Studio hangs when rendering
Answer ID 6386
With this type of problem, Studio “gets stuck” during rendering (preparing your video for output in Make Movie mode). To identify the solution in a particular case, try the troubleshooting steps for whichever of the following failure modes best matches your situation:
· Case 1: Rendering stops immediately after it starts.
· Case 2: Rendering stops randomly in a project. It typically does not stop in the same spot if rendering is attempted multiple times.
· Case 3: Render stops at the same spot in a project no matter how many times rendering is attempted.
Case 1: Rendering stops immediately
If the hang occurs immediately upon clicking the Create button, there is some configuration problem on your system. Try rendering the supplied demo video. If this fails, the problem is confirmed as a system issue, since we have not been able to reproduce a render problem with the demo file during our in-house testing.
Possible solutions:
· Uninstall and reinstall Studio.
· Uninstall other software that might conflict with Studio (other video editing software, other video codecs, etc.).
· Try rendering to other file or disc types in Studio. Try creating MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 files, and an AVI file in DV format. Can you create VCDs and DVDs? Knowing what works, and what does not, may be crucial in identifying and solving the problem.
· Make sure that you have installed any available Windows service packs.
· Reinstall Windows over itself (that is, without uninstalling first). In Windows XP, this procedure is called Repair.
Case 2: Rendering stops randomly
If the render hangs at random points even within the same project, the failures may be due to background tasks, power management or a thermal problem in the computer.
Possible solutions:
· Check your hard drive for errors and defragment it.
· End any background tasks, such as virus checkers, drive indexers and fax modems.
· Turn off any power management.
· Install cooling fans in the computer case.
Case 3: Render always stops at the same point
If rendering always hangs at the same spot in a particular project, see if other projects have the same problem. If not, the problem project could be corrupt; if they do, try to isolate a common factor.
Finding a solution to this type of failure is much easier if you can identify a particular item in the project that is causing the rendering to stop. Removing the item or trimming it may allow the rendering to complete, though in some cases the failure may simply turn up elsewhere in the project.
Other possible solutions and workarounds:
· Look at the clips in the project for corrupt video frames. These may show up as gray, black, blocky or distorted frames. If you find any, trim the clip to exclude the offending frames. You could also try recapturing the footage.
· Defragment your hard drive.
· Ensure that you have ample free space – preferably tens of gigabytes – on the hard drive you use for video. Rendering may use large amounts of storage, and can be disrupted if space is insufficient.
· If you have a separate capture drive, make sure to move the auxiliary files folder to that drive.
· Copy the section where the render stops and paste it into a new project. Include 15 to 30 seconds on either side of the error. Try rendering this excerpt to an AVI file and, if successful, use the file to replace the offending section of the original project.
· If you are creating a DVD or other optical disc type, remove all menus from the project and render the rest to an AVI. If this succeeds, create a new project, import the AVI file, and add your menus. Rendering will now consume fewer resources, and thus be more likely to succeed.