Crashing at 99% rendering to AVI with VS9

thad · Post by **thad** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:04 am

What would cause my system to crash when creating an DV-AVI? I get the "Video Studio.exe must shut down" error and then Windows Explorer must shut down. This is the third time it's happened since I bought VS9 about 5 months ago. On the other files, I only needed simple edits to the video so I just made them in my authoring program. On this file, I just spent 3 hours editing and now I can't output an AVI!

An AVI file is produced even though I got these errors, but it's worthless. I can't open it with anything. If I so much as right click on it, I get the error that Windows Explorer must shut down. It's not even recognized as an AVI file by players or editors.

I realize my system is grossly underpowered for video editing, but I've done well over 100 DVDs with it. As I said, it's the 3rd time this has happened and I can't afford to redo this project.

This install is from the download. I have also installed the patch.

Thanks.
Thad

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:09 am

Thad, you may realize that you computer is grossly underpowered but unfortunatley we don't. Please fill in the specs of your computer in the "system" section.
Also, What are the properties of the offending avi and how big is it?
How many hard drives do you have, what is their capacity and how much free space do you have available?
When was the last time you defragged the hard drive(s)?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:18 am

Empty out your temp files as well. The system is running out of steam towards the end. Could also be that it is still doing something that you cannot see any indication of. Did you let it run for a while to see if, in fact, it might finish some time later?

Another thing to look for would be the location of your temp files and the free space on that drive.

thad · Post by **thad** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:20 am

Please fill in the specs of your computer in the "system" section.

I was just filling that in as you were replying.

Also, What are the properties of the offending avi and how big is it?

Microsoft AVI type 2
720 X 480
29.97 fps
NTSC 4:3
PCM Wave 48000 Hz
22,741,037 KB
Approx 1:45 long

Hard drives:
20GB with OS installed, 3GB free
100GB for storage, 62GB free
300GB for video editing/storage, 80GB free
All are due for defragging.

Thad

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:36 am

Wow! Such much to choose from!
As Heinz says you really need to do a clean up first and a good defrag.
With the amount of processing power you have it would be advisable in the future to choose DV Type 1 for capture. Type 2 creates one file but splits the video and audio streams so requires more work from the processor.
Also, make sure you shut down any screen savers, connections to the internet, virus scanners or any other process that could spring to life while you are rendering.

PeterMilliken · Post by **PeterMilliken** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:38 am

You might also try this help page:

http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/video_stud ... pid=211086

This problem occurs reasonably frequently on the board (remember, SEARCH is you best friend

) - in my experience it has hinged around the video content itself, but others might have different experiences. Anyway, the technique described above may or may not help.

Best of luck,
Peter

thad · Post by **thad** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:46 am

Did you let it run for a while to see if, in fact, it might finish some time later?.

I let it run while I left the house. I was gone with plenty of time for it to finish, if that was the case.

Another thing to look for would be the location of your temp files and the free space on that drive.

Where can I find the location of the temp files?

You all have given me some good info here. I thank you for that. Good link, Peter. I'm going to start by running a defrag tonight and I'll try again tommorow.

Thanks.
Thad

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:18 am

thad wrote:....
Another thing to look for would be the location of your temp files and the free space on that drive.
Where can I find the location of the temp files?

You all have given me some good info here. I thank you for that. Good link, Peter. I'm going to start by running a defrag tonight and I'll try again tommorow.

Thanks.
Thad

The location of your temp files is set in either the project settings or the preferences. Can't be more specific since I don't use VS.

thad · Post by **thad** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 3:02 am

I've been sick all this week so I'm just getting back to this.

Is this the location of my temp directory?

The wording didn't sound like it but it's the only thing that lists a path in my preferences or project settings. Anyway, there's not much in it so I don't think it being full is the problem. I deleted all files anyway.

I have defragged all drives. I cut some extra stuff out of the video and still get the same error when trying to save as AVI. The thing that gets me is that I can do another project and everything will be fine.

Does anyone have any other ideas? I'd almost rather do it all again than mess around with the idea in Peter's link. This is really annoying.

Maybe I could try encoding to MPEG with VS9. I usually use CCE Basic for this, but if it'll get me through, I'll take it.

Thad

PeterMilliken · Post by **PeterMilliken** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 6:45 pm

thad wrote: ... I cut some extra stuff out of the video and still get the same error when trying to save as AVI. The thing that gets me is that I can do another project and everything will be fine...

