VS11 Unable to render project - unspecified error

[burnzee]

Hi,

I am running VideoStudio 11 and have completed a project which involves movie clips, jpegs, and mp3 files. I managed to render and burn one copy last night via Tools > Create Disc.

Today however VS crashes at about 5% of the rendering process. After perusing these forums I tried to render via Share > Create Video File (PAL DVD) and this also crashes at about the 20% mark.

So frustrating.

So the video files are on an external hard drive (160GB) and they have been imported from a Sony Handycam SR82E as movie clip files via USB transfer. There are 30 files averaging 60MB - 80MB each.

Image files are jpegs imported from a Nikon Coolpix 3700 via USB transfer. There are 10 files at approx 500KB each.

18 audio files are mp3s from various sources.

Project Settings:
PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 720 x 576, 25 fps
Upper Field First
(DVD-PAL), 16:9
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 9100 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)

Output format: DVD

Hope someone can help with this, it will be much appreciated : )

burnzee

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums,

Does your crashes seem to happen while doing the same function every time, or is it sporadic?

While VS should be able to handle mp3 files, it does like the WAV file format much better. You might try converting your mp3s to WAV and see if it still has a problem.

Next is your PC, it seems to be on the bottom edge of meeting system requirements. However if you ensure that all unnecessary applications (anti virus, spy ware, instant messenger)are shut-down then it should still run. Are you importing your video files from your external HDD to work on them, or leaving them on the external drive?

If you're working off your internal drive, I would say that it is very small in the world of video editing. One advantage is that your camcorder records to MPEG2, so at least the files are smaller then DV. However bear in mind that while editing you need at least 2x the file sizes in HDD free space, not just total space. While editing VS at various times create temp files, and it needs the room to do this.

This maybe unrelated to your crashes, but have you updated DirectX, from the Microsoft website? The most current update is Nov 2007.

[Ken Berry]

The bitrate you are using also seems a bit high, even if you are using Dolby audio. I realise that is possibly the bitrate of the video which came out of your HDD camera, but you might want to consider dropping it down to around 8000 kbps. Some DVD players have difficulty with home-burned DVDs, particularly those with a high bitrate... And it could at least be a contributing factor in your current problems.

[2Dogs]

I have no problems with an even less powerful Celeron M 1.5Ghz laptop, which only has a smallish internal hard drive, so you should be OK with yours. Since it's only single-threaded and single core, you will get an increase in encoding performance if you use a dedicated video editing hardware profile, eliminating unnecessary processes, as well as the items Vidoman mentioned. You can do a search of this forum to open up that can of....invertebrates!

I would suggest that you use the "suggested workflow" however, as found in this link

http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... 512#101512

rather than try to use the Share > Create Disc step with anything on your project timeline.

The bitrate you are using also seems a bit high, even if you are using Dolby audio. I realise that is possibly the bitrate of the video which came out of your HDD camera, but you might want to consider dropping it down to around 8000 kbps. Some DVD players have difficulty with home-burned DVDs, particularly those with a high bitrate... And it could at least be a contributing factor in your current problems.

I (of course!) would disagree. The most efficient workflow would be to try to maintain the same file properties in order to be able to take advantage of the Smart Render feature. I often use 9500kbps without any player issues.

[Ken Berry]

My tendency is also to use the original mpeg bitrate. But the point I was making was that some DVD players do not seem to like *home made* DVDs with a very high bitrate. And I was merely trying to suggest that he experiment and see whether this might indeed be a contributing factor in his overall problem...

[burnzee]

Hey thanks for the replies guys. Internet went down so I was unable to respond sooner.

I tried the suggested workflow and managed to get a DVD done that way.

Upgrading to a new PC soon so we'll see how we fair with that in future