Thank you for producing

[Gabriel Pelegrino Gama]

Thank you. It's 09:25am here, I've worked the whole night at my job and got home at 06:25am to start editing a video using this software which I very unfortunately paid money for.

3 hours has gone and everything I do demands the software more than minutes to process. And before any Einstens here start asking whether my computer can handle it, it can. My computer is great, I use it for a whole bunch of various reasons, livestream using it and it has always got the job done. The problem is the software. Everytime I split a track, I cannot play the track right after it because it's too slow to reprocess everything. And the other day, after hours of editing, when it started exporting, BOOM! Another surprise: the exporting freezes in every cut of the tracks. It took 5 hours to export a 20 minute video because of many splits.

I'm really done with this software. Never again. Worst waste of money I have ever spent. Thank you for ruining my day.

[borate]

Instead of ranting, you'd be better served by working with folks...

1.  You say "my computer is great."  What are its specs?

2.  As for slow reprocessing, what are the file sizes?  With large files it's common practice to use proxy editing.  http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/26563-proxy-editing/  This will lessen buffering significantly.

3.  Several 40+ minute videos, with numerous splits, have completed here in less than 1/2 hour.  What export format was used, what resolution?

   Share your project, even as a private personal message to me or the developers,  and folks will check it out.  If there's a defect, it will be fixed.  Here's how...   http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/23659-tips-for-getting-help-on-this-forum/

4.  If you purchased recently, you can request a refund.  https://www.nch.com.au/general/refund.html

[JimmyRustle]

Moderators, please do not remove this thread. Despite its title we can still have a productive discussion on how to resolve this user's issues.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi Gabriel

You obviously feel very strongly that the software is not performing as you expected it should. To be fair though this has not been the experience of the vast majority of users who find it performs OK. Nevertheless as with any complicated program glitches are to be expected and if these are reported in an informative way they can usually be put right or a work around suggested. Borate's reply to your post outlines some of the info NCH would find useful, including the version of VP you are running.

To check whether the latest version (7.01) is working OK with some larger files I have just exported a 40 minute 1920 x 1080 MPEG4  60fps consisting of some 50 clips of the same type and resolution,  each containing numerous edits and transitions. Proxy files were not used. This was done on an old Vista PC....

Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2
Intel Core 2 Duo CPU E4500@ 2.2GHz, 2.0 GB RAM
NVIDEA GeForce GT 730.

Certainly not high spec by today's standards and although editing did not proceed at a breakneck speed no excessive delays when making cuts etc.were experienced and the final mp4, exported at the same resolution etc. as original completed in around 63 minutes. This played quite OK in VLC. The excessive times your are experiencing therefore may not be due to the software. Passing on the info suggested or even the complete project as outlined by Borate would offer some prospect of determining where the problem may lie.

Regards

Nat

[Dangerfreak]

Hi Gabriel, I can understand your feelings and to be honest, when I started using VideoPad, I had similar problems (and feelings 😉 ). Because I was not happy with VideoPad, I spent months searching for another and better video editing software. I really tested a lot of other editors again and again, but in the end I continued using VideoPad. Meanwhile I can't imagine using another software. You now may ask "why?" 

1. Since I'm using proxy editing ( http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/26563-proxy-editing ), I don't have performance problems anymore while editing. I know, many other editors don't need that, but it really is worth the little effort. In practice, I recompress my original video clips anyway (using a little and free tool called "Handbrake") to save disk space. The only thing I had to do was adding a second task to Handbrake, which scales down my original video clips. No big deal.

2. I also experienced that exporting a video can take very long. This depends much on the video format (e.g. x265 is somewhat slow) or the number and kind of effects you add to your clips. For large projects, I allocate my video clips into several sequences and export all sequences (not the whole project) when I have finished editing. So if I detect a mistake in one if the sequences later, I only have to correct and export this sequence and not the whole project. If I'm satisfied with the result, I merge all sequences with Avidemux (free tool / could also be done with VideoPad).

3. VideoPad is extremely small (only ~2.5MB). It does not have tons of unnecessary stuff, that only consumes your disk space and installing only needs a few seconds. I really love that 👍👍👍

4. Most important fact: VideoPad is so easy to use, that you don't really need a manual. In my opinion the user interface is the best you can find in the universe 😉 . And if you still have questions, you will get help here in this forum. Give it a try! 🙂 

[CommenterOfComments]

You know? I feel the same way about this program occasionally. It irritates me.

• Caching is slow, and the "solution" is to make a temporary version of every file for your project that is lower quality. (which I would think is what the cache/preview does?)
• The CPU usage is inconsistent. (why does it use like 99% when i first start the program and open a project with nothing on my timeline [at least to cache?], then after a few minutes calm down to 10-30%)
• There's no 64-bit version. (i know it's in development, but i would think that's pretty important for something that needs all the processing power it can get)
• The marketing trick of pushing "sales" (that are always there) in your face is used a ton. (I've checked so many times, i don't ever recall it changing.)
• Pushing the "NCH Suite" is constant, and sometimes I've even seen random little banners pop up for WavePad. (no, i don't want to install all 52530 programs you have made)
• For some reason, things that are really basic functions like the amplify audio effect, are blocked in the free version. (seriously guys, unblock amplify, it's stupid)
• The versioning system just makes no sense to me. (might i suggest semver.org, devs?)

