Green Bar in preview

[Davidk]

I've come across an issue in a project file with mp4 clips (plus objects, transitions etc), and it shows a green bar across the bottom of the preview window. That green bar appears in preview or full screen mode, and it's there all thru the vsp, and I've never seen it before in any vsp I worked on. I haven't been able to find out what's causing it, let alone how to remove it. Screenshot of the case is here, along with the properties panel on one of the clips which is in the vsp and under the time marker, thus showing in the preview panel:

Can anyone suggest why that green bar is there, and how to get rid of it?

[lata]

This was reported by myself to Centercode, i guess we can say its a known issue being ignored
It does not happen if you use X7, i can check that?

[gewb]

Hi Dave -

That is the encoded data line of the video file that is normally in the overscan portion. See my post from earlier this year:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=63462&p=355326#p355326

[lata]

Guys
I send you a PM, can you confirm you have received the message as the forum PM system seems to be playing up?

[gewb]

Hi Trevor -

PM recieved and replied to. Sorry for delay but I was tied up this morning.

[Ken Berry]

I've just woken up on my side of the world, but I got your msg. I too thought, like gewb, that the line was a data artifact from some types of video. I got it from a very old, low quality standard def mp4 camera I have, but while it remained even after rendering, it disappeared into the overscan area of the old style TVs. Haven't seen it in any of my other cameras or editing. Though I recall the issue being raised during beta testing by you, Trevor.

[Davidk]

Hi Trevor,
Got your PM.
The case arose in my video class, one of the students had it when his project package on usb played on my laptop. I don't have that source available to me at home, so I'm seeking some more info from him about his results, including the camera type he took the recordings with.

At this stage - a personal suspicion. It may be related to the display - specifically, the resolution thereof, and the impact of that when displaying normal images on a physically smaller screen. In previous versions I've had issue with scroll bar controls that were not needed in my desktop 'mainline' display (1440x900), but were essential for my laptop (1366x768), and were not there. The impact then was that the bottom-most tracks of the timeline were not visible on the smaller screen. It was fixed. In this case - adjusting to a smaller screen may mean the software is painting a full image+overscan on it. Perhaps one would not think so, but displaying on a smaller screen means subtracting some video lines to do that - and just maybe they are subtracting too many.

More later.

[lata]

Hi Ken / guys

I provided some samples for beta testing which were new upto date Mpeg4 from a Panasonic FZ 2500 camera.
One of the latest cameras on the market at that time. 1920 x 1080 H264 High.
No way could you call those old type MP3
Testing by setting the project properties to 4K seemed to get rid of that line as did hitting the HD button below the preview screen.
Using 4K recorded video does not seem to have this issue, although at that time all I had was 1920 x 1080 video.
1280 x 720 video seemed ok?
Tests were inconclusive with mixed results.

I’ll see if my Sony records to 1920 to try those, later
But It does not matter how many tests I do if Corel are not gonna fix this

[Davidk]

It does seem to be related to screen size/resolution that the clip is being played on.
The original clip did NOT show any green bar when the whole vsp, or clips in it, when played on his desktop 1920x1080 ASUS VP278 HD display. His system details are:
System: Pentium CPU G3420 @ 3.20Ghz, installed RAM=12GB
OS: Win10 Pro, build = 17134.285
and VS2018 21.3.0.141

The system details for my laptop that did show the green bar playing that vsp/clip (see 1st post above) are win7 home sp1, fully patched, and VS2018 21.3.0.141.

An interesting item has popped up during my review. I have a 2 year old panasonic V770 HD camera, and mp4 images it took in Singapore last July don't have that green bar when played on the laptop, so I checked the clip properties (shown as project properties to keep the presentation the same - screen shot here:

and the only difference that is apparent between the one with green bar (1st post) and the one without (above) is the bit rate - the the clip with the green bar has almost twice the bit rate of the one that doesn't have it, and the audio system. Since the issue is in the imagery, that audio system difference is noted but probably not relevant.

There may also be a commonality of brand involved: I have a panasonic camera, as does Trevor, and I think my student does too. Have asked him for confirmation. Updated: he has a new panasonic DMZ-FZ 2500, bought late last year (2017).

