Project won't run from beginning

[John]

I am a new-comer to Video Studio pro X3 and although I believe it is very good software, I find it very touchy and unforgiving and the user guide provided by Corel is very inadequate and some processes I can't find a mentioned of in the guide and am only able to find out how to do some things by trial and error. I have managed to assembled all my clips in my initial film project and carried out the initial cutting of clips, but when I try to run the film project I have assembled, I can't get it to run from the beginning no matter what I do, it keeps wanting to run from a clip about 20 percent of the way through the project. Can any one assist me? John.

[Black Lab]

Do you have a red or orange line above the timeline? If so, you have set the Preview Range by mistake - probably by setting a mark in/out point in project mode instead of clip mode. To fix this, under the Preview Window you will see triangle-shaped trim handles. Drag one all the way to the left and the other all the way to the right and that should turn off the Preview Range.

[Ken Berry]

EDIT: Black Lab beat me to it!! Great minds thinking alike, and all that...!

Welcome to the forum! And sorry for the inadequacies of the user guide. However, as you may already know, we here don't work for Corel, and are just for the most part users like you, volunteering our time to help out other users... So we have no control over what appears in the guide.

Although we would normally ask all sorts of questions like what is the format of your video, where did it come from, what editing you have done etc, in this case it might be worthwhile trying something simple first. If, when you try to play your Project back and do it in Project Mode (clicking the word Project just below the preview screen), is there a coloured line above the timeline? If so, that designates the start and end point of what you intend to include in the project. And it means that probably inadvertently, you have pulled the trim markers inwards. This then tells VS to play only that part of the project under the coloured line.

To get rid of the line and see all your Project, simply pull the trim handles back to their start and end points under the preview screen. See the image below which might make it a bit clearer.

[Black Lab]

Ah yes, the trim handles in X3 are not a triangle shape!

[Ron P.]

Don't you just love how they change the little things, like the color of the Preview Range line, the shape of the trim handles. It's getting to where you just want to refer to them as.. those little things on the ends or that color line.. You know those little geometric shaped things on the ends of the whatcha-macallit..

[Black Lab]

[John]

Thank you Black Lab and Ken Berry for your very prompt reply, I'm not used to this. Both the trim handles are extended out as far as they will go and there is no coloured line above the timeline. John.

[BrianCee]

Thats dissapointing - everyone was sure that was your problem - OK - first thing - are you clicking "Project" before you click play (refer to the picture in Kens post above) - are you then also clicking the "back to beginning" symbol - first symbol to the right of the "play" button in Kens picture (backwards facing arrow with a vertical line at the point) - That should take you back to the beginning - if not where does it take you to and what exactly is in the timeline before that (video/image/title/ etc.)

[Black Lab]

Forgive the pun, but in light of this news maybe we should start at the beginning. You characterize X3 as "very touchy and unforgiving". I don't see that at all, and I am running it on a P4 machine. Maybe you have some underlying problem.

Please read the thread near the top of the forum entitled PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING and supply the requested info about your clip and project properties, where your clips came from, etc.

[John]

Thank you Brian Cee for your suggestions. I have been clicking project before the play button, but not the return to beginning button. When I clicked on that and then the play button it still wants to play from the same clip it always starts from. When I stop it and press the return to beginning button it first returns to the clip it always starts from and when I click the back to beginning button again it goes back to the beginning of my project, but it still won't play from the beginning.

Thanks Black Lab. The touchiness is probably due to what I have been doing in trying to find out how to do things, but that has been the only way I could find out when there was no instructions. The clips I am using in my project come from four different sources, two video camcorders, a HDV camcorder and a DV camcorder and two digital still cameras. I am compiling a film on a trip two friends and I under took and the project is being compiled from all the material shot on the trip. John.

[Black Lab]

Again, PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING and supply the requested info.

A snapshot of you timeline might be helpful also.

[John]

I have read the Read Before Posting section and I am not sure what information you require over and above what I have already supplied.
I have noticed that the section of the project that runs has an orange line above it, but that orange line is absent above the beginning of the project that won't play. It would seem that the orange line line needs to be above the whole project for it to run from the beginning, but I don't know how to get the orange line to extend above the whole project. John.

[Ken Berry]

John, you have obviously not looked at some of the explanations above, nor the image I posted, all of which explain exactly what to do!

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi John

Please view this guide
Although it only shows the same as Kens image provided in his earlier post

[John]

Thank you Trevor Andrew, you have solved my problem, and thank you every one else for your help. I found that I had to click the home button twice to get back to the beginning of the project and when that happened the curser went off the end of the line and I found that I could then drag the trim handle out to the curser, I then went to the end of the project and repeated the process there and the orange line disappeared and my whole project will now play from beginning to end. Thank you very much, John.