CCE crash after encode

[Cheffro]

hello, first post, so bear with me. Problem is as follows:

DVD2SVCD runs aok all the way through the CCE encoding process. At the tail end of the CCE process, it hits 100% encoded, and the smaller encoder window closes. Some unknown work goes on in the background (the HDD does some work, and it takes a few seconds), and in the end, I get an error saying that cce crashed, and get a bunch of nominal stack info with mem addresses. After I close the error, the larger CCE window closes, but DVD2SVCD just sits there. The encoding finished, but the log didn't get a chance to append, so it's stuck there. Crash recovery just starts the encoding over, and it does the same thing.

Now, the obligatory information, software first. I'm using DVD2SVCD build 1.0.7 build 4, I think (downloaded the newest version on 3-23-02). I'm using CCE 2.50 standalone. I'm basically using all of the default settings in DVD2SVCD, but can post the log info if someone feels that will help. I have applied the CRC patch to the CCE file, but that didn't help. All of this running on Windows XP Pro. Running in the background is nothing other that NAV 2K2, but even with that disabled, it doesn't help.

Hardware: Athlon 1ghz (socketed, 200Mhz FSB)
Abit Kr-7A W/ 512MB DDR
IBM 36ZX 10,000 RPM SCSI HDD
Toshiba 16X DVD ROM
Geforce 2GTS

I think that's all the pertinent info.

Only other thing to mention may be that I've read alot of the posts in the CCE forum, and it seems to me that I'm getting very high speeds out of my encodes. Previously I have come to expect no less that 1.0-1.5 RT from CCE. With this particular movie, I get about 1.0 until it's about halfway done, then it shoots up to 2.0-2.4. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but there it is. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give.

[markrb]

That CCE speed is definately a sign of a serious error in the encode and it is not working correctly.

Have you tried to run the torture test with Prime95?
Have you tried the stress test that you will find in the Advanced Forum?

Did you edit the AVS file? I am leaning towards no since you didn't mention it.

Are you overclocking your system? If so slow it down.

Do you have any other programs running?

Understand that CCE is real finicky and a real bear of a program. Most other programs do not work nearly as hard and will not show hardware problems at all. CCE is also real fussy about memory timing. It must be completely perfect and even the slightest bit off will cause problems.

If you have more then 1 memory module remove one of them and try the encode again.

Did you have add resample audio checked in the frameserver tab, you should?

Try these and if your CCE speed ever gets above 1.75 you might as well quite it, because it is not working right.
Post your AVS file using cut and after you have tried these other things and we will see if something is wrong. Might as well post the log.txt file as well.

Mark

[Cheffro]

OK, so the machine's running the stress test right now (not on the machine I'm posting on). Framerate is currently, and has been (for about 1/2 hr) at 0.22x. According to what I read in that thread, it sounds about right.

Other info:
Overclocking: no
Other programs running: no
Memory modules: 2, and looking into the KR-7 FAQ for memory problems/information

the real reason I'm posting again, before trying all of the afforementioned things, is I'm not quite clear on what you meant by editing the avs file. I'm new to DVD2SVCD, but not to cinemacraft. I've used it in the past (I got into video conversions a bit over a year and a half ago, but got out of it, so I have some experience with older versions of some of these things). I will post my logs, etc as soon as it finishes this stress test. Thanks again.

[markrb]

If you don't know you didn't do it.

If this happens again try safe mode and see if that helps. It will be slow, but maybe the only way around it.

Do you have add resameple audio checked on the frameserver tab?

Mark

[Cheffro]

On the editing of the AVS file, I realized that I hadn't done it, and was hoping for a bit of help as to WHAT to do to it. I have searched the forums, and found all sorts of info on different editing that you can do to avs files, but I haven't seen anything that appears to be a standard edit to one. Is there something specific I need to be changing, or is it more of a trial and error kind of thing? I've looked into some of the avs files on my machine, and there appears to be more than just a few settings in most of them, so I wouldn't even know where to start to fix this problem.

I did try a trial in safe mode yesterday, and it made it further (it went past the VAF file creation, but locked on the MPV creation), but still died in the end. The test that I started yesterday should be finished in about an hour, and I'm going to go check it as soon as I can (stuck at work at the moment). That file went all the way through creation of the first file, and was at like 87% creation of the second when I left this morning. That leads me to believe that something is either wrong with the ripped VOB's or maybe with the audio. Does this sound right?


As for the resample audio, I'm not sure. I left most of the default settings intact, and followed the guide on these pages very closely. I don't normally miss things like that, but I will surely check it after the test finishes, and I try again.

[markrb]

By any chance have you installed Divx5 recently on your system? The only reason I ask is that it's been reported that after installing it wierd things have happened with DVD2SVCD?

Don't edit the AVS file until you consider yourself advanced with the operation of DVD2VSCD. I only asked because a wrong statement in the AVS file can give you an error like you got.

Try uninstalling the DVD2SVCD bundle and install it again. Before you do the installation make sure the directory has been deleted.

