video problems in Ubuntu

[Basil Chupin]

On 18/01/12 01:44, Douglas Pollard wrote:
> Basil,  I have 16 videos on youtube and have made about 10 or15 others 
> that had copywrited material so could not on line or use publicly. I 
> have downloaded others from  the same Internet archives site and used 
> clu ips that I made from them.  They are all either creative commons  
> or in the public  domain.  I have some know how with video editing but 
> this is the first time I have run into this problem. It is my 
> understanding that when you use up all youre memory that the the 
> software can start using the hard drive as memory.  Does this have to 
> be enabled? How can I check to see if it is enabled.  If I can find 
> out if this is happening I can buy more memory and Install it. My 
> machinery is pretty old so I am wondering if there is a limit on how 
> much memory it can use. How can I find that out.   These questions I 
> am being asked are very helpful.               Thanks Doug

>
>
> On 01/16/2012 11:07 PM, Basil Chupin wrote:
>> On 17/01/12 13:17, Douglas Pollard wrote:
>>> On 01/16/2012 07:17 PM, Basil Chupin wrote:
>>>> On 17/01/12 08:21, Douglas Pollard wrote:
>>>>>  My computer is dual core processor 2300 Mhtz 1Gig memory i686 two 
>>>>> 250 G  hard drives.  I have downloaded video from Internet 
>>>>> archives. I can play them and put on the time line of several 
>>>>> video editors and watch them. I can watch them in Mplayer and 
>>>>> other media  I cannot render from any of them. Ubuntu crashes.  I 
>>>>> have down loaded in severl different formats but can't e render. I 
>>>>> am busy reading the help in the Internet archives and have been 
>>>>> asking question from the video editor web sites.  I am guessing 
>>>>> the problems are in the down loads I have converted them into 
>>>>> other formats but still no success. I doubt the problem is with 
>>>>> ubuntu because this morning I  had a friend down load one of them 
>>>>> and try to render them in the windows movie maker and they crashed 
>>>>> windows as well.   The video is an hour long I tride rendering and 
>>>>> saving the part that had rendered, the first one was 15 min. long 
>>>>> and the rest a little shorter. I put them all on the editor time 
>>>>> line and they played fine but still would not render.  All the 
>>>>> files I used had been rendered to mpeg 2.  I have been working on 
>>>>> this well over a week with no success.  Anybody got any ideas??
>>>>>   I am not getting any messages saying I am running out of memory 
>>>>> though that might be the 
>>>>> problem.                                     
>>>>>                                                                     Doug 
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What exactly do you mean by "render/rendering"? And what 
>>>> application are you trying to "render" the video with?
>>>>
>>>> BC
>>>>
>>> OK , I have downloaded the video one  AVI and again in Mp4  from the 
>>> Internet archives. I put them on the time lines of several different 
>>> video editing programs. Openshot  Editor, Cinelerra, Pitivi, 
>>> kdenlive as well as Kino.  I tried to render them to a dvd file also 
>>> for youtube.  The computer crashes at different points in the 
>>> video.  By rendering I mean to bring audio and video into one file 
>>> and export it.    I have tried all these at different times.    I am 
>>> beginning to think I don't have enough memory and the machine is 
>>> using the hard drive in place of memory and is too slow???   I don't 
>>> think it is a problem in the files I downloaded as the crash occurs 
>>> at different places each time I try.             Doug
>>
>>
>> OK, my understanding of "rendering" (vs CIA's definition of 
>> "rendering") is to improve the contrast quality or picture quality of 
>> a video; yours is to add a sound/audio track to an existing video 
>> track - spmething which avidemux should be able to do, I think 
>> because I have never used it for what you are trying to do.
>>
>> I don't know, but only supsect, that the file you downloaded from the 
>> "internet archives" maybe the culprit to beging with. It may be using 
>> some sort of 'copyright protection'. How about telling us which is 
>> the file and the URL of the archive you downloaded the file from so 
>> that some of us could try it out.
>>
>> I also think that you have undertaken a task which requires a bit of 
>> knowledge to do - ie, you cannot jump in head first into it. Have you 
>> done some research about this? There are some excellent HOWTOs on the 
>> web re this sort of thing.
>>
>> The other thing, I agree with Ric: if you do have only 1GB of RAM 
>> then that is not really enough for your task. But having said this, 
>> even with this amount of RAM your computer should not suddenly stop 
>> in its tracks - it will slow down but not necessarily just stop. You 
>> either have bad RAM, or the CPU is overheating, or there is something 
>> about the archived video you downloaded. Seeing as how your friend 
>> with Windows also has the same trouble with this video, the same goes 
>> for his system. The question now is: what *is* causing your hassle? 
>> :-( .

