Making Clip Preview Zoom settings "stick" between edits

[rrobin@gwu.edu]

I am using VideoPad 2.2. I often load in clips of 15-30 mins into the Clip Preview. Obviously, for precise editing, I have to time-zoom in (Press the "+" symbol or Ctrl and "+", but no slider — at least that I can find) to see the in and out points. But as soon as I make the edit and move to a different clip, the preview clip windows reverts to a full-clip view. Restoring a detailed view requires a long annoying series of Ctrl+'s, for example, 20 clicks to zoom down to 1 minute of a 20 minute clip.

 

Am I missing something? If not, was this operation made more convenient in 3.x? In that regard, i there a list anywhere that tells us the difference between 2.x and 3.x?

 

Thanks!

[rrobin@gwu.edu]

I just solved part of the problem: the mousewheel can be used to zoom. But making a zoom setting stick?

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

I don'tknow what 2.2 has but if it is the same or similar to version 2.41 which I think it may be, and you don't want to use the main sequence line for precise editing then clicking the play button in the clip preview screen will show the red play bar moving to the right. If you are zoomed right out (Ctrl + neg) then at any point you can stop the clip playing, grab the red cursor line and drag it to any point in the clip you want. You can then step along one frame at a time to get a precise frame and then simply click the red flag button (IN marker) or the blue flag button (OUT marker) . The green down arrow will then place the portion you have selected on the sequence line.

 

I would suggest however that as the clip sequence screen is quite small and as you have only 1 sequence line ( in this version), it would be far easier to simply place your 15 minute clip on the main sequence track and then use the sequence line cursor to select where to make the cuts in your clip checking the precise position of these in the larger right hand screen and using the < and > controls for precision positioning. You can then simply remove the part of the clip you isolate between the cuts.

This is simpler and more precise. You can also see the soundtrack if precise audio cuts are required, something which is not possible if you just use the clip preview screen. Furthermore you can zoom the main track with a slider or the mouse scroll wheel.

 

Version 3.xx is little different to this as far as these actions go but (IMHO) it runs a lot slower and has multiple video tracks acting as overlays to the main sequence but there are more features. You would need to try version 3.24 or 3.28 which are the latest. If you still have the setup.exe file for your current version then you can download either of these and give them a try. If you don't like them then you can simply re-run your version 2.2 exe file to revert back.

 

Nat

[rrobin@gwu.edu]

Thanks, Nat. I'm curious about 3.28. The fact is, I use VP for quick and dirty projects and Premiere for the serious stuff. But I'm probably at the point where I need to consider the switch. -Rich

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

If you want "quick" then I would suggest trying to get a copy of version 2.41 from somewhere. The 3.xxx versions are a lot slower but offer more features.

 

I have just tried out version 3.28 from the NCH site but have found that (at least on the copy I opened) that it wouldn't save the project (i.e. generate the vpj file) - just putting up a window to say it was a demo version. However it was only downloaded 4 days ago and still allowed export in all the available formats so it hadn't actually reverted to the demo version. Demo or not, not a lot of use if one can't save the project from time to time.

 

However you should be able to download version 3.24 from here... (unless it has been updated.)

 

http://download.cnet...4-10906278.html

 

This is pretty much the same as 3.28 AFAICS and seems to work OK. Worth a try..

 

Nat

[shermanwar]

Hi, I have the same frustration on the zoom level. I wrote NCH but no reply. If anyone from NCH reads this the zoom issue needs to be adressed. The above sugestions dont get to the issue. Its a design issue.

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

With regards to the "Save Project" problem I mentioned in the above post.....Must have been a registry glitch as I cleared all references to NCH and uninstalled all the 3.28 software, cleared all the registry references to videopad and NCH using regedit and then re-ran the setup.exe for version 3.28. Works OK now. In fact, the latest version as of this date is 3.29.

 

Nat