PC freeze during video capture

[Guest]

After I capture my video from my DV camcorder for a few minutes, my PC freeze
so I have to reboot it. Then I see that a Windows media video (.wmv) file of
29
MB (which is part of my whole video) and a TMP file of 686 MB.
My Samsung camcorder is linked to my PC with firewire.
What should I do to avoid that ?

 

[Wojo]

Give it more than a few minutes.
The TMP file is created during capture and then it is changed to a WMV file
which can take some time and your computer may appear to be frozen when it
is actually working in the background.
Disable any background programs that may be running and also disable your
screen saver and try again but don't get over anxious after only a few
minutes of what seems to be inactivity.

 

[Guest]

I gave it 20 minutes and the PC was frozen.
I noticed that there is 100 % in CPU in Task Manager.
My notebook has a Pentium 4 CPU 2.4 Ghz.
Can you help ?

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

You might want to read the FAQ I posted today at 13:00hrs GMT...in
particular the part about installing SP2, DirectX and Codec pack.

SP2 brings a number of system files up todate, DirectX files deal with
the communication between PC and DV camera and the codecs deal with
conversion to WMV or AVI. Note that capturing into a WMV file means two
things...the PC has to work harder because WMV is a highly compressed file
and if your intention is to later edit this file working with WMV will cause
some loss of quality when it is opened worked on and re-compressed (Its the
compression part that causes the loss of quality)

In an attempt to make life easier for your laptop you should consider
doing a defrag of the target drive. Please note that the defrag utility in
XP is totally unsuitable for this purpose....ity does not defrag all the
free space and as a result leaves loads of small packets of free space which
is exactly the opposite of what you want...the only recomended program by
Microsoft is Perfect Disk from www.raxco.com The 30 day evaluation copy is
not crippled in any way. Note the speed of your system before and after. If
you dont see a significant difference your hard drive is probably empty

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

 

[Guest]

Thank you !
On your FAQ, you wrote "It is strongly recommended that you check out the
short interactive tutorial also on the website" but I couldn't see the
tutorial on your web site, where is it ?

 

[John Kelly]

Ah yes...good question...its gone...I will have to edit the FAQ.

Really, the tutorial was put there becaue some users had trouble grasping
the concept of restoring the names after they have finished with Movie Maker
and a few of those did not even realise that there was a Restore TAB on the
screen...that reminds me of ssomeone else come to think of it....

The operation of the program is easy...simply select AUTO and let it get
on with it....it will sometimes tell you that a codec cannot be renamed,
that is not an error its simply because of where it is. The file that cannot
be renamed though is in a location that is of no interest to you so you can
just ignore it. When you are finished with Movie Maker simply run the Auto
option ion the RESTORE tab. Its as simple as that.

In the unlikly event that you need further help do please say so either
here or in the Common Rooms of my website. There are one or two in their
from here who are quite helpful. Not all of them use the names they do in
here though

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

I'm no Instant Expert and thats the Truth !

 

[Guest]

I applied the tips of the FAQ but it failed.
Then I used PerfectDisk and it captured 37 minutes of video then it freeze.
I retried again and this time, it captured only 2 minutes of video then it
freeze.
So I don't know what to do now.
Jacques

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

I applied the tips of the FAQ but it failed.

OK, So you have installed SP2, DirecctX 9 and the codec pack all from
microsoft and did it whilst disconected from the internet and as described
reboting between each install etc.???

It sounds then that there is a fault with either your camera, firewire
set-up or with your instalation of XP. Its more likely XP but you are the
first I have come across for whom tthe procedure has failed....Don't know
what else to offer you, sorry

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

Truthfully, I am not an Instant Expert

 

[Guest]

SP2 was already installed before.
About DirectX 9 and codec pack, I downloaded them from your links and I
installed them right after without being disconnected (I don't know why I
have to be disconnected from the internet during the install). I installed
the codec pack then directX without rebooting because the method of
installing you describe in "the method" is written at the end and I couldn't
know it so it was too late, I installed it right after the download. I think
you should put "the method" before the download links in your FAQ to prevent
this.

 

[John Kelly]

Hello,

It makes no difference whether SP2 had been previously installed. You
should install it again.

