Dougie

Bummer! So why are people talking about it as a free alternative?

Okay, first I put down two clips each about 7 seconds oong, then I added a 4 second crossfade. Then I activated clip 1and dragged the timeline (not mouse) cursor (you called it the red sequence line marker-same thing, right?). to the start of the yellow (mine is definately 0range) transition line. Then things got weird. You said "Place the cursor on the blue join line between the clips and it will turn into two vertical lines with small arrows to each side." I don't see any blue line. The line between my clips is black, and when I put my mouse cursor on it, I get a single black line with arrowheads at each end. But I'll assume that is correct. "Now grab the join line (which is now the end of CLIP 1) and drag it to the left so the cursor icon is just past the red line" Okay, although that has always been the end of clip one. Did that, and as I dragged the end of the clip back to the red line, the transition line went with it. I tried several times to drag the clip end back without the transition line, but no dice. So now I have the transition line at the end of clip one, and a 2 second empty gap before the second clip. Is that correct? I can't get it do anything else at all! "Activate CLIP 2 by clicking it. Now move the red cursor line to the right so it lines up with the finish of the yellow transition bar." It already is, since dragging the end of clip one back took the transition yellow line with it! "Grab the join line again (which is now the start of CLIP 2) and drag it to the right so the cursor is just past the red line" It is NOT the start of clip 2, since the transition line went with the rollback of the end of the first clip, leaving the gap before clip two.. From here on nothing works. The only way to get this method across on the internet is with a slow, detailed video that includes detailed audio matching what is being shown. But thanks for trying!!

Yes, the overlay trick in your link works fine, and I usually use it (the link you provided is mostly me talking with you about it). So why am I argueing about using the basic transitions in the software. when the workaround works fine? I simply don't like the idea of paying for something that doesn't work as offered! Ever since version 3.x this software has gotten worse and worse. Render speed keeps going down (yes, I have a multi core processor, but it's still slower) the transitions problem, and now even the crop no longer works right (yes, I heard it was now fixed). I do use this software, and will continue to use it, but I can't justify actually buying it until it fully works. I'm sure people undersand that.

Okay. Until Videopad gets some more of this worked out, I'll take a look at AVS4YOU.

jonesri, I said basically the same thing in a different post. What we need is a video that shows the process in detail! Cnr-N@H added a video in anoither thread to explane his clip marking method, but the video has no audio, and it moves to fast for me to see what he is doing. "....pull back the ends of your clips to a little more than the depth of the transition bar." Well, I had not tried that approach, so I just did. Put two five second clips on the timeline and butted them together. Then I pulled the tail of the first clip back by one second (just means to click on the tail of the clip and pull it back towards the head-I hope!). Then pulled the head of the second clip by one second. Then I butted them up again and added a 2 second crossfade. The damn freeze frames of course, were still there! So I don't really know what's going on with what they are saying. I've gotten a lot of good advice from these guys, but this one completely stumps me!!

I left here for a few days to try out Lightworks again. I had worked with it in the past, and it worked a lot better then. It's being promoted as a free source code program, but it is anything but! Like Videopad 3.02, the free version of Lightworks is almost useless. It imports and exports almost no common video files, requiring the need for EyeFrame, a program written by users for the free version, so common media files can be both imported and exported. Lightworks windows, like the timeline, would dissappear without reason, and with no apparent way to get it back other then starting over. It also crashed without notice with almost every use. I have a fast 64bit Win 7 computer with tons of memory, so it wasn't my computer. I'd suggest that if you can't afford the full blown pro version of Lightworks, then stay away.

Nat said..."The secret is to make the points at a distance equal to more than half the duration of the crossfade from the end of the clips." Believe me, I want this to work, but it just won't. So, what you are saying here is that the Out and In points should be....ah, so lets say the transition is a 2 second crossfade. So I add 1 second extra to the in and out points of the clips? I tried that the first time you mentiojed it and again a few minutes ago. I can't see in the video above what's being done. When I try it, it just makes each clip 1 second longer and the transitions still have freeze frames. Clearly, I'm not ujderstanding what's being said here. No problem admitting that. Can you explain it with a bit more detail?

