ilovevan

I am a novice in video. Please bear with me, if my questions do not make sense. I have some DVDs. I would like to do some editing: (a) to cut out some sections, ( to merge some video files (movies) into one. On the DVD, I see file types BUP, IFO and VOB My question is: can VideoPad do what I want to do? I have read the information on NCH web and I cannot find the answer. Moreover, the technical specification provides a list of supported file types. The list does not include the file types above. I could assume that VideoPad would not allow me to do what I want to, based on what I have read on the NCH website. But, I would be surprised that it does not, since VideoPad appears to be powerful with many features, while it cannot do such basic jobs. Having familiar with WavePad (for audio) makes me wonder whether my conclusion of "cannot do that job" may be wrong. If VideoPad can do what I want, could you give me some general guide? Thanks.

The default for File Type is WAV. This is the field labeled "Save as type" after selecting File --> Save File As .... Is there a way to change this default to MP3? It is quite boring and time consuming to manually change thousand of times. Thanks.

I use batch processor to downgrade MP3 files from 64 kbps to 32 kbps. When the Title ID3 tag is long, WavePad shortens the title. The unusual point is that in some cases, WavePad cuts the title down to 26 characters. In other cases, it cuts at 29 characters.

I convert WMA files to MP3. From now and then, I see one output file with error. The output file cannot be opened by WMP. Here are my investigations: a. I convert using batch processor. To eliminate the possibility that problem is caused by busy CPU caused by batch processor, I manually convert the file that has trouble. The same result; i.e. WMP cannot open the file. I made many attempts to manually convert and the result is always the same. b. To eliminate the problem that the original WMA file is errornous, I open the input file by WMP and by another player. They can open the WMA file without problem. c. To eliminate that the problem is caused by some specific bits/bytes, I use another converting tool from another vendor. The tool from that vendor can convert without problem. The output MP3 file generated by that vendor can be opened by WMP (or another player) without problem. d. I use WavePad to convert the troubled file to WAV. There is no problem. The output can be played successfully. e. I notice that the error rate is about 2%. That is, about 2 files in every 100 files have trouble. [To do this test, I convert some hundred files using WavePad batch processor, then use another tool to massively open output files in order to locate the troubled files.] The observation above lead me to suspect that there is a boundary error (bug) in this tool. During my testing career at my work place, I saw similar problems. In the case at work, any file that was multiple of 512 bytes long would be troubled.

I always "use this specified folder", i.e. I always use my own working folder on my own disk partition for all tools, including WavePad. I developed this practice years ago, because I was tired of disk C: fragmentation. So, my current problem is not the working folder. I wish NCH developers spend more time on the basic quality, rather than feature rich. At least, the software should say what it complains about; i.e. why it cannot create the file. At least, it should print the error code. To compare this software with the UltraEdit editor. I have been using UltraEdit for about 8 years. It costs about the same as WavePad. And it is so stable. Because I impress so much about its stability, I tried to deliberately break it. I could not break. Moreover, when I ask a question about usage, the vendor gladly answers, eventhough the software version that I use is years behind. Half year ago, I had to reformat my PC. I had to reinstall UltraEdit. The install failed, because since I bought UltraEdit 8 years ago till this year, Microsoft changed the operationg system. Yet, UltraEdit gladly provided me with a fix eventhough my software is about 8 years old. What is the point of developing all kind of features while user cannot use the basic functionality?

First, I uninstall WavePad and all NCH software. Then I reinstall it. After re-install WavePad version 3.11, I cannot save as MP3. WavePad reports: Unable to create file "G:\Workdir\test.mp3" for saving. G:\Workdir is where I want to save. It is fine to save as test.wav in the same directory. I try to re-install another time on top of what I have installed. It does not resolve the problem Please help. It would waste of money to buy this product without being able to use it. The whole purpose is to save in MP3. Thanks.

I use Windows XP. I have license to use WavePad. Windows Task Manager shows that there are 2 mp3enc.exe instances. The questions are: 1. Why mp3enc.exe run twice? 2. I use Windows search and I find two programs of the same name located at C:\Program Files\NCH Software\Components\mp3el and C:\Program Files\NCH Swift Sound\Components\mp3sel. Norton System Works indicates that both mp3enc.exe processes are from the same "NCH Swift Sound" folder. Control Panel shows only one "WavePad Sound Editor". Can I delete "NCH Software" folder? 2. The two programs run even when I am NOTusing WavePad at that time. For example, restarting Windows and I immediately see them running. Why do they run even if I am not using WavePad? 3. The total CPU the two programs use is about 7-10% CPU. Is it possible to reduce their CPU usage, or not starting them when not using WavePad? Thanks.

I use a hex editor to look at the header. Then I use the MP3 spec to decode. The spec can be found on the web. Sorry, I forgot the URL. Use search engine to find. The hex editor that I use is UltraEdit from www.ultraedit.com. It is a very powerful and very stable text editor that I have been for almost 10 years, in place of Notepad. It allows me to edit in hex, unicode, programming-language sensitive, etc... It allows to edit huge files, which notepad does not. Some ID3 tags are now encoded with international language based on unicode. If a sound decoder does not understand unicode, it can screw up.

When converting WMA to MP3, all ID3 tags are lost. What can I do to maintain them? Thanks.