Sizzle Keeps Crashing

[mephoneno]

I've gotten Sizzle to work for me once, but the last three times I've tried to use it, it's crashed quite a ways into the process.
I've got two separate episodes of a TV series behind a TOC menu with 2 buttons - one for each of the title menus.
Each Title is an MPEG2 file captured with the ADS USB>DVD box and each is about 2GB.
The two title submenus have 2.2MB background audio MP2 files and have a "play title" button and a return "to main menu" button.
The application chuggs along de and re-muxing and quits abruptly, about 40 minutes into the process. It never reaches the stage where it's creating the disc image...
Annoying. What can I be doing wrong?

Dave

[AntnyMD]

The thing that prevents me from using Sizzle at the moment is that it uses the partition containing your booted OS as a scratch disk. If it fills up the available space on that partition, even if your project files are on another partition, Sizzle will crash. Could this be what's happening to you?

[mephoneno]

Hi AntnyMD -

It could be that I haven't got enough disc space...
I had 10GB available one of the times I tried, and 11+GB available, last night.
I tried to keep abreast of the available disc space and thought that it crashed with a couple of Gigs to spare.

Incidently, after Sizzle does the de and re-muxing - which consumes alot of disc space - does it create a disc image over-and-above the disc space it's aready consumed? Does it need 22GB to create a 4.4GB DVD?

Dave

[galactica]

Sizzle use to crash on me when i was testing it in the beginning (right when 0.5 was released)

now for some reason it doenst crash any more. Does this help much.... no. But i just wanted to say that it use to crash all the time for me...

I did increase my memory recently from 512 to 2 gigs so perhaps its a memory thing!?

you didnt fill out your profile so i have no idea what you have

[mephoneno]

galactica -

Thanks for the feedback.
I've got a 667 MHz G4 TiBook w/512MB SDRAM


I'm going to clear some more disc space and give Sizzle another go...
Upgrading the memory is always a good idea. Next expense after the new DVD burner...

Dave

[tab75-13]

i know its been a while since this topic was discussed, but sizzle keeps crashing on me now. it worked for me once. after that it has continuously crashed either a bit into the process or right away now. How can i clear up the space on my disc that sizzle has been using as i understand from antnymd's post that that is what it does? I have been at this project now for a week and half--atempting to convert a vcd to dvd. i just want to know how i can get to the disk space that sizzle has designated for itself in order to clear it up? Please help me.

here are the specs on my computer.
PowerBook G4 12." I have 11.89 G available on my 55.89 G drive.

CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 867 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 640 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.5.5f4

thanks,

tab

[galactica]

im giong to say its the amount of space you have free

11 gigs free

whats taking up those other 44 gigs?!

[tab75-13]

i have some video_ts folders (i think 2 ), microsoft office and about 6 gigs of mpegs (some duplicates including the particular sizzle file itself). Now sizzle doesn't even begin (makes 0 progress) and shuts down. is there a partition or something in the hard drive that sizzle has created in which it is storing scratch files that i can clean out? sizzle worked for me the very first time i tried to create a .dmg; every time after that, its given me trouble. now it won't even get going at all.-spent a couple of weeks on this dumb project and am just going to give up and accept failure. it's killing me. i also tried to repair disc permissions in the drive-- didn't work. The thing is that the first time sizzle worked for me i had around the same amount approx 12 G of free disc space. It produced something for me even when i had like 5 gigs of space at one time. i can't afford to buy more memory now. do you buy the theory that sizzle creates a partition and that that partition fills up? if so, how can i pinpoint that place and clear it out. without being overly dramatic, i'm dyin here. please help me.

thanks,

tab

[snuffy51]

I used it for the first time tonight. After the first time it has yet to run without a crash.

iMac G4 800
768 ram
60 HD
10.2.8

[thoughton]

11 gigs free

whats taking up those other 44 gigs?!

What a strange question :P

[thoughton]

i'm dyin here. please help me.

1. What version of Sizzle are you using? If it isn't 0.1 or 0.5b1 then you need to either revert to 0.1 or upgrade to the newest one. The version of Sizzle in between those two had quite a few problems. I have never had a crash with 0.1 except the the chapter time problem mentioned next.

2. If you are using 0.1, putting any spaces next to commas in the 'custom chapter time' tab will cause it to crash as soon as you click 'encode'. If you set a chapter time that is after the end of your movie, it will also crash. If there are no spaces it will be OK.

3. Under 0.1, if you don't have enough disk space, you get an error message. The app does not crash. As far as required disk space is concerned, I've always thought it required double the size of the image you were authoring.

Cheerio!

[thoughton]

The thing that prevents me from using Sizzle at the moment is that it uses the partition containing your booted OS as a scratch disk. If it fills up the available space on that partition, even if your project files are on another partition, Sizzle will crash. Could this be what's happening to you?

Can't you change this? As stated above, I generally only use 0.1, but even that early version lets you choose where your scratch disk is. The one minor problem is that it doesnt remember it, so you have to reset the scratch location each time you launch sizzle.

[AntnyMD]

Can't you change this? As stated above, I generally only use 0.1, but even that early version lets you choose where your scratch disk is. The one minor problem is that it doesnt remember it, so you have to reset the scratch location each time you launch sizzle.

That was ages ago. I no longer use Sizzle.

[tab75-13]

I am using 0.5b2 it seems to me. In preferences it has a place where i can choose to put my temporary files. should i choose a folder that is not occupied? is that what you mean?

The thing that prevents me from using Sizzle at the moment is that it uses the partition containing your booted OS as a scratch disk. If it fills up the available space on that partition, even if your project files are on another partition, Sizzle will crash. Could this be what's happening to you?

