18 replies to this topic

[bostondriver]

Is there a way to "checkpoint" MyDVD8 so that I don't have to watch it encode for a few hours only to hang at the end?  What I would like to know is is there a way to save what has already been encoded and "start from there" next time?

When I say hang, I mean the XP task bar doesn't even respond.  I can alt-tab to switch around.  I can also launch from desktop icons.  

I've noticed that each issue seems to result from leaving the machine unattended.  That is, if I surf the net or do something else on the workstation, I get past the part that "hung" last time.  The most recent hang happended at the "99% complete" stage <g>.  Rather than sit hear and hit the space bar for hours, it would be nice if I could encode to a temp file and then burn from that.  Is this possible?

I've got a 3Ghz Intel P4, HyperThreading, 1GB RAM, a terabyte plus of disk, ATI Fire GL V3100 PCIe, recent directx....

I'll keep reading to see if solutions to other MyDVD8 "hangs" help.  But a way to not have to "start over" each time would be most helpfull.  Is this possible?

[grandpabruce]

bostondriver, on Oct 22 2006, 08:55 PM, said:

Is there a way to "checkpoint" MyDVD8 so that I don't have to watch it encode for a few hours only to hang at the end?  What I would like to know is is there a way to save what has already been encoded and "start from there" next time?

When I say hang, I mean the XP task bar doesn't even respond.  I can alt-tab to switch around.  I can also launch from desktop icons.  

I've noticed that each issue seems to result from leaving the machine unattended.  That is, if I surf the net or do something else on the workstation, I get past the part that "hung" last time.  The most recent hang happended at the "99% complete" stage <g>.  Rather than sit hear and hit the space bar for hours, it would be nice if I could encode to a temp file and then burn from that.  Is this possible?

I've got a 3Ghz Intel P4, HyperThreading, 1GB RAM, a terabyte plus of disk, ATI Fire GL V3100 PCIe, recent directx....

I'll keep reading to see if solutions to other MyDVD8 "hangs" help.  But a way to not have to "start over" each time would be most helpfull.  Is this possible?

The short answer is no.  Try burning to an ISO file, and don't do any surfing while it is "burning" to an ISO file.

Once the ISO file is done burning, burn it to a disc, using Disc Copier.

[bostondriver]

grandpabruce, on Oct 22 2006, 10:51 PM, said:

The short answer is no.  Try burning to an ISO file, and don't do any surfing while it is "burning" to an ISO file.

Once the ISO file is done burning, burn it to a disc, using Disc Copier.

I considered that already, but ruled it out since I don't even get to the part where the DVD is used.  Since I have no other option, I'll try the iso route tonight.

Note that when I do NOT surf, that's when things hang.  Keeping the system busy seems to keep the SW from falling asleep.  I'd like nothing more than to start this and leave that machine alone until it is done.  I have a few more available.   I'll try both ways and see what happens.

Is there an option, somewhere in EMC8 Deluxe (or EMC 9, when that arrives), for me to take these avi files and convert them to DivX (mpeg, whatever will work) first.  Then burn these manually converted files to DVD?

I know that's kind of askting the same question all over again, but I want to point of that I'm willing to try to do some/all steps outside of MyDVD if that is what it takes.

This very machine runs several versions of both BSD and Linux.   I'm going to see what options are there as well.

Thanks.

[Larry]

bostondriver, on Oct 23 2006, 08:06 AM, said:

I considered that already, but ruled it out since I don't even get to the part where the DVD is used.  Since I have no other option, I'll try the iso route tonight.

Note that when I do NOT surf, that's when things hang.  Keeping the system busy seems to keep the SW from falling asleep.  I'd like nothing more than to start this and leave that machine alone until it is done.  I have a few more available.   I'll try both ways and see what happens.

Is there an option, somewhere in EMC8 Deluxe (or EMC 9, when that arrives), for me to take these avi files and convert them to DivX (mpeg, whatever will work) first.  Then burn these manually converted files to DVD?

I know that's kind of askting the same question all over again, but I want to point of that I'm willing to try to do some/all steps outside of MyDVD if that is what it takes.

This very machine runs several versions of both BSD and Linux.   I'm going to see what options are there as well.

Thanks.

