VS X3 crashes rendering to AVI

[AllanHall]

This is really strange. Sometimes (only every now and then), when I try to render a project to AVI VS instantly crashes. Lets say I have three projects, project1, project2 and project3. Project1 & 3 will render to AVI just fine, every time. Project2 will crash every time I try to render to AVI. I can render any of the projects to MPG, MP4, WMV, whatever else I want. If I recreate project2 from scratch as Project4, it will then render to AVI just fine. If I remove >>EVERYTHING<< from all timelines in project2, then add a new clip that did not exist before, it crashes when rendering to AVI. Project2 contains both AVI and MPG clips created/captured with VS X3 just a couple of days prior. VS X3 has all the latest updates.

When I say render to AVI I mean I select Share->Create Video File->Custom->AVI and leave it at the default of 24bits, 720x480, 29.97fps, Lower Field First, Uncompressed, PCM, 48.000kHz, 16bit, Stereo. Video on the timeline includes MPEG-2, Lower Field First, 24bits, 720x480, 16:9, 29.97fps, VBR, LPCM, 48000Hz, 16bit stereo and Microsoft AVI OpenDML, 29.97fps, 30532.12kbps, uncompressed, 24bit, 720x480, PCM, 48000Hz, 16bit, Stereo.

Although this is a rare occurance, it is a real pain to have to recreate the video from scratch every time this happens.

The computer is a new Windows 7 Pro 64bit, Core2Duo E7500, 4GB Kingston HyperX RAM, 750GB WD Black SATA, Radeon X1550, Asus P5QL/EPU, Pioneer SATA DVD+/-RW, Antec 380 power Supply. Windows has all updates, AV is Microsoft Security Essentials, software installed includes VS X3, Adobe PS Elements 8, Super Video Converter, Office 2010, Nero 8 Essentials, Microsoft Expression Web 3, QTIndexSwapper2, Filezilla, Audacity, Adobe Reader 10 and supporting software that those applications install.

[Ron P.]

Are you referring to your video clips in the time-lines as Projects, or are you actually inserting VSP files, which are project files into the time-lines? The latter could cause problems, especially if say your Project 2, is using clips that may be included in Projects 1 & 3. The ability to insert a VSP file into the time-line, is form of nesting. It comes in handy at times, however using it instead of inserting video clips on a regular basis, is something I would not do. When you insert a video clip, you're just linking to the actual, real source clip found somewhere on your computer. Then when you save your project, VS creates a VSP file. The VSP file is just a bunch of instructions, where the clips are located on your system, the edits performed, effects added, audio, ect, . This can get real tangled quickly. Let's take your 3 Projects example...

Project #1, you have inserted Vacation 1.mpg, Photos from vacation 1, titles and so on.
Project #2, you have trimmed Vacation 1.mpg to use just part of it, Vacation 2.mpg, and you have other photos, titles, music.
Project #3, you have another part of Vacation 1.mpg, part of Vacation 2.mpg, and some of the same photos included in Projects 2 & 1.

Using each Project separately should not pose a problem, since the source clips are not being currently used by another project. However trying to use all 3 projects in yet the project you have now open (Project #4), there's some serious fighting going on as to which gets access to those clips, all are linked to each other.

Continuing with my example, if you want to use different parts of a clips, then you can use Split by Scene, or Multi-Trim, and Save the trimmed as a video file. Then insert those trimmed video files not project files into your "Project #4".

Uncompressed AVI??? You do realize that uncompressed AVI results in file sizes of around 65 gig per hour of video? That is huge to work with. Not knowing what the properties of your original source video clips are, I would suggest using the manageable compression of DV Type-1 or Type-2. You will still have the same quality as Uncompressed, however the file sizes are around 13 gig per hour of video. Much easier for a computer to handle.