I'm using a Pentium (I) 100MHz with 80MB RAM, 40GB HD with 11.7GB free. I attempted to edit a 1.2GB avi file (with AVIedit 3.2) by simply removing commercials. When I tried to save the result, I think I saw the file size as near 4GB when an "AVIedit error; Can't save (write) file" occured. After clicking "OK" on that error dialog box, the file size was about 2GB. I was not able to recreate the 4GB situation. However, I wrote a program that could only fill a file to the size of exactly 4GB (exactly 2 raised to the 32nd power) before a file I/O error was received.
Even trying DOS' copy command: "copy file1+file2 file3" to append the 4GB file1 to a smaller sized file2, which should create file3 equal to the sum of those sizes, reported the file3 size as being a very small number. Also, I don't see why the size was not reported as simply being the size of file2 (assuming the counter just rolls over like an odometer). For example: 4,294,967,296bytes + 109,608,960bytes == 169,607,168bytes?; and 4,294,967,296bytes + 32,768bytes == 60,030,976bytes?
I'm assuming that this is actually the file size limit of my Pentium. Isn't it considered a 32 bit machine? I got that feeling from something I read about processors in assembly language. Is there any way around it? Are there inexpensive 64bit processors now?

Do you know of fast inexpensive AVI or MPEG capture/editors that won't have this type error? I think the author of AVIedit 3.2 could have used an intermediate file unrelated to my final output file and the multiple intermediate files could have held the data in 4GB chunks to avoid this error, assuming it really needed to balloon into 4GB (perhaps from manipulating a compressed file). You'd think that a 1.2GB file when removing frames would not result in such large intermediate files.

I'd like my final output file to be Video CD 2.0 (MPEG) compliant. Does anyone know where I could get hold of such specifications to code my own editors? Yes I'll try a search engine in the mean time.