VS9 CRASHES WITH MPEGS

[Strtline]

HELLO:

I HAVE BEEN HAVING THIS SAME PROBLEM SINCE VS4. I HAVE VIDEO IN AVI FORMAT. I EDIT AND CREATE VIDEO FILE IN AVI FORMAT. I THEN RENDER TO MPEG. ALL GOES FINE. HOWEVER, IF I HAVE MPEG FILES TO WORK WITH INSTEAD OF AVI FILES VS CRASHES. BECAUSE OF THIS I ALWAYS WORK IN AVI MODE UNTIL THE PROJEST IS COMPLETE THAN RENDER TO MPEG. THIS TIME I HAVE ONLY MPEG SOURCE TO WORK WITH SO I MUST WORK IN MPEG MODE. MPEGS ARE MPEG2, BUT RATE 6900 MAX, LOWER FIELD FIRST. IF I EDIT IN VS9 THEN RERENDER THE PROJECT AS NTSC DVD, ALL GOES WELL. HOWEVER, THIS FORCES ME TO RERENDER MPEG FILES THAT ARE ALREADTY DVD COMPLIANT. IF I SAY "SAME AS PROJECT SETTINGS" VS9 CRASHES WITH THE "VS9 NEED TO CLOSE" ERROR MESSAGE.

CAN ANYONE SHED SOME LIGHT ON THIS? AS I SAID, I HAVE HAD THIS SAME PROBLEM SINCE VS4.

THANKS IN ADVANCE

[jchunter]

Small comfort, but I almost always have mpeg2 clips in my timeline and have never encountered this problem in the last three years. However, I always set the properties manually when creating the video file and select the NTSC-DVD template in the Compression tab. It quickly smart-renders as long as I have that option checked.

These are the properties that I use mostly:
NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First for digital capture (DVD-NTSC), 4:3 (or 16:9 for widescreen)
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps) 6900 should not make a difference
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo (or Dolby)

Have you ever timed Create video with and without smart-render checked? This would tell you if the clips were really re-rendering.