Can't you change this? As stated above, I generally only use 0.1, but even that early version lets you choose where your scratch disk is. The one minor problem is that it doesnt remember it, so you have to reset the scratch location each time you launch sizzle.

I have about 13G free. My project is about 1.5 G, so i do have the 3 G necesarry.

thanks for your help; please let me know if i am still in the dark about the scratch disc part.

thanks,

tab

[tab75-13]

i'm dyin here. please help me.

1. What version of [url=https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=453#comments]Sizzle
3. Under 0.1, if you don't have enough disk space, you get an error message. The app does not crash. As far as required disk space is concerned, I've always thought it required double the size of the image you were authoring.

Ok I did get the error message (in .1 version) right away before it started to mutliplex. I have 13 G free according to my computer; so what space should i clear? i selected in the scratch files a folder that was not occupied, but still no go. i guess i will check again the space i have available; i am pretty sure though as i just saw according to sizzle .5b2 that that is what i have. i'd be grateful for your assessment of this. thank you

[thoughton]

Do you have more than one hard drive?

[tab75-13]

I was able to generate a disk image using 0.1. I completely ignored the destinations for scratch files sizzle was offering and chose a empty folder in my home folder. i also selected that the image be saved to my home folder. it worked, not once , but thrice. i believe it will work again, but trouble is, i dont understand why it worked or why i can't get the sizzle 0.5b2 still to work with the same maneuver. do you have any insights into why this happens?

after generating my .img file i took it to Toast 6 and knocked on Toast's icon with it, opening up Toast, and tried to burn it. As the video which was rencoded via ffmpegX to .mpv and .ac3 files from a mpeg-1 video was slightly defective Toast stopped writing the sixth and final track-- the most problematic one. It had been a pain to reencode these tracks using ffmpegX, one of them taking about 6 hrs or so it seems because the quality of the original tracks, the mpeg-1 fed to ffmpegX was spotty and scratchy. This just shows Toast is extremely finnicky. I am not sure now the money spent on it was worth it now at all. Following the challenge of this obstacle, i took the .img file to disk utility which burned it on to my disk fine, twice. the dvd also plays in a standalone player so that is also a relief. do you think Toast would burn this under the data tab with the dvd rom button checked? I haven't tried, but as my drive cannot burn dvd-rws, as it is a UJ-815 drive without the proper firmware, it is a bit expensive using apple's dvd-r just to check. i know disk utility does the job, but i am wondering now exactly what utility Toast can exactly come to when it is so darn finnicky-- one cannot adjust the bitrate etc. for it to accept and encode files the way one can in ffmpegX for instance.

anywasy, got the job done, but there remain these questions--on sizzle, on sizzle 0.5b2, and on the whatgoodisitfor utility of Toast generated like so many incidental byproducts of this experience. If you or anyone could comment on these, I'd be grateful, as i am already for your having directed me towards 0.1. Finally, one last thing sizzle 0.1 says explictly that it only accepts. m2v or .mpv files, same identity i think, whereas sizzle 0.5b2 never says that; it never accepted my mv1 files, though, saying they lacked video tracks. The explicit statement in the readme of 0.1 explains that a bit i guess: sizzle can only make svcds it seems, not vcds--is that correct.

anyways thank you again,

best,

t.a.b.

[thoughton]

That's a lot of typing . In answer to a couple of your questions:

To burn the .img file with Toast you choose Toast's data tab and select DVD-ROM(UDF). Mount the .img file and drag the contents (usually just a video_ts folder and an audio_ts folder) into the Toast window. Click burn.

Sizzle only makes DVDs, not VCDs or SVCDs.

[tab75-13]

ok. thank you for bearing with me.

peace,

t.

[Iceman67]

Sizzle 0.5b2 always crashes on me. Does anyone know where I could get Sizzle 0.1??

And was the conclusion that Sizzle needs twice the HD space of the desired DVD in order to not crash? Thanks.

[thoughton]

If you dont have enough space it fills your entire hard drive until you get OS X's built-in warning. You then cannot finish writing the disk image.

Sizzle 0.1 is available on the Sizzle homepage

[gr8fl4295]

I'm having the same crashing problems. (with Sizzle 0.5b2)
and I'm using a 250GB drive for output and scratch.

back to 0.1......I have yet to have that version crash.

what gives?

[brett]

an issue i came across that may or may not be germane to others:

i was having continual sizzle .5b2 crashes on a 6-title project. after i got over my frustration, i decided to check the temp file. hmm -- it completed de and re muxes of 3 titles there; with no sign of work on the fourth title. so i go back and look at my project file and . . . the fourth title —*which i had properly created from a .mpg -- indicated it had a "null" vid stream and no audio. so i reselected the .mpg as the video and audio source for title 4 under the appropriate tabs, and -- no more crashy!

i have no idea how title 4 -- which was still "associated" with the proper .mpg in the "title" tab -- lost it's video and audio associations. but resetting those associations fixed the issue.

the problem first caught my eye when i saw a "0" istead of a "1" in the list of items window in the lower right.

well, it's another thing to look for. fwiw.

[rorschach]

Sizzle only works best if you give it at least 20gb of free HD space in which to build your project. If you're attempting to build with free HD space less than that, it won't work.

Go ahead, give it a try!

[brett]

i miss the salience of the last comment -- in my 6 title project i ended up as intended with an 8.3gb image intended for dl on my 108 -- no problem after the one i reported -- of course i had 50gb free for scratch and authoring -- although free space was not an issue i faced above, i suppose a general space available warning couldn't hurt

[thoughton]

Rorschach is attempting to explain the sizzle crashing issue the original poster had, not your specific problem with title 4 (unfortunately he's merely repeating advice already given above). The source of confusion might be the resurrection of this old thread