The reason for doing it offline is to force an error if you are noy
using the full instalation package. If you are using the Internet version it
will fail and you will immediately know that you are installing the wrong
package. The reason behind all of this is that errors/misinformation can
occure during an internet install that you may not be aware of and therefore
unable to correct as neded.

The reason for rebooting twice between each install is to ensure that
all file locks are released. If because of a bad previous install or because
of failure to release a lock by some application a file is left locked when
you do an install the install will fail because it will not be able to
replace the locked file. If that happens the whole point of the instalation
has also failed and the continued poor performace (if from a previous bad
install or failure to release a lock) can be expected...and you will have
wasted your time.

There are no shortcuts to ensuring a good instalation of a program even
though some will claim to have never had a bad install doing it some quick
way...If you give it time you will eventually hear them tell you how some
other program does not work properly...it may be a program they have
installed some time ago...if you check through all of the messages in here
you will find a lot that start with, "This program worked perfectly for ages
and now all of a sudden it does not do this or that....."

Baack to your problem. To remove the possibility (to a large extent) that
software has become mal-configured or simply not installed properly you will
have to go through all of the steps relating to this in the FAQ, and I
really do mean all and in the order described.

Sorry you missed the instructions on how to do it...I will probably
change the FAQ to highlite the fact that instructions exist towards the end.

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

No No No, I am not an Instant Expert.

 

[Wojo]

For the record I agree with the instruction John is giving 100% it may seem
time consuming but it is the only way to be absolutely certain of a good
install. I don't know if he recommended it or not but I also recommend
getting the SP2 CD from Microsoft. It is free and generally arrives with-in
a week (even though they say it takes longer) with the CD you have the full
installation program instead of the internet version plus if you ever need
to do a full reinstall of Windows you have the added security of being able
to install SP2 and the updates for the Blaster Worm etc... before connecting
to the internet.
You can order the free CD here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

 

[John Kelly]

I must try and remember to put that in the FAQ...I don't think its in there.

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

 

[Guest]

I reinstalled everything according to your method but I still have the same
problem.
Jacques

 

[Wojo]

To help isolate whether this is a codec problem or a WMM problem did your
computer and/or camera come with it's own video capturing software? If so
then try using it to capture and see if that works or not then post back
those results.

 

[Guest]

If I use Samsung DVC Media 5.1, it works but it gives a .asf file and when I
try to import it into WMM, I have this error : "The file
C:\PROGRA~1\Wanadoo\Jacques\test.asf is not indexed and cannot be imported."

 

[John Kelly]

Ah Ha...there might be an easy solution then (hope we are not going around
in a circle here)

If you download the free Windows Encoder program from Microsoft and open
that file in Encoder, and immediately close it you should see a message
displayed saying some thing along the lines of "Indexing File..." If that is
the only issue the file should then import to Movie Maker....if its the only
problem.

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

I saw one, I saw one an Instant Xspurt (just add water)

 

[Wojo]

Correct and that's because WMM does not work with ASF files.
You can convert this to AVI using Windows Media Encoder which is free off
www.microsoft.com.
I know it would be much easier to simply capture into Movie Maker but this
is a temporary solution until the problem at hand is resolved. As far as the
problem goes did you uninstall SP2 and then reinstall according to John's
instructions or just reinstall SP2 over itself?

 

[Wojo]

Good timing

Ah Ha...there might be an easy solution then (hope we are not going around
in a circle here)

If you download the free Windows Encoder program from Microsoft and open
that file in Encoder, and immediately close it you should see a message
displayed saying some thing along the lines of "Indexing File..." If that
is the only issue the file should then import to Movie Maker....if its the
only problem.

Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org

I saw one, I saw one an Instant Xspurt (just add water)

 

[Guest]

I resinstalled SP2 over itself.

Correct and that's because WMM does not work with ASF files.
You can convert this to AVI using Windows Media Encoder which is free off
www.microsoft.com.
I know it would be much easier to simply capture into Movie Maker but this
is a temporary solution until the problem at hand is resolved. As far as the
problem goes did you uninstall SP2 and then reinstall according to John's
instructions or just reinstall SP2 over itself?

 

[Guest]

When I used Windows Media Encoder, I could only open a "encoder session
file", not my .asf file.
So I used the Windows Media File Editor, I opened my .asf file and then
selected File - Save and Index and then, I could import my video in WMM !