Nationalsolo

Hi

On responding to my proposal regarding fixed track markers, NCH report they may take the idea on board but are currently looking into ways of fixing different tracks at what I assume will be specific points.

Nat

Hi

What version of VP are you using and Is this a vertical green line on the right hand side of the preview image?  If so you will need to download the latest version as this is a bug that was quickly fixed but some users may have have downloaded  it in the interim .

See this post:   http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/31761-green-line-on-the-right-side-resolved/?tab=comments#comment-84290

Latest version...

https://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/versions.html

Nat

Hi TomH

Are you looking at using  split screen and if so, how many clips do you want to incorporate?

I am currently in the process of trying out a 10 x 10 matrix (using my idea above) just as an experiment but I am not reducing the size of the clips for this, they are all 1080 mp4. This will not be using split screen, just the clips being scaled and positioned.

Nat

Hi

A  3x3  or 4 x4  grid (split screen) should be possible even on a slower PC (like mine). I have suggested to NCH that a higher number of boxes,  7x or 8x ....even up to 10 x 10 might be a useful enhancement. The reply was that the number of tracks needed with attendant effects  would make things extremely complicated and would adversely affect the way the program ran. One thing that came out of the discussion was that the more boxes used the smaller the clips were and consequently low resolution clips reduced sized at the outset would be a partial answer to previewing speed .

However, using small numbers of clips set vertically at one end and then exported as a new video would mean large multiscreen projects could be created by loading those new videos back and positioning them as my old post explained. Instead of using 25 clips for a 5x5 layout it would only need 5 clips.

Big professional systems can use numerous clips at a time..as here.(81 clips ..on a 10 x 10 layout) .

Nat

Hi

The physical size of the clip in pixels may be a  factor limiting the speed at which stabilization takes place.The program add-on that does this (Virtual Dub) in essence looks at each frame and for each pixel or block of pixels determines the direction and degree of correction required to match that area with the same area in neighboring frames finally calculating the displacement required for that frame. This data is held for each frame of the clip. Once a pass has been made of the clip to do all this a second pass is made that applies all the calculated changes to each frame finally ending up with a selective zoom on every frame to remove black borders where displacements have been big enough to produce them. So with 4K clips there is an awful lot of data to manipulate.

It was interesting to watch the original virtual dub app working on the VD website  as all the pixel blocks and displacements were indicated by arrows and dots on each frame of the clip as the program ran. This was before 4K and HD clips, even then the amount of data to log all the frame  for alignments was enormous.

Nat

Hi Phil

Glad you got it to work out. Often there are several solutions to an editing problem.

Nat

Hi phil

Although it may be tedious if there are a lot of faulty images splitting and then removing the bad frames may be the best bet. (See below)

Overlapping to cover up the frames can get complicated as it means using several tracks and bearing in mind that upper tracks cover lower tracks, each time the next bad frame will end up on the lower track....

For the same reason using transparency on paper would work but with many effects VP might begin to struggle in preview.

So try this...

I have a clip that has two yellow (faulty) frames somewhere....This a mock up using blank frames. Normal frames are red and faulty frames are yellow.

• Save the audio as a separate file (just a precaution)
• Un-link the audio
• Step through  or play to the first faulty frame appears. Note that they may not be visible on the timeline as they are very short but the Sequence preview window (stepping frame wise) will reveal it.
•  
• 
•  
•  Split the Track....
• Step to the right until the next correct frame appears in the sequence preview
• Split the track a second time.
• Repeat for the remaining faulty frames.  Note: The faulty frames in your video may not be visible on your timeline.  The splits you made however will be.
•  
• 
•  
• If you zoom in the faulty frames may become visible between the splits but you don't need to do this except out of  interest.
•  
• 
•  
• Now switch into Storyboard mode. The isolated faulty frames will now be shown as individual slides no matter what their actual length. (In this example the yellow "slides")
•  
• 
•  
• Travel along the timeline in story board mode clicking and deleting each faulty frame. This leaves gaps in the timeline...
•  
• 
• .......so as you do this close the gap each time.

You should now have your original video without any faulty frames but nevertheless split at numerous points. (Not a problem) The audio will still be present so play the timeline and see if the synch is good enough despite the missing frames. If the audio is now too long adjust the speed a notch until it is as close as possible.

Nat

Hi phil

I don't think there is an automatic way to screen out these particular frames within VP apart from, as you say, overlaying the duff ones with a copy of their neighbor or splitting them out, which, if there are a lot will be time consuming and tedious.

A possible deleting option would be to step through the video and  split the clip just before  and after the duff frame(s). Switch into Storyboard mode and then delete all the duff clips which will now be easily seen. As this would disturb the audio, unlink this before you start splitting. It can be re-synched later. Try a couple of duff frames first so you can see exactly where to split.

Have you tried stabilizing the clip? Judging by your image however, this would be a VERY long shot and probably won't work. There are big displacements it seems and Stabilize isn't designed for this sort of thing.  Give it a try anyway

Not much choice I am afraid 

Nat

".....If this is working as designed, I bought the wrong product. What other way could I build up my virtual choir in VideoPad and still have visibility of and control over the audio?  ,,,,,"

Have you looked at the Split Screen effect.?  This can handle up to 25 clips. (5 x 5 layout) with each clip on a separate track. However, with so many tracks running this may not preview well but up to 9 it should have no problems.