Cnr-N@H, glad to hear this. I left Videopad, from disappointment with 3.04, but without keeping the beta idea in mind. After reading this thread I'm back. The Crop bug was one of my main complaints (although I still find the program as slow as ever and wish the transitions bug would get looked at). Now, it was mentioned by you (I think) above...or on a different thread, that if one's clips are first moved into the preview window, then given both an IN and an OUT point, then the green arrow is used to drop them into the timeline sequence, that any transitions used between the clips will then work properly without the need for work arounds. SIMPLY NOT TRUE! Tonight I made a short video using about 10 scenes, first marking them with proper IN and OUT poihts in the preview window, and then dropping them down into the timeline with the green arrow, one after the other. Then I added a 2 second cross fade between all the clips. Not a single one worked without freeze frames!! So it still comes down to bad transitions, slow rendering (both preview and movie saving), and that Crop thing you fixed. Get all these things fixed and I'll be the first one to buy!! I'm not trying to be a pain here but we've all been waiting for a version that doesn't require work arounds. Any idea when the next full release will come?

Well, I guess we have a difference of opinion. In this new 3.04 I could rarely do anything without the Building Preview window appearing, followed by the usual slow rendering. Building Preview even appeared randomly after the green render lines were finished!! And while the work arounds you mentioned do indeed work quite well, as I've mentioned before, I'm not interested in paying for software that requires workarounds to function properly. In the Crop effect, mine never shows the complete orange square while playing the effect. So while it's not a major problem, it makes setting the Crop values sort of a guessing game. I mean no offence to anyone here, but for me 3.04 does NOT fix the problems they said they were working on! I normally use Lightworks 11 as my main editor, which is totally free and I've never found any fault with. But because of some included effects, I wanted to switch to Videopad as a primary editor. It might make me seem spoiled here, but I did expect more from this "repair" version 3.04. I think now that I'll go back to Lightworks, and will check in here from time to time. Thanks!

Worked with this for a few hard hours this morning. Now...someone tell me that this is not the fix for the complaints spoken about in 3.02....is it? If it is, very disappointing!! The preview render now seems even slower, backgrounds in composite edits play quite jerky. Dissolve transitions still freeze for a second, and now in the Crop effect, the orange line setting window only shows 1/4 of the image!! I just don't get it. 3.04 is worse then 3.02. What am I missing??

In short, Motion allows right/left movement along the X axis, up/down movement along the Y axis, rotation, and in/out motion throughout the image scale. For each effect, you can set keyframes using a blue reference line, and combine motions as well. For example, with a static image of a ball against a common background color, you can have the ball move from screen top right, down to screen bottom left as it gets closer to you, and so on. You can use it in a chroma key to move the forground subject against a fixed background, or move them both for that matter! To me, the Motion effect is a real selling point for Videopad. Now, if they can just get the rest of 3.02 working properly.........................

Your first paragraph accurately describes my problem, and no, it isn't happening. The track is clear of audio clips all the way down the line beyond my added clip, but it won't stay where I drag it to. Just jumps back to it's original placement. Now, I was wondering...does 2.41 have a "Snap To" control, and does it effect audio tracks? Maybe something's wrong there...? Don't want to take up too much time here with this, but courious about it.

>"You can set the Options control "Other" to prevent sound clips you may add to a track from pushing later ones up the track," I'm not trying to insert audio into a track that has previous audio on either side.The problem is that if I add another audio clip to the end of a track that has previous audio ahead of it (but nothing past it), and I miss-place it by a few frames, I can't move it. It just snaps back to where I first placed it. The only way to move it along the track is to delete it, and try to be more accurate when replacing it. If there is not yet any other audio on the track, then I can move the clip anywhere without problems. Just strikes me as strange. I hope I'm explaining this correctly.

