Problems with m4V Conversions

seanmccoy wrote on 5/16/2011, 1:35 PM
Hey all. My FCP clients often send me small-ish m4v files for my audio post work, and up until recently I've had no problem converting these to DV AVI files in either Vegas or QuickTime Pro. Now for no apparent reason my computer crashes and spontaneously reboots before the end of the conversion in both programs. The system is running XP Pro and I've done no system upgrades or major software installations.

Does anybody have any idea what type of change may have caused this?

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 5/16/2011, 6:21 PM
.m4v will work fine in all versions of Vegas Pro (you didn't state your version) if you rename the extension to .mp4.

UNLESS they are DRM iTunes files. In that case you will need to convert them in some other software.
seanmccoy wrote on 5/16/2011, 7:10 PM
The m4V files play in both versions 8 and 10 just fine. It's only during the conversion to AVI that the system crashes. Interesting about changing extension, though. Worth a try!
seanmccoy wrote on 5/20/2011, 11:12 AM
Well, I tried changing the extension with no improvement. I now realize that this system-wide problem with m4V conversions started when I installed SVP 10 in March. Prior to that, I was able to convert them in either SVP 8 or QT Pro. Now the conversions crash all the programs. Files have come from multiple sources, and all convert fine on my Mac, so the installation of SVP 10 clearly hosed something on my PC. Maybe a bad codec? I don't know, but I really need to solve this problem and don't know where to start.
Steve Mann wrote on 5/20/2011, 6:53 PM
"my computer crashes and spontaneously reboots "

If your system is actually restarting, it could be an indication of one of the following:

* a cooling problem with your CPU

* a silent blue screen which you are not seeing because your Startup & Recovery settings on System Failure are set to 'Automatically Restart' (it's in control panel under System properties > Advanced > Startup & Recovery [Settings]

The blue screen (if there is now one appearing) might indicate where there problem lies.

musicvid10 wrote on 5/20/2011, 7:01 PM
This is overheating or a hard drive that is on its way out.
Seen both, done both. I'll give it better than 50/50 that it's one or the other.
rs170a wrote on 5/20/2011, 9:00 PM
* a silent blue screen which you are not seeing because your Startup & Recovery settings on System Failure are set to 'Automatically Restart' (it's in control panel under System properties > Advanced > Startup & Recovery [Settings]

Steve, thank you very much for posting that tip.
I have been looking for that setting for a very long time, was told it was in the BIOS but could never find it there.
Now I know why :)

Mike
seanmccoy wrote on 5/21/2011, 7:50 AM
At this point I wouldn't rule out the heat or mechanical issues, and I'll give ADK a call on Monday. But I'm a little dubious about this being the cause since it happens even on very short conversions, using a variety of hard drives, and only with m4v files.
seanmccoy wrote on 5/23/2011, 7:58 AM
Thanks to all who mentioned the overheating issue. As I said, I wasn't convinced since the problem seemed to be specific to m4V files. But the problem started showing up in other areas, and after a cold reboot I got an error message about possible overclocking mismatches. After resetting my MB defaults, all the problems disappeared. Now I've got to figure out how the settings changed themselves. Also still interesting that working with m4V files caused the most problems. Could it be that they require more CPU cycles to deal with?
musicvid10 wrote on 5/23/2011, 10:08 AM
"Could it be that they require more CPU cycles to deal with?"

AVC footage can have GOPs with hundreds of frames, including lots of "b" (bipredictive) frames. That is an incredible number of lookahead/lookbehind calculations needed to extract even one frame from the soup. The answer to your question is yes.
seanmccoy wrote on 5/24/2011, 5:00 PM
Great, thank you. Good to know that I wasn't imagining the problem being more severe when working on those files. I spent about a half hour on the phone with ADK yesterday tweaking my MB settings and saving a profile. Since the system clock never reset we know the battery is fine, but Chris said any number of hard crashes at high CPU load could have caused some of the BIOS settings to alter upon rebooting. I've never heard of that before, but will be watching out for it in the future.