Tivo Conversion Hangs

[jerry12]

Hi,

 

I joined the forum to find out about exactly the same question.

 

New laptop with factory installed vista and all updates. tons of disk space and 2GB ram. I did a clean install of 2009 onto the system from a download last week.

 

I start creator, pick copy and convert

I add three 1 hour tivo segments with add movie (3.8GB total)

I set it up with a DVD menu and burn

 

After coastering a few blank DVD-Rs, I shifted to burn to disk file with the same problem. I too have to reboot the computer after a hung burn to DVD to get the DVD back. Even in the burn to file, when it hangs it will not respond to the cancel button and only an "end task" from the program manager will kill it.

 

I have now tried it 6-8 times. About half the time it hangs after the first segment. Other times it hangs before the first segment. One time it made it into the second segment before hanging. I watch the progress with the detail window. I have tried different tivo episodes with the same results.

 

I have turned off every power control I can think of so there should be nothing happening asynchronously.

 

I'd be happy to put the segments on line (slowwwly) if there is a place to drop things for others to test.

 

I sure hope someone can help with this.

 

thanks,

jerry

 

[Jim_Hardin]

First when you hit a wall like this, you use a DVD RW for testing until you get it right…

 

There is something wrong with a source file or there is something wrong with the program.

 

You can test the files by burning each one individually (to file) and see if one hangs.

 

You can't test the program but you can do a Clean Install:

Vista

XP

Follow the instructions and use the More or Less method – don't do More and don't do Less!

 

[gi7omy]

It's better if you do a fresh thread - your problem is not quite the same.

 

You are assuming that 3.8 GB avi or mpg is a DVD - it isn't. You have to think TIME

 

A DVD will only hold ONE hour at best quality

[jerry12]

First when you hit a wall like this, you use a DVD RW for testing until you get it right…

 

There is something wrong with a source file or there is something wrong with the program.

 

You can test the files by burning each one individually (to file) and see if one hangs.

 

You can't test the program but you can do a Clean Install:

Vista

XP

Follow the instructions and use the More or Less method – don't do More and don't do Less!

 

Given that it locks up the dvd when convert hangs and I need to reboot to touch the DVD again, dump to file seems to be the easiest way to go right now. Also, it allows me to see exactly how much has been written to the image file.

 

I have a bit of a hard time believing they are corrupted, because the tivo can still play the files.

 

I am testing the individual files now. I can't test building the dvd menu with a single file. I will also try to make a dvd out of the tivo intro videos, which are shorter than the show episodes.

 

Once I get all that done I will report back.

 

jerry

 

[Jim_Hardin]

Given that it locks up the dvd when convert hangs and I need to reboot to touch the DVD again, dump to file seems to be the easiest way to go right now. Also, it allows me to see exactly how much has been written to the image file.

 

I have a bit of a hard time believing they are corrupted, because the tivo can still play the files.

 

I am testing the individual files now. I can't test building the dvd menu with a single file. I will also try to make a dvd out of the tivo intro videos, which are shorter than the show episodes.

 

Once I get all that done I will report back.

 

jerry

File Size is meaningless in video work. A 1 hour clip can be 13GB down to 1GB. Sometimes you can infer something from them, but they are mostly meaningless.

 

A file can play but be too corrupt to render, we see that all of the time…

 

Don't forget to print out the Clean Install so you have it right there to check off items. And don't forget what I said about More or Less…

 

[jerry12]

It's better if you do a fresh thread - your problem is not quite the same.

 

You are assuming that 3.8 GB avi or mpg is a DVD - it isn't. You have to think TIME

 

A DVD will only hold ONE hour at best quality

 

I don't think this is an accurate interpretation of the problem.

 

Why would the same set of tivo files hang at different points on different runs? Why when it hangs does it end up in a mode that it can't cancel the job? Why when I look at the size of the generated file is it far below 4GB when it hangs?

 

this does seem to be a converter problem and my symptoms are quite close to the original post.

 

jerry

 

[gi7omy]

Unless you have exactly the same computer, exactly the same apps and exactly the same updates - you have a similar problem - NOT the 'same' one.

 

Please - start a new thread

[jerry12]

Hi again,

 

Things are curiouser ...

 

I haven't done the clean install yet, it's the next thing on the list.

 

So it was recommended that I test each file separately. I did this and each tivo file successfully created a DVD image. There was about a 3:1 expansion, so files ranging from 1.1-1.4 GB all turned into 3.6 MB Roxio disk images.

 

So then I transferred 2 1/2 hour tivo segments over and tried to convert them into a single DVD with menu. It worked (no hang) and the file was once again 3.6GB.

