The very well known 2 GB AVI Problem.

[sP1D3r]

Hi everybody.

I'm currently kicking myself in the head.

I was just capturing a TV show directly from cable onto my harddisk when I suddenly noticed I just crossed the 2 GB barrier for AVI files. As I expected I can't edit it anywhere. (Not even VirtualDub).

I found a small program called "AVI_IO" which can actually play back the AVI file but can't do anything else with it.

I'm hoping that there is any tool/program which could import this AVI file and then save it into 2 pieces.

I've tried AVIChop and the like, none of these programs can open it. Hopefully one of you had the same problem in the past and know a solution to my problem.

A re-capture is not possible as it was a direct cable stream to my PC.

Thanks in advance!

[AceYu]

use Adobe Premier 6.01 or later (6.5 is about to be released) it has large file handling, up to about 4 gig under 98 or more under 2k/XP. I don't know the limitation on the demo version but if it allows exports you are set!

Later BRETT

[sterno]

How large is it that VirtualDub won't open it? I've opened 4-5GB AVI files without a problem.

You might try frameserving it through avisynth if nothing else works.

[sP1D3r]

Thanks for the quick replies.

AceYu, I doubt any demo versions of Adobe Premiere allow you to export. It's worth a shot though, I'll see if I can get my hands on it.

Sterno, the file is just over 2 GB. Say 2,2 GB or so. VirtualDub tells me:

"Invalid AVI file: LIST chunk <4 bytes"

What O/S and filesystem are you using? I've tried Win98 and Win2000Pro both on FAT32. If I HAVE to upgrade the Win2000Pro partition to NTFS to get the job done I'd be happy to do so.

I don't think I ever used AVISynth. It's worth a shot though. I'll see if it'll help.

Both of you, thanks for the tips.

Regards,
sP1D3r

[sterno]

I was using Windows 2000 with NTFS, and I captured the AVI in VirtualDub. I don't know what that error you get means. Many capture tools are aware of the limits of FAT and can automatically segment captures, that might save you some trouble in the future.

[sP1D3r]

Thanks for the info. I'll convert my W2KPro partition to NTFS and check if it's loadable from there. It's possible that it won't since it was captured on FAT32.

Thanks again!

Regards,
sP1D3r

[jbusser]

Hi
Try to with V-dub, U can specify a max. filesize. The capture will then be divided in multiple segments. When the first segment is opened by v-dub, it recognizes al the segments as if it is 1 file. You then can cut on logical places in the file and save them as ***.AVI
Works perfectly, done it many times (not anymore since I capture in realtime MPG (VCD format). Concider that, saves huge amounts of time.
Greetings Jbusser

[sP1D3r]

sterno, I just upgraded my system to NTFS but it's a no-go. Still the same error. It's possible that it had to be captured on NTFS but I'll check that later. Thanks anyway for the tip.

I guess my last option would be getting my hands on Premiere 6.x.x.

If anybody has more options or dealt with this problem before, please let me know.

jbusser, I know about that option in V-dub and it's working fine. Used it in the past a few times. This was a clean install of V-dub and I was just too lazy (*grmpz*) to turn it on before I started capturing. Heheh. I'll be sure to have it turned on next time.

You said you capture to MPG in realtime. What card are you using and which software?

Regards,
sP1D3r

[jbusser]

Hi,
I's a small miracle (in my opinion at least)!
I own a quit simple TV card, Pinnacle PCTV. I know, that card isn't advised to do real capturing, but works perfectly as an TV tunercard.
Recently I started to capture anyway and was very satisfied about the capruring quality but the GB limitation problem kept on existing, it was kind of buggy (I think because of the large AVI files and the corresponding superfast datarate to the HD) and rendering to MPG (read: VCD) took a lifetime.
Pinnacle came with their new 5.1 driver which was able to capture in realtime MPG something that seemed kind of impossible, conciddering the amount of time a normal encoder needs...
Anyway I dit a risky thing and bought the commercial (pro) driver from pinnacle and miraculouslu: its perfect (though some things have to be tuned on the PC)
I have an 1GHz Athlon thunderbird 256MB133mhz, TNT2 gfx and 2 IDE 20GB drives.
Realtime VCD complient capturing is perfect. I don't no what they've done to encode that fast but I'm very happy.
Copy one movie, cut it in two, burn it and a 1.5 hour movie is transfered to two fully compatible VCD in less than 2 hours. Realy, the PCTV card is a (semi) pro card now.
One thing to do for pinnacle: Make your Studio app. MPG compatible.
Jbusser

[sP1D3r]

NICE!

I have a simple TV card too. It's a Haupage WinTV card. I think it uses BrookTree drivers or something.

Regards,
sP1D3r