@CarpentersMate

As you progressed through your project, adding clips, photos, effects, titles etc. did you progressively save sequential versions of your project? Or did the system made backups of your project every 10 min (default setting). If you go back to previous versions or backups, you may be able to isolate when the project was running smoothly and when it started stuttering.

Hello Can-Dive and thank you for the reply.

"did you progressively save sequential versions of your project?"

Yes (out of habit), everytime I modified something (anything), I aways 'saved' the project. I'm not sure how many times the MEP 2016 will allow one to go back? But I appreciate you mentioning the option. Are you also suggesting in the future (after making changes), I should actually save the project to a different name, creating various manual back up's?

As for Ray's response, (especially since he experienced this), I commend him for an honest opinion and tend to agree with him. I should note, the only DeFrag was done when I formatted a fresh new SSD system drive.

Actually this project's completion is estimated to be 45-60 mins long. Luckily I was only 2 or 3 minutes into it. As a 'long term solution', will beg the question: (provided my current system will handle the demand), perhaps I should dump 2016 and upgrade the program? And BTW, is the newer editing a 'one time purchase', or a yearly subscription? Yes, I realize there will be a learning curve. 😬 But willing to endure that to save time and effort. 😁

Thanks Guys (you're the best)!

Mike

@CarpentersMate

I'm sure others will disagree but personally I would not upgrade to a newer version. Every time I have upgraded I have sacrificed some form of degradation in performance. VPX 11 was my most usable version but going back would mean losing a lot of the third party plugins I have got used to using. Only when or if I manage to upgrade my system to a new CPU / motherboard and ram would I consider upgrading again. If you decide to go ahead you can get a perpetual licence as an option.

I do and have the option to upgrade to Win 11 when the time comes. If things improve with my current programs I may consider updating one of the programs to see if things are different but otherwise not. There have been so many updates to graphics drivers Direct X and Win 10 I'm not even sure if any of that is to blame for the worsening behaviour of my copies of MMS 2024 and VPX14 or not due to the age of my core hardware.

Certainly my 1TB C: drive is still less than half full and I have two other NVME drives for project work as well as a ton of internal SATA drives that give me over 8TBs of internal storage with another 9TBs of external back up soon to become 12TBs of faster internal SATA drives with larger caches. That's great for what I mainly do which is stills photography but the video side is OK only if I keep things simple.

One other thing while I think about it. In the past it has been the wisdom on the forums to try deleting old HDP and H0 files so that the program can remake them when the project is next opened except that isn't happening on my system.

The amount of backup copies cycles through ten backups and if set to the default setting of 10 minutes doesn't give you a backup that far back.

Ray.

Thank You Ray: That's a lot of valuable information. If I understood you, were you suggesting, (after considerable editing with good functionality), RENAME that current project treating it as an additional 'Back Up', if things suddenly go SOUTH again? Or would this be redundant?

My Best Always

Mike

@CarpentersMate

Hi Mike

Preview stutter can be caused by any combination ot the following overloading the CPU/iGPU due to lack of Hardware Acceleration

• Multiple video clips running simultaneously on the timeline, eg for Picture in Picture or a Collage.
   
• Images running simultaneously on the time line.
   
• Some Effects eg Colour correction, and/or some animations

One solution to the issue is to Preview render either a set range of, or the whole, timeline.

Do note that as soon as you edit the timeline after preview render, is lost and you have to preview render again

HTH

John EB

@CarpentersMate

Just to clarify my previous statement. While Magix will save the project as a backup on a timely basis (every 10 min), I also save the project with sequential numbers. Say I have a project called "Day trip." After adding all my videos to the timeline, I'll save the project as Day trip 01. Say I add photos to the project. That will then be saved as Day trip 02, I may add music and then save Day trip 03. I'll add some effects and transitions and save it as Day trip O4. Finally, I'll add credits to the end of the video and save it as Day trip 05. I will then use Day trip 05 to export the video. If I am happy with the project and final export, I'll do one last save after export and call it Day Trip Final and keep that version deleting the previous five.