The individual audio tracks are all visible so synchronization is possible.

As you have found using Sequences no audio waveform is present when a sequence is loaded back to the timeline (although the audio is present..

With Split screen sizing and spacing is automatic but controls are available within the effect window to tweak the box display. Test it out with 4 or 6 clips and see what you think.

Have a read through this post..   http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/31417-no-video-in-exported-file/?tab=comments#comment-83084

Nat

Hi

You are using Images and not video clips. The red and blue START and END brackets will only be present on Video Clips that is why you won't see them. The start and end positions of the clip  depend on where you decide to place the image which defines the start and the duration of the image which defines the end.  Having placed an image at the correct start position  you can set the end position by simply dragging the right hand edge of the clip on the timeline to the left. Alternatively with the image clip on the timeline you can split at the required positions and delete the unwanted sections.  

Nat

Hi

Following Borate's  hints your timeline will then look a bit like this...

• Main video on Track 1
• Cut away video from cell phone on Track 2. This has a fade in and a fade out and the cut away sound on Audio Track 2 muted.
• Sound peaks are lined up as close a possible.

Nat

Hi

This is a reported error in VP 8.55. It is being currently looked at. In the meantime it may be best to go back to version 8.45 or try the 8.56 Beta

https://www.nchsoftware.com/beta/

See forum entry also.....

http://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/31699-strange-green-bar-on-exported-video-resolved/

Nat

Hi

"....How can I make middle clip few seconds shorter - without the whole sequence length becoming less than 30 seconds:...."

Alternative..

1. Place clips on the timeline
2. Use >II to move cursor line to the join concerned  (1-2      or   2-3)
3. Note the time value under the sequence preview screen
4. Subtract (or add) the duration of the gap required to the value shown (even 1/10 second should work)
5. Change the value shown in the box and  Enter. The cursor line will jump this amount
6. Click the top of the red cursor line and select the  Split icon
7. Zoom in close to show the join line and the split line and delete the segment between them. This will leave the gap required without the clips closing up.

Nat

Hi

"......You are being presumptuous and arrogant....."   

Personal insults aside , the question was.....How to trim?   Obviously the user could not, or did not know how this could be done at the time this was posted .

Before making fatuous remarks regarding replies or help that contributors and users (like ourselves) post,  please check the date of the  post. 

Note that it is   THREE YEARS OLD.   The clip scissors icon was not implemented then and things have moved on a lot.

Nat

Hi Jumper

Checked Version 7.1  This seems to be working in this respect here

Nat

Hi

Yes..That's odd. All  S/T tested here worked fine with VP Version 8.45. All added subtitles played OK and exported OK and viewed OK in VLC

Upload project as suggested.

Assuming you used the S/T option in VP; did you click the Apply button after adding all the subtitles?  They will appear in the S/T preview window and appear OK  but not in the sequence preview until you do this. Nor will they export.

If you saved your S/T beforehand as an srt file and reloaded them you will still have to click Apply to make them visible in your project.

Nat

Hi

BTW....The Green bar is actually present on the timeline clip.....

NCH are checking it out. Use VP 8.45 instead.

Nat

Hi Borate

That's an excellent result !  I'm currently 3/4 the way through this but doing it without using any fades. In retrospect looking at your edit, the fades don't intrude at all. (in fact they coverup the slight difference in camera position between zoom_2.mp4   and patches_2-4.mp4)  and in some way seem  to "pace" the presentation. I shan't post my edit now as it won't be any better!

Regards

Nat

Hi

I'll export it from 8.55 if that's where the problem arises. Haven't seen anything apart from the strip in preview.

We're all having a go at this one since it offers challenges to help tidy  it up a bit.  Listening to the unedited clip  I think that the subject may be reading from a screen text or has some written guides and the click is the questioner clicking a button or something to open up the next page.But perhaps as the diction seems spontaneous enough that's not the case.  It is terribly difficult to do this ...to talk (or read ) to an imaginary audience and be filmed without making a mess and then having to start over. I sympathize. I've done it (and played solo music too) TBH I would rather play with a live orchestra that I am comfortable with than to a computer.  It's frustrating just when you get near the end and mess it up or lose one's train of thought.

Nat

Hi

I have referred the "Untitled" observation to NCH. This is where " Untitled" is added  to the name when a sequence in the Sequence bin is being exported. They agree that the program doesn't need to do this for sequences  being exported from the bin ,as they already have a name and exporting should use just this name (even if it is Sequence 1)and not have "Untitled" appended to it. They appreciate that the sequences would need then to be renamed again to remove the "untitled" part

This should be fixed in a later version. have to wait and see.

Nat

Hi again

I have been continuing to work through your video  with VP 8.55.    I have now noticed there is a problem  with the Preview display which may be a bug. This has been reported to the developers.