Videowave will output the files to pretty much any format you want, so you could try that route.

If you don;t have the problem when you "keep the pc busy" by doing things, check your power saving settings. Maybe something is set to shut off hard drives, monitor or whatever and that's causing the issue. Also turn off any screensavers, that may be interfereing.

[bostondriver]

Larry, on Oct 23 2006, 09:17 AM, said:

Videowave will output the files to pretty much any format you want, so you could try that route.

Thanks for the tip on Videowave.  I assume its part of EMC 8 Deluxe?

What format would MyDVD8 want me to conver to using Videowave for me to avoid MyDVD8 doing the encoding part?  (Is this even possible?  That is, does MyDVD8 insist on doing some sort of encoding on its own regarless?)

Larry, on Oct 23 2006, 09:17 AM, said:

If you don;t have the problem when you "keep the pc busy" by doing things, check your power saving settings. Maybe something is set to shut off hard drives, monitor or whatever and that's causing the issue. Also turn off any screensavers, that may be interfereing.

I know the screen saver is still on, and will double check power settings.  These were mean to be "always on" as the box will evolve into a server once the next worksation arrives.  However, since I boot between Free/Open BSD and SUSE and FC5 each day, who knows what settings the HW is left with.  So I'll boot directly into XP, check the the power settings etc. as suggested, and give it a go.  

Thanks!

[Larry]

bostondriver, on Oct 23 2006, 08:31 AM, said:

Thanks for the tip on Videowave.  I assume its part of EMC 8 Deluxe?

What format would MyDVD8 want me to conver to using Videowave for me to avoid MyDVD8 doing the encoding part?  (Is this even possible?  That is, does MyDVD8 insist on doing some sort of encoding on its own regarless?)



I know the screen saver is still on, and will double check power settings.  These were mean to be "always on" as the box will evolve into a server once the next worksation arrives.  However, since I boot between Free/Open BSD and SUSE and FC5 each day, who knows what settings the HW is left with.  So I'll boot directly into XP, check the the power settings etc. as suggested, and give it a go.  

Thanks!

Yes VideoWave is part of EMC 8 (standard and deluxe). It is the main editing app for videos, slideshows, etc. Should just be able to add the video file then output using the dvd best setting. That should create an mpeg2 file (.mpg extension) that MyDVD will not need to re-encode.

I would try turning off that screensaver. It could be what's causing the interference.

[bostondriver]

Larry, on Oct 23 2006, 10:29 AM, said:

Yes VideoWave is part of EMC 8 (standard and deluxe). It is the main editing app for videos, slideshows, etc. Should just be able to add the video file then output using the dvd best setting. That should create an mpeg2 file (.mpg extension) that MyDVD will not need to re-encode.

I would try turning off that screensaver. It could be what's causing the interference.

Fantastic.  Thanks for the help.  I'll loose the screen saver as suggested.  I'll burn an iso too.  This effort is for my 12 y.o. daughter.  I'm sure her friends will want copies too, so this will save me time.

Worst case, cause she is in "is it done yet" mode (sung to the tune of "are we there yet""), I'll use a command line Linux/BSD tool I found to get the files into mpeg2 format.  I'll find a smaller .avi file to practice with to get the hang of all this when there is less pressure.  

[bostondriver]

No Luck...

No screen saver is set this time.  CPU is 0%, no disk activity ....  I'm burning to iso.

I typing this on the machine that is running MyDVD8.   Task Manager shows MyDVD8 is not responding.

I was 33% total, 99% through the first (of 3) AVI files that were going on the DVD.

The iso image is 1.4MB according to XP.  

Anyone have any ideas?

[bostondriver]

According to taskmanager, VideoWave8 is still running "behind the scenes".  Just a guess, but the issue is probably with it and not with MyDVD8.

[bostondriver]

bostondriver, on Oct 23 2006, 07:27 PM, said:

According to taskmanager, VideoWave8 is still running "behind the scenes".  Just a guess, but the issue is probably with it and not with MyDVD8.

The culprit is indeed VideoWave8.  This is the program that is "not responding" according to XP.  I am able to kill it and try again.

I tried a small test .avi file.  It does work (e.g. I was able to "burn" to an iso on my disk.