 

I am beginning to think that it is just a size thing, but I'm still not satisfied. I'm saving to disk and it couldn't tell whether this was going to end up on a regular disk or a DL disk, so it should allow bigger than 4.7GB files. So I now try two of the 1 hour segments and expect a 7.2GB file. Wrong, the disk image file is now 4.6GB, not 7.2GB.

 

So now my question is:

What happened to this that it decided to reduce the compression quality to take 40% of the file size out? Did it do normal translation on the first file and super squeeze on the second? I wasn't watching the conversion closely to see what the file size was at the end of the first segment.

Does anyone know what is going on here? How does the code select compression rates, since it clearly seems to vary?

 

guidance is needed!

 

jerry

[grandpabruce]

Unless you have exactly the same computer, exactly the same apps and exactly the same updates - you have a similar problem - NOT the 'same' one.

 

Please - start a new thread

 

Fixed.

 

[ggrussell]

If you have 'Fit to Disc' checked in MyDVD project settings, that's exactly what it tries to do according to the size of disc chosen. If you want DL, then change that below the MyDVD preview. There is a drop down list.

[Jim_Hardin]

I am guessing you never told it you ware using a DL disc…

 

I am running a test but it is dragging along this morning (need reboot?)…

 

I loaded 3, 1 hour movies, set it to DVD+DL and asked it to make a Menu.

 

At this time it is at 46% complete and the ISO file is up to 3.66GB. so I would expect it to complete with a file of about 7.95GB. I'll edit this when it is complete.

 

So I guess you PC is not Hanging anymore?

 

 

If you have 'Fit to Disc' checked in MyDVD project settings, that's exactly what it tries to do according to the size of disc chosen. If you want DL, then change that below the MyDVD preview. There is a drop down list.

Unless I missed it, he & I are running this on Video Copy & Convert.

[ggrussell]

There is still a drop down list at the bottom of Video C&C to change the disc size. I would assume that if you have that set at single layer disc that VC&C would do that even if you have a dual layer disc in the drive.

[jerry12]

OK, I can scream now.

 

So I did the 3 1hr segment burn to disk with the size set to DL and it worked fine. All I need to do now is set it back to standard DVD and burn again and I have the test case dialed in. I do it, and now the thing converts all three in 4.2 GB and never crashed.

 

I never did the reinstall and as far as I know nothing in the system has changed. There is clearly some bug lurking in there, and I half expect it to bite me again, but I am going to start archiving episodes, 2 per disk.

 

If you don't hear anything you can assume they all went OK and the bug is back under the carpet.

 

jerry

[jerry12]

Hi,

 

I am having problems with putting multiple tivo recording files on a single DVD. [This was split from a prior post on another problem thread related to hangs with similar tivo files.]

 

New laptop with factory installed vista and all updates. tons of disk space and 2GB ram. I did a clean install of 2009 onto the system from a download last week.

 

I start creator, pick copy and convert

I add three 1 hour tivo segments with add movie (3.8GB total)

I set it up with a DVD menu and burn

 

After coastering a few blank DVD-Rs, I shifted to burn to disk file with the same problem. I have to reboot the computer after a hung burn to DVD to get the DVD back. Even in the burn to file, when it hangs it will not respond to the cancel button and only an "end task" from the program manager will kill it. The files end up in the 1-2GB range when it hangs.

 

I have now tried it 6-8 times. About half the time it hangs after the first segment. Other times it hangs before the first segment. One time it made it into the second segment before hanging. I watch the progress with the detail window. I have tried different tivo episodes with the same results.

 

I have turned off every power control I can think of so there should be nothing happening asynchronously.

 

I'd be happy to put the segments on line (slowwwly) if there is a place to drop things for others to test.

 

I sure hope someone can help with this.

 

thanks,

jerry

[jerry12]

There is still a drop down list at the bottom of Video C&C to change the disc size. I would assume that if you have that set at single layer disc that VC&C would do that even if you have a dual layer disc in the drive.

 

Ahh. I never saw that. I have no disk in the burner and am burning to disk files, so So I now set it to DL and will try the burn to file again with three segments. I make sure to be around when it ends the first segment to get a disk file size.

 

So my current guess is that when it got to the end of segment one, it has way too little space left. It valiantly tried to drop the coding rate to try to fit it anyway, but instead hung. For my two cents, hanging on a convert is a bug no matter how you cut it. A nice error and a clean exit would be a far better bit of programming. My guess is also that this bug is specific to the tivo converter.

 

Do the programmers or support people troll these forums?

 

jerry