Media Capture Crash

[Max Peck]

All,

 

I am having an issue with the media capture section. After approximately 8 minutes of video capture (regardless of the format I'm saving to) the media capture utility crashes at the point where the capture is stopped. The program locks up hard and can not be killed even from the task manager. The video being captured is properly saved to its file, however I have to go through a system restart to dislodge the program from memory.

 

The system is a Dell XPS 8300 (i7/2600) with 8GB main memory, NVIDIA card, 1TB hard drive. O/S is Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit.

 

The system is otherwise completely stable. I am suspecting a possible software conflict with something else that might be running in the system, however it would help if anyone else has observed this. I had hoped upgrading to 2012 might correct the issue but it has not. The program was not having this problem a couple of months ago but it seems to have developed since having installed some of my development tools. Obviously I could try to find this by systematically removing things but I'd prefer if there was something a little simpler that might explain it.

 

I went through 3 separate uninstall/reinstall processes with 2011 before upgrading to 2012. Aside from a system rebuild or removal of a lot of things I'd like to know if there are any options to try.

 

TIA,

 

-Max

[Max Peck]

OK... just make sure you are getting an Equal capture from your other one

 

I have seen several that either do not capture in full 720 X 480 resolution or are incapible of capturing at the 8/9 mbps that Roxio uses

 

you can check this in Windows Explorer in the info at the bottom.

 

Understand.

 

I've been communicating with Roxio - trying to get past the initial Tech-Support-talking- to-dumb-user phase to get them to realize I'm no novice with these systems. <grin>

 

I just went ahead and uninstalled all video processing related applications on the box, cleaned the registry, did a search-and-destroy act on the hard drive and re-installed Creator 2012. We'll see how it goes. I'll try to make sure my system is pretty inactive during the capture process although at this point an i7 really ought to be able to perform well enough not to have to dedicate it to one task. I know video processing is extremely intensive but my system diagnostics don't indicate that this machine is even close to peak performance while capturing. Perhaps I need a "capture card" that has a higher bandwidth than what a USB-2 port can handle. However, this isn't a money-making thing, I'm just converting a bunch of old VHS movies I have to DVD. Hobby-level.

 

However, the problem I have is not the fact that the video/audio loses a half-second of sync while doing the capture; I don't really care if that happens as long as the output file is clean. What I do care about, though, is the fact that once this happens the application can't gracefully shut down. (How do you spell "memory leak"?). The GUI is responsive enough to pick up the button click event when I tell it to terminate the capture but then the application gets stuck in a loop somewhere. You can't terminate it without a full system reboot. You can get rid of the GUI but the background portion of the task still exists (eating 100MB of main memory while at it). There must be a secondary process running somewhere that's preventing the capture utility from terminating properly - it's slaved to another thread somewhere.

 

My only issue with Roxio (and I've explained as much to them) is that the program should be able to at-least shut down gracefully. The output file is complete and usable, they need to investigate what would keep it from shutting down, that's all. If I were their director of software development I wouldn't let this one go un-addressed.

 

Aside from that, though, Creator 2012 seems pretty good. They seem to have cleaned up the GUI a bit and it does run a good bit faster, particularly after it's done doing its initial caching.

 

-Max

[Jim_Hardin]

There is NO memory leak in any Roxio program...

 

I don't know what to tell you otherwise. I have captured hours of input from the Roxio Capture USB device and never had a problem with it... That includes all PC's in my signature.

[Jim_Hardin]

Of course it shouldn't be doing that

 

I am curious as to what you are capturing and how it is connected?

 

You probably should contact Roxio about this.

 

One possible approach could rely on 'timing'??? Now that you have the other (?) software installed, perhaps running through the Prep Steps to the letter!

 

Then start the install of the Suite, only pick Repair when it is offered will set it back to normal...

[Max Peck]

There is NO memory leak in any Roxio program...

 

You say that a bit defensively, Jim, as if you had some stake in it. That's like saying there are no bugs. Bug-free software is a myth. However we won't go there since it wouldn't serve any purpose.

 

I don't know what to tell you otherwise. I have captured hours of input from the Roxio Capture USB device and never had a problem with it... That includes all PC's in my signature.

 

So you're saying because it "works on my machine" there isn't any possibility that the code could have problems? Come on, Jim, I don't picture you as being that naive. Nevertheless, thanks for your quick response and suggestions. By tightening a few things down and re-installing it does appear that the capture utility is working now - I made it through a 90-minute video without it crashing this time. It shouldn't "crash" at all, but that's not a discussion we ought to pursue. I've already fed back my opinion (as a 35-year veteran developer on the Microsoft platform) to Roxio.

 

Thanks again man.

 

-bruce

[Max Peck]

Of course it shouldn't be doing that

 

I am curious as to what you are capturing and how it is connected?

 

You probably should contact Roxio about this.

 

One possible approach could rely on 'timing'??? Now that you have the other (?) software installed, perhaps running through the Prep Steps to the letter!

 

Then start the install of the Suite, only pick Repair when it is offered will set it back to normal...

 

Hey Jim,

 

Just capturing VHS output using the Roxio USB video connector.

 

I updated the display driver and did a repair install. It seemed to correct it (at least after about 40 minutes I could stop the capture). However after recording a 90-minute video it crashed at end-of-capture again. So it seems "better" but not totally fixed.

 

I'm not going to worry about it right now ... I've got another capture utility (MOVAVI) that I can use that doesn't crash. As long as the rest of Roxio works I'm OK ... I don't want to waste any more time on this. I've spent the last couple of days on-and-off trying to troubleshoot it. Not worth the hassle.

 

-Max

[Jim_Hardin]

OK... just make sure you are getting an Equal capture from your other one

 

I have seen several that either do not capture in full 720 X 480 resolution or are incapible of capturing at the 8/9 mbps that Roxio uses

 

you can check this in Windows Explorer in the info at the bottom.