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VideoPad 3.02 released


ConnorBrendish

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Hi,

 

VideoPad 3.02 was released for the Windows platform early this morning, Canberra time.

 

You can download it here.

 

Bug fixes include (but are not limited to):

  • Sound track volume values weren't being saved with project files properly.
  • Sound track mute wasn't being saved with the project properly.
  • Cached video frames sometimes looked discoloured.
  • Cached video frames sometimes looked transparent.
  • Several crash bugs.

 

New features include (but are not limited to):

  • Clicking in an empty part of a track will now change the timeline cursor position.
  • Clicking and holding the middle mouse button in the sequence will now allow you to scroll both vertically and horizontally. You can only do this if you are zoomed in on the sequence or have many tracks.
  • Cutting/copying/pasting of track clips has been improved greatly.
  • Double-clicking a track will now expand or collapse it.
  • You can now click and hold the Previous frame and Next frame buttons in the clip and sequence previews to scrub forwards or backwards.
  • New "Screen Snapshot" feature allows you to take a screenshot of one or all of your monitors and automatically import the image into VideoPad. You can find this feature by clicking Record->Capture Screenshot on the home tab.
  • The subtitles dialog now has a toolbar for easy access of key functions.
  • The subtitles dialog now allows you to select multiple subtitle clips and change their properties all at once.

 

We have a lot more planned for VideoPad so stay tuned for future releases!

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You're on the right track, and it pains me to be a pest ... but the freeze/jump-frame transition bug is still evident. Just tested.

 

Please see http://hevanet.com/hb/freeze.mov for an earlier test. Woman freezes on first dissolve; scene freezes and jumps on the second. Often, the first transition on the timeline is good, the others - iffy.

 

Working on it?

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Hi Borate

 

This still frame effect on dissolves although annoying, can be reduced (or removed) if the ends of the two clips you are using are shortened by either dragging them them in or using the IN/OUT tabs in the left preview pane. You must "fold" (so to speak) each end under by at least half of the dissolve duration. In this way there is sufficient "hidden" clip in each section for VP to create the transition without using a still from the end of each clip to make up the required duration.

 

If you edit by just splitting the clip/s on the timeline and removing the unwanted bit, (which is the normal "film" way of doing it) then for some reason VP has to use stills from each clip with which to create the crossfadet, (even though you can still pull out the ends of the cut clip to restore the bit you removed),

Obviously if you are not editing the clips then VP has no alternative but to do it with stills.

 

If you play with this a bit you will see what I mean. Try using shots of moving traffic for each clip. Obviously it's not a problem if you are creating a slideshow as the images are static, even if zooms and pans are used, VP makes a perfect crossfade.

 

I think it has been done this way so as to keep the joined clips the same total length, whether you have added an transition or not and irrespective of its duration.

 

With other editors where you create dissolves by dragging one end over the other the combined clip length shortens depending on the duration of the transition created . With VP you can set any duration for the transition (provided the clips are long enough of course) without altering the edited length. That's where the stills come in. If you have sufficient "trimmed off" footage from the ends of each clip available, stills are not required.

 

Nat

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This still frame effect on dissolves although annoying, can be reduced (or removed) if the ends of the two clips you are using are shortened by either dragging them them in or using the IN/OUT tabs in the left preview pane. You must "fold" (so to speak) each end under by at least half of the dissolve duration. In this way there is sufficient "hidden" clip in each section for VP to create the transition without using a still from the end of each clip to make up the required duration.

 

Good analysis, Nat, and as a former TV quality control editor I am well aware of the concepts that you mention. But they don't seem to apply here...

 

In the first dissolve of the test URL, above, a split was made in the middle of the FROM clip (gal talking). Continuous ample footage of her followed. The TO clip had plenty of lead video.

In the jarring frame-jump seen in transition #2, the wall of lights clip didn't end anywhere near where the freeze and frame-jump are seen.

 

Just yesterday, using 3.02, I split in the middle of a scene of men walking - crossfading to another moving scene. The men jumped a frame mid-dissolve. Seems that 2.41 may have been less prone to these problems.

 

Considering that I have received no company feedback via "support" channels, my sense is that this serious and basic issue is of scant concern. Perhaps, as you hint, it is a design limitation.

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Hi Borate

 

Just shot some moving traffic ...Just to check what I wrote. (Version 2.41). I usually convert to MPEG2 for other reasons but checked the effect this time with raw MPEG4 clips. End to end the untouched clips had still images of the vehicles against a movie of the opposite clip in each half of the crossfade.(Made more obvious with 6 second transition) By dragging in the ends of each clip a bit at a time and re-previewing there was a diminuation of the duration of the respective stills until when there was about 3 seconds of each clip "dragged in" the transition appeared without any stills and looked OK. There was no stuttering either.

I notice with your test clip that there was also a break in the sound. I am wondering (but probably I am totally wrong) if this might be a problem associated with the multiple sequence tracks now incorporated in version 3. Not tried outputting the test though.

