10 replies to this topic

[tyler353]

I am running Easy CD & DVD 10.3 DE Edition on Windows 7.  I use the Easy Audio Capture gadget and it works well.  But I cannot record more than 3 hours 20 minutes.  Is there a way to set that limit higher? I have plenty of hard drive space (1.5 TB)-- so it can't be that--whenever I set it to run overnight it stops at 3 hours 20 minutes exactly.

[Brendon]

How big is the audio file it saves with that 3hrs 20mins ??

[tyler353]

1.97 GB

There must be some setting where it won;t go over that. Which is weird--in past versions of easy audio capture as far back as Version 7.5 I could record days of audio.  I may just have to upgrade to Creator 2010.

[gi7omy]

'DE' is a Dell OEM version that had pieces surgically removed and other bits modified - Dell are supposed to provide tech support (but try getting them to admit that)

[Brendon]

Tyler353,

I'm doing some tests with my EMC 10, but they're taking time [as you'd know]. Can you look at one of your 3hs 20mins files, right-click it and check its properties, and tell me exactly how many bytes it is?

Would you please also confirm that the drive you're saving to is using the NTFS file system rather than FAT32.

I'm concerned that the file might be either 2,147,483,647 or 2,147,483,648 bytes in size.

Regards,
Brendon

[Brendon]

Okay, I've tied up my machine for long enough and have finished my testing.

Tyler353,

This is a bug in the file save used by Easy Media Creator 10.x [EMC 10.x] Easy Audio Capture.

I tested with the full commercial version of EMC 10.0 [build 100B44B] in XP, and the capture fell over at the same point each time regardless of whether I was saving to a FAT32 system or an NTFS one. It is NOT caused by you having an OEM version. It happens when the file size exceeds 2,147,485,647 bytes, which is a little over 3hrs 20mins of saved WAV file.

I could also test version 10.1, but since you found the problem in 10.3 and I confirmed it in 10.0, I can't see the point in wasting further time to check out the version in between.

It looks as if whoever coded the application made the mistake of using a 32-bit 'signed integer' where they should have used an unsigned one or a longer pointer. This pointer can count up to +2,147,485,647 and then overflows.

I don't know if the same error has carried through to Creator 2010, but if you need to know I can test it and report back to you in a day or so.

Regards,
Brendon

[Mike Tingle]

I am also interested in any solution to this problem. If the recording goes over about the 3 hr 20 min mark, the recording fails and just presents an empty (well, 44 byte!) folder. This does limit the task I have for this otherwise excellent program. Any idea if 2011 version has the same snag at all? Many thanks, Mike. Perth, Western Australia.

[Brendon]

Gidday Mike,

I trust Yasi didn't get down as far as your corner there. I see things were a bit rough up the Sunshine Coast.

This is an old thread you've posted to, but your symptoms seem to fit the bill as the same problem.  Are you using EMC 10.x ?

How urgently do you need to know about whether this is fixed in Creator 2011? As long as it's not just idle curiosity I could tie the machine up for 3-4 hours tomorrow and see. The question hasn't raised its ugly head since EMC 10, so I can't tell you straight away.

Cheers,
Brendon

[Mike Tingle]

Hi Brendon

Yasi didn't reach across here! As I am sure you will know (given your location!) there aren't many things from the East that venture across here - and for the most part we are eternally grateful! I note you have a few shakes again fairly recently. I hope they are all over for our visit there in early April. We are visiting our daughter and family in Napier, then coming down to the South for a tour.

Regards the problem, I am currently running 2009 Ultimate, but have 2011 on it's way. Ordered that as I was told that 2009 would not work with Windows 7, but have had zero problems (apart from this that is not an OS problem).

Thanks for the offer, but what I'll do is record for 3.5 hours on 2011 when it appears, see what happens, and post back the result. Meanwhile, it's back to Audacity which I have now finally got working OK with 7.

Thanks again for the very kind offer though.

Will post result ASAP.

Best wishes, Mike

[Brendon]

Morning Mike,

I'll go boot on Win 7 and start it now, since I don't have anything else going at the moment and we have 30+ today. Watch this space . .  

Brendon

[Brendon]

Hi, I'm back.

Sorry for the delay, but I went and ran the test using the default settings - saving in MP3. Doh!!!  Since it was only 300 MB or so, of course 3 hours 20m was saved without problem.

After I stopped blushing, I ran the test saving to .WAV. At 3 hours the file was around 2 GB and going well, but when I went to 3hr 30mins and stopped the capture, the file became 44 bytes.

So we can say quite clearly that Easy Audio Capture in Creator 2011 still shows the 32-bit signed integer problem, and the byte pointer overflows when it passes +2,147,485,647.

I guess you need to break captures in blocks of 3hr 15m or less for .WAV files, or save audio in one of the compressed formats.

Regards,
Brendon