VideoStudio crashes rendering a DIVX file as an MPEG2

[phil_haigh]

I can't seem to create MPEG2 files from some of my DIVX files - VideoStudio 9 simply crashes without warning part-way through the rendering process. The sequence I go through is as follows:

Start Up VideoStudio 9 (nothing else of significance is running; the machine is effectively idle at this point).

Insert a single DIVX video into the timeline. Properties of the video are:

File Format: Microsoft AVI files
File size: 391,892Kb
Frame Rate: 25.000 Frames/Sec
Duration: 3183.160 seconds
Data Rate: 121.58kbps

Video
Type: Divx 5.2.1 COdec
Total Frames: 168,133
Attributes: 24 Bits, 704x448
Total Frames: 79,579

Audio
Type: Cyberlink MPEG1 Layer-3
Attributes: 96kBit/s, 44,100 Hz, stereo
Total samples: 140,365,440 Samples

I don't do anything to the video or any project settings.

Click on Share.
Click on Create Video File.
Select PAL MPEG2 file type from the drop-down.
Enter a filename and click Save.

Note:
- The PC has an Athlon XP3000 processor and 1Gb of PC3200 Memory.
- Free disk space: C:15Gb (Video Studio temporary workspace); D:40Gb (drive where the file is to be saved)
- I'm running WIndows XP with DirectX 9, Media Player 9, everything patched but no service packs applied.

I have to say that when VideoStudio works, it is very good. However I have come across problems doing 'simple' things. For example, in addition to this problem, I can't create a DVD from any DIVX file, or from some MPEG files - the VideoStudio DVD wizard crashes part-way through the encoding process. It seems to me that there are fundamental bugs in the code. As a consumer it is intolerable; the product is not fit for purpose. As a professional software engineer (my day job) I believe that this product should not have seen the light of day in its current form. It is so easy to crash. About the only thing I can do with it reliably is to open up an MPEG file and top and tail it and remove adverts, before re-saving it using 'same settings as first video clip'.

Please sort yourselves out and release a patch!