Thank you for replying about the size of my MVP file. I never noticed any warnings in the Magix documentation about keeping these down. I have been progressing (over the last TWO YEARS (!!)) with a presentation that is likely to run to a total duration of 90 minutes. I thought that would be okay and I did really want to be able to scroll along the whole thing in a SINGLE project and - ultimately render 1 file from 1 file in an environment where I could see and access everything at once.

I did not imagine, by keeping everything in ONE file,  I was going to get LOCKED OUT of my Project.

I understand NOW that I need to cut it down into chunks - but to do that I need to be able to open it again.

I am sure the content is not corrupt. It loads, I can see the blocks in the tracks but then the program chokes and forces closure. I think it is falling over at the point where it should be gathering the images for the section that I am looking at. The film frame in the Preview window never gets populated - the program just says it has to close.

I don't want to lose my work. I wonder if I could send the Project File to Magix and they would cut it in half for me.

Someone at Amazon told me that the 2014 version uses "Control" files not mvps any longer. Perhaps there was some optimisation between the versions.

I wonder if I could wait a month or so for MEP 2015 to be released and if that would just have the POWER to get my Project open as it is.

It doesn't make sense that a program can write a file that will be too big for it to open. It would help if there was a coded mechanism to prevent that happening. I had NO IDEA of the danger I was in.

As an aside, in which I clutch at straws.....

After I saved my 61.53MB Project File this morning, I uninstalled the Chrome Browser and then reinstalled it - THEN I came back to Magix Movie Edit and THEN I had my first problem with the crashing.

Could the uninstallation and reinstallation of my browser have interfered with the .dll files that are needed by the Magix program ? Might something have been deleted ?

I wonder if reinstalling MEP 2013 would "Magix"ly solve my problem.

Presumably you have been taking automatic backups?

Have you tried loading a suitably old and therefore smaller one of those MV_ files?

Succesively older System Restores would also be worth trying.

You might also see what happens if you deliberately prevent MEP from accessing the bulk of those PNGs. Temporarily move them to another folder. Then 'Skip All' in response to the message you'll get - if it gets that far. Then progressively return them to the original locations.

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Hi

At 63 MB that is one huge project - how many png files are in it?

I have a project with 3400 images in it and it is only 900KB in size.

I suspect the crashes is because Windows is running out of resources to handle the number of png's in the project.

In this situation I think you may have to start again and break it down into much more manageable chunks.

John

Thank you, Terry, for the brilliant suggestion about moving my content and using the "Skip All" command. I really thought that that would work and get me back into the project so that I could delete all the material from the earliest sections of the presentation and reclaim the later animations I had added between last Wednesday and this morning.

The Project loaded faster than usual, as it didn't have 7363 media items to collect, but the program closed just as it has been doing all day.

Previously, I thought there was no data corruption with this latest "most complete" version of the Project - the 61.53MB file - but I may be wrong about that.

The version from last Wednesday that still works has a larger filesize of 63MB. It is shorter and has less content which maybe points to the possibility that nothing post-midweek  was saving properly. I just assumed that everything was fine. I spent several days with the program open all the time, saving to the same filename and not knowing anything was wrong.

It's a good thing that I closed MEP today and came back to find the loss at THIS STAGE. If I hadn't closed it to reinstall my browser I would have kept going and going and going and would have had far more to re-do when I finally did discover the problem.

I now have an 18MB Project File for the 8 minute section that I am currently creating. I now understand that that is still considered a big file - but hope that my up-to-60MB experiences can promise that I have some headroom.

I had suspected that the crashing was to do with an individual element such as one really big png file I had made, with lots of blank space, so that I could control the centre point of rotation.

I will have to test that first thing tomorrow in my cut down file and probably just "get over" my wish to have a 90 minute 99 track project file. It's just not going to be realistic in any version of the software, is it ?

I use a LOT of tracks with a LOT of graphical elements so suppose THAT is why my files are so large.

You might also see what happens if you deliberately prevent MEP from accessing the bulk of those PNGs. Temporarily move them to another folder. Then 'Skip All' in response to the message you'll get - if it gets that far. Then progressively return them to the original locations.

 

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

 

Glad to hear your making some progress anyway.

You didn't answer my question about automatic backups.

"I spent several days with the program open all the time, saving to the same filename and not knowing anything was wrong."

I'm amazed that you didn't get a single crash or lockup in that long period of editing. I'm lucky if I don't get several every day (in MEP 2014, but previous versions have been similar). Normally I allow MEP to restore the project that it assures me it was able to backup directly before the crash (a very welcome feature BTW). And I always take its advice to then re-save immediately with a new name, just in case. But if you've neither been

- getting any crashes anyway

- regularly saving yourself with new names

- regularly closing and re-starting MEP

- taking automatic backups and maintaining their 10-step roll-over carefully

then your predicament is hardly too surprising!

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

I *do* maintain automatic backups - but trying to restore from those is very much a last resort. I tried yesterday and it took 5 hours to restore and then the program closed in the same manner as it did with the 61.53MB MVP.

I don't like the "no promises" disclaimer than comes with the "Restore" feature. My Project is too big for me to manually check through it all.

I prefer to go back to older versions of the proper MVP.

I use cloud storage and that has versioning. That's how come I was able to test a 61.53MB MVP and a 61.51MB version of my most up-to-date filename.

When they didn't work I hopped back to the last good file - the 63MB one with a different filename.

I don't know why the 63MB file reduced in size after I had re-named it. I don't think I had deleted any material between the crossover - and then, when I got going I was just ADDING more media so I can't account for the drop from 63MB to 61ish - unless Magix performs some "tidying up" when you save with a fresh name.

Does it?

Perhaps, in future I will be able to monitor filesizes and make sure that whenever I add something their size INCREASES.

Perhaps EVERY save should be given a new name.

You said you were surprised I didn't get any lock ups or crashes. I haven't had those.

The program always has some trouble breaking the playhead bar so that it can be in two different positions - until you alter the view zoom level so it can correct itself. I never need to CLOSE the program because of that.
It's an issue that was in the MEP MX version too.

Generally, I would only close MEP 2013 when a new graphic won't display. This sometimes happens when I have brought in a new transparent png and have applied some motion to it. I try to scrub the action to add/test the keyframed motions - but I can't see anything or DO anything to an INVISIBLE ELEMENT so I am forced to save and leave the program.

When I return (after the 5-10 minute load) the picture is generally visible, scrubbable, animated and I can carry on.

Is the difference between 2013 Project Files and 2014 Control Files that 2013 makes its own copies of the media that you add ?

I came to Magix after using (a VERY old version of) Adobe Premiere Pro and had assumed that MEP also just POINTED to external files. I've noticed that MEP 2013 doesn't  update my graphics when I edit them so suppose it must be using its own captures prior to the final render.

I can't scrub through in Magix MEP 2013 the way I did in Premiere Pro 6, the pre-rendering doesn't work for me. Premiere used to make GIANT temporary films. Something of a mixed blessing - but I wonder if these features are available in 2014 or 2015 - giving reasons to upgrade.

New keyframing and being able to do simple things like choose your point of rotation would be very welcome.