I am now thinking returning the HP to Currys and ordering this one, £100 cheaper, but with a better graphics card. Do you feel this would be a wise move? They seem identical otherwise.

There is not much difference really. The only thing that might sway it for me is how quiet they are - gamers are not usually too worried about noise....but I am not sure how you can compare the two.

Any advice? I successfully burned some of the film to small MP4 chunks on a Blu-Ray disc. Have just tried to play it on our Samsung Blu-Ray player, but it says File Not Supported. I don't understand - the player lists MP4 as being supported. What is the problem?

Hi

. . . . burned some of the film to small MP4 chunks on a Blu-Ray disc . . . . but it says File Not Supported . . . .

If you burned the mp4 files direct to the BD and they stayed as mp4's then you have created a data disc, which can only be played in a player which supports this type of disc.

. . . . the player lists MP4 as being supported . . . .

What does the fine print in the manual say? I would suspect this is from USB memory stick or external hard drive only as my Sony BD player and my satellite receiver do.

HTH

John EB

How did you get the MP4 onto the bluray disc? Did you burn it using the Bluray Burn section of VPX and choose the H264 option in the burning dialog? Did it produce a proper bluray folder structure on the disc?

Maybe you just copied the MP4 to the disc. Whilst the Samsung will play a MP4 from an inserted USB stick, it can not read an MP4 from a disc as this gets created as an H264 AVCHD Transport stream .mts or .m2ts during the burn and creation of the folder structure.

@johnebaker

Ya beat me to the draw pardner!

Peter

Thanks guys. You've got it in one. I now believe that I created a data disc. As you will gather, technical knowledge is not my strong point. You guys have saved my bacon many times in the past few weeks... and I really appreciate it. With the film's premiere looming, and many hurdles still to clamber over, I might well need you again, Cheers.

@Scenestealer

Snap! that is according to the post time stamp.

John EB

Been away all day today, so I've missed all the posts. Sounds like you are nearly there now if you burn the BD using the proper disc burn procedure. Don't forget you can add chapter points to help with the disc navigation.

Roger

Tantalisingly close. But first I have sent the dialogue audio off to be enhanced, as I've been unable to make any positive difference with the in-built audio cleaning tools. Plus I want to re-shoot a sight gag which hasn't quite worked. Fortunately, my increasingly-obvious deficiencies are countered by the hilarious contributions of some celebrity guests. And I got to write a brand new song with the legendary Don Black. Thank goodness you good people have been kind enough to help me through some hairy moments. I suspect there are one or two more to come...

@MCK

Hi Mark,

Do you know about the external editor, Music Editor 3 that comes with MEP + and VPX? Normally, if you right click on an audio object, you will see a selection to Edit wave externally, (it is once again not working in this patch, most annoyingly) which should do a mixdown (shift+D) of the audio object, and then open it in ME3. There, you have many more audio tools to clean up your audio.

You can also do a mixdown of all of the audio (that is not muted) and it will be replaced on the timeline by a wav file. Then you can open that in the external audio editor (Alt+Z). What I do is not where the wav file is, do an undo, import the new file onto a track, and mute all of the other audio so that I still have all of my original audio objects on the timeline.

Once cleaned up in ME3, simply exit, accept save, and the audio file on the timeline is updated with the modified file.

You can also open ME3 as a standalone.

The external editor is indicated in the folders path of the program settings. You can change this to a different program. I use Magix Audio & Music Lab, which is a much better version of Music Editor 3 (ME3 is quite old now). AML has spectral cleaning and some Magix EssentialFX that I use, particularly for voiceovers.

Of course, you need to spend quite a bit of time learning how to use the tools.

Below is a screen shot of ME3 with two of the tools opened (this is a composite of 2 screen shots). The wave is from VPX.

Jeff, I believe, uses iZotope RX6, which, although quite expensive, does a superb job of cleaning up audio files.

John CB

Hi. Fascinating stuff about the Music Editor. Yes, I had seen it, but hadn't realised how useful it was. Thanks for this info.

Meanwhile, I have a new PC. But before I unbox and set it up, a question: when I "save project as" to an external hard drive, is everything saved? i.e. is the project folder also copied to the external drive. I want to be sure that when the new PC is up and running, and I have installed Video Pro X, I will be able to go right ahead and resume work.

Mark

Hi. Fascinating stuff about the Music Editor. Yes, I had seen it, but hadn't realised how useful it was. Thanks for this info.

Meanwhile, I have a new PC. But before I unbox and set it up, a question: when I "save project as" to an external hard drive, is everything saved? i.e. is the project folder also copied to the external drive. I want to be sure that when the new PC is up and running, and I have installed Video Pro X, I will be able to go right ahead and resume work.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Saving 'Project As' will only save the the timeline, screens etc under whatever name you give it. Think of the project as a set of instructions to tell the programme where to find the relevant files and folders. If you want to save everything including the project file to another drive, you need to transfer all the files and folders.

I always have a project folder for every job, that contains everything relating to the project. 'Save' saves the current timeline etc under the name that you have assigned for it and should be saved in the folder that you have made for all the files. 'Save As' is used when for example you want to save a slightly different version of the project under a new name, but still keep the original.

In the attached pic, the top pic shows the desktop with the programme I am working on and the folder it is in. The bottom pic shows the contents of that folder including the MVP. project file

Roger

So, if I want everything on an external hard drive, what must I do? Is it "File > Backup copy > Copy project and media into folder"?

So, if I want everything on an external hard drive, what must I do? Is it "File > Backup copy > Copy project and media into folder"?

If you already have everything in one folder on your internal drive, you just need to drag and drop it across to your external drive and it will automatically be copied under the same folder name, leaving the original on your internal drive as well.

If you have everything in different folders on the working drive, then it would be simpler to put them into one project folder, then you just need to drag and drop the one folder to make a copy on the external drive. HOWEVER be aware if you do move your existing files into one project folder, then when you reload the project you will need to direct the programme to where you have put the files. You will only have to do that once though.

Roger

Hi

. . . . If you have everything in different folders on the working drive . . .

In this case I would recommend you use the "File > Backup copy > Copy project and media into folder" option - this brings everything together into one folder with some additional files which (AFAICS) MEP uses to correct the file locations if you have to copy the project back from backup and re-edit the project.

HTH

John EB

I just did FILE - BACKUP COPY - COPY PROJECT AND MEDIA INTO FOLDER... but it didn't give me the option to choose or create a folder. I have no idea where it has all gone!

It is still saving, bit by bit, and I do not know where to. Any advice gratefully received as this is preventing me making progress.

Hi

This dialog box appears when you select the Backup copy project and media into folder.

The default location is your Documents folder - so the project and files may be there.

HTH

John EB

It is still saving! Should I abort this procedure?

Hi

You can by pressing the Esc key - this should then tell you where the files have gone, as shown below, and help with the necessary cleaning up.

If they are in the Documents folder along with all your other files - try separating them out using a Date search set for Today using Windows Explorer.

HTH

John EB

I am unclear about this. The dialogue box you mentioned DID appear, and I created and selected a new folder on an external hard drive as the back-up target. By this stage, some hours had passed. Now, hours later, it is still saving, and I don't know if this is to be expected or if something has gone wrong.