AVS PiP Question

sws626
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Thu Jul 01, 2010 9:37 pm

I'm having some trouble generating any sort of movie file from a PiP project created in AVS and thought maybe someone here would have had a similar experience and might have some tips.

I have two video files and one audio file. I imported these into AVS Video Editor 3.5, used the longest one to create the "Main Video," set its volume to 0 and its brightness to -255 to get a silent black background. Then I set each of the two video files as "Video Overlays" and positioned them, synchronised the audio and everything looks great within the AVS editor.

But when I try to save the project as a movie, I get some strange results. Saving as any sort of AVI file results in the two overlays disappearing about half way through. Saving as WMV (or any other format I've tried so far) results in just a blank black screen. The audio is fine in all formats and everything looks fine when it runs within the AVS editor.

Any ideas?

-Stuart


AcousticAl
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Thu Jul 01, 2010 10:04 pm

Hi Stuart,

I use version 4.2 (.1.167)

I haven't experienced what you describe-- and I have done what you're trying to do with the overlays.

Is yours a free version or have you bought it? Any way to update to the latest version?

Also, perhaps your computer can't keep up with the effect you're trying to do?

Have you tried saving to any other formats? mpeg or mov?


sws626
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Thu Jul 01, 2010 10:18 pm

Hi Al,

Thanks. It's a purchased version. I'll look into upgrading. Although I'm working with a pretty powerful machine, it does look like the conversion process is somehow running out of resources before it completes. I've tried avi, mpeg, mov, and wmv -- also in much smaller/lower resolution formats.

Stuart


sws626
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:07 am

An update on this, in case anyone else encounters this problem later. I haven't resolved it yet, but will post the solution when I've found it.

The system it's running on has a 3GHz quad core processor and 2GB of RAM. Monitoring the processor load and memory while the conversion is taking place reveals that, when attempting to save the project as an AVI file, the AVS process never exceeds 10% of the available processor load and never uses more than about 40MB of RAM. Saving in a more compressed WMV format results in a peak processor load of about 80% and about 100 MB of RAM. So, if there is a resource constraint, it appears to be internal to AVS.

The input files are quite large, so this is the next issue I'll explore. I'm currently working with a WAV audion file that is 112 MB and two AVI video files (three counting the background) that are about 35 MB each.

More to come...

-Stuart


AndyT
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:28 am

Try using a solid black jpeg as your backdrop instead. It requires fewer resources and should create less interference with the complier as its working.


sws626
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:38 am

Hi Andy,

Thanks. That's what I'm trying now. It still failed to convert to WMV, but got a lot further than it did previously. I'm retrying now without compression (to AVI). So I think we're on the right track.

Stuart


ffsooo3
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 6:03 am

Stuart, Try working with the black image in the main video track and then just use a couple of five second images in the overlay tracks to see if you can create a simple "movie".


sws626
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 6:33 am

ffsooo3 wrote:
Stuart, Try working with the black image in the main video track and then just use a couple of five second images in the overlay tracks to see if you can create a simple "movie".
This works fine. In fact, I've done this many times before with smaller files, so I think I just need to get the size of the input files down. With the current overlay tracks against a black still image, I get about 3 minutes into a 5 minute video before it craps out, first dropping one overlay and then, a few seconds later, the other, leaving just the audio and background image.

Or maybe it's time to upgrade to a newer version of the software if this is a limitation that's since been addressed (if it is, I haven't seen any documentation of a maximum file size).


sws626
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 11:18 am

Not much luck. Even stripping down each of the files to a minimum size still caused problems. Also tried the new version, which handled the files okay, but doesn't offer as fine control over synchronisation. So, in the end, I made two smaller movies and stitched them together. Upload coming soon.


AndyT
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Fri Jul 02, 2010 4:39 pm

Are you running a 32 bit OS? 2GB is not much for a 64 bit Quad Core at all.


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