This might sound like a stupid question, but is there a length limit on a single movie? I have a 122 minute video which I render in Vegas using the DVDA template, but changing the bit rate to 4.2mbps CBR. So I get a MPEG file of about 3.8 GB. I separately render the AC3 file.
I open a new project in DVDA4 and just insert the MPEG file. I click on Make DVD, etc. It uses 91% of the DVD, and it properly has the MPEG and AC3 file set to no recompress. So far, so good...
So I kick it off and it quickly gets to the "building video object 3 of 3" phase. This goes for about 20 seconds and then it comes up with an error box:
"Warning. An error encountered while writing a file.
Invalid data was encountered when processing an MPEG file."
Note that the MPEG file came right out of VEGAS 7...
Some information you might want:
- Windows 2000, with all NTFS partitions, with dozens of GB of free space on all drives.
- If I export an AVI file from VEGAS, and just let DVDA have it to do the video compression, I also get a different an error that is even less helpful, but it only happens after 5 hours of processing...
- I am pretty familiar with the software and have already created 4 other DVDs for this project, which happen to all be 94 minutes or less.
I don't think I'm doing anything stupid, and have tried many many variations. I have been a programmer for 20 years and know how to determine what is wrong. But without more information than a couple of lines in a dialog it's difficult to know what is happening. Is there some option to turn on logging of more error detail?
So here is the kicker: If I take this same video, but split it into a 90 minute and a 32 minute section, and just insert these into a new project (as AVIs for this test), everything is fine. DVDA completes and I the DVD plays fine. But, if I make the first video link to the second one as the end action, then DVDA fails.
It seems that it has something to do with the continuous playing time of the finished video, as I have a 94 minute video compressed at 6mbps, which produced a larger MPEG file (4.2GB ), and that project works fine in DVDA. So it does not appear to be related to any file size issues.
In the interest of full disclosure... I started this process with Movie Studio + DVD Platinum v6. Since it did not support AC3 needed for longer videos with decent quality, I downloaded the trial of Studio v7 to make sure it would work before I upgraded. I tried the AVI test from that. When I still had trouble, I downloaded the full Vegas+DVD v7, trial and used that for the latest test described above. (I did have to use Vegas Studio 7 to generate the AC3 because the Vegas 7 trial version would not generate an AC3 file, it required the full version; yet Studio trial would....)
Given the consistent behavior among all 3 versions of DVDA and DVDAS, I don't think the trial versions are an issue, but I mention it just in case.
It is very confusing that there is no mention of this problem anywhere, but yet it is completely consistent for me among all the different versions...
Any ideas, or suggestions on what to try next? Surely this software should be able to create an 122 minute DVD...
I open a new project in DVDA4 and just insert the MPEG file. I click on Make DVD, etc. It uses 91% of the DVD, and it properly has the MPEG and AC3 file set to no recompress. So far, so good...
So I kick it off and it quickly gets to the "building video object 3 of 3" phase. This goes for about 20 seconds and then it comes up with an error box:
"Warning. An error encountered while writing a file.
Invalid data was encountered when processing an MPEG file."
Note that the MPEG file came right out of VEGAS 7...
Some information you might want:
- Windows 2000, with all NTFS partitions, with dozens of GB of free space on all drives.
- If I export an AVI file from VEGAS, and just let DVDA have it to do the video compression, I also get a different an error that is even less helpful, but it only happens after 5 hours of processing...
- I am pretty familiar with the software and have already created 4 other DVDs for this project, which happen to all be 94 minutes or less.
I don't think I'm doing anything stupid, and have tried many many variations. I have been a programmer for 20 years and know how to determine what is wrong. But without more information than a couple of lines in a dialog it's difficult to know what is happening. Is there some option to turn on logging of more error detail?
So here is the kicker: If I take this same video, but split it into a 90 minute and a 32 minute section, and just insert these into a new project (as AVIs for this test), everything is fine. DVDA completes and I the DVD plays fine. But, if I make the first video link to the second one as the end action, then DVDA fails.
It seems that it has something to do with the continuous playing time of the finished video, as I have a 94 minute video compressed at 6mbps, which produced a larger MPEG file (4.2GB ), and that project works fine in DVDA. So it does not appear to be related to any file size issues.
In the interest of full disclosure... I started this process with Movie Studio + DVD Platinum v6. Since it did not support AC3 needed for longer videos with decent quality, I downloaded the trial of Studio v7 to make sure it would work before I upgraded. I tried the AVI test from that. When I still had trouble, I downloaded the full Vegas+DVD v7, trial and used that for the latest test described above. (I did have to use Vegas Studio 7 to generate the AC3 because the Vegas 7 trial version would not generate an AC3 file, it required the full version; yet Studio trial would....)
Given the consistent behavior among all 3 versions of DVDA and DVDAS, I don't think the trial versions are an issue, but I mention it just in case.
It is very confusing that there is no mention of this problem anywhere, but yet it is completely consistent for me among all the different versions...
Any ideas, or suggestions on what to try next? Surely this software should be able to create an 122 minute DVD...