Videostudio 8 crashes during file conversion

jimo · Post by **jimo** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:31 am

I have a single 7 gig avi file that crashes during file conversion to create DVD. I created a 35 minute project on VS6 and wrote it back to a miniDV tape in my camcorder, Now that I am creating DVDs with VS8 I figured I could capture the tape and burn to DVD, does anyone know if there is a size limitation on how big an AVI file that can be converted? It keeps crashing at about 28 percent complete

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:52 am

The only limitation I know of is imposed by the OS and not Video Studio, and it is a 4 GB limit on systems that do not use the NTFS filing system. Even XP can be set not to use NTFS, so you may need to check the disc on which you are seeking to capture the DV tape (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disc Management). But if all your discs are formatted to NTFS, there should not be any file size limit -- and particularly not if you had no trouble originally capturing and editing this video and then exporting it back to your camera (I assume with VS8). Besides, DV and uncompressed AVI files are by their nature large (13 GB/hour and 65 GB hour respectively). Most of us here on this Board would, I imagine, regularly be capturing, editing and producing DV/AVI files of well over 13 GB in size.

Can you capture any part of the video? If so, does it always stop at the same point and kill VS? And if so again, then could you not just capture up to that point as one file, then move on a little in the tape and try again?

If you can capture any of the tape successfully, can you right click on this particular file within VS8 and copy down its properties here. Could you also spell out exactly your work flow.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:20 am

Hi Ken, the way I understand the OP, there is no problem capturing the AVI but converting it to mpeg for DVD.

The reasons could be manifold and the OP needs to give us a lot more detail.

@ jimo

Please explain your work flow for this task, project settings, other processes running etc.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:21 am

Hi back, Heinz!

And yes, I understood the question, as I thought I made clear when I said "But if all your discs are formatted to NTFS, there should not be any file size limit -- and particularly not if you had no trouble originally capturing and editing this video and then exporting it back to your camera (I assume with VS8)."

The point I was trying to make was that he needs to check the hard discs he is using in the process he is *now* engaged in for their file system. His system set-up could have changed and he could have, for example, an external hard drive formatted to FAT32 and not NTFS. We had a guy here the other day who ran into a file size problem, and it turned out he usually used a HDD with NTFS on it, but for this particular project was using another HDD with FAT32 filing system on it, so XP imposed the 4GB limit on that HDD.

But failing that, as I already said too, we need to know about the file (and project) properties and his work flow etc...

jimo · Post by **jimo** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:42 am

The tape was created, several years ago by VS6 which didn't have the function of burning to DVD, I currently am using VS8. All drives are NTFS

The original project was captured from my minidv camcorder edited by VS6 and copied back to a minidv tape on the same camcorder.

I have captured into VS8 twice, the first time I captured spliting by scene and when I played the project back the naration was choppy so I recaptured as a single clip. The same JVC camcorder that was used on the original was used to play back the tape

The file conversion failure and crash of VS8 seems to happen at 28 percent all 3 times.

I can't get to the project setting right now, I will follow up later with that info.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:32 am

Sounds more like a corrupted file to me. Are you, in fact, capturing DV-AVI to DV-AVI or are you trying to capture the tape contents straight to DVD compliant mpeg2?

jimo · Post by **jimo** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:02 am

Sorry it took me so long to get back but...

Here are the properties:
NTSC drop frame (29.97 fps)
Microsoft AVI files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 4:3, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
DV Video Encoder -- type 2
PCM, 32.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo

However, I added a 15 sec mpg clip at the beginning (a production credit, ha ha ) and low and behold it converted properly,

thanks all

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 3:11 am

Jimo,
Congratulations on a successful burn!

Post mortem: It seems that you committed at least three procedural no-nos.

1) You captured DV Type 2, which has been causing grief for users for years. (Type 1 is recommended.)

2) I suspect that you tried to initiate the DVD burn directly from your project in the timeline. (It is recommended to create a DVD-compliant mpeg2 video file prior to initiating the burn process.)

3) I suspect that you did not manually try set the BURN properties to DVD-compliant settings. (IMO, required if 2) above is correct.)

Finally, I think that when you added the mpeg clip to the beginning of your project, it caused VS8 to default to DVD-compliant burn properties, which allowed the conversion to go forward properly.

However, you are not out of the woods yet because version 8 had chronic audio/video synch problems. Play the DVD all the way through to make sure this didn't happen.

If I were you, I would upgrade to 10+ and then, for all future work, follow the procedure that is recommended in the top sticky post .

jimo · Post by **jimo** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:00 am

Thanks John,

I guess that I have just been luck that I havn't had more probles, I did read the sticky and will try to adhere better, and I will definately upgrade to VS10+ prior to the next projefct, if for nothing else I just learned about "ripple editing", what a time saver.

thanks again