Makes sense at first, but if you have a single effect sound (say like a gunshot, or other quick sound) that you want to use multiple times it seems rather inefficiant to have a dozen audio tracks with a single sound on each. I'm talking about sounds on tracks not related to synced audio. One should have complete control. Why would a first sound control where other sounds are set at? Or moved to?

In version 2.41, when dropping music (or sounds or dialog or whatever) into an unused soundtrack on the timeline, I find that it cannot be split or moved (if it's slightly too long or slightly in the wrong place). It simply won't split or it snaps back when moved. It can be pre-cut in the preview window, but still can't be repositioned once on the timeline if it's not quite in the right place. Is this normal 2.41 behavior? Thanks!

I've given up on version 3.xx until, and if, NCH fixes it's multiple problems, and I've gone back to 2.41. I really like the layout and features of 3.xx, but 2.41 works much better. Anybody hear anything about a new version yet? One member here apparently spoke with them and they told him a new fixed version was on the verge of release. That was a few weeks ago now, and I'm wondering what folks have heard lately?

Sorry, I haven't used 2.41 in a while now. One of the big guns will probably answer this shortly.

I'm courious about this too. Doesn't work for me either!

What version of Videopad are you using? If it's 3.xx then I assume you are using Add Text to write your credits. Once written, place the text in the left preview screen (if it isn't there already). Then click on the big T at the bottom of the screen. The text size setting is in there.

andrewandrew, three weeks plus and counting! Frankly I think they just told you that to ......

I don't know where you are located, but in America, standard DVD's ('professional film sources?') are made in the H262/MPEG-2 part 2 format, with resolution at 720x480. You might want to try something closer to that.

This may not be a legitimate answer, but it works for me. When typing your title, if you add say half a dozen blank lines after the text you've typed, the last line will usually scroll off without disappearing (as it scrolls into the blank lines). Works for me..

No, I'm not confirming that. Originally I did not save it as a project but simply produced it as an avi, because I was not aware of the problem at that time. After that one saved, it played fine. The next day, I put that avi on the time line, and added added some clips to the end of it. I re-saved it as an avi and played it back. This is when the oddness started: the first part suddenly playing jerkly and the newest stuff playing fine. Unacceptable from any video editor! This was all done before your suggestion. Today (after reading your suggestion) I opened the avi file and saved it as a project (which, of course included the jerkiness, but was all I could do since the original clips are gone). I re-started the computer and loaded the project file. I made an avi from the project, which of course played with the jerks.exactly where they were in the avi. In my mind, there are two ways to save your work if you can't finish it in one sitting. Save as a project file, or save as a master video. Both should work without problems and I rarely use project files. But that should be no excuse for the jerkiness!

Hi topshot! You kind of answered this yourself. Of course, the higher the res, the better anything will look. Some image hunting engines, like Googles, list the image atributes and available sizes of images they offer. Look for images bigger then 640x480 (preferably at least 1280 x720). Shooting your own stills, as you mentioned is better yet, as it gives you full control. Yes, if your still camera gives a true 16:9 aspect, it should work without cropping. I do a lot of cropping myself, doesn't take long.

Nat wrote (while speaking about mpeg4 video) > "In the videos output by VP, objects moving across the frame (like traffic) seem to move in short spurts 2-3 times per second but here's what I found...." Nat,you pretty much described my problem. Sometimes it will play fine for several seconds before doing this. Today I added a few minutes more to my project (what you might call a third days worth, or part three) and now on playback (any player) the first AND second parts are jerky, with the new stuff quite smooth!! That part of it (old stuff jerky-new stuff smooth) is the most confusing part of all this. But it does offer a clue because it's the clips that have been saved only once that play back smoothly! So it seems that, for me anyway, it is only after re-saving finished parts of a project (making them multigenerational) that the jerkiness comes into play (by the way, I also tried saving this project as an mpeg2 avi file, and got the same results, so it doesn't seem to be just mpeg4. I also tried borate's suggestion with no changes. Since I'm not the only one here experiencing this, we may need to make NCH aware of it before they come out with the new version.