Anyone have other ideas?  The whole point for buying EMC8 Deluxe is to do exactly what I'm trying to do now.

My earlier guess about screensaver was wrong.  Thereis no screen saver enabled now.  

I'm trying to make a DVD from 3 .avi files.  The 3 are large, and together result in all but 10MB of the 4.7GB DVD being used up.

Every time except one, I get to 99% of the 1st .avi file and VideoWave8 "hangs".  CPU is %0 etc.  The system is responsive etc.  Well, at least until any window covers where the MyDVD8 window is.  Then that space on the screen just never gets updated again.

Since the system lets me to lots of other things, memory (1GB) can't be an issue.

The one time things were different, I was able to geat past the 1st two avi files and ended up haning on the 3rd.  99% of the entire process completed that time.

I tried a new project with just the 1st two avi files, and hung at 99% of the first one.

Can I get a refund?  

[Larry]

bostondriver, on Oct 24 2006, 11:37 AM, said:

The culprit is indeed VideoWave8.  This is the program that is "not responding" according to XP.  I am able to kill it and try again.

I tried a small test .avi file.  It does work (e.g. I was able to "burn" to an iso on my disk.

Anyone have other ideas?  The whole point for buying EMC8 Deluxe is to do exactly what I'm trying to do now.

My earlier guess about screensaver was wrong.  Thereis no screen saver enabled now.  

I'm trying to make a DVD from 3 .avi files.  The 3 are large, and together result in all but 10MB of the 4.7GB DVD being used up.

Every time except one, I get to 99% of the 1st .avi file and VideoWave8 "hangs".  CPU is %0 etc.  The system is responsive etc.  Well, at least until any window covers where the MyDVD8 window is.  Then that space on the screen just never gets updated again.

Since the system lets me to lots of other things, memory (1GB) can't be an issue.

The one time things were different, I was able to geat past the 1st two avi files and ended up haning on the 3rd.  99% of the entire process completed that time.

I tried a new project with just the 1st two avi files, and hung at 99% of the first one.

Can I get a refund?  

VideoWave and MyDVD are integrated with each other, with Videowave being the main component. That's why you see it running when using MyDVD.

Since the test .avi file worked fine, but the other 3 won't, the only guess I can make is that there is either a problem with those avi files, or some codecs on your machine. Other than that I'm at a loss as to why they will not work. So my only other suggestion would be to contact Roxio's Tech Support directly.

As to refund info, we can't help you here, as we're just fellow users like yourself. You can get info on refunds and tech support here on their contact page.

[bostondriver]

Larry, on Oct 24 2006, 01:39 PM, said:

Since the test .avi file worked fine, but the other 3 won't, the only guess I can make is that there is either a problem with those avi files, or some codecs on your machine. Other than that I'm at a loss as to why they will not work. So my only other suggestion would be to contact Roxio's Tech Support directly.

The .avi's in question all run to completion.  I can watch them in the little window.  It's just at the end, when something is meant to finish that things get stuck.  I would think that if a codec was the issue, I wouldn't see all of the movie.

The .avi also plays just fine in Windows Media Player 10.

I'll try tech support in time.  I doubt that they are available "at night" or on weekends when I'm at the machine.

Since EMC9 is en route to me now, I'll wait until that arrives (and doesn't solve the problem) before taking a day off to deal with this.  Until then, I'll just keep hacking with what I got.

All suggestions welcome.

[bostondriver]

Larry, on Oct 23 2006, 09:17 AM, said:

Videowave will output the files to pretty much any format you want, so you could try that route.

I think I'm successfully doing this.  Are these the right steps?  Put another way, can someone check my math  


I opened VideoWave8
Added Photo/Video (which in my case was the 1st .avi file)
Selected MPWG-2 for DVD, Normal Quality
Saved to a file.

I now have foo.avi as foo.mpg.  Windows Media Player 10 can play it just fine.

The real quesiton is will MyDVD8 try to "encode" this again when I use it to create a DVD.

I'll try to burn the 3 .mpg files to an .iso.

[Larry]

bostondriver, on Oct 24 2006, 07:28 PM, said:

I think I'm successfully doing this.  Are these the right steps?  Put another way, can someone check my math  


I opened VideoWave8
Added Photo/Video (which in my case was the 1st .avi file)
Selected MPWG-2 for DVD, Normal Quality
Saved to a file.

