4k crashes

[lata]

John
Are you able to share a video sample so we can test the files on our pc.
If they also fail we can ask Corel Support team to have a look.

If they play ok for us then we can look at your setup to set what is different.

You will have to upload the files to a sharing site, DropBox, Google Drive. One Drive etc.
Then provide us with a sharing link.

[Ken Berry]

Thank you for providing a sample via Trevor/lata -- or rather two. The second one, though, with the butterfly, was only HD 1920 x 1080, and that caused no problems in VS 2020, either playing or rendering.

Then there was the 43 second 4K sample (3840 x 2160 50 fps frame based) of the two sparrows (I presume) preening. And the bad news is that, like you, I could neither play it nor render it using VS 2020. Maybe Trevor will have better luck when he can experiment with your samples tomorrow. But while I could insert that clip in the timeline and read its Properties, as soon as I tried playing it in either Clip or Project mode, VS 2020 crashed. I also tried rendering it without first playing it, and again VS 2020 crashed. So it seems VS 2020 obviously does not like something about that video, even though its properties are normal 4K. And of course I already had the .mov codec installed on this computer.

The good news -- or perhaps bad news for you -- is that I then inserted the clip into VS 2021, and it had no trouble with it. Playing and Editing it might require you to enable SmartProxy. But VS 2021 did not crash at any stage in the following experiments. Since the clip is in .mov format, I did not expect to get a message asking me if I wanted to match the Project Properties with those of the video, and I didn't get it. So when I went to the Share page to render it, I had to use Custom to set up a new .mov profile for it to approximately match the properties of the original. I then rendered it to a new file. This took about 3 minutes or just a bit more to render, but nevertheless provided a good new clip that played perfectly well in VLC player.

I then set the output to H.264 4K mp4 output. This took just over two minutes to render, but again did so perfectly, and the quality I would have to say appeared better than the .mov version -- possibly because I only roughly mixed and matched the .mov properties under Custom, where I could simply choose a high bitrate output for the mp4 version. By starting a new project, and then inserting the clip I also got the message asking if I wanted the Project Properties to match those of the clip. Then in Share I could choose to render Same As Project Settings, and get an exact match.

And just to try it out, I then rendered again, this time using the H.265 HEVC 4k option. Again the output was quick and excellent. The quality is probably marginally better than the mp4 on my 32" 4K monitor screen, so may appear even better on a larger 4K TV screen...

So depending on Trevor's experiments, I guess the next step is up to you. In other words, if you want to continue using VS with your new camera, then I'm afraid you might have to fork out for VS 2021...

[john chapple]

Hi Ken. Thanks again for your help. I'm glad 'in a way' that you encountered the same issue as I did with the mov file on 2020. I sent the 1080 file by mistake. I was in a rush to watch the euro football and didn't realise I had sent two! oops. This Panasonic HC-X1500e has so many 4k options I'm not sure which to use. I'd like to record in mp4 but only one format works without getting a 'system error' message and that's on frequency 59.94Hz. 2060-23.98/420LongGOP 72M. I'm using a SDXC V30 U3 card with a write speed of 130MB/s and I don't understand why it wont record mp4 but has no issue with MOV. Maybe you can shed some light on that? By the way. the birds are Long-tailed Tits . I will think about 2021 upgrade but only recently got 2020 so don't want to fork out another £50.00 just yet. unless corel can offer a better deal!
All the very best John

[lata]

Like Ken
I have no problems with the MP4 file that played ok

The Mov file using 2020 I am afraid same as Ken
However Media Info shows the file HEVC, unfortunately I have a different pc that does not appear to have that codec installed so cannot really test that
Video Studio properties does not show any Compression details.
Certainly the problem I see is probably my PC capabilities or lack of them.
I’ll try to find the free H265 file otherwise I may have to pay, although I believe less than £2

As for 2021 same results with the lack of HEVC support on my PC

I'II have to test this later as we have the grandkids around today, its their mothers birthday who is being taken out for the day.

[john chapple]

Thanks so much Trevor

[lata]

John
I appear to have the file playing using 2021 after installing the HEVC Extension
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/hevc- ... verviewtab

I did have to use Smart Proxy files otherwise the program was so slow as to be unworkable. ( thats my pc capabilities)
The library thumbnail still shows as black
Show messages does not appear so project properties are not automatically matched
Right click the clip for Properties does not identify the Compression, box is empty, hence Show Messages not working.

and yes the birds are “long-tailed tits”

Testing using 2020
Inserting the clip to the timelines is very slow
Trying to play in either Clip or Project mode froze the program followed by a crash
Again I think It may be the Compression that the program does not like
It is possible that Panasonic is using its own HEVC codec instead of the standard H-265 that may be causing VS to struggle.
Then my pc may not be the best device in playing HEVC although the samples I have seem to play ok, although they are H.265

Does the camera record to 4K using H.264 and not HEVC

[Ken Berry]

Hmmm... I never thought to check in Media Info -- just used VS Properties. So I'm feeling a bit dumb that I never realized it was HEVC disguised as .mov. It also made a bit of a nonsense when I thought I was doing something novel by rendering the clip to HEVC when all I was doing was rendering it to its real format! But at least my experiment showed that there was no problem in doing so in VS 2021.

I am a little curious about your speculation that Panasonic might be using a tweaked HEVC codec. That of course is always possible with Panasonic. But the fact that the clip plays in VS 2021 and not 2020 either negates that or indicates that Corel might have done something to match the tweak in VS 2021 since we both have exactly the same MS HEVC extension unchanged and available to both VS 2020 and 2021.

I was also intrigued that you say the library thumbnail appears black. It's first frame shows fine in my thumbnail.

And yes the camera can use both H.264 and H.265. The H.264 ones come out as .mp4 though I will need to look more closely at the specs to see if HEVC ones also can come out as mp4 as well as .mov clips.

EDIT: Just to confirm that the HEVC output can also be set to produce .mp4 clips. See https://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/c ... specs.html

[lata]

Thanks Ken for the link to the cameras spec
As you say there is a hevc .mp4 option
I wonder if video studio will cope better with that rather than hevc.mov

Even so for me I think I would use mp4 until I get a better pc that will cope with hevc.
As far as i know the quality of h265 v h264 are the same, just the file sizes are much reduced using h265

[Ken Berry]

Yes -- similar quality but smaller size, plus of course the need for a more powerful computer to edit HEVC!

[lata]

I did not pay much attention to the audio, now I notice a lot of static on the Mov recording playing with my media player so not a Video Studio issue.
I can only assuming caused during recording