Video Preview Playback Issue

russelldean wrote on 5/13/2019, 10:55 AM

Hi, I'm having a really hard time using the MEP19 Premium version 18.0.3.261

When making videos, the preview playback is all scrambled and jumpy, keeps freezing and stalling too. It won't seem to play the video properly no matter what my settings or imported items. The issue occurs with every video I make, even with basic picture slideshows. I will say that it is extremely difficult to create a video and time the clips and texts with the sound when the video preview won't play right. With much trial and error practices I have manage to produce some real good videos, the software seems to always render the final product beautifully, but it is a real pain just to get it done to the end without proper playback. It like doubles the time or more that it takes to make the video costing lots of lost time and production value.

I attempted making a nice video for Mother's Day to send out and I completely made the video four times to no avail. Each time I was right at the finish of it, the software would suddenly trash or just delete half of my work. I'd be ready to save and render the final video and suddenly I'd look and all the texts would not show at all or disappear completely. On my 4th attempt of this particular video, I finished it and when I was about to render the final, half of the video clips suddenly disappeared off the end of the video, all the texts (one on each clip of about 30) too disappeared from the video.

So I've got these two issues giving me a hard time getting anything done. I can't see the preview correctly because it won't play properly and part of my work keep disappearing as if deleted, some clips were even partially gone with part still there. I have no idea what's causing this or how to remedy the situation.

Does anyone know how to remedy the preview playback in the software? or perhaps why parts of my video suddenly disappear? Are there any patches or fixes for this type of issue? I appreciate any assist you might can offer. Thanks

I also wanted to ask someone about updates: When I get an Update Notice within the software with a description of the update and a button to View Update Features, is this popup telling me that an update is available or that one has already been installed? When I click the Update notice, it takes me to a page that appears to be an attempt to sell me the update despite the Notice telling me that it is free. Thanks again.

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 5/13/2019, 1:37 PM

Hi, welcome to the Magix forums.

First, please read this post and give us all the information requested there. The problem you are experiencing is almost certainly something to do with your specific computer configuration but, at the moment, we know nothing about the machine you are using to edit your videos. Unless we have that information, any advice we can offer is going to be entirely guess-work!

Also please tell us the format of the video files you are using in MEP. If you're not sure, please download and install the free MediaInfo utility, point it to one of your files and paste the results of the Text view to any reply you wish to make in the forum.

As to your question re Updates: your version IS the current latest so no updates are available, I believe. You are apparently receiving notifications about renewing your Update Service, which, if bought, will allow you to continue to update the program as new patches/versions are released over the next 12 months. If you choose not to renew your update service the version you now have will continue to run but will never be updated. Unfortunately, one other consequence of not renewing is that, should you ever need to reinstall the software for any reason, it will revert to the version that was current when you first bought it, with no option to update/upgrade even as far as your now-current version!

HTH

Jeff
Forum Moderator

russelldean wrote on 5/13/2019, 1:59 PM

Ok, thanks emmrecs. Here ya go:

I am using mostly .mp4 and a few .mov video clips. The majority are 1980x1080 16:9 at 29.97 fps 16 tracks 48000 Hrz. I may render video at most any size or resolution depending upon its application (use). I don't usually "adjust" any settings per the video clips upon import but rather, build as is letting the software render all of the clips to whatever settings I am rendering to. So far MEP exports/renders my videos beautifully, it's just a real chore to get them made with the preview running/hanging up as it is.

My audio clips are usually .mp3 and some .wav or .acc. The .acc I'll convert to .mp3 before importing.

I'm on a HP Pavilion G6, AMD A6-7310 APU, 2.2Ghz, 4G Ram, 500G HD, AMD Radeon R4 Graphics, Windows 10 Home Version 1803.

Hope some of this info helps us find the problem 🙂

CubeAce wrote on 5/13/2019, 3:59 PM

@russelldean

Hi Russell.

I'm very sorry to say that it would seem your Laptop is somewhat underpowered for this.Video Editors don't often work well with AMD chipsets and 4gig of ram may not be enough. Turning off some of the more intensive processing options such as reducing resolution, lowering frame rate and using proxy objects will help reduce processor loads. One of the most demanding things you can do with any PC or laptop is video editing and even at 1080p the processing requirements are huge. 4K editing would need a machine close to top of the line performance. MEP and a few other video editing programs are really fine tuned to work best with intel chipsets. Even then care has to be taken into chosing the correct CPU. Ideally you would need more than one high speed hard drive as well as running the program and reading and writing to the same disk really slows thing down.

russelldean wrote on 5/13/2019, 4:32 PM

Thanks CubeAce, I understand what you're saying. I've been looking to step up some but top of the line is gonna be outta my reach. I do think this machine will suffice for video editing, I've used lots less over the years with no problems. I'm thinking there should be some things I can tweak a little to help this issue. A new computer would on time far as ram and chip goes but that said, I'm stuck with this one for now. 😉

The issue only presents itself in the software preview. The export/render is fine and also play on all medias both on and offline. I can make a video and render it fine. It just won't run the preview right. Hmm.. ???

browj2 wrote on 5/13/2019, 5:17 PM

Hi,

Try turning on the lighting bolt at the bottom right of the Preview Monitor. Right-click to see the options. This might help it run smoother. Shortcut P. Don't forget to turn it off or you won't see any effects.

