why Dell & other manufactures are still selling PCs with Windows 7. Windows 10 is widely perceived as a functional downgrade in a professional environment.) My current box is still too new to change it now. In the mean time I can't use the Premiere updates I'll be paying  Adobe for.

Moderator Warning: Please do not discuss legal issues on this forum, it is against community guidelines. Thanks.

[ProDesignTools]

zeno303  wrote

(Windows 10 is widely perceived as a functional downgrade in a professional environment.)

Please provide some substantive proof for that claim.

Windows 7 is popular because it was a solid operating system. It's predecessor and successor (Windows Vista and 8.0), by and large, were not.

Windows 7 became the fastest-selling o/s of all time, and many people still use it because generally-speaking, it works well, and because the other people in their organization still use it. It costs companies a lot to upgrade entire organizations, and many people think, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

But the truth is that Windows 10 is also a terrific o/s, most people are plenty happy with it, both in terms of speed and functionality. And increasingly, with Windows 7 being over 8 years old now, with only ~2 years of supported life left, like with Windows XP (which was also a great o/s in its day), its users may wish to consider the path forward at some point:

Microsoft: Windows 7 in 2017 is so outdated that patches can't keep it secure | ZDNet

Not saying that what happened here with Dolby and Windows 7 was a good or right thing. But, let's not undeservedly malign Windows 10 either.

Here's how you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade | ZDNet

Windows 10 upgrade for assistive technology users, free until December 31, 2017

[zeno303]

All I can speak to is my own experience with upgrading to Windows 10, and from what I have heard from other users who have had similar experiences. IMO the main reason Windows 10 was brought out was to help leverage Microsoft selling  other products & services aimed at consumers, which is why they initially gave it away!  And you don't provide any substantive proof that Windows 10 is "a terrific OS" for most users. And who the heck are "most users?"  I use both OS's every day & I still prefer Widows 7. If it's less secure than Widows 10, they should have upgraded the security aspects of Windows 7 & not foisted a desktop OS aimed at what they perceive to be consumer smart phone users. They learned nothing from there previous dud releases of Vista & Windows 8.

And spare me the Adobe fan boy obfuscation. Windows 10 is a side issue, albeit relevant to CC's future. The main source of the pain & anger expressed in this thread is that Adobe released an update without informing users of a core change that requires an OS update for compatibility, an action that should have been a matter of course for any responsible software developer. That has cost users significant time & money and could have been easily avoided with the proper warning. Blaming users for any aspect of the problems they have encountered since because of Adobe's SNAFU is absurd.  I've been using desktop computers for more than 30 years. I've been using Premiere since it was originally released as a stand alone program. I can't think of another instance where a developer released a software update without informing users that it also requires a major OS update to preserve core functions & may cause big problems if you don't upgrade your OS.

Enough said.

[ProDesignTools]

Sure, glad to help Ashraf. Hope it all works out for you, but don't forget that Microsoft's free Windows 10 upgrade for users of any kind of assistive technologies expires 12/31/2017.

zeno303  wrote

And spare me the Adobe fan boy obfuscation.

No, not a fan at all of what happened here. A lot of unhappy folks, clearly. And neither Adobe or Dolby are speaking about it.

It has the hallmarks of a licensing dispute, but since neither side is talking (or can legally talk?) about it, we can't know for sure where the greatest fault lies.

As you noted yourself, you have been using PCs and Adobe software since the very beginning, and you have never seen a case where such a thing has happened without plenty of advance notice from Adobe, or from any other company.

So unless you think Adobe suddenly got populated with engineers who don't care about their customers, that should tell us enough that circumstances must have been extra-ordinary for this to happen the way it did.

[zeno303]

Unfortunately, dropping the ball on fundamental customer service is becoming common these days as corporations become more focused on the their bottom line at the expense of training, maintaining  and retaining experienced managers and staff & giving them enough time to do their jobs effectively. Sad to see it starting to happen at Adobe. (Any "disputes" Adobe has with Dolby are irrelevant to the way they mishandled this release.)

Under "I couldn't make this up about Windows 10:"

When I clicked on the email notification in my in box for your response when it appeared in Windows Outlook 360 on the PC I updated to Windows 10, it "unexpectedly" quit the application and restarted the program. Just a random occurrence. Nothing catastrophic, but annoying. Their are several other bugs since the Windows 10 "upgrade" that I have repeatedly fixed according Microsoft's recommendations, only to have them reappear later.  For example, the same external HD appears  twice on the "File Explorer" screen that lists the HDs. I gather that's not an uncommon bug.  The search box has also mysteriously  disappeared a couple of times, only to reappear when Microsoft issues the next OS update This PC was working fine on Windows 7 before going to Windows 10.  I have been using Windows since '95 & am not a newby.

That's why I have no desire at all to "upgrade" my production PC that has a lot more complex programs running on it from Windows 7 & will wait to buy a new box.

[Vordhosbn]

Support............................

