POOF goes the project!

[BUGS-R-US]

Completed a first X3 HD project, 4 minute with simple cuts, some transitions, some music in and out. Nothing too fancy - it worked fine. Threw it online and all was good. (long time Video Studio user and 24 year experience with PC's). I got a whiff of trouble in store, when X3 choked a few times on capturing - but eventually got video captured ok anyway.

2nd Project
Much more complex - still using HD from same Sony HDR FXV7 - same intermittent choking and camera control sputtering during capture but got the footage onto the hard drive eventually.

Initially had over 15 minutes of raw footage on X3 timeline - intermittently spent several days whittling it down, adding transitions where needed and then captured audio from PC microphone onto the timeline - several clips of vocal dialogue, and then did a couple of overlays - that's when the poof started.

Was simply moving something around on the overlay track, when all the timeline clips past 45 second point, suddenly went black. On scrubbing, I could hear audio, but cannot see anything. 80% of main Video images AND Overlays all Blacked out! I know the original files are still ok, as they can be booted directly from the working directory, but I cannot preview footage from the timeline or from the story board view.

It's like a I clicked one mysterious spot and the whole thing went away.

And here's the kicker - being a seasoned PC user having spent many long frustrating nights working with flaky software over the years, I ALWAYS create sequential files, so I can go back to previous versions if I need. BUT in this case, all sequential files also come up black from 45 seconds onward on preview also!!! Nada, zip - cannot preview any of them on the timeline - did I hit a magic button hidden or something? Man I hope this was my fault or I'm hooped if I have to re-do the whole project in something else.

X2 was always ROCK solid for me on my old XP PC and I thought I had actually found the holy grail of fast PC video editing. BUT, this X3 is a ****real**** disappointment ON THIS 64 BIT wIN7 MACHINE - Now I'm back to being behind on commitments and TOTALLY FED UP with PC video editing. Over the years it has been one royal pain after another - failing some simple fix coming to light here, I am going out to buy a Mac and will never look back.

Any thoughts? I promise to hold my tongue and not bite.
I need to get this project finished fast!

[Accolades]

Start a project, Save the project and regular SAVE SAVE SAVE!!!

If it does crash you will be given the opportunity to reload when starting X3 again...

[BUGS-R-US]

... yes - I save EVERY time for EVERY project, (Ctrl+S) as you suggest .... and like I said, I had also saved them incrementally (Save-As).


Hence, I had 7 (SEVEN) different versions of the original project as I progressed, and like I also said, the kicker is, they too have gone haywire! - CLipcs blacked out on timeline and video will not play during scrub, only audio.

The only thing I can think of that could affect ALL my saved versions simultaneously, would be something system wide that connects with the proxy or source files themselves. But all source files boot fine directly from the working directory, so there is something else I have either missed, or, this X3 software is definitely NOT ready for prime time.

The crash occurred after using masks on overlays, with several audio files and vocal captures. All things I have always done in X2 on my older PC.

Any more thoughts would be appreciated, but believe me ... I save my files up the ying yang.

[BUGS-R-US]

Please re-read my original post - I am well aware of how to save backups and do so very thoroughly and often. I repeat, none of my saved backups work.

After fiddling some more (about 6 hours wasted so far), I see that my main 6.5 gig capture file is (after my "Poof") struggling to be seen in its entirety by X3 - the still file plays fine outside of X3 and was initially being read well within the program, but there is little doubt now that this software has some serious memory bugs.

Now, whenever I scrub this file with X3, I not only get black out portions, I also get errors and crashes.

Houston - we have a software problem and it has completely disabled a previously fine working capture file that originated within the program itself.

[Ken Berry]

It would be helpful if you could tell us the format of the video produced by your camcorder. Curiously, I have done a Google search for it, but it produced no sensible response for Sony camcorder with that moniker! Given that you talk about capturing from it, I am assuming it is a HDV model, using mini DV tape, but it would be useful to confirm this.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

Given that all projects display a similar problem and that all projects are using the same video then I would suspect a corrupt video file, Especially when you experienced capture problems.

It could of course be a corrupt transition effect, some transitions have given problems in the past,
Maybe an audio file, but certainly something common to all projects.

Have you updated Direct X?
Are you using the latest version of QuickTime, just in case its an audio issue.

But we know little about your video file.
I would first look into the capture trouble!
Give us some details of how you connected the camera and what options/properties you used to capture your video.

