Version 6.10 is from another planet

[eltonbuddha]

I'm new to this forum but very experienced with VP.  I used whatever version was current in Feb 2012 until a couple weeks ago.  In that time I've made about 3500 projects. Needless to say, I long ago got to the point where I could work VP in my sleep. A computer crash resulted in me having to get 6.10 in order to have a valid license on a new computer. It's been a nightmare ever since.  I'm drowning in confusion. I have so many questions and frustrations, it's hard to pick a place to start.

But I'll try.  The help file says it's for version 6.10, but it clearly isn't. The product itself is full of weird gizmos and concepts that are not mentioned in this "help".  For example, what's a "keyframe"? How about a "keyframe graph"?  What's an "effect chain template"?  It's not urgent for me to understand what these mean, but it sure does indicate how unattached to VP reality the "help" page is.  And who knows, if I knew what these were I might find them useful.

I have a long list of apparent bugs, but don't want to clutter this thread with more than one or two issues since that would get unwieldy.  So, can anyone point me to the real help file, or a user manual?

 

 

[borate]

A keyframe is a point in time - from the start to the end of a clip.  The graph displays a plot of the multiple keyframes for a specific parameter.

http://help.nchsoftware.com/help/en/videopad/win/effects_animating.html

[eltonbuddha]

Thanks for pointing me to keyframe.  I didn't know it would be defined under "effect animation" within the effects help page.

So "effectchain" is defined in Wavepad, which I don't have. Do I have to buy other NCH products in order to have full doc on VP? Which others do I need?

[borate]

My mistake:  that indeed was a help file for Wavepad.  Take a look at the thread above.

VP documentation is via the ? button at the top-right of the interface, or use the search box.

And click on the Videopad Tutorials 'sticky' link towards the top of the thread index page.

 

[eltonbuddha]

Ah, effectchain makes sense now.  Thanks. 

I watched the video tutorial on animating zoom.  It shows the rectangular widget being resized by the corner points as well as the 4 side points. But in 6.10, the corners only move the rectangle position.  They don't resize it.  Only the side points do that.  Is this a bug or did this change between the demo'd version and 6.10?

 

[borate]

In 6.10 here all eight ZOOM handles, including the corners, function as expected.

 

[eltonbuddha]

I just discovered that all 8 DO indeed work if no restraint is applied. I was doing 16:9 restraint and that changes the corners to translation only.  Is that just me, or do you see that as well?

[borate]

This is true, and likely by design - to maintain the 16X9 aspect.

[eltonbuddha]

I used the corners all the time with the old version of VP - it had no problem maintaining the AR.  Faster and easier to resize this way.  So if this is by design, they're wasting these 4 points, making them replicate what is far easier to do by just grabbing any ol' spot in the rectangle.  Oh well, just another way 6.10 adds to my workload.  Far worse is the pile of erratic behaviors and outright crashes working with some of my older .vpjs.  I have a tiny one that contain only a 12 second video file. VP plays the audio in clip preview but NOT in sequence preview. If I set a zoom and sharpening and select a frame for thumbnail, 6.10 goes bonkers. I had no problems whatsoever with the old version of the software.

In general, sequence preview seems to be a radioactive no-mans land. I've reinstalled the software, moved cache to SSD & cleared it often, minimized frame rate and resolution, all the over-the-counter remedies I've read about on this forum and been told about by tech support. I've seen preview building get (temporarily) BETTER after INCREASING the frame rate. In some cases I've had to export and then re-import just to see the results of my edits.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi elton

Zoom effect in 6.10

With NO restraint set , all eight handles are active. The top and side handles enable you to change the AR of the dotted rectangle whilst the corner handles enable you to retain the AR that you have set in this way.

If you set one of the AR in the Restraints list only the side handles will be active and these will resize the rectangle retaining the the selected AR.

In either case the re-sized dotted rectangle (whatever its AR) can grabbed at any point with the mouse cursor and be moved by dragging it to a new position within  the frame.

Note VP is constantly evolving and the help files don't always keep pace.

In 2012 you were probably using version 3.xx.or thereabouts. The vpj files were constructed in a different way in the earlier versions and probably explains why they don't work correctly in 6.10.  If you have added a zoom effect as well as a sharpen effect it can take a bit of time to render the cache files. Check that the green bar under the  clip preview has completed before adding or doing further editing to the clip as each time it will restart.  I use an old Vista machine and applying those changes to a 25 second clip it takes around a minute for the effects to complete. ?

However whatever difficulty you come across (even something really simple) post it here and someone will usually answer.

Nat.

[borate]

If feasible put that twelve-second clip on a server, and let someone take a look...

1.  In Videopad click the FILE menu, then SAVE PORTABLE PROJECT AS.  Save to any convenient folder.

2.  Open the folder that contains the saved files and ZIP them all.

3.  Upload the zip file to DropBox, Google Drive, MS OneDrive or the like.  It's free.

4.  Make the uploaded file public (share it) and copy the shared link.

5.  Paste the link into this forum.

[c_major]

 

[eltonbuddha]

When I hover the mouse under sequence preview, I always get a message about...  well here it is

...well, I hope you can see the screen grab I've inserted into this post 3 times.  I still can't

 

[borate]

To insert a screen grab, see "Tips for getting help on this forum" - the 'sticky' post that is near the top of this forum.

[Nationalsolo]

HI elton

 Inserting an image into a forum post.

