Problems saving DV-AVI file

[Guest]

I am running into some trouble saving a file as a DV-AVI.

I imported about 10 minutes of video from my video camera and saved as an
AVI.
I took one small clip (13 seconds) from about the middle, and Drag to the
timeline.
I did a save movie and saved to wmv format (best quality for playback on my
PC)
This took about 3 minutes and generated the desired output.

Then I went back to the same project and did a Save As to DV-AVI format.
The % complete meter jumped up to 99% and stayed there for about 15-20
minutes, then finally finished (CPU utilization also went to 100% and stayed
there -- this seems like a good thing, it means it is working). When I
played back the AVI file, it contained the clip I requested (audio and
video), PLUS all the clips which came after it in the original file WITHOUT
AUDIO.

I have successfully created two other DV-AVI projects without this problem.
But this was an expiriment to find out what is wrong with my current project.
I am having lots of trouble getting all my clips put together into a single
video, and did this as a test. I have had to stop WMM and reboot several
times over the past day or two, and it seems to me that a temp file or
working directory or something as been messed up. I have tried going back to
the beginning of the project (delete all avi, wmv, mswmm files and recapture
the video again from the source), but this does not help. Every AVI file I
create now has basically the same symptoms with the desired video at the
beginning, then more video tacked onto the end w/o the audio.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is it possible to remove / re-install WMM? Would that help?

Also, why does the % complete jump to 99, then hang out there for such a
long time?

Thanks so much.

 

[Wojo]

Sounds like a AVI codec issue to me.
But try something really quick anyway.
You said you were able to save that middle piece as a WMV without any
problems so try importing that into Movie Maker and moving it to the
timeline and saving THAT as a DV-AVI. Now I know this will not create the
high quality AVI file your shooting for since it is already compressed into
a WMV but try it anyway to see what happens, if it is a codec problem then
you should have a problem doing this but if not then there is likely
something else wrong.
As far as reinstalling WMM the only way to do it is to reinstall SP2.
-Wojo

 

[Guest]

OK, I tried your suggestion, I imported the wmv file that successfully
contained only the one 13 second clip and saved it back as DV-AVI. This
worked as expected.

BUT . . . .

What do I do now? This sounds like the problem was with my original file
import. Should I start by re-importing my source files? I'm not sure what
the next step is now to be able to generate a High-Quality AVI file?

Thanks again for the timely and helpful response.

Sounds like a AVI codec issue to me.
But try something really quick anyway.
You said you were able to save that middle piece as a WMV without any
problems so try importing that into Movie Maker and moving it to the
timeline and saving THAT as a DV-AVI. Now I know this will not create the
high quality AVI file your shooting for since it is already compressed into
a WMV but try it anyway to see what happens, if it is a codec problem then
you should have a problem doing this but if not then there is likely
something else wrong.
As far as reinstalling WMM the only way to do it is to reinstall SP2.
-Wojo
--
Wojo's Web:
http://www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com/Wojos_web/
Also Please visit.....
http://www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com/christopher/

[snip]

 

[Wojo]

Reimporting was what I was thinking and is why I asked you to run that
little test.
So yes I would re-import and save as DV-AVI and report back here so we know
if it worked.
-Wojo

OK, I tried your suggestion, I imported the wmv file that successfully
contained only the one 13 second clip and saved it back as DV-AVI. This
worked as expected.

BUT . . . .

What do I do now? This sounds like the problem was with my original file
import. Should I start by re-importing my source files? I'm not sure
what
the next step is now to be able to generate a High-Quality AVI file?

Thanks again for the timely and helpful response.

Sounds like a AVI codec issue to me.
But try something really quick anyway.
You said you were able to save that middle piece as a WMV without any
problems so try importing that into Movie Maker and moving it to the
timeline and saving THAT as a DV-AVI. Now I know this will not create the
high quality AVI file your shooting for since it is already compressed
into
a WMV but try it anyway to see what happens, if it is a codec problem
then
you should have a problem doing this but if not then there is likely
something else wrong.
As far as reinstalling WMM the only way to do it is to reinstall SP2.
-Wojo
--
Wojo's Web:
http://www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com/Wojos_web/
Also Please visit.....
http://www.remember-christopher.dostweb.com/christopher/

[snip]

 

[Guest]

ARGH :-( Still not working. I removed and re-installed SP2 to try to clear
out the problem, re-imported my files from the video camera, assembled a one
hour video, and saved to an AVI. The result was a *9 hour video* that was
over 120 GB in size and took about 18 hours to render. The first 2-3 mintues
was fine, then the rest of the video seemed to be a jumble of my clips in
nearly random order with no sound (altough the video was very nice).


[snip]

 

[Wojo]

Well then I am back to a codec issue even though the small file worked as a
DV-AVI it may have been because of the size. I recommend replacing your
codec package by downloading from this site:
http://www.free-codecs.com/
It may help and it may not but I am about out of ideas so go for that one.
-Wojo

 

[Steve Squires]

I have exactly the same problem too! I can save some segments of a big DV
file (a 60 minute tape from a Sony camera) but other segments exibit the
same behaviour - i.e. get to 99% but it keeps spitting-out garbage making a
huge file.

I re-imported the DV file from my camera but the same thing happened. It
must be some artefact that the camera produced that is messing things up.

I can save clips, or even the whole tape in one of the WMV formats. The DVI
codec is the one that came with WinXP SP2.

Let me know if you figure this one out.


Thanks,
Steve

 

[Wojo]

Even though it is the codec that came with SP2 it could still be the problem
as it could have gotten corrupted or damaged so it still wouldn't hurt to do
as I told William to do and visit www.free-codecs.com and download the
windows XP codec pack to see if that solves the issue. It also could be a
problem with a bad firewire cable or card so if available try using a
friends cable or your cable and camera on a friends computer or his camera
on your hardware etc... to try to see where the problem lies if it is
hardware related.
-Wojo