Hi Thad,

Everything you say here points to something in the video content you are trying to construct that is causing VS to have an internal haemorrhage - please re-read the troubleshooting page that I referenced for you - it refers to locating the problem using a "divide and conquer" approach and not a "cut some extra stuff" approach

. With this error you have to systematically tackle it to locate the one element of the video causing the problem.

I will guarantee from what you have described that the problem can be found using the mentioned approach - please give it a go. If the approach is unclear then please let me know and I'll try and clear up any misapprehensions as to how it works (I wrote it

because I had a similar problem and fixed it using this technique).

Peter

tyamada · Post by **tyamada** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:09 pm

You should set your VS9 temp directory on a drive other than your OS drive. You only have 3GB left and the file you are creating is many times the size.

Also in VS9 change your preferences, working directory to a drive other than the OS drive (it's usually set at the same place as your temp directory)

Make sure you are saving your files to a drive other than your OS drive.

You also need to clean your OS drive, remove your temporary files and any programs you don't need.

Your swap file needs to be move to another drive also, since Windows is taking 1.5G of storage space on your OS drive.

thad · Post by **thad** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:14 am

PeterMilliken wrote:it refers to locating the problem using a "divide and conquer" approach and not a "cut some extra stuff" approach

Peter,

Yeah, I know. I was just taking a shortcut based on the time I had.

I wanted to try *something* different but I didn't have time to go through all of that. I had guests in town over the weekend and wanted to post something here quickly to get some more ideas for next week. BTW, I read your link and it all made sense. I guess I've just got to do it.

Peter, what did you find to be the problem when you finally narrowed it down? Was it a certain transition or video clip? Have you had the problem since? Is it something that could be submitted to Ulead for a possible bug fix?

I was able to encode the file to MPEG with no errors but it ended up almost 6GB, which obviously won't fit on a DVD. And there was no audio. I'll save my "encoding with VS9" questions for another thread.

tyamada, I have set my temp directory to my video storage drive. I've set my working drive there also. That's where I save my files too. What is my swap file and how do I move it? Does it seem weird to you that I could complete another project with no errors, using the exact same settings (temp file locations, drive settings, etc)?

Thank you all for your help!

Thad

PeterMilliken · Post by **PeterMilliken** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:36 am

Hi Thad,

Sorry I can't help with any concrete answers as to what it was in my case - from memory it was a project that I had already rendered and burnt to R/W when I decided to make several small changes to the video - whatever it was that I changed caused the 99% crash error for me, so I was able to narrow it down quite quickly. So I am sorry I can't provide any hints to get you started here. Plus I was in a hurry and frustated by an "11th hour" problem such as this - so I quickly "fixed" the problem and promply forgot what I had done.

I realise having to start from scratch by halving and then halving again is a daunting task - especially considering the time to render at each step! Unfortunately it is the fastest approach - unless you are fortunate like my example where I had a pretty good idea that it must have been one of my small changes that triggered the bug.

As for reporting it to ULead - it needs to be (a) repeatable (which it is when you trigger the fault

); and (b) something that you can easily get into their hands for analysis.

The later is the real problem. This problem is present in both VS8 and VS9 - so it has been around for a while now and ULead have shown no indication on this board to even desiring to track the problem down and fix it i.e. if I was them I would ask whoever had the problem to pass all of the project/video files to them on DVDs (using a disc image program such as Image for Windows) but they have never once shown up on this board with such as request - so they are obviously not interested in fixing the problem.

Next time I hit the problem I think I'll take the trouble to take a snapshot of the project and report it as a bug - they really should fix this as it is tremendously annoying when it does strike!

Sorry I can't be of more help,

Peter

tyamada · Post by **tyamada** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:05 am

The Ulead products I use (VS9, MSP8, Burn Now and MF3) are very quirky, they work some times and sometimes they don't work.

Your swap file is a file that windows swaps code to run in virtual memory when the the programs you are using demand real memory.
This link will explain your swap file better than I can.

thad · Post by **thad** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:21 am

Well, I finally got the motivation to try Peter's recommendation. Here's the kicker. Both halves rendered OK. I could separate the project into 2 DVDs, but I'd rather not. Next, I'll try creating a new project using those 2 AVI clips and see if they'll render together. If not, I'll settle for 2 DVDs.

Thad