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Building preview... what, again?


Aresby

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I'm using 4.33 of VP and have the following 'issue' when previewing my sequence.

 

Having added various transitions to the clips on my video, why (after the initial 100% CPU usage as it presumably creates the preview) does it say "Building preview, please wait" or similar every time that I then watch that video sequence?

 

The CPU is idle (which indicates to me that there is no outstanding work to do) but I hit the space bar and I get that message and the effect (a simple dissolve, a wipe from right) is not shown (I get a frozen image) as that message is displayed. Drives me nuts!

 

Eventually, after several attempts at watching the clip(s) with the transition it sorts itself out (and the final video always seems to be fine) but why this "Building preview" message? Is there anything I can do to assist (I've already reduced the preview resolution to far below what I'd like it to be, to see if it helped - it didn't).

 

Perhaps 4.40 cures this but it's not mentioned on the release notes.

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This is one of my main issues with VP too. I like the product in general, and I think the developers have been very responsive to our questions and complaints, which I appreciate very much. When I asked about this issue a while back, NCH said that, because VP is still a 32-bit program, it can never make use of more than 4GB of memory, no matter how much is available in your computer. That may be part of the problem. They also were working to speed things up in other ways.

 

I now shoot 4K video all the time, and that really compounds the problem, because the file sizes and bit rates are huge. I had to buy a faster computer just to be able to play a 4K clip without it hesitating all the time. But I think NCH has to really consider changing VP to be 64-bit, among other things (they said they're resisting that change so that VP could be used on virtually any computer. But maybe it's time to move ahead?)

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Hi,

 

Thanks for reporting the building preview issue. We'll investigate and try to fix it in the next version.

 

For 64-bit, a 4k image is about 33M in memory. We can fit about 60 in 2G memory. So unless your project is very complicated, it should be sufficient for VP's process pipeline. Normally each effect will keep one or two of those in memory to work on.

 

If you run into problem that not enough memory please let us know. It's more likely VP is not using memory efficiently or a bug.

 

Edit: Fixed wrong size calculation above.

 

Best Regards,

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We'll investigate and try to fix it in the next version.

Hurrah!

 

I downloaded VP4.40 yesterday for a very short video but the problem didn't present itself (the video was too short with hardly any transitions, so not a good test). I'll re-test on the one that drove me mad at the weekend with that annoying message!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have the same issue on version 4,40

I have to 1080p tracks, one with face cam and another with gameplay. if I press the play button it runs for 2 or 3 seconds and then it shows: "Building preview, please wait"

No other programs running.

 

I have a brand new computer with an i7-4790K 4.0GHz CPU and 32 Gigs of memory on Windows 10 (64 bit) 3TB Solid state drive where al the work and tempfiles come from.

Oh and my GPU is Geforce 980 Ti. I cant imagine that the hardware can be an issue here.

 

CPU goes to about 25% when I preview play and memory stays to about 5% and then it shows the annoying message where I have a still image for 5 seconds and it jumps to the frame where the cursor is. then it plays for 2 or 3 seconds and shows the message again with a still image.

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We've improved preview performance a lot and fixed the problem causing "Building Preview" appear too often.

 

The fix is applied to the next release which is in testing now. I'm hoping the new release will come out in a few days.

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I have a brand new computer with an i7-4790K 4.0GHz CPU and 32 Gigs of memory on Windows 10 (64 bit) 3TB Solid state drive where al the work and tempfiles come from.

Oh and my GPU is Geforce 980 Ti.

I'm not jealous at all. Nope not one bit. Not! Not! Not!

 

When those lottery numbers come up...

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We've improved preview performance a lot and fixed the problem causing "Building Preview" appear too often.

 

The fix is applied to the next release which is in testing now. I'm hoping the new release will come out in a few days.

And you would not believe how urgently I want that fix. SO glad you guys are fixing it.

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I'm not jealous at all. Nope not one bit. Not! Not! Not!

 

When those lottery numbers come up...

:) You can't believe how happy I am with my system, I saved up for it a long time, and I'm in the IT business... So, no lottery. So I would understand it if you where jealous, but obviously your not so... ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

We've improved preview performance a lot and fixed the problem causing "Building Preview" appear too often.

 

The fix is applied to the next release which is in testing now. I'm hoping the new release will come out in a few days.

Are those 'few days' up yet? I'm really keen to get this fix ;)

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Are those 'few days' up yet? I'm really keen to get this fix ;)

I guess it's more difficult than they expected, its almost 2 weeks now, lets first hope they can fix it and then that this fix will come as soon as possible ;) I'm also very eager to get it

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It's still in testing since we want to make sure the changes not breaking other features.

Yes, I would certainly prefer to wait until it is 100% tested than discover 'undocumented features' an hour into making a video project that trashes my video project!

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  • 2 weeks later...

It is May 19, I am using VP 4.4, and I am still having the buffering problem with previews, which makes editing nearly impossible. For the most part, I like VP, but this new problem (and it is new --- it has only cropped up in the last couple of weeks) is very distressing. The various editing projects I have done since January were fine, without any buffering issues. I have tried moving my files from the external hard drives to the computer, uninstalling and reinstalling the software, reducing the preview resolution, all to no avail. Also, loading projects is taking a lot longer these days.

 

Is the fix on the way? I really cannot use the program at this point. If the fix is not ready, then how can I install an older version of the program?

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You state that you're using 4.4. Have you tested 4.44, which was just released?

 

Clear the CACHE files, under TOOLS menu|OPTIONS|Disk tab and/or c:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Local\Temp\VideoPadCache

This may slow initial loading but could clear corruption or conflict between projects or versions.

 

Setup files for older versions that you have installed should be available via your PC's File Explorer, under Program Files (x86) | NCH Software | Videopad.

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I am using 4.44 now and with me it works a 100% better, right after loading a new layer it sometimes stops but then the video just stops because one of the layers is not fully loaded yet (not buffering and skipping anymore). When everything is loaded I can easily play 4 layers without any problems.

 

So thank you for this update!

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I've taken this release now too but it's too soon to say (and two days too late after a marathon video making weekend!). I can't find the release notes for this (minor) release...

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@Dazzray

 

4K video does not effect preview performance - VP using preview cache instead of the original clip for preview. If you still getting "Building preview", try lower preview resolution or upgrade the hardware. Also, preview cache only works when the caching is finished. i.e. The green bar is filled up.

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I just tried a 4K file, and this one played fairly well in preview... I don't know why I still got "Building Preview" when I tried it the other day. So, it does appear to be working better- thank you for this much appreciated improvement !!

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Yes, there are some known issues still in the current preview system. We are still working on it.

 

The best way to avoid "building preview" is lower the preview resolution and frame rate. It can be changed from Options->Display or right click on Clip Preview or Sequence Preview window and select Change Preview Resolution.

 

Best regards,

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Oh dear, v4.45 and I'm getting repeated Building Preview... Please Wait - even on clips that have no transitions between them (just a cut). So disappointing... I'll shut down VP and reload and see if it goes away.

 

OK, after reloading VP, one particular cut / transition that refused to do anything other than give me that darned Building Preview message now just displays as you might expect.

 

The question is, why did VP refuse to render the clip in preview mode before I reloaded VP (preview window just froze with that message) and why does it magically do it just fine after I reload? Next time I will check the memory usage of VP, perhaps there is a memory leak. I've been editing straight for about 30 minutes.

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