VS2019 bogs & crash ? NOT backward compatible ? True ?

[brouillette]

My VSP was initially made with VS2018. It was originally for a 45 minutes family movie and was rendered successfully.

I upgraded to VS2019 and wanted to add some clips to it in the middle (some .png, .jpg, .mov, .mp4 clips).

After doing so, VS2019 was rendering at 99% (to produce unfinished MP4 or M2ts movies at 0Kb with one 60MB ".a" audio file and one 4GB ".v" separate video file). It also kept freezing when using "3d Title Editor" and crashing each time I scrubbed my VSP project (same spot).

I tried replacing the clips surrounding the timeline crash point with other clips and with VS samples, but it keeps crashing (same spot...like if there was a bog imprinted in the script that could not be replaced by new clips).

After countless hours with them and as instructed by Corel Technical Support , I did cleanup VS2018 and VS2019 per their usual process (delete temp files, run cleanup.exe, reload VS from your website…), and since crash was still happening, they suggested a reload of W10.

I loaded a fresh W10 (time-consuming) and with only VS 2019 installed, it still crashes on that VSP.

Now Tech Support tells me and I quote : "If the project was created in 2018 or any previous version you cannot edit that project in the latest
version; it has some additional features so you need to re-do the project".

Wow! Not "Upward compatible", I can understand, but not backward compatible ? Why upgrade then ? (Microsoft Office 2019 still opens and edits .doc files that are 25 years old)

Question 1 : is it true that VS2019 is not "Backward Compatible" and cannot edit previous versions projects ????

Question 2 : It is a large elaborated family movie VSP project that would take me weeks to rebuild. A VSP file must contain a "scrip" that tells VS what to open and when, so is there a way to find out what is happening at that specific spot and causes the crash each time ? In other words, any way to "view" the script at that crash point ?

Pretty discouraging ! Is it only me or does VS recent versions less and less reliable ???

Help please on possible ways to correct !

Thanks!

[Davidk]

Normally it should be. But I've just tried opening an x10 project with 2019, and it won't go. Likewise, starting X10 and opening the same project - zip. So sometimes it seems that mixing versions corrupts the vsps's to be unusable for any version.

You could start the older version (or re-install it - multiple versions are very practical - currently there are 4 on my machine, but only 1 will run at any one time), open and modify the vsp as you want and then re-render it.

As for your remarks about latest version unreliability - you are not alone, many remarks in this forum about that (a simple search would show them), and personally I know several who think 2019 is very unreliable, a mistake to buy it. And despite commentary about this to the Corel staff, Corel seems more intent on adding new gizmos than making sold versions stable and reliable (a lot of forum comment about that too). Once a new version is released, there generally isn't any update to any old(er) one.

So, if you have an older version that is for you reliable and has the features you normally use: stick with it unless there is something in a newer version you must have. In that case, wait until the second or third service pack before using it seriously.

[lata]

As you have located the point on the timeline where the crash occurs, have you tried rendering just upto that point by setting the Project Playback Range.
You could then set the range after that point to render to the end.
As you are experiencing crashes using 2019 and Corel do not seem to be able to fix that for you, you will be best reverting back to 2018 which does not appear to have as many crash issues, although not completely clear.
You can save the project from 2019 to open in 2018 by selecting the “Save as Type” from the File – Save As window
I would also add 2018 to the project name so you have a separate copy.

And no it is not just you experiencing crashed, many reports on the forum

As for reading the project file to show the scripts we have no way of editing the data although we can open using NotePad but does not display correctly and impossible to edit.
Have a go if you wish but open a copy of your file not the original as you may easily corrupt the file.

[jdowney]

Hi,

When all else fails, you can remove/delete both VS 2018 and VS 2019. Then reinstall just VS 2018, and then you should be able to open and edit your VSP file.

Jeff

PS: Make sure you have copies of any and all VSP files in a safe VS non directory...

[brouillette]

Davidk,
First of all, all the best for the New Year and I wish you…lots of rain in Australia…!!!

Thanks for the time you devoted to test my issue and your suggestion to look at the forum comments on VS2019 similar issues: at least I am not the only one to be impacted.

You also re-assured me with your multiple VS versions on your PC working well ; I was reluctant to do so since Corel Tech Support told me before, and I quote , “to clean-up all previous versions of VS on my PC as VS is sensitive to “version collision”.

Trevor,
You are my SAVIOUR !

It works ! I opened my boggy VSP with VS2019 (as VS2018 could not open it anymore) and did, as you suggested, a File > Save as > Save as type = VS2018.

I then loaded VS2018 (keeping VS2019 per Davidk suggestion) and opened my VS2018 VSP copy with it, and everything is now fine (I can edit and render with VS2018)

I then re-tried to open my new “no bog VS2018 VSP” with VS2019, it crashed again when scrubbing, so VS2019 is really not "backward compatible".