 

Nat

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Hi again

 

Just been reviewing your clip repeatedly and find it behaves differently each time I run it. It starts OK looking through the glass at the man beating time and then cuts to the smiling girl on the phone. On some plays this then freezes for a couple of seconds before continuing and the sound stutters..Sometimes it plays OK to cut to the wall of lights.This then stops for a couple of frames then jumps to the people in the crowd without a dissolve which I know is there. On several occasions the crossfade here played partially. The soundtrack jumped repeatedly as well

 

I stepped through the clip virtually a frame at a time by dragging the play bar along and it was actually all there so I may have a problem with either my connection speed or Quicktime player. As you are seeing something similar Is this a possibility at your end?. :unsure:

 

It might be interesting to see the same raw edit rendered from VP as an 720HD avi (or similar) just to see how it plays.

 

Nat

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Clip doesn't vary here, as far as I can perceive. Perhaps a glitch in your connection or player, as you say.

 

In all fairness, after conducting a CROSS FADE test with another editor, I did see a freezes in both the FROM and TO video that occurred at mid-transition. Minimal.

There is no change in total length in the C F mode but there is in the OVERLAP mode (not available in VP). But it masks the freezes.

 

VP has a tendency to lose frames during a transition, as seen in the demo clip. However, a shift of a frame of two in timecode of the FROM or TO clip may improve results.

And the low-res Videopad preview isn't always indicative of the finished product, which can look smoother.

 

Too much time spent on this, Nat. I no longer have to scrutinize this stuff for my livelihood. ^_^ Appreciate the workarounds and diagnostics that you've taken the time to unearth.

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Very good. I know this group is not a conduit to NCH support, but I believe that I speak for others in thanking you for checking in to confirm problems, hinting at enhancements and welcoming user input.

 

Without breaking out of the marketing niche for VP, you might consider a secondary OVERLAP transition mode in addition to improving the existing CROSS FADE. Embracing CUDA and similar technologies would also be a boon.

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Borate, thanks for your replies. Not to hijack this thread, but I'd like to explain what I'm doing with the software. Basically, I use only three buttons: "play," "next frame," and "take snapshot." I import my Gopro video (these are MP4 files; will I be able to import these when the free version "downgrades"?) and drag it onto the timeline. It appears in the right hand screen, and some buttons appear underneath it. I play the video until its about where I want it, then I pause it and use the "next frame" button to pick the exact frame that I want. I then push the "take snapshot" button, and it saves the picture in my "My Pictures" on my computer as a .png file. Will the free version work well for this, even after it "downgrades." Thanks again!

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As far as I know, yes. As you saw on the WEB page that I referenced, EXport file types are limited in the "free" version, not IMport types.

 

If you find that you cannot use VP because the trial period has expired, and you were not offered the downgrade, go to the Windows Control Panel|Programs and Features, find the VP entry and double-click it.

The option to downgrade should appear, along with an option to totally uninstall.

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On a side note - have you guys worked out the bug with the ENDLESSLY SLOW preview building. In the oler versions (2.12 is the version I prefer) this was (and is) never a problem. If you import a 1Gig file it takes about 30 seconds to import. If you make a cut, there is no BUILDING PREVIEW to wait for.

 

Seems all the new version are having the same problem with the slowness. Does this new 3.02 version correct that? I just downloaded the trial version, and it does not seem to. Do you have to pay for it to get it to work properly?

 

Just wondering.

 

Thanks, Gibson23

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On a side note - have you guys worked out the bug with the ENDLESSLY SLOW preview building. In the oler versions (2.12 is the version I prefer) this was (and is) never a problem. If you import a 1Gig file it takes about 30 seconds to import. If you make a cut, there is no BUILDING PREVIEW to wait for.

 

Seems all the new version are having the same problem with the slowness. Does this new 3.02 version correct that? I just downloaded the trial version, and it does not seem to. Do you have to pay for it to get it to work properly?

 

Just wondering.

 

Thanks, Gibson23

 

The rendering problem exists in the paid version as well. Technical support doesn't acknowledge that there is a problem. Can no longer migrate back to a workable version as in v2.12, etc., as they say that no previous versions are saved. Don't understand their logic there. Worked in software development for more than 30 years, and everyone saves/backs-up their product versions. For just this reason... Your guess is as good as mine why they won't bring back a workable version...

 

RJ

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I'm beside myself and need help. I'd been working with an older version of Videopad. 2.68, I think. I'd spent about 20-25 hours doing a videomontage for my son's bar mitzvah, which is coming up in 3 weeks. I finally finished it, but no matter how I tried, I could not get it to save the movie without crashing. So, I went through the bug report and it told me this problem would likely be fixed if I installed Version 3.02 "over the top" of my prior version, which I did. But when I launched it and tried to open my project, the sequence was entirely gone. The audio and video files were there, but the sequence/timeline, synching - everything was missing.

 

I'm incredibly worried that all my work has been lost. Can someone recommend how I can get all of my work back and be able to save it to a movie file with 3.02, or going back to a prior version?

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VideoPad 3.02 was released for the Windows platform early this morning, Canberra time.

 

Congratulations!

 

I heard about this via your March email newsletter. I was interested to see what was new and the newsletter thougthfully linked to the change log. Unfortunately that only covers up to 2.43?

 

Just thought you might want to know.

 

Cheers,

Francois

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