John CB

CubeAce wrote on 5/13/2019, 5:27 PM

@russelldean

Correct, but think of why it has trouble playing smoothly. You said up to 16 tracks are being laid down. That's 16 clips from different parts of the hard drive being read at the same time. You are running a processor hungry program which is much more than a simple video player. Try opening up your task manager in windows and see how much of a processor and memory hit your laptop is taking. Just opening MEP and loading a 10 track 1080p project is using up 5.25 gig of ram on my system. Playing it makes my 4 core i5 processor run at near 40% capacity which is not bad but that shoots up to between 98-100% capacity during exporting. The throughput of the northbridge of the motherboard is also taking quite a hit. Add any transitions or effects and the load increases even more. That is even with me lowering the frame rate of the video player, and the resolution, and using proxy files to reduce the load on playback. (as per browj2's instructions) Disk speeds also have an effect and need a decent 7200rpm hard drive with a reasonable cache size for 1080p video for smooth playback. 4K can require the need for mutliple drives to be employed for the speed needed. I am using two Samsung SSD hard drives in an array for my C: drive. Video files for the project are loaded from another internal 7,200rpm hard drive and written to another during export. I can't yet work in 4K as my system just about copes with 1920 x 1080.

emmrecs wrote on 5/14/2019, 4:55 AM

@russelldean

I can only fully agree with everything @CubeAce and @browj2 have written. I would go so far as to say that there is no way your current laptop is going to give you smooth playback whilst editing! As has already been stated, video editing is incredibly demanding on ALL aspects of a computer's hardware. You can see the specs of the machine I use in my signature; even with that machine I am not sure I would guarantee smooth playback with up to 16 video tracks and audio in a mixture of formats! (One point to consider about those audio tracks: MEP natively "prefers" audio in .wav format. You might see some small improvement if all your audio files were 48kHz, 16 bit wav.)

Jeff

russelldean wrote on 5/14/2019, 7:31 AM

Ok, thanks much, guys. I know you're all correct and I'm doing all I can to remedy this. Yesterday's performance was a little better after a few tweaks of my system settings but still frequent stalls and skips in playback.

I'm looking at new computer now attempting to come up with a way to afford it. Do you think that maybe stepping up to an Intel processor and 16Gb RAM would suffice for while? I'm pretty sure it would be a noticeable improvement. My videos aren't that huge of projects, mostly 3-4 minute music vids or documentaries.

I would like to thank you all for your input, info and advice. I'm looking more serious now at getting a new computer because I really want to make videos and improve my skills at it. I'm still kind of a beginner at this but I'm learning fast. I have created come pretty good videos so far, if I say so myself. I like them anyway 😋

Here's a couple examples if you just wanna look: . .

Thanks again for your help.

browj2 wrote on 5/14/2019, 7:51 AM

@russelldean

Pretty good? Stunning imagery! Well done!

I have an old Intel processor, 16GB, and playback still stutters for the most part, especially on transitions.

The other guys will point you in the right direction as to the processor.

You may want to think about moving up to VPX in the future as the colour correction/grading tools are superior to MEP and you have instruments to guide you. However, you have done an excellent job with what you have.

John CB

CubeAce wrote on 5/14/2019, 9:30 AM

@russelldean

Hi Russell.

I don't have the newest processor, it must be at least seven years old now, possibly older, I don't remember. It's an i5 3Ghz quad-core on an Asus board. Really look for an Intel processor that supports video encoding. Mine doesn't and because of that, exporting video takes hours rather than minutes. I still think a desktop has some advantage over laptops for video. Pound for pound you can get better performance. You may want to consider an SSD C: drive and an additional 7,200rpm or higher hard drive for the video files. I have 16 gigs of ram but could probably have got away with 8 gigs. Also, think about the processor cooling. Because on export, the processor is running nearly constantly at 100% output, the heat generated is really too much to be good for the CPU. I use a CoolMaster heat pipe heatsink which keeps my processors' temperature below 60c all day long. Even then to get a smooth playback I'm having to make sure MEPs viewer is kept to about a quarter of the size of the monitor screen to play back smoothly, but is works. Graphics cards don't help that much in MEP. Maybe another member can be more specific about this but again it probably doesn't have to be a souped-up card but equally, possibly, not a budget one. I run two monitors for editing. My videos tend to be between 3 to 11 minutes on average and sometimes up to 20 tracks in use. Nearly all original source footage is 1080p at around 100mbps.

Do use the lightning symbol in the editing screen to turn off or reduce some processor hungry applications within MEP while you edit though.

russelldean wrote on 5/14/2019, 12:49 PM

Very good, friends. You've given me a lot to think about. And thanks Browj2 for your compliments on my work. It ain't much but what can I say? 🙂 I'm glad I came on to check this out; very helpful info, yall. You people are great. I'm gonna close this now to I'll see ya around. Take it easy.. peace.