Newbie crash and burn issues

[rotorboy]

Hello All,
I'm a newbie to Ulead MovieStudio and I've been putting together a video using the trial version to try and figure out if I like it enough to spend my hard earned cash on the product. "Overall" I think I like it, but I have a few issues to ask about.

#1) Frequent crashing. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, from time to time the software totally locks up. Fortunately it starts up fine and I have been able to continue onwards with frequent saving.

#2) Slow Performance. I'm on a:
P4 3.0ghz HT Processor
Intel 865 MB (800mhz FSB)
512MB DDR400
1x120GB SATA Drive (7200rpm)
Onboard Video
--- I expect you'll tell me to run a striped array with 2xSATA drives. That's hopefully going to happen soon. Otherwise, will more RAM help this app?

#3) Strange Filters -- I was trying to use the brightness & contrast filter. I'd set it to just the right levels for the clip, and then as the clip progresses the levels start auto-adjusting in a very poor manner. I can't seem to stop this behavior.

Thanks in advance for your help. I truly hope this software is more stable than what I've experienced....

[Devil]

1. I'm not really able to help much with crashing. Which version of DX do you have. It should be 9 or later. However, the most frequent cause of crashing is some conflict, often at an audio level. I suggest you look at other posts in this forum and other ones, for suggestions.

2. What do you mean by slow performance? It depends on what you are trying to do. I have a 3.06 GHz HT 845PE 1024 PC2700 RAM at 533 MHz FSB and it typically renders DV type 1 to DV type 1 at just a tad worse than RT or to DVD-compliant MPEG-2 CBR 6000 kbit/s AC-3 2/0 192 kbit/s at ~1.1 x RT. How does that compare?

I would recommend 1024 Gb RAM. Striping 2 HDDs should not be necessary unless you work in uncompressed. Certainly not for DV usage. As you don't tell us what you are doing, we are just guessing.

3. With the filters, moving paths etc., to obtain consistent results along the clip, you have to set the keyframes at the start and the end to the same values. This is not done by default. The values you set apply only to where you have the red marker on the time scale. As you can add any number (within reason) of keyframes along the time scale, this allows you to neatly compensate for variations in your image over very short time, even in a long clip. If you want it to apply evenly over a whole clip, start it as you have done, mentally noting the figures. Click onto the end keyframe and then put in the same figures.

[GeorgeW]

#2 - your machine is powerful enough. I would just get a couple more IDE HD's (no need for raid if you are working with DV .avi's). Set your temp files to another HD, and then make the other drive your video-only drive.

Turn off any virus scanning software, and other non-essential background tasks.

btw, what type of videos are you working with?


#3 - when you add the filter, go into the OPTIONS for it, and you will see there's a start and end keyframe (and you can add keys along the way). Make sure the END is the same as the START (you can rightclick/copy the key frame, then paste it to any other key frame).


EDIT:
yikes, nevermind, I see another post has been added while I was typing...

[rotorboy]

Thanks for the replies!

-- Latest version of XP, all updates are current including direct X.
-- Soundcard is Soundblaster Audigy 2
-- I'm creating a 'music video' using 16:9 mpeg-2 from a sony DVD203

#1) Audio - that's good to know. I have suspicions that the Audigy is flaky, but haven't been able to prove it so far. I'll swap it out and see what happens.

#2) The performance is mostly on playback. I seem to get 'pauses' in playback of mpeg-2 files and also the .avi file output from the video I've assembled. The actual rendering of the project to the .avi seemed to go very well -- although it didn't come through in 16:9

#3) Ahhh.... that makes a lot of sense!

So to confirm - you don't get frequent crashing on your systems? The confidence is building...