Kdenlive crashes randomly. No playback or playback crashes. Or no sound. Ubuntu 9.10 64bit

Hi.

I installed from ppa:sunab/ppa using apt-get. There were notes on the download page about if you are using KDE 4.3 / 4.4 which confused me as I use standard ubuntu/gnome.

Anyway. It was crashing a lot, no sound in playback or playback freezing depending on options chosen, and the time-line wasn't working. It seemed the time-line needed an update to fix so I added ppa:sunab/sunab2 and updated to 0.7.8, thinking it would also add stability for the other problems.

The time-line fix seemed to be there, but so were all the other problems.

If I use the default playback settings of Video: automatic Audio: ALSA:
- Click play, video plays for a few seconds, with jerky audio and then Kdenlive hangs. Needs force quit. At least two other threads report similar.

If I change to playback settings of Video: XVideo Audio: ALSA:
- Click play on playback, instant hang with black playback screen.

Next I read something about If I change the background colour and restart. So I did this, and the first time I play, it goes back to video plays for a few seconds, with jerky audio and then Kdenlive hangs.

Next I try to run from command line with

env XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 kdenlive

This gives an error:
** (:23355): CRITICAL **: atk_object_set_name: assertion `name != NULL' failed
kdenlive(23355) MainWindow::parseProfiles: RESULTING MLT PATH: "/usr/share/mlt/profiles/"

But it runs. Again, it plays a few seconds and hangs. Grr.
At the point of hanging, teh command line says:

kdenlive(23355) KThumb::getAudioThumbs: reading audio thumbs from file

So I find something about deleting thumbnails. I delete the thumbnails, make no other changes and run from command line again.

Now the playback screen is repeatedly flipping between the clip monitor and project monitor tabs. The command line is repeating:

kdenlive(23385) Render::start: ----- STARTING MONITOR: "project"
kdenlive(23385) Render::start: ----- MONITOR: "project" WAS STOPPED
kdenlive(23385) Render::start: ----- MONITOR: "project" REFRESH
kdenlive(23385) Render::stop: ///////////// RENDER STOPPED: "project"
kdenlive(23385) Render::stop: ///////////// RENDER STOP2-------
kdenlive(23385) Render::stop: ///////////// RENDER STOP3-------
kdenlive(23385) Render::start: ----- STARTING MONITOR: "clip"
kdenlive(23385) Render::start: ----- MONITOR: "clip" WAS STOPPED
kdenlive(23385) Render::start: ----- MONITOR: "clip" REFRESH

It did this a couple of hundred times, and then stopped on clip monitor.
Press play. It plays a few seconds and hangs.

So. Force quit. Delete thumbnails.

Try changing again. I'm doing this because I got it working with video but no sound from the command line in 0.7.7), but can't repeat is 0.7.8

Changed audio to OSS. This time it hangs as I open clip. Just a random hang.

OK, try again. Now this time it will play the video clip all through, but there is no sound.

It's a mess. So I'm looking for more solutions. I see something repeated many times...
"You should first remove all old MLT packages (the one that have version 0.3.8). Install only MLT packages with version 0.4.4"

But I can't see any documentation for how to do this.