Mark

[Arianos]

I've experienced a somewhat similar problem, with "Gattaca" R1.
I tried to encode 3-4 times. CCE crashed after completing the VAF file. I tried crash recovery or even start from scratch with the absolute default settings. Nothing. .(a first for me) Then I copied the VOBs to another computer,started from scratch, everything went fine. In the mean time, I started "Heist" on the first PC, same settings as before with G., no problem.
All files are kept and ready to post upon request. PC#1 is called Moviemaker, has Win XP Pro, is dedicated to dvd2svcd and has the absolute minimum programs for DVDs and SVCDs. The only DiVX related program on it is Vidomi (I wanted to do some tests...). PC#2 is the main "worker" on the network and has WinXP pro and a bazillion programs on it. Both have version 1.0.7 b4.
If someone thinks that I could do a little investigation, I'd be more than willing to help.
I just hope it was a one time only...

[Cheffro]

OK, it's now a couple days later, and I'm a few tests wiser, but I don't know if any of it's pertinent:

I ran the prime95 test, and all passed AOK
I ran the stress test listed in the advanced section, and it all passed AOK
I ran a memory test that we use at work (I work as a pc tech, and recommend it to anyone. It's called quicktech pro 2000, and it 0wns on memory testing), and all passed AOK.

I switched to a different DVD, to see if that was maybe the problem, and that's where the results get odd. When trying to encode from normal mode, it went through the VAF creation,and then choked when it went to start the MPV file, and the VAF was never to be seen (I thought that was odd). After I switched CCE to safe mode, the encoding of the VAF file went ok. Only thing worth mentioning is that around 50% completion of the VAF, the speed went from around 1 to around 2 RT. When CCE went to encode the MPV file, it froze at about 7% completion, and about 0.2XX RT speed. I figured I could restart DVD2SVCd, run the crash recovery, and start from the VAF, however when I ran DVD2SVCD (after killing the programs that locked), the VAF was MIA. I don't know if it's supposed to be gone, but it was/is. I have changed a few other settings on my memory in my BIOS, and proceeded to start another test that is running at home currently. For reference, the DVD that I'm running now is General's Daughter R1, and the previous one was Contact R1. Don't know if that makes any difference, but there it is.

[markrb]

I am honestly at a loss here. The only suggestions I have is to try TMPG as the encoder instead of CCE or possbily get CCE 2.62 or 2.64 and try that in safe mode(these versions only work in safe mode.)

I have never heard of the issue you are having.

Try to play the AVS file in Windows Media Player and see if you see any text or the movie. You will have to do a select all files as it's not registered as a media file. Tell us the results there. Maybe the Avisynth file is not registered right in the registry?

Mark

[Cheffro]

I have played the avs file from the stress test AOK on my machine.
I have played the partial MPV file from the crashed encode, and it was all there as well, although a bit jerky/jumpy, I'm guessing because the pulldown hadn't been done yet.

I have removed an assload of garbage from the machine in hopes of removing any potential problems with other software. If this doesn't work, I'm going to remove/reinstall DVD2SVCD, and CCE. I have obtained CCE 2.62 and 2.64, and will also try those if necessary.

I'm sure I'll get it figured out at some point. If I have to scrap the O/S and start over, then so be it. I have another test running right now, and hopefully that will get it done. If it comes down to it I'll just pummel the machine into submission, and start with a new one :devil:

Thanks for all the help!

[Cheffro]

omfg.. ok so I cleaned everything out last night, and re-installed most everything. I now have a different problem, however I think it helps to make the problem a bit clearer. I am now getting an error message from CCE:

http://www.datacruz.com/~chef/cce.jpg

I'm thinking that my ripped files are trash. I"m going to test a new DVD ROM in it tonight, if I get the chance. If anyone has any other info, or has seen this error before, help is greatly appreciated :D

[markrb]

That is a pretty common problem and easily fixed. In the Q + A there is a patch to make that error not appear. It seems to be another product of the same beast, but less so. The common thinking is that it has to do with memory again and it's a very small timing issue. Some people can have absolute perfectly working motherboards and it still happens. I got this message once after doing about 50 successful encodes and then never got it again. Other people get it all the time no matter how perfect their setup. If possible it is best to try and fix the issue without the patch, but if you cannot then install the Checksum patch that is linked to in the Q + A.

If you are unhappy with the results of CCE 2.5 after it is patched then try 2.62(I have only gotten this version to work of the 2.6x) or 2.64(I never got it to work, but others have).

Getting closer,
Mark

[mevbo]

I am having this same problem. Did anyone ever find a fix? CCE closes (Small box) after 100% vaf and then crashes. If I try a one pass vbr, I end up with a encoded mpv that is 3985mb. It also skips the pulldown (NTSC) but will encode with bbmpeg and fails on the second image file. This machine was just in the shop and the DVD drive was replaced. I did a clean install of xp pro when I got it back and have not been able to get around this problem with 3 diferrent dvd's. I was working fine before the dvd drive broke and it went to the shop? Should I try to scrap the os and reinstall? Any other suggestions?
:confused:

[Cheffro]

After long hours of banging my head, and beating my machine with a stick, I started component troubleshooting and found that my CPU was either bad, or failing, or for whatever reason just did not like CCE. I replaced it with an XP1800+, and it's been working great ever since. I had kind of forgotten that I had this thread going, or I would have posted it sooner. I don't know if that will work for your problem in particular, but from what I've heard, and experienced, CCE gets REALLY picky when any hardware is even slightly disagreeable. If you've tried the clean XP install, I'd say start pulling/swapping parts one at a time, and see if that helps. CPU and/or RAM are probably a good place to start. Hope that helps.

