VS11+ freezing upon capturing

[kadzbiz]

Hi all, I've searched and searched by can't find an answer yet. Perhaps someone can help me? I have recently bought VS11+ and find that after about 2 to 4 mins of capture, the program freezes and I have to reboot my PC just to access anything.

I bought VS11+ to capture straight to mpeg format as previously I was capturing in avi using WinDV or VirtualDub via my Canopus ADVC110. I would then edit with Womble Video Wizard, if necessary re-encode with TMPEGEnc Express 3, author with DVD Author Pro and burn with Nero Express. I never minded all that and got great results, but I hated the hours of re-encoding from avi to mpeg, so I thought VS11+ would solve all my problems.

I've tried playing around with various options, but it didn't matter was format I chose etc, the capture still froze after a few minutes.

VS11+ worked fine in its other abilities, just the capture is troubling me. I've looked for patches and fixes, but nothing located yet for VS11+. Is the fact the my OS is the Media Centre Edition an issue? Up until running VS11+, I've had no problems with any software or application.

Thanks in advance.

Dan

[Ken Berry]

The only thing that I can think of is that your computer may not be quite up to the job -- though looking at your system specs, your computer is not wildly different from mine where it matters. I confess I have not tried capturing direct to mpeg-2 with VS11+ as yet, though I have no trouble doing so with VS10+. Have you had a previous version of VS on which your tried this?

As you may realise, capturing direct to mpeg-2 is very resource-hungry for a computer if the signal being captured is DV. In your case, I imagine you are still using the Canopus, so this will be the case. VS has to convert the incoming DV signal to mpeg-2 on the fly. If the computer, for whatever reason, cannot keep up with the inflow of data, it banks up in a transcode buffer, and when that gets full, VS will stop the capture until the data in the buffer is emptied and processed. Then it will usually start again. But inevitably it will be a stop and start process, and where it stops will almost undoubtedly be random and not where you yourself would have ended a capture.

I have certainly found that VS11+ is more resource-hungry in its own right than its predecessors, so that also could be adding to the strain. Any background programs, anti-virus etc, also takes away from the computer resources required. Try turning everything off (including your internet connection, so you don't have to worry about the anti-virus) and run it all again to see what happens.

If that proves to be better, then I hope someone will jump in with a link to a procedure developed by one of our members for a special video editing profile which absolutely minimises the background processes and services in action during an editing session. Unfortunately, I cannot quite lay my hands on the link at the moment.

[lancecarr]

Here you go!

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=13950

[kadzbiz]

The only thing that I can think of is that your computer may not be quite up to the job ......Have you had a previous version of VS on which your tried this?.....In your case, I imagine you are still using the Canopus, so this will be the case. ...... Any background programs, anti-virus etc, also takes away from the computer resources required. Try turning everything off .... and run it all again to see what happens......I hope someone will jump in with a link to a procedure developed by one of our members for a special video editing profile which absolutely minimises the background processes and services in action during an editing session......

Thanks for the quick reply Ken & Lance. FYI, the PC I'm using is totally stand alone. I purposely bought this PC as a 2nd PC to purely do video, music and photo editing as I run a little side business in digital imaging. This PC is not connected to the internet and thus I have no anti-virus programs operating. I run only minimal programs to aid video production operations. There are generally only about 30 processes running, and I can't say I know what they all are (maybe I should check the net about each one), but I'm pretty sure that no resource draining applications are running. Yes I use the Canopus and I hear what you say. I would've thought my PC was powerful enough for this sort of work, but maybe I'm wrong. Talking about capturing direct to mpeg format being resource hungry, I have friends that have a less powerful PC, that is Net connected, and they run KWorld's DVD Maker USB 2.0 and capture straight to mpeg. For some reason I get an error when trying to install it and so I can't try it out on my PC. Their PC however couldn't run VS11+. They got a "cannot start capture graph" error when they tried to capture. All gettin beyond me now, but I'll still hang in there for options to solve this.

[lancecarr]

Hi Dan,
Just a couple of points:
The Canopus delivers DV to your computer. The KWorld (I think) delivers "ready made" MPEGs. The conversion is happening in the device itself and not the computer so that takes a whole bunch of strain off the computer as the computer is not actually encoding to MPEG. All it is doing is getting the MPEG on to the HDD.
I agree your computer "should" be able to handle it but then again Windows XP "should" do a whole bunch of things too!
As far as the link to the video profile goes I can see that you don't really need it but Steve has included a bunch of processes that can be safely stopped and I can get mine down to about 13 I think. That could also help.
Finally, defrag prior to capture might help as well so that the OS has plenty of contiguous space to throw the data down on.
Let us know how you go.

