Background Media Size Limit ?

Dave22 wrote on 9/24/2009, 9:13 PM
Hello again (been awhile) ! I have several DVD Menus, and about 6 videos to go to on each Menu. Size so far is just under 3 GB. I'm adding yet another Menu page, and encounter a dreaded Exception error when trying to add a picture to the background. The jpg is 2.1MB (whose size is kind of overkill, I suppose, but it's just the original photo), and was accepted just fine as a Menu background in a separate smaller project. So, naturally, I was quite surprised to get that error when simply trying to change the background. I resampled the jpg to just under 1MB and that "is" accepted.

Here's an excerpt of the error, which we all know how to debug w/out the source code, right ?
*******************************
Sony DVD Architect Studio
Version 4.5d (Build 107)
Exception 0xC0000005 (access violation) READ:0x13A IP:0x637D45
In Module 'dvdarchst45.exe' at Address 0x400000 + 0x237D45
Thread: Main - Run ID=0x1794 Stack=0x12E000-0x130000
*******************************

And, some more clues: ;-)

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: dvdarchst45.exe
Application Version: 4.5.0.107
Application Timestamp: 485965ae
Fault Module Name: dvdarchst45k.dll
Fault Module Version: 4.5.0.107
Fault Module Timestamp: 48596458
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00079a0b
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 2d4f
Additional Information 2: 091555f04a10be20bd2d20025eed4658
Additional Information 3: 7276
Additional Information 4: f751a266f5746d36b9a921dc4f276851

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Does DVDA 4.5 have some kind of limit for this ? Weird if it does.

I'm loving this software, in spite of the few workarounds I've done to make things work. My videos have never been more organized, or more interesting to watch, because my family can go "straight" to a desired video.

Cheers, Dave H.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 9/24/2009, 9:19 PM
If I remember correctly, background media are limited to 1GB.
That would be way more than adequate for a 720x480 screen (like 3x headroom??).
musicvid10 wrote on 9/24/2009, 10:33 PM
John,
The only conclusion I can draw from your post is that no one should use uncompressed bitmap files as background images in videos -- something I had already accepted as fact. Thanks for confirming that!

Although the OP mentioned jpeg, I prefer png, which is visually lossless, and still only occupies about 500KB at that resolution. It just never made much sense to me to use more of my 4.5GB for uncompressed images and audio, and less for mpeg video, which is always the first to suffer the effects of overcompression. . .
Dave22 wrote on 9/25/2009, 10:47 PM
To musicvid and John, thanks for the replies. I know that some of the serious video folks here don't use mpg/jpg (or even a mini-DVD camera like I do) but formats like you suggested. Someday I'll do that if I get pickier with resolution. And bmp definitely takes too much room.

I was just puzzled as to why a picture would work for a background when it was basically the first thing I did in a brand new project, but wouldn't work in another project that was up to 3GB. And I really wasn't expecting anyone to debug it - just expressing my frustration. I was perplexed that if it were a file size limitation, then why not just display a msg stating that, instead of the "exception-We're closing the app now" msg. My current job (for the last 2 decades) has been writing code, and debugging (getting the abort addresses, looking in the dump of memory, and registers, etc), amongst other stuff. I don't know anyone (a user) who has even attempted to get Microsoft (or other company) to use the abort info to find a root cause for an exception error. There are people that can do that, but of course they're buried in the applications' company's cubicles, like me.

Like I admitted, the jpg's size was overkill, and it was then that I realized that I haven't used many background pictures at all to date, but instead the background color themes provided by Vegas. For the actual icon you click on to start a video, I almost always use the pic from the "Save Snapshot to File..." process. A couple of times I've created a short video montage/medley of videos and used that as a looping background. Since that works, I really don't know why a 2MB jpg wouldn't.

And now, on with the show!

Thx, Dave H.
Chienworks wrote on 9/26/2009, 5:06 AM
I've been reading this and pondering. I don't think DVD Architect has any intended practical* limits on still media sizes. It really shouldn't matter if your still file is .5MB or 500MB. DVDA is going to render it as a .mpg file at the project resolution (in your case 720x480) no matter what is thrown at it. So, i would have to assume you've hit a bug rather than a limit.

Also keep in mind that the rendered size of all menu media is limited to 1GB total. I'm not sure how much of your 3GB is menu and how much is program content, but if you're rendered menus are getting close to the 1GB limit then you might get some funky results. Of course, since DVDA converts your stills to low-res mpeg, it still *should* make no difference how large the original still file was.



* That isn't to say that there aren't some impractical limits, of course. If you are putting still image files in their original format in an EXTRAS directory rather than as part of a menu or program content then the DVD format limits you to a file size of 2GB. That's a mighty hefty .jpg file, and not one you're likely to encounter in most situations.
Dave22 wrote on 9/27/2009, 9:31 PM
Chienworks, your ponderings make a lot of sense. And, nice to know that "Also keep in mind that the rendered size of all menu media is limited to 1GB total." Did not know that.

Finished the project, and now on to the next one.

Thx - Dave H.