[BUGS-R-US]

Thanks for the replies:

Sony FX7 (sorry, I misspelled it in my original post)
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... d=11034787

it's an HDV tape based Camera
Capture format in X3 working folder is : 16x9 .mpg High Def 1440 x 1080 @ 29 frames/sec

The clunky and slow process during capture did not report any lost frames or errors, but the transport was far slower and clumsier than I am used to. I doubt that is the problem as the .mpg file worked fine for 3 days prior, and it still opens fine in other programs, just X3 does not like 3/4 of it.

X3 is the only program that cannot deal with it anymore. X3 shows the latter 3/4 of the file as blacked out during scrub yet audio still works.

Running Win7 Pro 64 bit with latest patches installed on this PC - latest ATI video drivers (1024 GDDR5 - no anomalies in any other software) - should it need a Direct X update? As mentioned, the file works fine in other programs?

THanks

[Black Lab]

Realizing that you have done edits to the clip and that this will not be a solution to your problem, but I am wondering what happens if you replace the clip in the timeline with the one from the library. You may even want to import directory to the timeline from the folder where it resides.

You shouldn't have trouble capturing from that type of cam. I'm leaning toward a corrupt clip. Although other programs may play the clip, that doesn't mean that it is not corrupted. Maybe the other progs can handle playback, but when it's edited is when the problem reveals itself.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

I don’t wish to harp on with the way you capture your video but
can you tell us how you connect the camera to the pc.

I assume it to be either Firewire or USB.

It is preferable to use Firewire

Can you give some details of your capture process

[BUGS-R-US]

thanks for the feedback.

I put the file on a zip drive and took it over to another friends PC running Premier - works just fine with no editing issues.

I use firewire to capture.

Today, I have also noticed some weird artifacts on menu items showing up intermittently. When I pass the mouse over them, the artifacts disappear. Incompatibilities with ATI display drivers? Seeing no other programs have issues, I suspect X3 is still being beta tested on us/me.

Most of my footage from the capture file is still not usable at all, so I have crunched the project down to just one single line of main video - deleted all overlays, masks, music, and am using only simple cuts and one dissolve transition where necessary. No music - just audio. Not a very slick presentation, but I may just get it out the door.

There are definitely bugs in this program and it seems the occur the more I ask it to step up. How much is specific to this PC configuration I have no idea (no issues with other software), but X3 is going to be used very reluctantly until I get this sorted.

All feedback is appreciated.

[Ken Berry]

I do just about all of my video using a Canon HV-20 HDV camcorder, and have never had the least problem in VS11.5+, X2 or now X3. But I should also add that I never use VS to capture the video. This was partly because of the various anomalies introduced from VS11 onwards when Corel in their wisdom replaced the previous capture plug-ins with a new one ("IVI Capture Component" from InterVideo, which they had taken over). But the main reason was because VS does not split by scene during capture, which I greatly prefer. So I use a small freeware program called HDVSplit which, as its name implies, does so. And I repeat, I have never had any problem with the resulting video.

I am just wondering what would happen if you were to experiment with video captured this way...?

[BUGS-R-US]

that may be a good workaround and something I will look into for next projects (albeit with some hesitation will I use X3 again). Thanks for the idea

At first glance, it seems that software is 32 bit. Has anyone tried it on a 64 bit system? and/or does it work with 64 bit?

If it won't work, I will definitely try using a 3rd party capture, if I can find a 64 bit version of something decent out there.

[BUGS-R-US]

2 more crashes today, even running this program extra skinny - it does not like my PC at all!

BUGS-R-US

[Accolades]

that may be a good workaround and something I will look into for next projects (albeit with some hesitation will I use X3 again). Thanks for the idea

At first glance, it seems that software is 32 bit. Has anyone tried it on a 64 bit system? and/or does it work with 64 bit?

If it won't work, I will definitely try using a 3rd party capture, if I can find a 64 bit version of something decent out there.

VSX3 Works fine on my humble system

[Accolades]

Running Win7 Pro 64 bit with latest patches installed on this PC - latest ATI video drivers (1024 GDDR5 - no anomalies in any other software) - should it need a Direct X update? As mentioned, the file works fine in other programs?

Direct X update always....

I am aware that Win 7 uses 11 but the direct X update applies to ALL systems/versions

Also ensure you are up to date with X3 to Version 13.6.2.21. Lot of fixes in the updates.