I anticipate getting a copy of one of the clips involved tomorrow, and can experiment further to try and isolate this furthers. But as Trevor has already reported, it looks like 2018 is the culprit (issue unfixed from beta test) and the following look to be implicated:
- screen display resolution: smaller screen sizes show issue, larger ones apparently may or may not;
- mp4 imagery files from newer HD cameras, 2 panasonic FZ 2500 involved so far; and
- high bit rate HD images from said cameras.

[lata]

Hi David

I cannot comment on using a higher resolution monitor
My monitor is 1680 x 1050 so no way to compare your findings.

I do not see the green bar when:-

1 / Changing the project properties to use a different size than 1920 x 1080 (online - MPEG-4 360 (2560 x 1280, 25p, 15Mbps) or (1280 x 720)
basically not using Mpeg4 1920 x 1080.

2 / when using 1920 x 1080 selecting the HD playback option. Does not show the bar.

3 / Setting DVD Mpeg2 for project properties. 720 x 576 is ok?

4 / Using Video Studio X7
Why X7, I think X8 was the first to use Mpeg4 – 4K sizes, don’t have X8 installed to check that.
But certainly something changed?

Program now closing….
For some reason the HD icon changed to 360, then Video Studio closed, no errors, just disappeared.
Now when I try to test VS closes many times, annoying?
It does not like me continually changing the project properties, once it starts closing I have to re-boot the pc to make VS settle down?

[Davidk]

Hi Trevor,
One reason to get a copy of the video clip for testing is to do things like
- assess impact in different versions of VS
- correlate performance on a laptop and a desktop
all on the same OS version and using the same clip.

I agree your remarks about Corel fixing it, but one reason for not doing that (see my frequent commentary about feedback from them) is not being able to replicate. Hopefully isolating the things it occurs in - or doesn't - may help that.

[Davidk]

Test results.
Common factor(s):
- same OS (win 7 home) on Laptop and Desktop
- same clips used: clip 1 from Panasonic Fz-2500 - 162555.mp4, clip 2 from Panasonic V770 - S1510002.mp4. Screenshots of the properties of these 2 clips are:

The purpose of the test was to determine under what conditions the green bar appeared, when tested on 2 machines with different screen resolutions, and on 2 versions of Video Studio (x10, and 2018 - both at the latest update level). In the process, another more constant quirk appeared with clip 1, which was a small burst of multi-coloured pixelation in midscreen of the preview window, occurring within the 1st 0.5 sec of play, and a screenshot that is:

The test results were done all in edit only, and no attempt was made to render and check whether the results also had those unexpected image variations. The results are this small excel file

green bar test.xls.txt

(15 KiB) Downloaded 145 times

rename the file by removing the .txt filetype and open in excel.

Screen display resolution of both machines are in the test file. I've previously posted that the green bar did not appear in a win10 desktop machine with a (higher) 1920x1080 screen.

Tentative conclusions:
1. the higher bit rate file caused both X10 and 2018 to show unexpected image distortions on both machines, whereas a file (still mp4) having half the bit rate did not.
2. there may be a camera model specific component - the clips causing issues came from the same camera type reported by Trevor as showing the green bar on his test clip. OTOH, this camera produced the high bit rate images and that may be the problem.

[lata]

Hi David
I do not see the mid-screen pixel lines on my video files and never have seen that over the years I have tested this problem.
All I see is the Green line at the bottom of the preview screen.
Maybe you are experiencing additional problem?
Can you say what the project properties were when you see the green lines?
I can clear the green lines if I control the project properties?
I have a MP4 sample from Pana 2500 using 4K, high data rate that does not have a problem.
The frame rate 25fps or 50P may also be an issue?

[gewb]

...and the only difference that is apparent between the one with green bar (1st post) and the one without (above) is the bit rate - the the clip with the green bar has almost twice the bit rate of the one that doesn't have it, and the audio system.

Not exactly - one has the HD switch enabled and the other does not. I looked into that issue months ago, both X10 and 2018, and posted this:

"Odd thing is the HD switch (located below the Preview Pane, available in Project mode, not Clip mode, next to the System Volume icon) toggles that green line On/Off."

See if that still is valid.

[lata]

2 / when using 1920 x 1080 selecting the HD playback option. Does not show the bar.