CamStudio Lossless Codec - Playback crashing with large file

apicht

Hello, my boss recently asked me to set his computer up to record a webinar so I turned to CamStudio. I recorded it using the CamStudio Lossless Codec 1.4. The webinar was longer than I expected and the output file ended up being 4.00GB. Whenever I try to play or open the file using SWF producer, Movie Player, Windows Media Player, etc. I get a crash on camcodec.dll. The crash details are below. What are the odds that this recording is going to be recoverable?

Fault Module Name: camcodec.dll
Fault Module Version: 1.4.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 48e2b7ca
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00005f6d

OS Version: Windows 7
CamStudio version: 2.0

TerryBritton

As I just answered to phil:

It was not a bug in CamStudio or your computer, but a limitation imposed by our using the AVI file format, which has specifications limiting the file size to 2 gigabytes maximum (video AND audio combined).

There is no "workaround", exactly, though some have rescued their files by bringing them into VirtualDub via the video menu setting of "Direct Stream Copy" - booklover has written about this technique in the "Known Bugs and Limitations" thread a few posts down:

http://camstudio.org/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=350&page=1

The issue of merging the .wav audio content back into the video has not been completely addressed with a reported success and method leading to such a success. I would try converting to another container format and then try via some other program to merge the audio back in. Clueless, I am, concerning this one. Please let us know if you meet with success and discover a method that works.

Again, the limitation is imposed by the AVI specification, not by CamStudio. We may employ a different container in future versions, but we're stuck with the 2-gig limit for now. Phil had good luck with another free program, supposedly, called Hypercam, and recorded a long program using it, though I don't know of the particulars of how he got it to work.

CamStudio could conceivably record a long program like a webinar, but it would have to have a small window (fewer pixels) or very compressed, low resolution mono sound. Sound typically is what takes up the most space, believe it or not, as PCM is 16-bit 44.1kHz sample rate stereo audio when most people record their sound. If you record at 22k or 11k or 8k mono the sound will take up much less space, so the 2-GB limit will not be surpassed due to the audio inflating the size so badly.

This is an ongoing problem for people who think CamStudio should be able to record lengthy webinars or full class presentations. Now that you know of some of the limitations, perhaps you can perform workarounds. If you find particularly successful settings, please post them for others to benefit from.

Terry