[kadzbiz]

....The KWorld (I think) delivers "ready made" MPEGs. The conversion is happening in the device itself and not the computer so that takes a whole bunch of strain off the computer as the computer is not actually encoding to MPEG. All it is doing is getting the MPEG on to the HDD..... I can get mine down to about 13 I think. That could also help.
Finally, defrag prior to capture might help as well so that the OS has plenty of contiguous space to throw the data down on.....Let us know how you go.

Okay, the "ready made" mpeg idea makes sense. I will try stopping a few more processes as suggested and do the defrag and let you know who it went. It's late now, so I won't tell you for another 20 hours probably. What's your opinion of the Media Centre Edition of XP? You don't think that has anything to do with things?

Cheers.

[etech6355]

If your using a convertor box and not capturing from a tape so far VS11+ does not work with these devices. Many of the moderators here have gone through this issue and contacted ulead tech support to please address this issue.
Try to capture in the DV format. If you cannot capture in the DV format then you have the same problem as trying to use a dv camcorder in pass-through mode.
The sign is you can only capture about 10-20 seconds before capture fails. If you can't capture straight DV the DV->Mpeg2 isn't possilbe either, which BTW VS11+ does a pretty descent job if using a dv cam tape unit. But I capture DV because it's more reliable for editing purposes and better video conversion.

The only thing you can try to do as a workaround in VS11+ is under the "Preferences" section disable any type of signals controlling a cam such as "Stop camcorder when capturing stops" .Sometimes the "Click OK to capture" can disable controlling the cam and you control your vcr. In the capture screen you hit Record, wait for the pop-up screen, then play the tape, when ready to capture hit the OK button. You must see the previewing of the video in order to capture.

But so far I think you need a dvd cam tape unit to capture in VS11+. If VS11+ cannot control the complete operation then capturing fails.
Using a pass-through device in VS11+ so far has not been successful.

[Ken Berry]

Even using an analogue 8mm tape in a Digital 8 Sony DCR-TRV480E camera and trying to capture using the Sony's firewire connection, does not work in VS11+, either on a Vista computer or an XP computer. (Fortunately, it works perfectly in VS10+ on XP which I have kept on that system.)

[kadzbiz]

If your using a convertor box and not capturing from a tape so far VS11+ does not work with these devices. ........The only thing you can try to do as a workaround in VS11+ is under the "Preferences" section .......Using a pass-through device in VS11+ so far has not been successful.

Well I've tried all the suggestions without success. So should I wait until Ulead solves the problem or should I try and get my money back because if I'm using my Canopus ADVC110 to capture the analog signal and VS11+ can't do it, what's the point?

Even using an analogue 8mm tape in a Digital 8 Sony DCR-TRV480E camera and trying to capture using the Sony's firewire connection, does not work in VS11+, either on a Vista computer or an XP computer. (Fortunately, it works perfectly in VS10+ on XP which I have kept on that system.)

You mean if I get VS10+ my VHS capture via my Canopus will work Ken?

[Ken Berry]

I am sure it will. But I am not sure how you will get a copy of of VS10 now that VS11 has been released, except perhaps on a site like e-Bay or in a shop which is selling left-over programs.

[kadzbiz]

I am sure it will. But I am not sure how you will get a copy of of VS10 now that VS11 has been released, except perhaps on a site like e-Bay or in a shop which is selling left-over programs.

Thanks Ken. I'll hang onto my VS11+ for now. Perhaps a patch will come later. Y'know what I did discover today? The friends with the KWorld PVR had Movie Factory 4 included and I tried it with my canopus and it worked fine! If only I knew that before I spent so much money on VS11+. Thanks all.

P.S. I even solved the KWorld install error I had. It was an installshield problem. I went and renamed the installshield file to installshieldold and then installshield created a new folder. Later I put the new stuff in the renamed folder, deleted the new folder and re-renamed the old folder by removing "old". Follow all that? I simply google the error code and found the answer. Sheesh! I love the Net!!

Edit I spoke to soon. For some reason even MF4 froze during capture, but that was after 27 mins! There must be something else going on, but for the life of me I don't know what. I've checked everything.

Further Edit I will add that the end result of the direct mpeg capture looked pretty ordinary too. I'd have to re-encode it to tidy it up, time I was trying to save in the first place. I am waiting for a final response from Corel themselves and I will post the answer if I get one.

[kadzbiz]

Corel finally admitted that VS11+ couldn't capture via my Canopus.

[Ken Berry]

Thanks for letting us know.