> Basil,  I have 16 videos on youtube and have made about 10 or15 others 
> that had copywrited material so could not on line or use publicly. I 
> have downloaded others from  the same Internet archives site and used 
> clu ips that I made from them.  They are all either creative commons  
> or in the public  domain.  I have some know how with video editing but 
> this is the first time I have run into this problem. It is my 
> understanding that when you use up all youre memory that the the 
> software can start using the hard drive as memory.  Does this have to 
> be enabled?

When you installed your system you would have created a swap partition. 
I know do not remember if Ubuntu warns you if you do not create such a 
swap partition or whether it automatically creates one for you. In any 
case, if such a swap partition exists then it is automatically 
"activated" and used by the system when you run out of memory. (By 
'convention' this swap partition has been sized to be 1 1/2 larger than 
the amount of RAM you have installed. However, if you have 'quite a bit' 
(a subjective value - I had 1.5GB of RAM but my swap is less than 1GB 
big) of RAM then you may not need the 1 1/2 times the RAM size. It all 
depends on what you are using your computer for - n your case, at the 
moment, you probably would need a 'fairly large' swap partition.

> How can I check to see if it is enabled.

If it exists then it is enabled. What you need to do is to check that 
you do have one and how big it is (and I am talking about the swap 
partition here :-) ).

I no longer run Ubuntu so do not remember but you should have a System 
Monitor which displays, for example, which application is running and 
how much RAM it is using and how CPU time (as a percentage). It also 
shows you how much RAM overall is being used and also how much of the 
swap memory is being used.

Another way, at least to see if you do have a swap partition and how 
large it is use the (?)Disc Manager - the Partitioning tool - which will 
show what partitions you have. Or use on a command line in a terminal, 
"sudo fdsck -l /dev/sda[@]" which will also show you all the partitions.

[@] assuming that your system is installed on the first HD.


>   If I can find out if this is happening I can buy more memory and 
> Install it. My machinery is pretty old so I am wondering if there is a 
> limit on how much memory it can use. How can I find that out.   These 
> questions I am being asked are very helpful.               Thanks Doug

Firstly, you don't mention what is the CPU you are using, in particular 
its speed.

Secondly, what you need to know re the amount of RAM you can use is 
stated in the manual for your motherboard. Now, if you don't have the 
manual after the many years then you should be able to find a copy on 
the internet either from the manufacturer of your mobo or from some org. 
which keeps all the manuals for all sorts of devices. Do a search 
spelling out the name and model of your mobo - and for this you would 
need to open up the box and look at what is printed on the mobo. You not 
only need to know how much RAM it will accept but also the type (PC2100, 
PC3200, DIMM or SDRAM - whatever). I made the mistake some years ago of 
not looking up the manual and ended up buying the wrong type of RAM - 
fortunately I was able to swap it because I didn't take it out of the 
sealed packaging.

And don't go poking around inside without an anti-static wrist strap! 
Especially if you are going to be adding more RAM. If you don't have 
such a strap (you can buy one from a good computer shop) then get a 
length of flexible single strand electric wire, strip one end to its 
bare copper, big enough to wrap around your wrist, and connect the other 
end to the EARTH pin of a power plug (the one you use everyday for all 
electrical appliances) -- just make sure that it is the EARTH pin! To 
use, wrap the wire around your wrist, plug the plug into the wall socket 
but don't turn on the power! - no need as you only want to have the 
EARTH anyway - and do your work inside the computer.

Oh, but you already know this, remember to switch off any power to the 
computer before fiddling with the RAM. By "off any power" I do mean no 
power: remove the plug from the wall socket. (Switching off the 
computer, as you know, still allows a trickle of power to get to the 
mobo - and some mobos even have a little pilot light to indicate that 
power is trickling to the mobo; check your manual for this.

BC

-- 
It is in the nature of things that every time you try to avoid one danger you run into another.
                            Niccolo Machiavelli