    Do a screensave or have a suitable image available to demonstrate your point. (e.g. a jpeg)
    Goto   https://pictr.com/ and click "Start Uploading" This will open a File upload window.
    In the File Upload window navigate to your image
    Select the image and click Open.
    Click the green Upload button. Your image will be uploaded to Pictr.com
    When upload is complete scroll down and click Embed codes
    Copy the Image URL. (It also has a Copy option if you hover over the text so click the word Copy that appears )
    Return to the forum and in your post place the cursor where you wish your image to insert.
    Now click Insert other media at the bottom of the post.
    Select Insert image from URL. This opens up a window above your post.
    Paste your Image URL that you copied from Pictr.com followed by Insert into post...
    The image will appear in your post at the position of the cursor.
    Left clicking on the image will allow it to be suitably sized in the body of your post.

Nat

 

[eltonbuddha]

I put a jpeg of my screen grab in my public DropBox folder and copied the resulting URL to my clipboard. I inserted the URL in the post as you describe above, but nothing happened on 3 tries. Does DropBox not work for media in this forum? Do I have to use pictr.com?

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

You don't HAVE to but it's free, you don't need to subscribe  and it works. ?

Just have your jpg ready, Go to the site and click "START UPLOADING"

Nat

[eltonbuddha]

Here it is 

Notice there is no "progress bar" in sight.  In any case, every project so far ALWAYS says this even if all clips have had green bars over them for hours.

Also, someone might want to change the "tips for getting help on this forum" to delete DropBox as one of the ways to insert links to media in a post.  Pictr works fine,  thanks for the tip, but DropBox won't work on bet.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

The message you are showing refers to the green bar that runs along under the thumbnail in the clip preview pane and appears if you hover the mouse cursor there. (They would have to be BIG clips or a very slow PC as mine complete pretty quickly)

HOWEVER  the message also appears under the thumbnails if you are in  in the Sequence preview (which is what your image shows)  There is no green bar actually there in this preview mode although the message box appears, so ignore it if you are in sequence preview.(Doesn't really need to appear here IMHO) 

BUT the message will also appear if you hover on the green line track over the thumbnails on the sequence line. It will appear here even when the caching is complete.  It's a reminder that whilst the green bar is progressing , and it may take some time to do this, VP is caching the files and rendering things.Although you can continue to edit, changes you make may be slowed down. Note also that some changes made may restart the caching process anew as some of the files already produced would need to be recreated. I think that the message ought to be suppressed for the sequence preview window as I've never seen a green bar there. It might be a hangover from the versions that showed a thumbnail line under the sequence preview window.

Can't comment on Dropbox as I don't use it but have to assume it works............

Nat

 

[eltonbuddha]

OK, thanks.  I see what you mean.  Kind of confusing the way it displays all the time regardless of the actual state of the cache. I took it as evidence that the cache is being eternally churned, which I thought might explain the spastic behavior of sequence preview when at least some of the clips have video effects added. I have almost got reproducible scenarios for some of these problems, but will start another thread for those.

[eltonbuddha]

Here's a very tiny project that demos how VP 6.10 doesn't handle speed change and zoom on the same clip. (This clip also has sharpen set to 1.00)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pho3vdb2wnz6sc1/Jen ny.zip?dl=0

What actually happens when I open this project varies, but in every case, the result is a total muddle.  Sometimes VP crashes trying to open it (it refuses to preview and exiting the user interface closes it but the process is still running like crazy and must be terminated in task manager).

For example, clip preview silences the audio.  There's no thumbnail in the sequence line in storyboard mode.  Trying to add zoom... never works and fiddling with it and changing speed back to 100% to see if that makes things better will eventually crash VP, so beware.

[borate]

The  original clip had points of hesitation when viewed in several players, including when the gal raises her palm during the portion you isolated.  So the clip itself may have problems.

Rebuilt the project as follows...

No effects were applied to the clip in the bin.  Dropped the clip onto the time line.  A thumbnail was displayed in storybook mode, though it did vanish from time to time. 

Isolated the approximate twelve seconds that you had used.

Added 1.00 sharpening and your zoom numbers with 16:9 restraint.

Right-clicked the clip on the time line and reduced speed to 60.000.  Preview audio was muted after applying speed effect.  Advise doing this step last.

No crashes.  The only anomaly was the brief pause mentioned above that was evident in the raw clip.

[eltonbuddha]

Thanks for checking this out.  The video file does indeed have a lot of fits and starts.  It's a Debut capture of a YouTube video playing in Opera.  It took me awhile, years ago, to realize Opera is not the best browser for capturing bits and pieces of a streaming video on the fly.

But... my old VP had none of the problems that 6.10 has with this and similar video files. Certainly I never had to worry about what speed change did to other effects. You advise adding speed change at the end of the effect chain on a clip. That sounds like I have to punt on preview once I change speeds. Furthermore, many source source files have crazy speed changes at random places, and I have to do speed change in VP to get a sense of what other effects are worth applying to some clips. Not to mention that on many 6.10 projects, I have applied speed last, and other effects got lost, not just audio.  Sometimes zoom disappears, sometimes sharpen goes away.  It's a depressing crap shoot. 

BTW, so far none of the anomalies I've seen in preview occur in exported files, so I'm not surprised you were able to make an intact output. It would be nice to experience the final result of edits within VP before exporting. I've had to resort to exporting some projects the past few days just to see what the edits look like.  But then if I see something I want to change, it's back into VP to shoot in the dark with the effects editor, and then export again.  Ugh!

I hope you don't feel like I'm taking my frustration out on you "Einstein" guys. I can see how helpful y'all are on this thread and many others I've read in this forum.  I'm grateful you're here and responsive.

 

 

 

[borate]

The developers are likely monitoring this thread.

One way to isolate a speed change from other effects is to export sequence that contains only that speed-altered clip  then add it back into the media bin.  The speed change will now be embedded.

[eltonbuddha]

Thanks, I'll try that for embedding speed change..

I meant to note a couple posts back that DropBox did indeed work for including a link to my zipped project.  It just doesn't seem to work for images.