I'm not sure how to describe this, as it isn't always possible to
duplicate it, but I'll try.

If I, when setting the options for an animation with QuickTime output,
forget to press the "Set Compression" button in the output pane of the
settings dialogue, the options in the "set compression" dialogue remains
at the default values, which is:

Compression:PNG - Millions of colors
Quality: Best
Animation:Frames/second: (empty) 

Now, when rendering this, it results in an empty QuickTime file. There are
no warnings, so that the file is empty comes as a surprise when I try to
open it with the MoviePlayer.

So far, it is just an user error, and I guess that I as a user have to
learn to be more careful. However, at this point it becomes a bit weird.

As I want to get a working animation, I naturally want to render it again.
So I throw away the empty QT-file, open the pov-file again and change the
"set compression" values to something useful. In this example:

Compression:Animation - Millions of colors
Quality: Best
Animation:Frames/second: 24

But (sometimes) only the first frame gets rendered, then it seems like
Pov-ray ends up in an infinite loop (I guess) where an error message
(Something about not finding the Quicktime file, and also "error code
-43") gets repeated over and over in the message window.

At this point, it is impossible to select "stop rendering" in the render
menu. And when trying to force quit the program, more weird things happen.
Sometimes the dialogue ask if I want to force quit Pov-Ray, but it is just
as likely that it asks if I want to force quit the Finder or some system
extension (file sharing, Norton Filesaver, etc.)

For a while I thought that it was because I threw away the first, empty,
QT-file, but then it happened when I left it untouched in its place.

I'm not always able to duplicate this thing, which is why I have trouble
describing it correctly.

-- 
Tom Stone
Domarebacken 42, 14557 Norsborg, Sweden
Phone: Int+46 8 5318 4318, Tel: 08-5318 4318
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-52256/index.htm

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In article <tom### [at] d212-151-231-57swipnetse> , 
tom### [at] swipnetse (Tom Stone) wrote:

> Pov-ray ends up in an infinite loop (I guess) where an error message
> (Something about not finding the Quicktime file, and also "error code
> -43") gets repeated over and over in the message window.

Yes, this message may come up for every frame you want to render, but it is
a side effect if somethine else already got terribly wrong.  Do you have
file sharing on by any chance?


____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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In article <3bcea33f$1@news.povray.org>, "Thorsten Froehlich"
<tho### [at] trfde> wrote:

>Do you have
>file sharing on by any chance?

Yes. Is that bad?

-- 
Tom Stone
Domarebacken 42, 14557 Norsborg, Sweden
Phone: Int+46 8 5318 4318, Tel: 08-5318 4318
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-52256/index.htm

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In article <tom### [at] d212-151-175-49swipnetse> , 
tom### [at] swipnetse (Tom Stone) wrote:

>>Do you have
>>file sharing on by any chance?
>
> Yes. Is that bad?

I am not sure, but it seems some versions of CarbobLib sometimes create a
file as locked with FileSharing enabled.  Try to delete the movie file, turn
off file sharing, make sure the desktop folder or a folder near the root of
a volume is the output directory for the movie and try again and see if it
goes away.  I will see if I can find a more reliable workaound but it may
_not_ be fixed in the beta.


    Thorsten


____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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In article <3bcec2b2@news.povray.org>, "Thorsten Froehlich"
<tho### [at] trfde> wrote:

>I am not sure, but it seems some versions of CarbobLib sometimes create a
>file as locked with FileSharing enabled.  Try to delete the movie file, turn
>off file sharing, make sure the desktop folder or a folder near the root of
>a volume is the output directory for the movie and try again and see if it
>goes away.

It seems like FileSharing is the culprit.
I tried your suggestion, and it almost worked. I succeded when I turned
off filesharing BEFORE deleting the movie file.

>I will see if I can find a more reliable workaound but it may
>_not_ be fixed in the beta.

Is it possible to change the default values regarding compression and
frames/second in the "Set Compression" dialogue? That might at least
decrease the chances of noticing this problem

-- 
Tom Stone
Domarebacken 42, 14557 Norsborg, Sweden
Phone: Int+46 8 5318 4318, Tel: 08-5318 4318
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-52256/index.htm

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In article <tom### [at] d212-151-166-213swipnetse>,
tom### [at] swipnetse (Tom Stone) wrote:

>I tried your suggestion, and it almost worked. I succeded when I turned
>off filesharing BEFORE deleting the movie file.

Sorry, I spoke too soon. I tried it again and the same problem appeared.
(Can Norton FileSaver also be a culprit? When pressing force quit, the
dialogue is just as likely to ask if I want to quit Norton Filesaver
instead of asking if I want to quit Pov-Ray. After closing down
FileSharing, it doesn't ask if I want to quit FileSharing or the Finder
anymore)

It seems like the problem appears when either:
A) When trying to overwrite an empty movie file has been created as a
result of having the wrong settings in the "Set Compression" dialogue.

B) The Movie file is moved or deleted when Pov-Ray is running.

Seems like the workaround is to:
1: Quit Pov-Ray.
2: Delete the movie file.
3: Start Pov-Ray and render again.

However, this might also be wrong. I will test further later tonight

-- 
Tom Stone
Domarebacken 42, 14557 Norsborg, Sweden
Phone: Int+46 8 5318 4318, Tel: 08-5318 4318
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-52256/index.htm

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