One stupid question

[gumpec]

If I use Pinnacle Studio to make DVD compatible files and the program tell me after three hours that it made all O.K. I can count that if there was any disturbance (software or hardware or outside the computer), thise disturbance hasn't influence on any single bit which the program has encoded. Am I right?

[Tommyknocker]

The only time you can alter a source file is to save a video to that source file's name. Otherwise, it is only that: a source, and does not get altered by the program.

[gumpec]

Yes, I know how is it works. But I don't know this - if Studio have some problems to encode my project - one bit or more (and problems are caused by another program (like screensaver) or hardware mistake or something else (thunderbold))will it notify me or will it in spite of all that tell me, that it finished everythink successfully???

[junkmalle]

Even though Studio says it completed successfully it's still possible that there are errors (caused by hardware or software problems) in the output file. There are some types of errors that a program can detect and report, but there are other types that a program will know nothing about.

All the "successfully completed" message means is that the program didn't notice any problems during the conversion.

[gumpec]

Can you tell me some examples of such errors? And how can I see, there are some?

[junkmalle]

That's like asking "What could go wrong in the universe?" I'll give a few examples though:

A bug in the codec that's decoding the source video could cause errors and not tell Studio about it.

The same thing could happen in the output codec.

A bad memory chip could cause pixels of the image to change color. Studio would just encode those bad pixels.

Or bad memory could cause a bit to change somewhere in the the compressed data before it's written to the disk.

Given how buggy Studio is, it could itself make mistakes and not notice.

In most cases the result would be corrupt images or sound as you view the file. In subtle cases you might never see the problems. In serious cases you will see gross errors. Your computer might even crash when playing the resulting video.

[vcdforme]

NOT a stupid question. but a complicated one..

You can aslo have problems from the disc, they
might play, but due to cyclic redundancy errors, impossible
to copy. Many possiblilities, like JUNKMALLE says.
Best to disable screen savers, and other programs, and not use your computer while it is encoding.
AS for the program "notifying" you, I would guess any notice would
happen before the program starts. When it checks the file properties.

Myself, I don't like Pinnacle because I remember their files having
compatibilty problems with other programs. But that was a year or two ago.