Question 1 :
How can we determine which version a VSP was produced in ? I looked in the (Windows) file Properties and it uses the general wording of “Corel VideoStudio document” without the version identified; even the icon does not correspond as it is the VS2018 for both VS2018 or VS2019 saved files (maybe because VS2018 was my last loaded version ???); even the VS >Settings > Project Properties does not show it.

Question 2 :
As a Site Admin, you may have a better access to Corel Developpers/Programmers ? Shouldn’t they have a Warning when we save a VSP file like “WARNING ! This project is a VSxxxx file. Saving it in an older or newer version may corrupt the VSP file and make it unusable. Please make a copy before doing so. Do you still want to proceed ?”. A corrupted unusable VSP could require weeks of work to rebuild for a (frustrated) customer since VS versions are not necessarily “upward or downward compatible” (on the wish list ?)

Great thanks to all of you !

[asik1]

On your Q2, I think VS doesn't know the file is corrupt until it tries to load it.
So It is always good on long/complex projects to save versions along the way every few hours.
If you keep saving it as a single file .....

[Davidk]

I've generally found that 2019 is backwards compatible. And it does have bugs, even after sp3 as the forum comments attest, and it's likely that some of those affect compatibility. But if you try to 'save as' and 'open' a vsp in different versions often enough, something screws up. As a good practice, if you are doing a project then keep that project - which may be just the one, or several related project files - all using the same version of VS to minimise this incompatibility effect.

As to rain, the national anthem captures it rather well - droughts and flooding rains - in regular cycles, which statistically have a close match to the sunspot cycle: extended sunspot minima will be drought years here. This year the fire season has been worse than most, but depending on your metric - not the worst. And as usual in emergencies like this, lots of turf protecting and political finger pointing about things we should have done, or done better. What's not mentioned much is that there are a few things that actually improved the situation over the last big fires in 2009, which overran a small mountain township without warning and killed 178. But good news rarely makes the headlines. Thanks for your good wishes.

[brouillette]

Some of you may be interested by the outcome now that I’m finished interfacing numerous times with Tech Support (but I must say they have been dedicated and patient in exchanging with me on this issue)

My issue was that VS2019 kept freezing/crashing on my VS2018 VSP

I went thru several cleaning routines & even reloaded W10 as instructed, and with only VS loaded

Tech Support (and I quote): “If the project was created in 2018 or any previous version you cannot edit that project in the latest version as it has some additional features so you need to re-do the project.”

me : “are you telling me that VS2019 is not "backward compatible" with previous versions VSP projects ? Are you sure ? Why would we upgrade then to a newer version ? (even Microsoft Word 2019 can open .doc documents that are 25 years old...!!!)”

Tech Support: “Yes, for the projects created in 2018 or any previous version you cannot edit that project in the latest version ; it has some additional features so you need to re-do the project . Upgrade has some additional features compared to the older version you cannot edit the project which is created in the previous versions.”

me : “So if I understand correctly, a family VSP project that I did and rendered at DVD quality with VSX3 (VS13) , and now I want to update it by adding higher resolution photos/videos and upgrade it by rendering it in HD or 4K quality, I cannot use VS2019 to do so ?"

me : "And that even if VS2019 opens the VSX3 VSP fine (it does), if I add new photos (it does), apply some VS2019 features (it does) and save it in VS2019 (it does), VS2019 may corrupt it and make it unusable ?”

Tech Support : "If you have already rendered the file in the previous version it will open in the latest version. Otherwise VSP files will not open in any of the other versions."

So after many tests, MY CONCLUSIONS are :

(1) A VSP started with an earlier version (i.e. VS2018) should not be finished with a later version (like VS2019 as it is NOT 100% “backward compatible”)

(2) If the VS2018 VSP is edited and saved under the latest version (VS2019), it may become corrupted and may freeze or crash with VS2019

(3) Then VS2018 will not be able to re-open it (obviously, as it is not “upward compatible”)

(4) But when in VS2019, if saved using "File > Save as… > Save as type", and selecting an earlier version (VS2018, VSX10…etc), it can be opened by that earlier version and rendered (I did and it works)

(5) According to Tech Supprt, if the earlier VSP has been rendered under a previous version, then it will open under VS2019. In my case it did open but got corrupted despite the fact that it had been rendered before under VS2018, was opened by VS2019, edited under VS2019, but started freezing or crashing when scrubbing or using 3D Title Editor, or rendering in VS2019.

(6) It is by saving it as a VS2018 type VSP and going back to VS2018 that I succeeded in using my VSP again (…everything is fine now in VS2018)