TMPGEnc Locks Up Computer

[drdrop]

I am trying to convert a DVD (Minority Report) to VCD using "The Original Official Guide by Sefy Levy," which I downloaded from VCDHelp.com. However, when using TMPGEnc to create a .mpg file (containing roughly the first half of the movie, so it will fit on a CD-R), my computer locks up before TMPGEnc is finished.

I have tried it three times now, and none has worked. The first time I got halfway through, but got a message that Rnaapp had performed an illegal operation and had to be shut down. The second time I got about an hour done out of the hour and fifteen minutes I was trying for, and got a message that some other application (I don't remember the name) had performed an illegal operation and had to be shut down. The third time I only got about 20 minutes done, but got no error message. In all cases, the computer locked up hard; Ctrl+Alt+Del was no use . . .

I did try a smaller portion of the movie (about 17 minutes) to see how the chapter indexing would work on my DVD player, and TMPGEnc was able to finish that without locking up. So I think it's probably more than just a problem with TMPGEnc, or how I'm using it.

I'm running Windows 98 SE on a 533 MHz Celeron processor PC with 192 MB RAM.

Please help! Thanks!

-Dave

[Sefy]

The issues you are having sounds alot more like hardware, especialy all the
freeze ups, i suggest you try doing encoding in windows Safe Mode and see if
it passes, if it does, that will rule out Hardware, and means it's something that
loads up on your startup.

[drdrop]

Thanks, Sefy! I'll give it a shot . . .

I'm assuming you mean a hardware issue with my PC, and not the DVD-ROM itself, right? (All the files at this point are saved to my hard drive . . .) Does my PC seem like it would be capable of this kind of thing? (As I said in the original post, I'm running Windows 98 SE on a 533 MHz Celeron processor PC with 192 MB RAM.)

Some more info that might be useful:

My PC came with a 15 GB hard drive (C:), and I installed an additional 60 GB hard drive (D:). Because of the goofy way the PC's innards were set up, I had to make the D: drive a slave to the CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, which is the master drive on the secondary IDE cable (the C: drive is the primary master).

This causes me problems when I try to capture DV video from my camcorder; if I capture to the D: drive I get an error that the data rate is too low for capture, but if I capture to the C: drive it works fine. When I've used TMPGEnc, I've tried to save the finished .mpg file to the D: drive. Could this be part of the problem, too? Is it possible that I have to save to the C: drive?

Thanks!

-Dave

[Sefy]

Yes, when I say Hardware Issues, I mean the PC, not the DVD drive itself.
And your PC is plenty strong enough, heck, I remember the old days when
I started my guides, I had a Duron 600 and 256mb SDRAM

As for your HDD and CD/DVD configuration, I would strongly recommand
you alter that as soon as you can, to something like this:

Primary IDE
Master - New HDD
Slave - Older HDD

Secondary IDE
Master - DVD-ROM
Slave - CDRW Drive

[drdrop]

It finally worked! I tried both closing all but the bare essential background applications and saving the .mpg file to the C: drive (rather than the D: drive).

Then, to figure out if the problem was the background apps or the D: drive, I tried it again with the same background apps closed, but this time saving to the D: drive. It locked up again, so I'm guessing it's a problem with the way the D: drive is hooked up . . .

My system configuration is as follows:

The C: drive (original drive) is the primary master
The D: drive (added drive) is the secondary master
The CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive is the secondary slave
And, the floppy drive seems to have it's own cable going to the mother board (there is no slave jack on the primary IDE)

Would there be an advantage to having both hard drives on the primary IDE cable for using TMPGEnc? (And, for capturing camcorder video, too?) I've heard that IDE cables can only handle one thing at a time; so, if I'm trying to copy files from the C: to the D: drive or vice versa, will having both drives on the same cable bog things down?

And, for my final question, when I successfully saved the .mpg for the first half of the movie, the .mpg was 754.8 MB, but the length of the clip only clocks in at about 73 minutes 58 seconds (or something like that, but I know it was less than 74 minutes . . .). The DVD ripping guide says you can fit a 74 min movie on a 74 min CD-R, even if the file size is 740 MB. So, which is more important: the clip length being 74 minutes or less, or the file size being 740 MB or less? Am I going to damage my CD-RW drive trying to burn this one as a VCD?

