Problems with VideoStudio10 Plus

[x70]

Hello,

i have been using VS10 Plus in the past 4 years and recently i'm having an issue whereby every time i want to play a project i have created the message "High quality playback is disabled with current project settings", even for a small clip. I have also noticed that the quality of the video files created (both the image file and the actual file burned on DVD) is not as good as before, though i must admit i am not entirely sure the two things are related.

I have 20GB. of free hard-disk capacity (out of 120GB) and 2 GB. RAM. It doesn't look to me i need more resources.
SW version is 10.0.0110.2 Plus.

Could you please give me some hints as i'm really stuck.

Thank a lot,
x70

[Black Lab]

Well, what are your project settings, and your clip properties for that matter? For instance, if you have avi clips in the timeline, but your project is set for MPEG-2, HQ playback will not work.

[x70]

Hi BlackLab,

thanks for the prompt reply.
I have uploaded two screenshots showing what i think are the most relevant settings of:
- Project options
- Preferences
As for the source files, they are all mpeg (.vob) files created with a hard-disk PAL videocamera (standard def) and transferred then to PC.

Thanks again for looking into this matter.

Regards,
x70

[Black Lab]

Having never used proxy files this is only a guess: your project is set for MPEG-2 (PAL DVD), but the proxy files are set for AVI, and at a different frame size. As I stated earlier, I believe the clip properties and project properties must much in order for HQ playback to work.

[x70]

good point on the mismatch between the proxy settings and preferences, i missed that. When back home tonight I'll align them and see what happens. However i suspect that i have already tried to disable the proxy option though that didn't solve the issue. I will confirm tonight.
BTW, what is the usefulness of the proxy files?
Thx,
x70

[Black Lab]

Proxy files are lower quality "copies" of HD files that are used to edit, making it easier for your pc to handle.

[x70]

Good news
The error message on the playback in high quality mode is gone. Now i need to check the quality of video files created.
As for the proxy files, when you say "lower quality copy of the HD files", do you mean HD as High Definition (as opposed to Standard definition). My files are all SD as i dont have a HD camcorder so i assume proxy files are of no use for me.
So good practice is to probably not use the option unless strictly necessary (HD format and low resources on the PC).
Thanks again for the good advice!
x70

[Ron P.]

Glad to see it's working for you..

Correct, the proxy file is used for high-def video files, not standard-def. The proxy file generation is on by default in VS, which probably should not be.

[x70]

oppps, me again, two weeks afte solving my issue i got another one....

I have created a project very similar to the one above described and I havent managed yet to either playying it back of creating an image file, because the rendering keeps failing, everytime at a different point. And then VideoStudio crashes. I have attached the error report, in case some of the gurus around the forum can understand what the problem is.
Preferences and project settings are pretty much the same as shown above.
BTW, how important are the project properties under the "Compression" tab? Is there anything there i can do? One thing i would like not to compromise is the quality, which is now set to 100%, instead of 70% as before.

Many thanks in advance.

x70

[Ron P.]

Your error report did not get attached, and is only good for the Corel programmers. You could attach it to an email to Corel through their support web page..
http://corel.custhelp.com/app/ask

The quality slider on the compression tab is a quality vs. speed in rendering setting. Generally you will not see any improvement in the quality of your video changing it to 100% from it's default setting of 70%. The quality is determined more by the bitrate. The higher the bitrate the better the quality. VS defaults to 8000kBps which should produce a high quality video file. If you increase this, you must keep in mind that DVD standards will allow for a maximum combined audio & video bitrate of around 10,000kbps. Also when you get to the point of burning your DVDs, if you are pushing the upper end on bitrate, DVD players seem to have problems playing them.

[Ken Berry]

One thing i would like not to compromise is the quality, which is now set to 100%, instead of 70% as before.

Just to emphasise what Ron said, the so-called quality slider is not really increasing the quality by 30% if you increase the slider from the default 70 to 100. It is only a very slight increase in quality -- if any at all -- but a significant increase in the time taken to achieve it. That is what the slider is meant to represent: the time taken to produce an acceptable result. The default 70 is meant to represent a (very) high quality end product in an acceptable time. Increasing it might increase the quality fractionally, but will exponentially increase the time taken to produce. Personally, I have never been able to notice any significant increase in quality -=- though some users swear by it -- and have always simply accepted the default 70. Very happy with the results.

Moreover, more than a few users have found that their computers do not necessarily have the grunt to be able to process at that 100. We have always recommended in such cases that they decrease it down to a point where the computer doesn't fall over each time. (And again, 70 is often the end result... )

[x70]

Many thanks to Ken and Ron.
I have lowered to 70%, without success. VS10 keeps crashing. I have managed to extract the content of the error report and past it in a word file (page by page it took my half an hour... ). However i just realised i cannot attech a word file. Can i only upload image files?
It looks like it includes references to internal code (hence the suggestion by Ron to send it over to Corel support) but also some hint that problem is in the audio area. It would be good if i can share it as you might be able to suggest some changes to the audio settings.

I had to do it in word because it's six pages of images. I now have attched just the first page to give an idea...

[Ron P.]

Try zipping up the error report, then attach that. Also when attaching screenshots/photos, try to keep the size to a maximum of 800 pxs wide. That way users don't have to scroll horizontally to read posts in the thread.

If you're audio file is MP3, try to convert it to a WAV file. It seems that VS has problems with some MP3s. You can also, if you think it's an audio file that is causing the problems, try removing the audio file, and rendering without it. If you're able to, that would show the audio file to be corrupt.

[x70]

Hi Ron,

the audio is actually embedded in the original video files taken with a camcorder. So the project is just a concatenation of .mov files taken with the camcorder, plus pictures inserted here and there. I did not add/overlay any audio file. Nothing really different from other projects that i created in similar way.
Thanks for the guidelines on attaching files. I have no uploaded the zip file.

x70

[Ron P.]

MOV video files do create problems with VS. What version of QuickTime do you have installed? If it is real recent version, roll it back to the version that VS10 accepts. This is an ongoing issue with VS, even the most current versions. Try posting the properties of your MOV files. Right-click on one of them in the timeline or Library, select Properties, and post them back here.

Looking at the Project Properties you posted, I assumed that your video files were MPEG-2. There's a big difference between MPEG-2 and MOV.