Unable to batch capture
 

I've made repeated attempts to batch capture several tapes using Aspect HD and Premiere Pro. I have no problems capturing manually (hitting record then escape when finished), but cannot seem to get batch capture to work correctly with longer clips. (I was able to successfully do this in the past using PP alone, before using HDV footage and Aspect HD.)

My problems go like this (and I've repeated the experiment several times using different tapes): I log a single clip (usually about 55 minutes long) and start a batch capture, with over 80 GB of disk free on the disk which will store the audio/video files. The capture seems to run for about 45 minutes and then my machine just hangs, requiring a hard reboot. I have a new AMD dual processor, large RAID drives for scratch (400 GB free), etc., and can capture 55 minutes manually using this setup without problem.

I should note that I did try to batch capture a 10 minute clip on one of these same tapes and was able to do this without problem. But something goes a little crazy with longer clips. Any ideas?

If haven't heard of this. Do you mean long batch lists or long clips? How many clips and how many items in the batch? However, I hard lock on a windows PC is more likely a driver issue, unforturnately the MS Tape device we have to use for capture isn't the most stable. If you camera is going off-line, this could be causing the problem -- during batch, do you ever hear the hardware offline sound (that windows makes?)

Thanks for the reply, David. It's one batch capture of one item (one long clip, not multiple clips). My camera isn't going offline, in fact, when my computer freezes the camera is still on previewing the frame where it stopped (it stops at a different place every time). I just tried it again and the computer stopped after 34 minutes and gave me a "machine_check_exception" error, requiring a hard reboot.

I never hear any additional noises from the computer or the camera. Also, since I'm able to capture 55 minutes manually (without batch capture) it doesn't seem to be an issue of the camera going offline.

We will certainly have QA test this. In the meatime for these long single clip captures a manual record seems to be the solution.

Thanks, David. Sounds like the right fix for now.

Sorry for butting in on this, but why are you capturing to a drive with 80Gig free when you have a 400gig RAID to capture to?

Are you also capturing as m2t AND CFHD avi? I'd be thinking that if you are, then 80Gigs is gonna be cutting a 55min capture mighty close!!

Why not change the default capture directory in Aspect's HD Link Utility from your system drive, to a directory on your RAID drive and see how that goes?

Thanks for the comments, Steve. I guess I'm a bit confused about how to divide up the various disk drives that I have when using PP + Aspect HD.
I currently set my video/audio output to a standard SATA disk. All other scratch files (preview files, etc) go to the paired RAID-0 drives. Finally, my OS, program files and project files are on a third SATA disk. Generally my captures in the past have taken about 40 GB per hour of video, so I thought that 80 GB would be plenty on the first drive.

Isn't it more efficient to divide up the disks being used by PP + Aspect HD? What would you suggest using my configuration? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

Update for Steve & David: I batch captured to the 400 GB RAID-0 drive pair without any problems.! So it sounds like the problem was that I didn't have enough room (only 80 GB) on the disk where I was saving my video/audio output, despite the fact that the resulting AVI file from Aspect HD only turns out to be around 30-40 GB.

I would still be interested in recommendations on how to configure disks for use with PP + Aspect HD. After Steve's suggestion, I'm now capturing to the RAID-0, then moving the AVI file over to another (non-OS) drive when I'm done. All my edits are then subsequently done with the scratch files on the RAID-0 pair, video source on a non-OS drive, and .prproj files on the OS drive.

Cool!! Don't forget that when data is being processed it requires at least double the amount of free space for the temp and 'redundant' data to be written to, so if the final file is approx. 30-40gig, you need at least double that for the processing required to be carried out. If the disk is fragged, then processes start to slow down with disk seeks, and before you know it, what you thought was plenty of free space at 80Gig runs out in a hurry!!

I'm assuming when you use the term "scratch files", that you're indicating the temporary proj files, and not the places where you have the program 'scratch disk space' set?

I probably don't see a overwhelming need to move the AVI away from the RAID array. It won't hurt either way though.

Everything else you've indicated seems fine.

If you feel confident with getting the most from the disk setup you have, you could assign Windows a permanent swap file space on your system drive (usually around 2-3 times more than the RAM size), which reduces fragging and makes OS actions a little 'snappier'. The Default Windows setting is for a temporary swap file space that can grow or shrink with demand. With every action fragging can occur as chunks in randomly selected zones on the hard disk get used up... leaving odd sized spaces that may end up not being utilised for other processing tasks - free space degridation occurs.

Don't get spooked by the possibility that using this free space super efficiently is going to provide "after-burner" enhancement to performace though! It's something that many older computer users had to learn to get the most from 20Meg hard drives!! The sizes of newer hard drives makes the scenario less imperative of understanding than it once was...