Computer freezing up during recording

[rwindeyer]

Hi daddyd

Only thing I can suggest is something I heard from this forum: maybe a corrupted file or clip is causing you grief. The question is, how to find it - I assume you have many clips in the project.

The suggested solution is firstly try to divide your project in half - ie delete all the clips in the (?second) half. Now try to create a video file out of what you have left. If it works - the fault lies in the second half. If it doesn't work, the problem is in the first half. So now cut the project in half again, and repeat the process. Eventually you should isolate a clip or clips that is/are corrupted - remove that and the project will run.

Having said that, if BOTH halves of the project fail, you might be back to square one

Best of luck

[sjj1805]

I am having the problem of my comp freezing completely shortly after I begin the burning process. This problem has happened with any version of Video Studio and that is why I have not continued use before. I decided to try the newer version (9) but get the same thing.

Anyone have any ideas what would cause this freezing?

Going all the way back to your original post it sounds as though you have had this problem for quite some time as you mention using other versions of video studio. I suspect this also means you have had the same trouble with other video files and not just this one. If so that will probably rule out a corrupted video file unless you haven't captured it right. I do not suspect that as an error as you mention that you have followed the advice in the sticky post at the top of the forum.

Have you gone as far as installing windows again. If not then before you try that option, try clicking the START button and in the RUN box type
SFC /SCANNOW
You will need your Windows XP installation disc handy. What this does is to check that all the critical Windows system files are intact and in their original versions and any found faulty will be restored (From the Windows XP CD).

If that fails, you can try simply installing Windows XP again - choose the "Upgrade" Option. This will retain all of your exisiting settings, users, Website favourites, shortcuts etc (As opposed to a "Clean install" which puts you back to a virgin copy of XP and you then have to reinstall everything else such as Microsoft Office, Video Studio etc.)

Worth a try.

[heinz-oz]

I don't live in NTSC land and am not conversant with it's DVD standard. I am sure, however, that 30 fps is not standard for DVD, neither is the frame size.

What are the captured clip properties?

How did you capture? You also mentioned that you have the sound track ready, does it use use sound from the original clips? If yes, how did you extract it?

[2Dogs]

Daddyd,

you really need to make sure that every setting is as per the steps in the recommended method.

For example, if you captured your video by a Firewire connection to your MiniDV camcorder, your camcorder model will appear in the "Source" box, and you should select "DV" in the "Format" box.

You should check your project properties settings before capturing. Click on "file" then "Project Properties" and in the "Edit file format" box, click on "Microsoft AVI files".

The info in the area beneath this box should read:

NTSC drop frame [29.97 fps]
Microsoft AVI files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 4:3, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
DV Video Encoder -- type 1

and scrolling down in the box the last line should be

DV Audio -- NTSC, 48.000kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo

If any of the settings differ from the above, click on the "edit" button and then the "General" or the "AVI" tabs to access the settings that need changing.

When capturing, the following information should appear in the area below the preview screen.

720x480, DV Type 1, NTSC DV Audio

From the "capture" tab of "file", "preferences", you should also check the "Show drop frame information" box. This will enable the drop frame counter, which appears as a small graphic below the info above, with a number to the right of it. This number should remain at zero if your hard drive is up to dealing with the data input. If it is not zero, suspect a problem with the drive configuration or possibly a screen saver or anti-virus scanner trying to kick in.

40 minutes of captured MiniDV footage in the above format will take up something over 8Gb of drive space.

If you've captured from an analogue camcorder - say a Hi8 model, your captured footage might instead be 720x480 MPEG2, 8000kbps constant or variable bitrate, upper field first. There are usually more problems associated with analogue capture than with output to DVD, however, so I assume you are dealing with captured avi files from a MiniDV camcorder.

In order to output that to DVD, you need to encode it to MPEG-2. That's where your last post suggests something is amiss. I've highlighted the problems in red.

You state:

My movie properties when creating are as follows:
NTSC non-drop frame (30 fps)
Microsoft AVI files
24 Bits, 320 x 240, 30 fps
Frame-based
Uncompressed
PCM, 48.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo

Before you burn your DVD, you need to create an MPEG-2 file. To do this, you should go to the "Share" step with all your clips, titles, transitions, filters, effects overlays and audio sorted out in the timeline, and click on "Create Video File".