[AshrafAziz]

Thank you for your continuous help. ZDNet web link above is very informative and might save me two hundred US$ to upgrade my Windows 7 Ultimate (Genuine purchase-as if it was just yesterday    ) if it works as mentioned in the article, that would be wonderful. I'll have to try those steps ASAP. I wonder why Vidya from Adobe took all that time to share with us her findings regarding Minnetonka Dolby Audio issue which I raised earlier here:

Re: Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018 Dolby Audio Problem

Zeno303 you have a point, which we all respect. Thank you for sharing your technical experience.

Regards,

Ashraf

[AshrafAziz]

Taking your advice above led to success in solving the Dolby Audio codec problem. Thank you once more.

NB. After installing Windows 10 Pro and getting a digital activation based on my Windows 7 Ultimate previous purchase and after reinstalling the Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe premiere pro CC (different versions) I found that the Premiere Pro CC 2018 is accepting the m2ts files including Dolby audio, but I have noticed that the CC 2017 version is still rejecting the audio. That's not a problem but I wanted to share the info.

Regards,

Ashraf

[ProDesignTools]

You are most welcome, Ashraf! Glad to hear you're up and running again, and that CC 2018 is working for you.

Note that CC 2017 won't use the operating system's native Dolby support, even in Windows 10 – so if 2017 is still not working for you, then it may need the codecs restored or copied over into its folders, as is detailed in this thread:

How to restore Dolby Digital audio encoder/decoder on Windows 7?

[Chris Kotech]

Which thread is this?

[BradMpls]

I'm curious and submit this question to some of the "old timers" in here (usage of PP, not your chronological age)... Did Adobe do anything similar to this with the EOL of Windows XP?

(I think XP was a damn good OS compared to Vista and it's future sibling Windows 8 & 8.1)

[glaustin]

If I recall correctly (and this was a while ago now), XP ending coincided with CS6, which moved the game over to 64bit systems to use the mercury engine. So I think you had to upgrade to a 64bit system and GPU that supported all the features.

[Guillaume_C]

After more than 40hours of trying to get my files to work, I've finaly found a way to make my MTS files to work.

At every step, make sure to test whit an .mts files UNDER A NEW NAME that you never used on Premiere.

I've upgraded my OS to the latest version of Win10 with all the update. (still doesn't work)

Installed windows media feature pack https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=48231

This one his risky - I found ad2ac3dec.dll on the web, copied it in all Encoder and Premiere main folder in C:\programmes\Adobe\**

and C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\**, I've also copied the DLL in C:\Windows\System32 and C:\Windows\SysWOW64.

Opened a commande line and typed "regsvr32 ad2ac3dec.dll" I've got a warning from windows that telling it wasn't sure that it was rightfully registrated.

I've opened a new projet on Première, with a mts file named with a name that I've never used before and it worked.

If it work for you, clear all media cache (delete file in those 2 folders) (when you open projet, Premiere will take some time to re-index all the vidéo file, but after that, you will be able to work on your MTS file with sound again)

C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\Media Cache Files

C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Common\Media Cache

I'm not sure if all thoses steps are necessary, but it worked for me. hope it will help you.

Sorry for my english, I'm french

[AshrafAziz]

Guillaume, the N and KN versions of Windows 10 do not support the decoding of Dolby audio.  Have you one of those two versions installed and that's why you found the above solution to make the m2ts work with audio?

Have you worked for ACCOR in Tolouse?

Ashraf

[Guillaume_C]

Ashraf,

I've tryied many thing during the process. as I told, I'm not sure if all thoses steps are necessary.

the main answer from Adobe for this probleme was directing everybody to "Adobe Creative Cloud apps use native OS support for Dolby"

So, my first step after installing windows 10 was to install the media feature pack, I'm still not sure if it make a difference, but I've wanted to include as many information to help.

I've never worked in Tolouse, I'm french Canadian from Quebec.

[kemaltarikyolcu]

For me, reinstalling Premiere CC 2017 solved the issue with the no-audio mts files.

The frustration here serves Adobe absolutely right. I don't consider upgrading my OS for the sake of CC 2018. Especially not if i'm hideously forced by Adobe. It is downright wrong to offer a "one click update" without the warning of such an important issue. Especially not if its such irreversible and hardly repairable. Like many other monopolies, they don't even seem to be bothered with customer satisfaction. Sad...

[abedm91567824]

this problem on windows 7

[ashleyren79]

Any solutions for this on windows 7 yet (other than an OS update)

[francescoc86483304]

Absolutely incredible the way Adobe is managing this issue. Downgrading?? I bought Premiere Elements 2018 as first purchase and I can't even downgrade. But anyway, how should I consider a company that suggests people to downgrade as a solution for an issue?

"Upgrading" OS? Why should I "upgrade" from Windows 7 to Windows 10? Is it 119 dollars worth? But even if it was free, do you consider serious they suggest us (as only option) to "upgrade" OS only for one single app?

The real point is: if Adobe had warned properly of this licence issue, I wouldn't have spent my money for a software I can't use: I would have chosen Sony or Cyberlink.

Any warning of this on system requirements section about Windows 7? Doesn't look so.

Adobe should give us our money back. Full stop.

A company that acts this way is not a company for pro videomakers anymore.

[Jim_Simon]

Why should I "upgrade" from Windows 7 to Windows 10?

Because it works.