Mercalli error after rendering

[Davidk]

Seeking advice re why the X9 mercalli filter works during editing, but fails/requests rescan during rendering?
Platform - running X9 sp3 on windows 7 sp1 64bit,8gb RAM.
I have a project that's about 3min30sec long, and one clip in it has the mercalli filter (from the VS filter library) applied. It scanned and applied the necessary corrections, and thereafter over several editing sessions - no problem: plays OK in edit mode in the preview windows or the large screen version thereof. This is a screenshot of the edit phase at the point where that clip has begun to play, and the mercalli filter has done it's thing:

Then I came to render the project, and the project file rendered OK. Here's the screenshot of that screen, which includes the rendered properties:

But when I test played the final result, in both media player and in VLC, this is what I saw when the play came to that particular sequence

I had moved some clips around during editing after the initial clip mercalli scan, so despite it playing Ok during editing I opened VS, got to the specific clip with mercalli applied, and clicked OK - no obvious re-scan done. There isn't any control that apparently would force a re-scan. Re-rendered the vsp without any changes, and the same result was in the rendered file.

So, mercalli is saying that for the edited clip, scan OK; but when that file is rendered, it renders an error screen for that clip. And it's repeatable, using different players to display the final result.

Why? I've used mercalli before without any problems - using X8, and rendering to an mpg file. This is the first time I've used mercalli in a project with X9 and rendering to mp4. Is this a bug?

Davidk

[RobertOZ]

I can confirm your observations, using MPEG-4 AVC does indeed shows the Mercalli video analysis must be executed again when playing back the rendered video, however, if you select "Same as Project Settings" the rendered video plays correctly, which does seem strange (as in my test) when the video has the same original properties as the MPEG-4 AVC selection

[Davidk]

Loaded same vsp, share and this time selected "same as project settings"; then rendered the vsp. And Robert's advice worked fine: same settings in the project profile as for MPEG-4, but "same as .." selection renders correctly and the MPEG-4 selection causes the clip with the mercalli filter applied to be rendered as tho the clip with the mercalli filter had not been scanned.

IMHO, this really is a bug - one that can be easily worked around, once you know that there is a workaround.

Have the administrators ever contemplated a VS sub-thread specifically for this sort of circumstance - list of reproducible problems, and the related solution/workaround?

Davidk

Postscript
During cleanup, I noticed something that may be significant - the MPEG-4 rendered file was 384Mb, compared to the 'same as project settings' file at 587Mb. Clearly VS is doing different things during the 2 processes, even tho the nominal video parameters are the same.

[aljimenez]

I've not experienced this, but perhaps is due to my workflow. My sources are all mp4, some 4k, others 1080p60, and I render to mp4 1080p30. I have a feeling Mercalli is not invoked at rendering time. Thus project properties must be set similar to rendering properties.

[panodirk]

Have a long time these render messages also in X7, not all the time so I sorted out what caused the problem. When you see what's delivered in Corel Videostudio you see "Mercalli SE" and literally there is no Mercalli SE when you look or search, thus it must be Mercalli V2 - version 2, Second Edition (SE).

When you look to the Mercalli V3 description on Prodad's web site, you read " Support for 4K and 2.7K video clips - many NLEs don’t even support this yet!"
Imo does that mean that Mercalli SE don't support higher resolutions and bitrates, framerates above full HD 25/30 fps. Why be so joyful in Mercalli V3 as you supported it already? My problems started with 2.7K files of my little Gopro so I used only HD.

Nowadays I use Prodad Prodrealin for stabilization and deFish of the Gopro lens and this product as ProDad say "Among the first applications to support 4K and 2.7K video resolutions" You can select no defish so every camera will be usable for stabilization. No sliders for fine tuning but default setting is ok. http://www.prodad.com/home/products/act ... ,l-us.html (50 bucks)

Prodad Mercalli was contracted in a time that most people used SD and HD, but now the Corel programs itself supports 2.7K and 4K a newer version is needed. Corel make a bigger price difference between Pro and Ultimate and deliver Mercalli V3 or Mercalli V4 like Corel's competitor Magix Video de Luxe 2016 Premium did. (105 bucks)

[aljimenez]

VS X9 has no issues with mercalli on 4k video sources, nor is there a problem rendering 4k files where mercalli has been used on its 4k sources inserted in the timeline.

[panodirk]

OK, thanks for your report that means the door is open for an update to X9 because a not functioning Mercalli was a deal breaker. My experiences were with X7, X8 and X8.5 but I still see on web site X9 Ultimate has Mercalli SE, so I'm confused

[panodirk]

I've put a ticket for this on the support desk. Want to know and hear from Corel which Mercalli version is delivered and if it functions for 4K, 2.7K, xavc-s 50/60fps or do something terribly wrong.

[RobertOZ]

I think you will find that SE refers to plug-in versions. The version included with VSX9 is 2.0.123 and aljimenez has already stated above that he has no issues with 4k video

[RobertOZ]

Prodad Mercalli was contracted in a time that most people used SD and HD, but now the Corel programs itself supports 2.7K and 4K a newer version is needed. Corel make a bigger price difference between Pro and Ultimate and deliver Mercalli V3 or Mercalli V4 like Corel's competitor Magix Video de Luxe 2016 Premium did. (105 bucks)

Here is a response from Frogman a representative of ProDRENALIN on that very subject see also post, http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58936

The biggest difference in functionality between V2 and V4 was the addition of the CMOS correction for jello and wobble. This is where V4 really stands out. The stabilization was improved as well but the big wow factor was the jello/CMOS fix functionality.

I also saw the comment on a plugin for Video Studio and Corel products. I can explain a little on that. It's not that we don't want plugins for all the major apps like Corel, Adobe, Avid etc. The SDK plugin that passes the functionality back and forth is limited. In V2 the full functionality could be passed through the SDK easily and plugins were super easy to create. With V4 the SDKs limit the functionality that can be passed back and forth and in the 2 plugins we were able to create for Vegas and Edius, the output doesn't have the full power of V4 so the footage doesn't get fixed as much in the standalone version. I can't give much more of a detailed explanation on how that works or doesn't work as I'm not a developer other than to say the developers have really tried to make plugins for the major NLEs and many just didn't work (Adobe was not possible).