"Error reading video stream" error message

[Alatar]

Hi,
I'm using Camtasia Studio 1.1.1 to record the desktop activity of a separate PC which I send to my Camtasia machine via my company's network using VNC. I also send a digital video signal of the user to my Camtasia machine to create a picture-in-picture effect. This works great until the session time hits 60 minutes, then whle interleaving after stopping recording I'm getting this message 67% of the time:
"Error reading video stream [insert name of temp file here]"
I click OK and get this message:
"Unable to render file."
When I check the temp file directory, there are no .avi or .wav files there, unlike in successfully interleaved sessions.
Why are there no temp files of these unsuccessful sessions and why am I getting the errors? I did this all the time in Camtasia Recorder 3.0.1 and never had trouble going over 60 minutes in sessions.
Thanks in advance.

[TSC2]

This digital video is probably making the file size absolutely humongous, which would make it exceed the 2gb file size limit for your recordings.

Since you have real world content in your video you might want to use a codec that is designed for that content. Try going to Tools->Options in Camtasia Recorder, uncheck Autoconfigure, click Video Setup, and select Microsoft Mpeg 4 V2 as your video codec.

Does that help? You'll notice that the visual quality is a bit degraded but the file sizes should improve.

Thank you for using Camtasia Studio!
-TechSmith Support

[Alatar]

Thanks for your reply. I recall Camtasia Recorder had a 2GB file size limit--guess it's still there for Camtasia Studio, huh? And we did try the MSVideo1 codec that your excellent user guide mentioned--it did improve things for us. We'll try the MPEG4 codec next (it's not in the dropdown selection list so we'll have to find a way to put it there).

[GaryStebbins]

Why is there a 2 GB size limit? That's not a file system limit if you're using NTFS volumes, and AVI files should no longer have that limit, either.

Gary

[TSC2]

The 2GB limit is in the type 1 AVI file spec as defined by Microsoft.