Essentially, I am making manual backups as I work so if I run into problems I can go back to a specific version and start again. If you are really keen, before saving each version, you can go into the Movie setting and make a note as to what you completed in that version. It's a good option to have but I'm usually not that keen! 😃

@CarpentersMate

Hi Mike.

That I've never tried renaming as by the time it has happened to me it has been too late. For me it has also mainly happened on revisiting a project rather than while working on it. Also my problem may not be exactly the same as your own as it only occurs on my projects that run more than a few tracks showing Pips within the same full frame. If I'm running six tracks or less it doesn't happen which makes me fear it is a hardware based problem. But once it has started I have found no personal solution that works for me.

But it could also be software as for instance @johnebaker 's solution used to work for me on both my current programs but over the last eighteen months or so has become less and less effective as.

A: the result still shows very bad stutter and

B: Not all tracks seem to get put into the final render depending on how many tracks are involved.

I also had to do the renders in chunks or else as John say's, any alteration leaves the render useless, so doing it in chunks alleviated having to redo the whole project timeline which took considerable time when that used to work.

As I said earlier, none of the computer's components are being stressed on a revisit to a project although they were much more stressed during making the project when it worked. Most are close to tickover when I have playback problems although some projects get to use a lot of ram when made but often not as much when revisited some time after. If I use the scroll wheel nothing disappears and everything works on the timeline. Everything gets picked up and used. It just can't be played back as it should.

Why any of that happens, I have no idea.

Ray.

@CarpentersMate

Just to clarify my understanding of your issue. It's not that playback of the video stutters or even freezes in the Program Monitor, the actual red play-head stops moving?! Does the audio still play while the play-head is stationary? Is the entire program frozen at this point?

I have experienced video stutter or freezing in the Program Monitor but the play-head continues to move foreword and the audio continues to play.

My friends: I apologize, I think I found the problem: I was editing a mixture of many different clips, music, narration etc., (which normally wouldn't matter). But one interview was approx. one hour 45 mins. long. Although linear editing should have taken care of that? I believe that piece was just too lengthy and caused the erratic behavior. I've been cautioned here to avoid exporting shortened pieces to MP4's which will naturally be a converted file size, then adding them back to the timeline afterward because you'll get degradation; (Re-Conversions), back to a final MP4. When dealing with long interviews, I used to export by subject matter, (topics). Then place them back on the time line (where needed). In any event (in this case), I believe the original interview was just too long to be edited within the MEP timeline and caused the erratic behavior. I removed the unedited raw MP4 and extracted pieces (by topic). By using only smaller pieces, the erratic behavior was corrected, the Play Head returned as well as functionality.

Yes thanks Ray - But I also remember your caution regarding repeat render .... I do prefer to split up/edit topics, export them, then insert them accordingly. 🌝 Its not critical - working out fine, unless you have another tip/suggestion? Hope the weather is fine by you? 😀

Mike

@CarpentersMate

Hi Mike.

Using the same file or same portion of the same file a few times never seems to work for me. Better to have two identical files with different names seems to work for me much better. Whether this has something to do with how memory management works within the programs or something specific to my system I have no idea. Sometimes things are just what they are and I learn to live or work around them if possible.

As an average Englishman I can confirm I have enough of the hot weather for now and would prefer it to cool down a bit. On the plus side if I could find a decent insect net I could easily sleep outside at night 😂.

Also being English and stupid my, arms currently represent someone with leprosy. They have been peeling now for over a week and a half. Not uncomfortable or painful, just unsightly and a constant reminder to use sun block cream.

Ray.

Dear Ray: I'm soooo sorry I didn't notice this reply until now. I sincerely hope you're doing well despite the condition you spoke of. I continue to enjoy editing with MEP (all these years)! And BTW for your enjoyment (as an Englishman), check out 'Rimsky and Handkerchief' ... They're in Cropredy, Oxfordshire UK. They edit their own material and the scenery reminds me of the dreaded Hedgerows of Normandy, (although the countryside is quite beautiful).