Project files aren't anonymous even. No really, even if you export a portable project, you can open up the file in a text editor, and find the line that will start with "Type=2&Computer_Preset=Custom&Computer_FilePath=" and it'll have your user folder's name. That's just opening up potential doxxing of users on this forum. The best part is, I tried removing the line from a test project file, and although a message came up saying it could be damaged, the project loaded 100% fine. So it could easily be anonymous, but it isn't. Fix this one, developers.

This forum even annoys me. Don't forget the fact that you literally can not do anything without it being announced publicly to everyone. Wanna see someone's profile? Guess what, they just got a email about that. Wanna look at a thread? Everyone can see that you're looking at that thread right now. Writing a reply? Hope you don't work worse under pressure. And you can't turn it off. It's fucking creepy, and if you ask me, it promotes a environment of fear. Also, there's HTTPS for the forum, but none of the links on the site go to the HTTPS version. Really not good.

Oh, and there's these random hidden options that I found through the registry (and are nowhere else), which are just kinda randomly selected for every single install of the program. Some people will get a hamburger menu, some people will get a menu bar. Some people will have text on that hamburger menu if they get it, and some won't. Some people can hide the custom tab with a checkbox in the options, some just have it there always. There's two separate messages when exporting in the trial that can appear, which are chosen at random, for absolutely no reason. Some get a tab with links to tutorial videos, some won't. Some can use the flip effect, some won't. I looked at this a lot a couple months ago, and I was really close to making a post talking about these hidden options and trying to figure out the reason behind them. I think the only reason I didn't was that I forgot.

I've got tons of things I absolutely hate about this program, and this company in general really. But you know what? Despite all of that, despite how terrible my experience can be sometimes... they're the best option I really have. VideoPad has all the features I really need 99% of the time, and if that 1% comes up, I can find a workaround. It's free for me to use, which is highly important if you're me, who isn't gonna pay 70 dollars (and more since it apparently resets after certain updates which is just lovely) for a hobby that I don't even do consistently. I tried out Premiere a small bit, and it just isn't for me. It's too complicated and confusing to do simple tasks that I can do with 2 clicks in a program I already know how to use from ~1-2 years of experience now. It's got everything I want and need for now. And another thing is, the fact that the program itself is so small really pleases someone like me, who is a absolute compression nut. The cache takes up a extreme amount of space, but it's in a temp folder for a reason. I'm kinda surprised there isn't a portable version of the program, considering how small the footprint is. It would fit perfectly on a little USB made specifically for on-the-go editing.

But... I didn't mention the worst part of VideoPad.
I couldn't export a video that was 1x1 1fps 1kbps 00:01 mono. It exported as 2x2 1fps 1kbps 00:01 mono. This almost turned me away from the whole program. I was tempted to release a rampage on the forums for this terrible outrage of a bug. I yelled at all my friends on Discord for hours. I brutalized my bed for many days after discovering this happened. This program is not number one, and it clearly doesn't like that number.

Jokes aside, VideoPad and NCH can suck at times. But I have some faith in them. I don't think they want to make a program with problems. I didn't write this comment (ha funny meme joke get it because my name hHAH) because I hate the devs and they need contract die blahe blaeh no. I'm writing this in hopes that maybe, this thread will give a chance for constructive criticism. Which is ironic, because rather than giving them a chance, you're just getting mad. But I think this is a chance for us to all vent our frustrations with the program (like I just did), and help them improve. Who knows! Maybe they'll all read this, agree with me, and suddenly I wake up tomorrow to see highly specific change logs for every version of VideoPad, which have now all been converted to Semantic Versioning, the forum has had major privacy changes, and these hidden options are now much more accessible. I'd probably slap myself to make sure I'm awake, because that would be a dream come true.

And devs, if you are reading this, please, take what I've said to heart in a good way. I may have been a bit harsh here at times, but I wouldn't still be here if I didn't want to see the program get better. I don't wish anything against any of you. And I respect the work you've done. I really want to believe in you. You seem nice. You seem invested. You seem like you want to make a program people like. And if you don't know what people like... where will you go?

I just wrote multiple paragraphs about a semi-obscure video editor's flaws

Edited March 28, 2019 by CommenterOfComments
turns out the forum does have https, and there are changelogs

[c_major]

Hi CoC,

Thanks for posting and the nice comment at the end.

I wouldn't comment on other things but we are doing our best on improving cache performance. I really think the next upcoming version will make a difference, in a good way.

Kind Regards.

[michael_DK]

nice reading 😎