Future Enhancements

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 6:38 pm

Thought I might kick off this Topic now that we've all had a chance to play around with the very much improved version 8.
How about we place in this topic any future enhancements we would like to see. Maybe when there are sufficient ideas I can email ulead to ask them to take a look.

No gripes please, just serious suggestions.

For starters here's three.

1. An option to display a grid on the preview windows to assist with positioning issues - this is in addition to not a replacement for the current ability to use x,y width and height co-ordinates. Same sort of thing that you get with the overlay track in Video Studio 9.

2. In the production library, after using the multi-trim option, a facility to rename several clips by selecting All/selected clips. Currently you have to do each one individually which can be a hundred or more.
(An example of where I had to do this was when I recorded a whole bunch of Super 8 films projected onto a screen so that I could edit and then convert them to DVD. - here you cannot use the split function when importing into the computer because there isn't one the camcorder was recording continuosly - therefore it had to be done manually.)

3. When creating a transition, a small white box appears to show the length of the overlap. However it does not appear if you have a video with no sound track. Can this be changed so that it always appears please.

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 8:43 pm

Since we're getting close to the season let's finish filling out the 12 days of Christmas "gift list";

4. bezier curves in moving paths

5. 3D moving paths controlled in the Preview window as 2D's are now

6. transitions as DVE effects (page curl just an overlay etc.)

7. an Auto White Balance button in the color corrector.

8. an image stabilization filter.

9. full file control options in and between the Production Library/Project Tray.

Examples: copy to [menu], move to [menu] context menu items with [menu] being a list of the potential destination folders within PL/PT. Group selection should work with these functions.

10. option to auto-delete the original files thumbnail in PL/DL after Multi-Trim finishes splitting it.

11. while we're on Multi-Trim, how about the option to use it on the timeline with the default transition or straight cuts if desired?

12. a default transition duration in Preferences.

and a partridge in a pear tree

Jezve · Post by **Jezve** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 6:23 am

Terry, what about http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... highlight=?

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 7:46 am

As far as 8. is concerned, I would like it to stabilise on a selection area of any size from, say, 10x10 pixels up to full frame. SteadyHand, for example, works only on full frame, so that the desired object can still move about because of parallax. I've been pushing for this feature for years!

Arnie · Post by **Arnie** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:06 am

How about fixing the stuffed entry boxes in the Brightness & Contrast filter? I use this a lot, and on entering numbrs in the boxes, all sorts of weird things happen. For example, try to type in a number in the Gamma box. It refuses to accept what you type. This was stuffed in MSP7, and unchanged in MSP8. Come on Ulead, this is easy to fix!

Cheers,
Arnie.

p.s. Thanks for an otherwise great piece of software.

richardnau · Post by **richardnau** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:19 am

An enhancement to Terry's item 12, I think:

How about a 'snap to' setting to allow clips to be 'snapped to' a pre-defined transition length as you move them about on the time line? That is, if you set the pre-defined transition to (say) 25 frames, then as you move clip B up to and across clip A, there would be two 'snap to' positions:
* clip B exactly adjacent to clip A (we have this now)
* clip B overlapping clip A by 25 frames.

This wouldn't take away any flexibility to have transitions of any length -- but it would make it simple to have reproducible transition lengths.

And one more...

How about a button in the Moving Path and Filter and Overlay dialogue boxes that quickly sets all keyframes to have the same attributes as the current one. Very often, I use a moving path that doesn't move or a filter that doesn't change, and it would be great to set this up just once, not at both ends of the effect.

Happy Christmas wish list, everyone!

Richard.

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:27 am

All good suggestions except for Richards last one;

richardnau wrote: And one more...

How about a button in the Moving Path and Filter and Overlay dialogue boxes that quickly sets all keyframes to have the same attributes as the current one.

Richard.

MSPro 8 can already do that

In Effects Manager hover over the keyframe of your choice and from its context menu (right-click) you have the options to;

Copy and Paste to All

Copy and Delete Intermediate (copies first to last & deletes others)

Copy and Paste to All Right

richardnau · Post by **richardnau** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:31 am

Well blow me down -- it just gets better! I guess even the simplified UI has a learning curve.

Thanks, Terry.

Richard.

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 3:35 am

Don't feel bad Richard.

Even after several months of testing, a few weeks waiting for the boxed sets to arrive in our mailboxes and a month of release even most of the betas are still finding new toys and modes of operation.

Personally I think MSP8 can do things even the programmers aren't aware of

Chris0709 · Post by **Chris0709** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:39 pm

When applying a wipe with a soft edge, it still doesn't look quite right when rendered. Something strange happening there.

Another improvement would be for all of the advance options under the 'advance' tap for mpeg rendering being made available. I still cannot get a pulldown to work correctly. Better yet, add pulldown option in the MPEG dialog box.

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:02 pm

The soft edge/wipe issue has already been put in the "fix" hopper.

Agreed with putting pulldowns "up front".

That said I still tend to frameserve the timeline to the TMPGEnc encoder when I want to do a pulldown. It does 'em better than most any embedded encoder I've seen.

Chris0709 · Post by **Chris0709** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 8:30 pm

Terry,

Interesting approach to doing pulldown. Have not done it this way. Could you shed a little light on how you do that. I have the TMPGEnc and would like to give that a try.

Thanks

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 6:09 am

Frameserving can turn about any encoder that can handle *.avi's into a "plugin", for lack of a better term. Regardless of the semantics it can be an extremely useful tool.

I'd experiment with frameserving by first downloading the freeware DebugMode Frameserver;

http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/

Can't beat the price

The frameserver appears as a new filetype in the export dialog and has some setups I'll let its docs explain. When you "save" the export the frameserver creates a small proxy *.avi file on the export HDD, which you then load into TMPGEnc (or about any other encoder that can load *.avi's) for processing.

Once you start the encoder the frameserver will transfer the editors timeline via the proxy file several seconds at a time then stop when the encoder finishes. DebugModes frameserver can be installed for use with Sony, Adobe, Ulead and Pure Motion software;

http://www.debugmode.com/frameserver/

Check the rest of DebugModes site for some other cool software (Wax, WinMorph etc.)

Another frameserver is also available from VideoTools.net. It's a bit faster, more flexible in terms of its options and ability to run AviSynth scripts but is not free and only suports Ulead and Adobe software (one per purchase).

http://videotools.net/

Jezve · Post by **Jezve** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 11:27 am

It would be desirable, that in Audio Mixing Panel the max possible quantity of groups was equaled to quantity of audio tracks and anyway was not less than 5. And also, that the volume of the central channel varied at moving a yellow point in sound pan window .

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Nov 01, 2005 12:03 pm

Back to the Production Library Thumbnails.
I have just noticed that the sort option is only available when you view the list in the two thumbnail modes.
If you display the list as list view the sort option is greyed out.

Could do with this being available in all view modes.