Video capture inconsistency

[tezohar]

Hi,

I've captured lots of videos using DVDWS 2. I always capture from a MiniDV camera using firewire. The capture result used to be one large .avi file, which I could then edit as one title with many chapters (a chapter for every scene). Recently something probably changed on my computer and DVDWS started capturing each scene into a different .avi file, which results in numerous titles, that are inconvenient to handle. Needless to say that I did not change my settings of DVDWS itself. Does anybody know what hidden flag affects this behavior, and how I can restore it to the previous capturing mode?

I tried to turn off the scene detection option, even though it's always been on, so now it creates a new .avi file for every 4GB. This is clearly not the solution.

I tried to uninstall and re-install DVDWS but it didn't help. Maybe I missed something I should have cleaned? Could it be some codec or plugin that I need to remove?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion,
tez

[Ron P.]

What it sounds to me like, is a FAT 32 file limitation.

The maximum possible size for a file on a FAT32 volume is 4 GB minus 1 byte or 4 294 967 295 (232−1) bytes. This limit is a consequence of the file length entry in the directory table and would also affect huge FAT16 partitions with a sufficient sector size.[1] Video applications, large databases, and some other software easily exceed this limit. Larger files require another filesystem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table

Check to see if the drive where you're capturing your video to is FAT-32 or NTSF. I'm guessing right now, that it's FAT-32, since you're getting a consistent cut-off at 4GB.

[tezohar]

Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that my file format is definitely NTFS.
I've also taken the same disk (which is removable) and plugged it into another computer and on that computer it works fine, and I get one large .avi file even with the scene detection option switched on. My conclusion is that it's definitely some software setup issue, that seems to affect the creation of multiple .avi files (per scene or per maximal file size). Any other ideas? What software component is responsible for the writing of the .avi file?

[Ken Berry]

It has been my experience that many (most) external hard drives, if they come already formatted, then they are formatted using FAT32. This is to make them compatible with Apple Macs, and with devices like the Sony PlayStation 3 which does not recognise NTFS...

[tezohar]

The disk is definitely NTFS. I have a large 13GB .avi file on it right now, captured using my older computer that does work.
Please, let's try to focus on why it tries to split the capture into scene based .avi files rather than one file. The 4GB limitation only appears when I switch off the scene detection feature. When it's switched on then each scene is captured into a separate .avi file, but only on the newer computer, and not on the old one. On the old computer everything seems OK, and the whole tape is captured into one large .avi file as expected. So what's wrong with the new computer?

Maybe we should focus again on how I can completely uninstall Ulead products from my new computer in order to install them afresh. I had DVD Workshop 2 and DVD VideoStudio 9 with some new patches. Do you have detailed instructions how to clean every residue of both programs?

[Ron P.]

We are focusing on your splitting problem. That's why we made the suggestion. The only think that is logical, since the settings in DVD WS2 are fine, and should not be splitting the file consistently at 4GB, is the FAT 32 File size limitation. I have DVD WS2 on my desktop, prior to posting my first response, just to check myself, I fired it up, and started capturing a DV video from my Digital-8 camcorder, to one of my external HDD, that is NTSF. DVD WS2 did not cut the file off at 4GB.

There's no other settings in DVD WS2 that affect capture, than those in the Capture tab. I would suspect that since you mentioned clearing the scene detection, you have also checked them all.

Here's a start, Re-installation of Ulead Software Products.

There may be more info, just start looking through the Please Read this Before Posting & FAQ topics.

[tezohar]

I don't blame you guys for the idea of FAT32, I had the same way of thinking myself. As you say, it's the most logical explanation to the 4GB limitation, but I'm a 100% sure it's not FAT32. Maybe DVDWS somehow THINKS that it's FAT32 even though it's not?

I checked only the scene detection in that options dialog, since all other options were disabled. BTW, when the scene detection is on there's no 4GB limitation, it just saves every scene into a different .avi file. Do you think this may also be bacause it thinks the disk is FAT32?

Thank you for the link to the installation. In fact, I've looked at it before, but thought it was a lost link, because when I click on it I get nothing. I now see that the content is on the bottom of the page. I'll try this now.

I just noticed that the new computer has a problem in rendering to DVD, too. For some reason it makes the subtitles with a background that's the same color as the text, so I get a colored rectangle. The old computer renders just fine. So there definitely seems to be an issue with one of the components, maybe a codec?

Well, I'll start re-installing now.

[Ken Berry]

Is the new computer the one whose properties are in your profile, or is that the old one? If the new one is not there, do you still use XP or, perhaps, Win 7 on the new one? If the latter, then Worskshop is not meant to work with Win 7 at all. So if you have managed to get it to work with it, then I would be expecting some occasionally odd results...

[tezohar]

The new computer is the one in my profile.
Anyway, good news!
I did a full un-install of both DVDWS2 and VideoStudio 9 (that was previously un-installed using add/remove only). The clean re-installation now seems to have solved the capturing issue and the new computer now captures into one large .avi file again. I guess we'll remain curious as to the reason of the problem...
I hope the rendering will be OK as well.
Thanks a lot for your help.