Thanks!

-Dave

[Sefy]

Regarding your IDE connections, please connect as follows:

Primary IDE
Master - HDD C
Slave - HDD D

Secondary IDE
Master - DVD
Slave - CDRW

If you don't have DVD and only CDRW, then make it Master.

You shouldn't have too much problems (over)burning the file into a 74min CD
but do check on the CDRW table to see if your drive supports Over Burning.

[drdrop]

Thanks, Sefy!

Well, I'm only 1 for 3 now with shutting down all background applications and saving to the C: drive (instead of the D: drive). The first time it worked, then the next two times it locked up.

If the problem is in fact my IDE connections, shouldn't saving to the C: drive (which is the primary master drive) work every time? I'll still try connecting the drives the way you suggested, though, as long as I can find a long enough IDE cable (the longest I've been able to find is 19", and I'm not sure if that'll do it . . .).

I have an LG Electronics CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive (model GCC-4320B). Does that support overburning? The table at www.dvdrhelp.com/cdwriters doesn't say - it only mentions overburning for the "normal" CD ReWriters, not combo drives . . . If it doesn't support overburning, will it tell me and not burn the CD, or try anyway and potentially damage the CD-RW drive?

Finally, how do you start up Windows in safe mode? According to my Windows help files, holding Ctrl (or F8; I tried both) while it boots up will get you into the setup program, then you "select the number for safe mode." Well, I didn't see anywhere to select safe mode. So, I started Windows normally, then used the Task Manager to close all background applications except Explorer, Systray, TMPGEnc, and two applications for my wireless keyboard and wireless mouse. Will that rule out background application problems, or do I need to try running TMPGEnc in safe mode?

Thanks!

-Dave

[Dave_man]

You do have dma enabled on all the drives right? look for updates on your chipset drivers too. VIA chipset?

[Sefy]

@Dave,

Regarding your IDE problem, it is a bit weird, but it's hard to say anything in specific till we have more information about how your system is set up,
also which OS are you using ? (I may have missed that detail) and how
your drive is formated (FAT/FAT32/NTFS).

Regarding your CDRW, my table is updated according to what users tell
me, so if I don't have any information, I leave it as blank till someone
takes the time to inform me of updates (and thanks to all those that did!).

Regarding Safe Mode, when you boot up, you can either press F8 and
select Safe Mode, or press on F5 to go directly into Safe Mode, you gotta
do this as soon as you see "Starting Windows...."

PS: I've heard alot of problems with Wireless Keyboard/Mouse devices, most of those are made by Microsoft, better check for updated drivers.

[drdrop]

Thanks, Sefy and Dave_man, for all your help. I think it's working now, but will keep you posted after a few days of playing . . .

Last night I pretty much changed everything:

I enabled DMA on the D drive (it was disabled). But, even after I did that, the data transfer rate to/from the drive was only about 3 MB/sec.

I re-configured the IDE connections between all drives. Now, the C drive is the primary master, the D drive is the primary slave, and the CD-RW/DVD-ROM is the secondary master. (There is no secondary slave right now.) This increased the data transfer rate to/from drive D to about 14 MB/sec.

I started up in safe mode, then re-tried the second half of the movie with TMPGEnc. It was only about 85% done when I left for work this morning, but still going strong. I think it'll probably work (knock on wood).

Because of their size, the .vob files were on the 60 GB D drive. But, TMPGEnc was installed on the C drive, so I was using both drives to make the .mpg file. Is it possible that the relatively slow D drive data transfer rate was making the PC lock up?

Thanks again for all your help!

-Dave

[Sefy]

I Don't know about lockups, but the IDE is known to limit the speed of both
devices to the lowest speed of the connected device, so if one of your drives
is slower then the other, it will also slow the other one.

Which is why it's best to put the faster drive which is usually mostly accessed
as the Primary, so the Slower Drive won't dictate the speed at all times.