I now have foo.avi as foo.mpg.  Windows Media Player 10 can play it just fine.

The real quesiton is will MyDVD8 try to "encode" this again when I use it to create a DVD.

I'll try to burn the 3 .mpg files to an .iso.

It shouldn't re-encode, as it's already DVD compliant. You'll be able to tell when it isn't because the preview window will be gray with the word MPEG in it as it outputs it to dvd files. The only encoding it would do is if you did any more editing to them, or added more than one to a movie title, but then it should only encode over the few seconds that join them together. Adding chapter marks should also not cause ane re-encoding.

[bostondriver]

Larry, on Oct 24 2006, 08:37 PM, said:

It shouldn't re-encode, as it's already DVD compliant. You'll be able to tell when it isn't because the preview window will be gray with the word MPEG in it as it outputs it to dvd files. The only encoding it would do is if you did any more editing to them, or added more than one to a movie title, but then it should only encode over the few seconds that join them together. Adding chapter marks should also not cause ane re-encoding.

Things are looking good.  I'm onto the 3rd (and last) .avi to .mpg conversion.   I think I've been through the next step already in the past.  I have a Sony Camcorder that only supports mini-DVD.

See my initial post on this forum for details of the Sony gear for background if interested.

IIRC, I needed to import(?) the .mpg off those mini-DVDs and burn to a normal DVD (DVD+R in my case).  That worked.  So things are looking good right now.

Thanks Larry (and everyone!) for all your help.

[Larry]

bostondriver, on Oct 24 2006, 08:06 PM, said:

Things are looking good.  I'm onto the 3rd (and last) .avi to .mpg conversion.   I think I've been through the next step already in the past.  I have a Sony Camcorder that only supports mini-DVD.

See my initial post on this forum for details of the Sony gear for background if interested.

IIRC, I needed to import(?) the .mpg off those mini-DVDs and burn to a normal DVD (DVD+R in my case).  That worked.  So things are looking good right now.

Thanks Larry (and everyone!) for all your help.

Glad to hear you're making progress. Let us know how the DVD part goes.

[bostondriver]

Larry, on Oct 24 2006, 11:51 PM, said:

Glad to hear you're making progress. Let us know how the DVD part goes.

Everything worked perfectly.  Again, thanks for all the help.

What I'm curious about is why this didn't all just work the first time.  As time permits, I'll debug it.  At least until EMC9 arrives.

I noticed that doing the individual steps myself resulted in 700MB still free on the DVD.   Initially, there was just 10MB left using the same 3 .avi files as input.  So "something" is different.  My initial guess is when I converted to DVD using VideoWave8, I used normal quality.  I took the default in MyDVD8 (put another way, I didn't set anything explicitly.)  

Perhaps MyDVD8 is using something which generates larger 'output'.

If time permist, I'll get to the bottom of it.

[Larry]

bostondriver, on Oct 25 2006, 08:05 AM, said:

Everything worked perfectly.  Again, thanks for all the help.

What I'm curious about is why this didn't all just work the first time.  As time permits, I'll debug it.  At least until EMC9 arrives.

I noticed that doing the individual steps myself resulted in 700MB still free on the DVD.   Initially, there was just 10MB left using the same 3 .avi files as input.  So "something" is different.  My initial guess is when I converted to DVD using VideoWave8, I used normal quality.  I took the default in MyDVD8 (put another way, I didn't set anything explicitly.)  

Perhaps MyDVD8 is using something which generates larger 'output'.

If time permist, I'll get to the bottom of it.

That probably would make a difference. I think the default is "Fit to Disc", which most have found is not the best way to go. It doesn't always do a good job. Most of us use the Best Quality, output to Image file or Video folders, then let Disc Copier do the compressing to fit the disc. It uses a much better method for compression.

[bostondriver]

Using the method described in this thread, things have been working perfeclty for me.  However, just now, VideoWave8 just "hung" again.  This time, one project successfully finished.  I went to start another (new production, format 4:3) and it just hung!

I bore you with this just to document it.  If someone is listening, maybe the bug will be fixed.  Restarting fixes things for me.