Some Good News About Video Studio 9

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 5:22 pm

I created two new projects with newly captured video and have NOT observed any of the video file corruption that occurs when Smart Rendering my old VS8 projects in VS9.

Capture
VS9 was very stable with new projects and new video. I captured a 5 min, and 7 min. from a mini DV camcorder converting on the fly directly to 16X9 Mpeg2 and Dolby sound with no dropped frames. The CPU averaged 54% busy during capture and I never saw it above 60%. I accidentally did the second capture while connected to the internet…

Edit
When I entered Edit mode, a I let VS9 set my project properties to match the captured video. When I checked the Project Properties, the audio was listed as Mpeg audio – but the captured video file properties were clearly Dolby. I could not select Dolby as a Project property. This is a small bug but it impacts default property settings later.

I cut up the captured video, using Save Trimmed video (STV), into several clips and further edited some clips again using STV and MTV. I placed 3D transitions between the edited video clips, inserted several jpegs of resolution charts and added a music clip that I stretched 60% longer (amazingly, it plays well). I also captured some video footage of the same resolution charts.

During Edit, the jog control on the playback screen was much smoother and more responsive when moved rapidly back and forth over the video clips (longest clip was 7 minutes). Instant Playback in Edit mode was smoother and used less memory than VS8. CPU busy averaged 35% - 40% and memory usage was very steady at 353 MB. (My computer is 3.0 GHz P4 HT with 1GB of memory and 10K rpm Raptor hard disk). IMHO, memory management is vastly better than VS8

Create Video File
The first time I selected Share/Create Video File/Custom, VS9 had preset the properties to values that happened to match my video clips and I did not have to change anything. When I selected Share/Create Video File/ Same As Project Properties, it showed Mpeg audio and I had to cancel, then select Custom to set the audio to Dolby. IMHO, property defaults are still a train wreck.

Create Video (Smart Render Enabled) produced a perfect video file that played perfectly in PowerDVD. However, Windows Media Player stretched the 16X9 picture to about 20x9.

After burning a VOB file, a recheck showed perfect playback with no OOS in both PowerDVD and WMP.

Burn From Timeline Test
I reloaded the project and then selected Share/Create Disk. The Burn properties had been preset to values that happened to match my captured video file properties – but that was just a coincidence. I proceeded to the final burn module without creating menus, unchecked Burn to Disk and checked Create Folders. Got the usual warning message “This action will take some time to render.” I let it go and VS9 went belly up 5 minutes later with the following error signature:
AppName: vstudio.exe AppVer: 9.0.0.0 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 00000033

When I restarted VS9, it asked if I wanted to recover the project file. Great, I thought, but the project it recovered was not the one that was in effect when it crashed. Oh well, one can’t have everything in life…

Bottom line:
Capturing and Editing show major improvements in stability, responsiveness, and memory management. Create Video File works very well for newly captured video.

Stick to the Recommended Procedure with VS9. Don’t try to burn a project from the timeline. Default property settings are still a train wreck.

Property List:
MPEG files
24 Bits, 720 x 480, 29.97 fps
Lower Field First
(DVD-NTSC), 16:9
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)
John

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:44 pm

Thanks, John, for your (as usual) meticulous attention to detail. Takes me back to the Jerry Jones days! And your testing and comments go a long way to reassuring me that I can safely upgrade to VS 9. I am one of the lucky ones who has never had a problem with either VS 7 or 8, and certainly neither the dread OOS or the daylight savings bugs. But I guess I might just sit back for another couple of weeks before ordering as, luckily, I have no projects on at the moment. Thanks again.

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Thu Apr 14, 2005 11:58 pm

Aw shucks, Ken...
Go ahead and order VS9.
Whoever fixed the memory management disserves a medal. I think that was a major source of instability. There are some very fine feature enhancements that I have only used slightly such as the built in color, brightness, and contrast controls that slide out from the left, the ripple editor works well except it deletes clips when it can't decide what to do. VS9 actually recognizes my ADS Instant DVD2 analog capture device. I wonder if anyone has tried the "Shrink to Fit in DVD" feature in the Burn module...
John

David Latta · Post by **David Latta** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 12:52 am

My thanks to you to John. :D

I am currently awaiting arrival of Ver9 and can't wait to get stuck right in.

David

Tom2000 · Post by **Tom2000** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:03 am

John,

Thanks for the great report.

Just a couple of questions, though:

1. How did you install VS9 - as an upgrade over your existing VS8 install, or as a clean installation?

2. Has Ulead fixed the fade-in/fade-out buttons? Do they now fade video as well as audio? (That clip fade workaround in VS8 drives me nuts!

)

Many thanks,

Tom
Seattle

chyao · Post by **chyao** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:14 pm

There are also some excite new functions.
1. UVS9 has treat project file as a video clip. That is, we can insert *.vsp to timeline. We also can insert multiple *.vsp files to make batch convert.
It is very converience.

2. The performance of timeline has enhanced, including the zoom-in/zoom-out, move timeine or other operation.

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 3:53 pm

Lets not forget another very nice improvement: a new keyframer that I hope makes it into MSPro. Check this out;

Please note that the keyframer timeline is larger and has a zoomn control that allows for frame-accurate keyframing!

Neat....

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Fri Apr 15, 2005 4:18 pm

Tom
I left VS8 installed (for insurance) and installed the VS9 "upgrade" as a separate application - which the installer is designed to do.

Note that to install the Upgrade, you have to have an earlier version either installed or available on CD-ROM.

Beware, that when you eventually uninstall VS8, the VS8 Uninstaller removes some files that are required for VS9 to function. Some users have had to insert the VS9 install CD and do a "Repair" to get VS9 working again.

John

Tom2000 · Post by **Tom2000** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 9:31 am

John,

Thanks very much fo the info, and for all your subsequent posts about your experience with VS9.

I'm still trying to decide when/how/if to upgrade. I think, reading about some of the problems, that I might drag my feet until after Ulead has published their first 9.0 -> 9.01 upgrade patch.

Best Regards,

Tom