You will be presented with a drop-down box of options. Click on "NTSC DVD (4:3)"

This should then create an MPEG-2 video file. Assuming that it works, you should right-click on the thumbnail that will appear in the library section to the right of the preview screen, and click on "properties".

You should see the following:

File format: NTSC DVD
File size: some value
Duration: ditto

Video
Video type: MPEG-2 Video
Total frames: some value
Attributes: 24 Bits, 720 x 480, 4:3
Frame rate: 29.970 Frames/Sec
Data rate: Variable bit rate [Max. 8000 kbps]

Audio
Audio type: MPEG Audio Layer 2 Files
Total samples: some number
Attributes: 48000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo
Layer: 2
Bit rate: 256 kbps

I strongly suggest that you try to create a small video file as a test before you try to render your whole project. If you got everything working as it should, it would probably take your pc about 4 hours to render the whole 40 minute project. Make sure also that you have enough free space on the hard drive to which you are writing the output file, and that you've recently done a defrag. If you still have the same problem with all the correct settings and the proper workflow, it suggests the trouble lies with your pc.

For a simple to use alternative video editing program, try Intervideo WinDVD Creator, for which I believe you can get a trial download version.

[lotus]

What kind of disks to you use - DVD+RW or DVD+R? I felt similar
frustration when I tried to create a disk and it would freeze about
1 minute later. I did this over and over and it would freeze. I was
using DVD+RW disks. I then tried some DVD+R disks and my
project burned successfuly. I tried again to burn video file using
my DVD+RW - it would feeze about 1 minute later. Went back to
the DVD+R disks and it burned okay. I think it just my system
that is doing this because one should be able to burn with both type of
disks. So I now just use DVD+R disks and get a successfull burn each
time - sounds strange but it got my VS9 to burn. Good luck!

[daddyd]

Well folks, I'm just about ready to give up and scap Video Studio. Everything I have tried results in failure.

My last attempt was to recapture the entire video and start over. Same result. I even went to the Ulead help page and followed their suggestions to the letter and got the same thing. I can't think of anything left to do. It appears I will not be able to use Video Studio and since they offer no tech help for trial uses I may have to just uninstall it and go with something different. I do appreciate everyone trying to give me help but it just will not work.

And thanks for the suggestion lotus, but I have been trying to create a video file before burning to disk so a different disk wouldn't really help.

[2Dogs]

Well folks, I'm just about ready to give up and scap Video Studio. Everything I have tried results in failure.

Dear daddyd,

I'm sorry to hear that you continue to have trouble getting the program to work for you.

I'm sure everyone that's responded to your posts would really like to help. The trouble is, although we've repeated the advice about using the recommended procedure and being thoroughly systematic, your responses have been along the lines of "I tried but it didn't work".

What is needed is specific information about your settings. You said that you recaptured the footage - so at least that part of the process seems OK. You have yet to post your captured file properties, however, which might give an insight into the problem. It would be unusual for Video Studio to be able to handle capture of files and then fail to be able to output to MPEG-2. More lock-ups seem to occur in the capture step.

In a previous post, it appeared that you were trying to write an inappropriate file format to a DVD - but you did not then respond to say what revised settings you may have tried.

If you really want help, you need to post the information that people are asking for. Otherwise, unless you get lucky with some other program, you might find yourself posting the same questions to another forum.

Just as I think that Video Studio is one of the most capable and stable consumer video editing programs out there, so I also believe that the VS forum is also a great resource - if you use it right.

Good luck anyway, and I hope you do manage to sort it out in the end!

[daddyd]

Ok let me see if I can give you the full rundown and see if anyone can see the problem.

I am using .avi captured video from my camcorder. For photos I am using .jpg's. I have a few music clips that are mp3's. And then some text I added with V9.

My settings for creating a video file are:

MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 16:9
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

V9 is installed one my system hard drive(8 gigs of space remaining) with all playback and save options on a seperate hard drive(75 gigs remaining).

