Program crashes before capture can begin

[canooten]

I've run previous version of VS with no problems like this. I recently installed v9 on a new computer and had no problems the first several times I used it, but now I'm not even able to fully open the capture screen before the program crashes.

Computer specs:

P4 3.2gz
1gb ram
over 200gb of free hd space

I'm capturing DVD video from an external DVD player. I do this to create demo videos for my company website (demos of product we sell). I have an external DVD player connected via firewire through an ADS Pyro A/V Link box. The player is connected via analog audio and s-video, the digital to the PC.

All I use VS9 for is to capture the video, so some basic editing (combining short clips together, adding trasitions etc) then I save the fisnished clip as an mpg and use Helix Producer to covnert the file to real video then upload to the website. I don't burn DVD's or do any heavy editing using VS9.

It's been a few weeks since I last used the program (had no problems) and opened it up today to run off some video. It worked fine the first time....the program opened and I went to the capture screen and it found the Pyro converter. I started the live preview, then started the DVD and began the capture. Got about 30 seconds into the capture and the program froze (black screen on capture window and all counters stopped). I let it sit for a while and finally have to manually stop the program and rebooted to try again. Then I could never get the capture screen to fully load. It would come up, but it would never show the Pyro box as ready to use and it would eventually hang.
This has happened several times now, and finally I got an error message when the program attempted to close itself. It was in the form of the "normal" windows error box. Gray box with an OK button with the following text.

In the title bar up top it said "Active Movie Window" vstudio.exe Application Error"
In the body it said "The instruction at "0x73dd11c7" referenced memory at "0x0000004". The memory could not be "read". Click OK to terminate the program."

That's the only feedback I've gotten from the program. The rest of the time I have to get out from task manager.

No major changes made to the PC since it last worked correctly...hardware or software, so I don't see it being the PC, but who knows.
The Pyro box is functioning correctly....the 1 or 2 times the capture windows loaded and I was able to start a capture, the video came through just fine.

Looking for any idea of what I can try to fix this. Got a pile of DVD's I need to make demos for.

Thanks.

[tyamada]

You might want to try and remove the capture device in the device manager and reboot the computer with it disconnected. After the computer has restarted plug the capture device back in and see if you can capture.

[Ken Berry]

1) Can we assume that the DVD recorder is a hard disc variety?

2) How exactly were you 'capturing' the video from it? I don't mean the cables, but what process in VS9 were you using -- 'Insert DVD/DVR-VR or just playing it back on the recorder and capturing it in real time playback?

3) I confess, though, that I find it a little strange that you are using what are essentially analogue cables (S-video and RCA/composite) to capture from a digital device. Apart from anything else, there will be quality loss between the recorder and your ADS device... Doesn't the stand-alone DVD recorder itself have a Firewire connection which can be connected directly to the computer? Strange one if it didn't...

4) Does your ADS device capture direct to DV format? If not, what format are you trying to capture in?

5) The error message you received is indicative usually of a memory conflict with another program trying to access the same memory address as VS9. Normally, this can be rectified simply by re-starting VS9, or at most, rebooting your computer. In extreme cases, it could indicate that your RAM, or one of your RAM sticks, might be becoming erratic. There are a number of RAM test programs (free) which you can download to test your RAM, including one you can download from the Microsoft site.

[canooten]

There's no DVD recorder in the loop. My connection is as follows.

Sony DVD player to Pyro converter via svideo and RCA audio.

Pyro converter to PC via firewire.

I'm just playing the discs in the DVD player and capturing video as you would from a DV camera or other external source device and capturing on the fly.

As for quality loss....that's not really an issue with what I do...these videos are being converted to real video (a crappy quality format anyway) and the resolution is greatly lowered so the download time isn't an issue with the end customer that is viewing the clips from our website.

I do this the way I do because I've never found a way to just pop a DVD in my PC dvd drive and record specific parts of the video directly to the HD without actually ripping the VOB files to the drive and I'm just piecing together samples...I don't want the entire disc, just parts of it. It's the only way I'vd found that works well.

And yes, I'm captureing the DV. The Pyro box just converts the analog signal to digital. I use VS9 to save as a specific file type.

As for RAM conflics...I suppose it's possible, but I've restarted the program and the computer multiple times and I get the same or very similar results every time I try it.
I'll try some memory tests, but the machine is only a few months old, so I *doubt* it's a faulty RAM stick, but who knows.

I'll also try uninstalling the capture box and plugging it back after a reboot.

[Ken Berry]

Sorry for the misunderstanding -- I could not understand what your work flow was and so assumed it was an external recorder! I see why you are doing it that way. With VS9 you don't have to import whole VOBs, though, as the way it is set up in 'Import DVD/DVD-VR', you select Chapters, not VOBs. But from your point of view it still involves then isolating small parts of the imported chapters and cutting them. So your work flow probably is the best idea, unless someone has a better one.

As for defective RAM, while I am by no means sure this is your problem, I know from personal experience that even new RAM can be defective. A couple of years ago I bought a new computer with 1 GB PC 2700 RAM in two sticks. I kept getting memory conflict messages and many crashes, sometimes several times a day. It drove me crazy for months, until I finally tested the RAM and found one of the sticks defective -- not totally kaput, but acting erratically. Luckily, this was still in the warranty period of the computer, so I got a new stick and everything has worked smoothly since then.