VideoStudio 11+ shuts down when playing back

[colemanoid]

My sister had some old super-8 movies that had been transferred to DVD. These were doen professionally, and saved as a sombined VIDEO_TS (PowerDVD) file. I used a utility to convert these back to AVI video files, hten imported them to VS11+ and used the multitrim video tool to break them back into segments. When I subsequently tried to play the segments in the preview screen, the playback works for about 1-1/2 minutes, then I get an error message telling me the VS had to shut down. I also have tried scrubbing the timeline, and get the same error message when I go past a certain point.

I checked to see if I had the right codec for these files. The tool I used to do so is one that is referenced in the Ulead knowledgebase (AVIcodec.exe). It told me that these files have a v.codec name of Microsoft DIB, and an A.1 codec name of AC3 DVM. I have the Microsoft AC3 Encoder enabled on my machine. Any other suggestions as to what I should try or check?

[Ken Berry]

Can you tell us first what your ultimate intention is? I mean, do you intend burning the edited files back to a video DVD? If so, why are you converting the files to AVI? That will involve a loss of quality, which when dealing with what was originally analogue film, you need to preserve as much as possible. Then after your editing, before they can be burned back to DVD, they have to be reconverted back to mpeg-2 which is another level of loss of quality.

My own inclination would be to simply use 'Insert DVD/DVD-VR' in VS11 to import the video on the original DVD, which will bring it in in the mpeg-2 format it is already in (the .vob files on the DVD are just mpeg-2 with a different extension). You do your editing and, preserving the same properties as the original, burn it back to DVD in the same format. Using SmartRender, only the areas of video around the edits will be reconverted so quality should be maintained pretty largely.

I know we usually recommend editing in DV/AVI format wherever possible, and the mpeg can be difficult to edit. But in a situation such as yours, importing and editing in mpeg format is at least worth a try to minimise loss of quality in video which is already in a lossy format.

[colemanoid]

I tried what you suggested, and everything worked great! Thanks.