I found this on the Ulead site and did exactly as instructed:
System Tweaks

Tweaking your system for video editing

* The following are useful, video-specific tweaks for improving the performance of your system. Some of the paths may vary slightly between various versions of Windows.
* If you have two hard drives on your system, install the software on your system drive (usually C: ) and capture video to your other drive (usually D: ).
* Your display card shouldn't use too much of your resources just to provide you with overlay. Right-click on your desktop, select Properties>Settings. Lower your color depth to "High Color (16-bit)", and set your screen resolution to 1024x768. You might want to disable some of the high-end 3D gaming features, which have no bearing on video display.
* Make sure DMA is enabled: Select Control Panel, System>Device Manager. Select IDE Controller>Primary/ Secondary>Advanced, and make sure DMA is selected on each of your drives.
* Disable "Write-Behind Caching" on the hard drive used for video capture. Go Control Panel>System, right click on your hard drive, select Properties, and make sure Write Caching is DISabled.
* Change the values of your Paging File (Swap File) size in Control Panel>System> Advanced>Virtual Memory. Set the minimum and maximum values to twice your amount of RAM. So if you have 256Mb of RAM, set both your minimum and maximum paging file limits to 512.
(found at http://www.ulead.com/learning/general/video_02_1.htm)

The video I am trying to make runs about 41 minutes and has some transitions and effects.

My system is a pentium 4 HP with 1.5 GHz...512 SDRAM memory...nVidiaTNT2 M64 graphics card with 32 MB SDRAM.

I have disabled all allowed software when attempting to create. Does anyone see anything here that might be causing this problem?

One other thing, I tried the Intervideo WinDVDCreator and made a small clip. It saved just fine. The same clip in V9 freezes up my comp. I would prefer V9 because the filters and effects are much better but I don't understand why it won't work and the other one will.

I also go to task manager and change the V9 setting to high priority.
Any ideas?

[rwindeyer]

I guess we're down to "last resort" stuff here; I can empathise with the frustration you must be feeling.

The only contribution I can think of is that Video Studio has been known to interact badly with other things (codecs, software) on your computer. Without being there to see what you have installed, and not being much of an expert myself, that may not be much help, sorry. But it might give you a direction to look in, and someone else might be able to say something more specific.

I have a feeling that Roxio may be an issue (do you have anything like that?) or possibly InCD. It may be a case of uninstalling some offending software and seeing if that allows VS to run. As an absolute worst case, you may want to reformat your HD, reinstall Windows and just Video Studio (yes I know that's an insane amount of work, but you sound as if you've been through that already...)

Best of luck

[bop]

A few people have been having trouble with mp3's can they be converted to .wav

Bop

[sjj1805]

Following on from my previous suggestions and also that by rwindeyer.
Have you tried running MsConfig then turning OFF any non essential start up items that may be causing possible conflicts.

Again a simple procedure - albeit a bit time consuming but also easily reversible.

Steve J

[stumpie]

daddyd-

You're not the only one with this problem! I downloaded the trial version a few weeks ago, love it but was having the freezing problem when I started the burning process as well..I can't shut anything down when it freezes..I have to physically turn the computer off.

Well, I thought maybe if I bought the full version, things would be better but nope, I'm still freezing up.

I'm on HP, P4, 3.0ghz, 1GB SDRAM, ...

I can save as a video file and burn it under another program but I want to use the titles that VS9 offers...grrrr!!!

oh, and all my 'video' consists of is photos and some transitions..easy enough I thought!

[sjj1805]

Stumple,

Have you any packet CD writing software, if so try disabling it.

[2Dogs]

My settings for creating a video file are:

MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 16:9
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
LPCM Audio, 48000 Hz, Stereo

Dear Daddyd,

unless your source video is 16:9, which is unlikely unless you have a really high-end camcorder, you should use 4:3. I doubt setting it to 16:9 of itself would cause VS9 to crash, however, but it's one more thing to try.

You do at least seem to be making some progress, which is encouraging.

I've never found setting VS priority to anything other than the default to make any noticeable difference.

Perhaps you could list all the programs you have installed, as there are a few known to be troublesome in conjunction with VS.

Good luck!

[daddyd]

Latest developements:

After uninstalling around six software programs, including Easy CD Creator, then following all the same steps, I was finally able to save a video file in .avi format. But then when trying to burn to dvd, freezing again. In .avi format, my video was over 75 gigs in size. WOW! And it took around 6 hours to save.

So then I tried to do the same thing in mpg format and right back to the freezing again. It seems like Video Studio just doesn't like some people or some systems. I can't figure it out.