The right hand side of the frame in the Preview window is showing a narrow strip rather like a scanning artifact  that does not seem to be present on the timeline. It's arrowed here.....

However the split at 1:03.8 suggests it's a preview window scanning bug as the subjects shoulder moves on both sides of the screen.  At the split at 1:46.13 the band jumps sideways. This may be the origin of your Green band as it is quite noticeable. Wondering why I found that at this split the clip that follows (patches_2-4.mp4) has a Zoom effect added for some reason (perhaps to reduce this band) as well as a Transparency effect in which Opacity is 100%. Neither of which serve any useful purpose   (Scanning through the project however it looked like every  split had a Transparency effect added (most 100% opacity) so I presume this effect was added globally to all clips to be adjusted for fades later. Clicking the FX brings up the Effects pane shown below

 The zoom might have caused the green strip effect you are reporting.   Removing these effects makes no effective difference to the vertical strip. So probably better to remove them all.

Edit:  The strip is NOT an artifact originating from your clip....Its a bug in version 8.55 and has been reported.

I'll still work through your project and see if anything else turns up. I think most of the splits can be edited and made smoother without the need to fade  The best route to removing clicks or small sound anomalies is to zoom in on them and split the audio track on either side and then mute out the noise. If that makes the audio suddenly silent (i.e creates a sound hole) then simply do the splits same on another "normal"  section of audio.(don't mute it of course) and then  copy the bit and  paste it on a lower track under the muted bit. (Effectively filling in the hole with "normal"  background noise.

Nat

Hi valuenyc

Still checking for the green line you mention in your post. I have the project from Borate's link and am going through it. Here a few suggestions so far.

Because the project is basically a question/answer style video where the questions are cut out but the answers are recorded, there are  places where the audio needs trimming but straight editing is difficult to do without creating difficulties..For example at around 24 seconds in, the word well has been trimmed off from the reply..... " Well ....for decades...." 

The phrase end up ....(It's an answer to a trimmed off question)..."...for the average listener.... /question/ "For decades...."  Which is OK on paper but here it leaves no gap/pause between the words   listener and For decades  Normally you can extend the split into that few seconds to create a pause, provided the visuals are the same on each clip

This style of interview and editing needs a second or two of silence between the question and the reply without any movement of the interviewee. (but spontaneity need to be maintained which is not easy.)  

In this particular  instance after saying "listener" the interviewee looks down but after the trimmed off "Well" he is looking up. This means that extending the LH clip to get the pause, there is a sudden jump to a different posture in the visuals at the split. So, faced with this how can we get any pause at all and still have reasonably smooth visual. The answer here is to split just after the word listener and then split again where the interviewee's head is about to move.....about 0.18 of a second in this case. All that is needed now is to make this tiny clip play for a around 1second by altering the clip speed to 20.

Now that particular split will play smoothly with hardly any head movement noticed and with a pause between sentences...and no "Well.."    and  No transitions or effects.......

OK..Now at 1:04 there is something similar   ".....I didn't know myself......" This needs a precise cut at the end of "...myself"  so place the red cursor at this exactly this point (0.01:03.564) and split the clip. Mute the section you trim off. .    (There may be something following this word but it's not intelligible)  Now delete the tiny clip that follows (0.7 s)  and delete the transparency effect on the next clip. Joined up at this point (by closing the gap) we have a similar problem to the one fixed above....there is no pause between the sentences. There is however space at the start of the RH clip so pull the end back to close the gap. Now the tempo between the clips is about correct except the speaker is taking a deep breath just after the split and before the words "...Once after..." This is easily fixed by setting the cursor line just before "..Once after...", splitting the track and muting the audio section containing the intake of breath.

That section now looks like this and plays virtually seamlessly...   Again there are no transitions or effects used.

The next problem is at 1:37 where you have the same thing. Remove the transparency effect and split the track just before the words "..When you consider..."  (1:38.80).Mute the section to the left of this.The problem here is that between these two takes the camera was moved so smooth over the split with a 1 second crossfade.

You should have the idea with these two examples of the majority of the editing problems and you might solve them. Hope this helps.

Treat all the remaining splits in similar ways....each one might be slightly different.and see how it goes.

In the meantime, I'll complete the remaining joins and see if it exports OK. I haven't yet seen the green bar.

Regards

Nat

Hi

Dropbox error 404 "That file isn't here anymore" .     

Nat

Hi valuenyc

Nothing like this has been previously reported so it is odd. I take it that the green bar is present in the exported video?  Do you know the origin of the clicks?

Nat

Hi

IMHO the fact that you have renamed the files in the Sequence bin but when exported they still have "Untitled" tagged to the name you setup is a bug. (or an oversight) 

I can understand that under normal circumstances any file for export is untitled as it usually consists of several clips each haning their own name and therefore a definitive name is not available.Hence the default of "Untitled".

However when you rename a Sequence ,a presumed complete unit, that name ought to be fixed and therefore used as the default in the export box. Not "Untitled"

It is not logical,  (particularly as VP can automatically export consecutive sequences as individual vdeos)  that one should have edit the name given each time.

This post has highlighted that behaviour

Nat