Crash at 99% Rendering .avi & Windows Explorer crash

Greg Meekings · Post by **Greg Meekings** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:01 pm

I have a repeatable synchronous problem. It would be good to hear if anyone can throw further light on it. I think I ought to submit the problem to Ulead (how?) but if I can gather further evidence or narrow it down it will help them. So any input appreciated. As you can see this is a very simple process on a very powerful platform, and given the synchronicity and repeatability it is a bug and ought to be fixable. There are enough clues..

As it stands and regrettably this software doesn't appear to be fit for purpose as far as I am concerned.

Background & Detail:

I am a new user with a new install on a system with plenty of capacity. I have just had all my Analogue Video 8mm digitised. These were supplied as .AVI files (ex Adobe Premier Elements). The files are 3-25Gb each. I thought I would start by trimming them to save space (several have blue run out at the end). I trimmed the first file down to 1:28:00 length which produced a smaller 19Gb file and worked fine. During this my processor barely broke sweat and there was plenty of memory and disc etc. No problem I naively thought!

Subsequent attempts to Trim the other files have failed. I do this by selecting the clip in the library, trimming in the preview window, and using Clip, Save Trimmed Video (i.e. nothing in the timeline or project view). The failure has been the same on all but one occasion. VS10 crashes with a Ulead has encountered a problem error (Windows). The trimmed output file had been created and looked about the right size, but just selecting it in Explorer or Media Player causes them to crash. The pattern leading to the failure is consistent. Progress gets to 99% (infact I suspect it completes) process load increases significantly, there is much disk activity, and then it crashes. It looks to me as though something goes wrong in the file close process. Indeed the state which causes Explorer to crash may be the same cause of VS10 crashing. The question is: in what way can a file be created such that reliable Windows programs crash when they do whatever explorer does when you select a file? Then, is this state brought about by a Windows bug, a Ulead bug, or both? Strictly speaking it ought not to be possible for one program e.g. VS10 to create a file which would cause something like Explorer to crash when it peeks at it. But then you never know. What is clear is that this is a major problem that appears, based on looking at the forum, to have been around a long while without being addressed. On the one different crash I got a VS10 (I think) error message nsufficient space on this drive. Save to another drive or reduce file size. 17117:29:1?before it crashed.

I subsequently successfully deleted the errant files in DOS. Interestingly in Explorer if the bad file was in the middle of a multi file (shift-click) selection then it selected and deleted OK.

This problem occurs on several of my files. So it isn't one corrupt file. I ended up exhaustively testing two files. By reducing the Trimmed Clip duration I discovered that the crash always occurred (repeatable and synchronous) in the same logical place, see table below.

File1: Original Clip Duration & Size 0:25:00:06 / 5,557,603KB
Trim Duration & Size <= (always works) 0:23:35:11 / 5,242,335K
Trim Duration & Size >= (always fails) 0:23:35:18 / 5,243,389KB

File2: Original Clip Duration & Size 1:42:59:15 / 22,854,386KB
Trim Duration & Size <= (always works) 1:29:55 / 19,980,887KB
Trim Duration & Size >= (always fails) 1:29:57 / 19,988,310KB

Note the following:
1. A trimmed clip which runs over the work/fail boundary always works i.e. there is not a corruption in the file at the failure point.
2. A Trim deleting from the front fails at the same Duration/Size point as a Trim from the end!!!!
3. On a failure it appears that the whole clip has been written to the output file, but it cannot be accessed without crashing the accessor.
4. The input files play perfectly well right through using Windows Media player.
5. AVI format same in and out: type 2, 24bits, 720x576, 4:3

PS: How do I turn HTML on so I can better layout posts?

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:29 pm

To report the problem to Ulead you must use their Technical Support Form. Note that you must be a registered user to submit this form.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 8:42 pm

All of my crashes and other weird problems have been caused by corrupted video files. (I call it "sneaky corruption", because the "bad" files usually play back OK, but cause trouble when you try to edit or convert them.)

I would guess that there were problems during analog capture. It sounds like you didn't do it yourself, and you can't try re-capturing, right? It could be that the hardware was not up to the task, or that the PC was multitasking, causing frames to be "dropped" or other glitches. (Analog capture is the trickiest part of digital video.)

Adobe Premier Elements may be more tolerant of these problems. Somebody here was having similar problems with Ulead (and MPEG files). Switching to Adobe cured his/her problems.

You appear to be using AVI/DV files. (An AVI file can contain anything from DV to Divx). It doesn't help to tell you this, but these problems are rare with DV files, and more common with the more-compressed formats. All of my problems have been with MPEGs. DivX and Xvid users seem to have the most problems.

PS: How do I turn HTML on so I can better layout posts?

I don't think HTML has been enabled on the forum, but you can use BBcode (which is how I made the quote-box and that link.)

Greg Meekings · Post by **Greg Meekings** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:45 pm

I have just downloaded a trial version of Adobe Premier Elements 3.0 and it enabled me to trim all my files with no problem and no crashes! I therefore conclude that the problem is a bug or defficiency in VideoStudio. Now I have to decided whether to stick with VS or move to Adobe.......

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:32 am

Please view:
From Camcorder to DVD with VideoStudio

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:50 am

Your original clips were done in Adobe. Adobe is probably using it's own dv codec and VideoStudio is using the uleads dv codec When the dv.avi files were saved in Adobe it's a good chance that project information and other settings were saved in the dv file. This can cause conflict with other programs trying to read the dv file correctly.

Sounds to me like your stuck with the other program, unless you can save the file as DV-Type 1 without any project settings or markers. I have other programs that will save project markers in the dv file directly. Any other program has a hard time reading them.