Need help with a few things

conies wrote on 2/20/2014, 6:45 AM

Had Movie Edit Pro for some time now and still struggling to get to grips with it and I have a few questions.

What does BAK mean at the end of some of my files, I didn't put it there? When I try to open these files it says can't open as there is no program associated with these files.

Spent two hours last night editing about 50 files into a short 10 minute movie, after about 10/15 clips I saved it, gave it a title and put it in the folder. This morning I went to open it up in the program as open last project and what I got was a 30 second clip of the scenes that I had deleted from the original clips and not even all of them.

Also downloaded movie from camera, edited, saved and then clicked on burn to disc and selected the TV option as I wanted to play on my DVD recorder. We have three DVD recorders and they all say that they don't recognise what is in the machine, I though that by clicking on the burn for TV option I wouldn't have to do anything else it would just do it. Where am I going wrong?

Thanks for your help.

Comments

jeffjn wrote on 2/20/2014, 7:11 AM

Hi and welcome.

.BAK files are backup files. The can be created by many programs. If they are are being created By MEP, where are you finding them - in what folder? Do the names look like project names or file names, apart from the .BAK suffix?

I'm not sure I recognise what is happening in your second question - can you try a shor test without spend lots of time, and then supply details?

The third point about DVD compatibilty can depend on a number of things. The most likely is the to are making PAL DVD but like in North America - US DVD players oftern won't play back PAL. Do the discs play OK on your computer?

conies wrote on 2/20/2014, 8:58 AM

I did wonder if they were back up files but why so many I did one thing last night and there are 5 files with BAK0, BAK1, BAK2 etc

emmrecs wrote on 2/20/2014, 9:23 AM

I did wonder if they were back up files but why so many I did one thing last night and there are 5 files with BAK0, BAK1, BAK2 etc

The number of BAK files is determined by how long you have spent editing a particular project together with the length of time you have specified in Program Settings (shortcut Y) should be the time period between MEP creating autosaves of your work.

Thuis, if you have been working for one hour and have set MEP to autosave every 10 minutes (I think that's the default), at the end of your session you will find at least 5 BAK files created during that hour and associated with the project. (They are automatically numbered sequentially, highest number should be latest back-up.)

Like John, I would be interested in the detailed step-by-step process that lead to the problem in your second paragraph. Interestingly, perhaps, the BAK files associated with this project should enable you to recover the "lost" work.

Jeff

conies wrote on 2/20/2014, 10:40 AM

I was editing and just kept clicking on the disc button (save project) on the top left of the screen but having done a search this morning could find nothing that resembles my project. I decided just to start again as I was wasting time searching for my file.

I have done it again. took half the time and this time clicked on save project as and kept overwriting my file and hooray its there.

What format should I be burning the projects to DVD if I want to watch them on TV. Should I be resaving the files with a different ending like MP4 or WMV or something else.

emmrecs wrote on 2/20/2014, 1:23 PM

Hi again.

Glad to hear one problem seems to be resolved now.

In terms of the format to save your project in order to burn a DVD, essentially you need do nothing! Simply, once you're happy with the edited files on the timeline, save your project to create the final .mvp file, then click on to the Burn screen and carefully follow all the instructions there. MEP creates the DVD files directly from your project; you do not need to make any decisions about the format for export, just respond to any messages that MEP shows you as it is about to begin the export.

Jeff

johnebaker wrote on 2/20/2014, 1:42 PM

. . . . What format should I be burning the projects to DVD if I want to watch them on TV. . . .

You must burn to DVD - select the Burn tab, here you can select the menu style you want for the movie.

Then you click the Burn button ie the disc with the flames.

In the next window that opens, select the DVD option. This will open the burn dialog, the top option should be set to your DVD writer.

With a disc in the DVD writer click the Burn button (small disc with flames).

Your disc will now be made.

Note:

I use rewriteable discs initially to burn to - this saves money ,if the burn is unsuccessful (sometimes happens) I can then re-use the rewriteable disc. O

Once I have a good disc that plays OK then I copy it using Nero to DVD-R disc, if you do not have Nero, ImgBurn is free and available on the Internet. I then re-use the rewriteable disc.

It is important that you use good quality DVD discs - cheap discs are false economy - you may get more failures or discs not being recognised by the players.

. . . . burn to disc and selected the TV option . . . .

AFAICS there is no such option! Where did you find this option?

HTH

John

conies wrote on 2/23/2014, 2:36 AM

Thanks for that johnebaker that is exactly what I am doing but DVD players say disc not recognised. I can only think it might be the type of disc that I am using - currently Tesco DVD+RW which is the same ones we use in the DVD players without any problem. Maybe I will try a different type of disc.

Is it normal for it to take over an hour to burn the disc? The video I made was 27 mins long.

jeffjn wrote on 2/23/2014, 3:07 AM

I did ask you earlier where you werte located as this may have a bearing on why your discs won't work. I'm guessing from the Tesco reference that you are in the UK?

There are other possible reasons as well. Can you put the disc in your computer and report what happens?

If it plays automatically then thats fine. If it asks what you want to do, tell it to show you the files on the disc and report what is on there.

It's perfectly feasable for a disc creation to take longer than real time by some margin, depending on the power of your computer and the source material.