[mevbo]

Thanks,
I got impatient and did a system restore back to XP home. It seems to be working ok now. I don't see much of a difference between home and pro so for now I'll stick with home. The load of pro I was using must have been corrupt or had a bad file that cce didn't like and was causing it to hang.
Cheers

[Ram-on-pixel]

I run into this CCE hanging problem with several animation movies. CCE hangs every time to the exactly same place (although the location is movie specific) and won't proceed anymore. One of my problems seemed to be similar than layer3maniac had encountered (in another thread). Anyway, several animation encodings tend to stuck.

I use 2 CD strategy, so I'm not trying to squeeze movies to one CD. My target is to use 2x 700MB or 2x650 CDs for a movie (depending on the length) and I have changed the bitrate settings accordingly:
50-76min = 2x650MB
76-100min = 2x700MB

And that has something to with this problem at least in my case.

After reading the posts here I made some checks with the provided hints about changing the Anti noise filter, etc but those tricks did not help. I did not try changing luminance gain setting. So I returned to "defualt settings of DVD2SVCD" and took another troubleshooting path.

Then about the troubleshooting:

One of the movies I encoded got stuck with 4-pass VBR encoding (default setting for DVD2SVCD, if I can remember it correctly), always after reaching 24%. Then I made other runs with changed settings (other settings of DVD2SVCD not changed):

- CBR: OK
- VBR 3-pass: ok until 99% and then it got stuck.
- VBR 2-pass: OK

So reducing the VBR passes managed to get the encoding further, and by using CBR CCE goes though the movie just fine. But I'm not satisfied with CBR or 2-pass VBR, since I can see the difference in picture quality. 3-pass could be acceptable but encoding reached 99% and got stuck so it was not a solution to me. But the important thing here is that fiddling with bitrates makes difference.

Then I began to play with bitrate settings, dropping the "CD size" setting from 650 to 480, and after that the 4-pass VBR encoding did pass. After fiddling around it I came to conclusion that I do not want to go further than 510. That sets the bitrate to 2571-1621.

So at least in my case the bitrate which is defined by the CD size setting seems to be the root cause of this problem. After this change, I have encoded ALL of those movies that caused problems without CCE hangs.

I have also had always the "Warn if total bitrate is too high" setting enabled, but to this matter it does not seems to work. Sometimes I have seem the warning and I have downgraded the bitrate, but in those cases when CCE hangs it has not given any alarms before or during the encoding.

Now there is a one peculiar thing also that usually comes up with the animations: movie length. The animation lengths tend to be shorter than "normal movies", action, horror, comedies, etc. And one item which I realized only after fixing this problem was that all of those movies that had problems were between 70-80 minutes. What it means is that the default CD length settings in DVD2SVCD software are such that animations tend to drop to the lower "CD size" scale, in my case to 2x650 instead of 2x700. And since I had just put the 2x650 there, the bitrate went too high. In 2x700 case, the bit rate is indicated to be 2307-1704. As already mentioned, I have now set the 50-76min scale to 2x510MB. No problems anymore with CCE. My computer has made encodings with DVD2SVCD for several days and nights after those changes without any CCE hangings.

I thought about the other hints and tips given for the CCE problem in the threads of this forum and I can't help it but to me many of them could be related to bitrate changes, into direction or another. Issues like reinstalling the OS resets the settings, and a user might not remember to check it (just guessing, but still...). In a case where encoding gets stuck in the same place everytime it is very hard to believe it would be a hardware problem, HW problems tend to cause random failures instead of exact ones.

Perhaps some of the great gurus of DVD2SVCD could take a look at the CCE problem from this perspective and give their judgement. And persons who have had this problem could check the bitrate settings for their encodings. I do not claim that this example would fix every problem with CCE that users are facing, but at least it showed in my case how important it is to set the bitrate "correctly".

Someone might ask why I do not use the default settings for 740 and 800 for CDs, but since I'm using 80min/700MB discs the "extended" sizes are causing problems. Burning of the images goes fine, but the fun starts when CloneCD or Nero is trying to make backup of those discs. CloneCD and Nero gets stuck while trying to read those discs (tried with several readers, burners and medias).

DVD2SVCD is a great software, and this CCE problem caused a lot of long nights to me to find a solution to it. After fixing it, life has been a little bit easier ;-)

BTW, my system is equipped with Epox 8K9Ai, Athlon XP1800+, 256MB DDR-333. And no overclockings, although it might be "fun" to check would OCing cause problems to CCE in my system, as it has been said to do in many, many posts here.