@clement5

Just had an update to 138

Further to @AAProds post the info can be found by clicking the NEWS tab at the top of the forum page (the clue is in the title) however here is the latest update info:

Fixed: Malfunction when processing effects or exporting AVCIntra footage on GPU Mode
Fixed: MPEG2 recording of analog video affected by errors with certain recording devices
Fixed: Storage location for Magix content can't be reassigned
Fixed: Display error in multicam mode
Fixed: After switching from timeline mode to storyboard, elements aren't visible immediately
Fixed: Elements cannot be dragged in storyboard mode
Fixed: Error when creating 3D Blu-Ray
Fixed: Crash at the beginning and during the creation of Blu-Ray discs with NVIDIA and AMD
GPUs
Fixed: Crash when importing a custom animated GIF images
Improved: Support for older graphics cards and performance optimization in storyboard mode

AndyW

Thank you. The information about the updates was not available when I did the update. Perhaps I missed it, but there were 2 screens. 1. Downloading update. 2. executing update, and neither screen had a button to push to see what was updated. Perhaps this is because I updated from the message that MEP notified me of an update. I went around various Magix pages searching for that information and could find it nowhere. They are very good with making confusing menus that hide specific information. After years of complaining about their handling of NTSC exports to various codecs, they still haven't fixed the problem. The most recent problem is that the Shot Match doesn't work, but it used to work in a previous version of MEP. It makes the frame much brighter or darker with worse match. in black and white. They don't seem to be willing to fix basic things, and are concentrating on advanced stuff while removing or ruining basic things that should be simple to fix. The NTSC problem should be easily fixable as export is correct for some codecs, but not for others. VirtualDub2 does it properly, while MEP adds extra frames in certain codecs.

@clement5

 They don't seem to be willing to fix basic things, and are concentrating on advanced stuff while removing or ruining basic things that should be simple to fix. 

Agree. Six patches to 2022 is pretty amateurish.

I'm with you 100%. I'm firmly convinced that no one at Magix uses the program. If they did then it would work properly quickly enough.

AndyW

I've found that while developers might not use the program as "regular users" do, but those that alpha/beta test it do. The only thing they can do is report bugs. Some can be fixed right away. Some in a later patch. Others, without extensive rewriting of the code, are not "cost effective" to fix. Especially if not many people complain about it.

If only a couple of people hit up tech support for a particular bug, I can see it being ignored. That doesn't make it right to ignore the bugs, but sadly that is the way it is. It's a matter of economics. What do most people use. What is causing the most problems. When the software "phones home", they know what is being used the most, and what will affect the "bottom line" the most.

Today, it's about how many "NEW, EXCITING" features can be crammed into the ad copy to look better than the competition at a better price. That is what sells. Not putting on the box "stability, reliability and functionality".

I upgraded to MEP2022 with full NBFX TotalFX7 for $49 that works in all the editors I use. I can not imagine how anyone is making a real profit selling the software. And instead of how customer service used to be decades ago, user forums with unpaid moderators are the real tech support today.

@clement5

Hi

. . . .  The most recent problem is that the Shot Match doesn't work, but it used to work in a previous version of MEP. . . . .

As has been previously requested in several of your posts - what is your computer specification? See this topic for what is required and please quote processor and graphics card make/model in full, and also what monitor/screen resolution(s) your are working with. 

Please put this information in your profile signature so we do not have to keep asking for it.

Shot match works fine on both my PC and laptop with MEP/MMS 2022 - specifications are in my Signature.

. . . . The NTSC problem should be easily fixable as export is correct for some codecs, but not for others. . . . .

Which codecs, file formats do not export NTSC correctly from Movie Studio?

John EB
Forum Moderator

Win 11, Intel I7-8700 with 16 16Gb ram, NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030, 1080 vertical resolution, The video should be irrelevant to Shot Match. There are test files and a set of pictures of using Shot Match: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AgEkZSUlkAcxgb0eg2M8ATSCee6zgQ?e=UcThJ8 I am trying to match the last frame in the 6 frame clip, and depending on other unknown factors is sometimes comes out too bright or too dark. This to me says there might be a bad memory reference somewhere.

The MP4 and AVI uncompressed work OK. Lagarith does not. Once Lagarith is selected all of the other AVI codecs give incorrect frame rate. There are 2 NTSC frame rates 23.976 (24000/1001) or 29.97 (30000/1001) The Lagarith frame rate from MEP is (23976/1001) which messes up the output. If I encode a 1 hour video it ends up with extra frames. Since I do frame editing I have to export a section, and then bring back the edited section to overlay the large video. The frames must match perfectly. The reason for using Lagarith is because it is a 100% nonlossy codec. This saves space and also prevents added artifacts from multiple passes of editing. I also use a VirtualDub2 Deshaker because I can select an area to sample when removing jitter. VirtualDub2 has no difficulties with getting the frame rate correct. The curious thing is that the code error is in the advanced portion of the AVI menu. The advanced section of various export menus generally goof things up. For example If I set a 3D selection and click on advanced, the 3D selection goes back to the original. The funniest goof is when trying to complete the export I will get a message saying the frame rate of 23.98 doesn't match the movie project rate of 23.98. The movie rate is correct because uncompressed output and MP4 work just fine. Other users have commented that the length of exported video NTSC video files are not the same as the original. This bug has been around through many versions of MEP. I have not noticed a problem with PAL, but I have only done one or 2 of them.

@clement5

Hi

Are the computer specs you have quoted, one in the comment and the other in your signature for 2 different computers?

If not which is the correct specification?.

. . . . The MP4 and AVI uncompressed work OK. Lagarith does not. . . . .

This tells me there is an issue with the Lagarith encoded video file(s), and both the Shot Match and framerate issues may both be related to the use of the Lagarith encoder.

The prime suspect within the Lagarith encoder is the option to encode consecutive frames, where there is no change, as NULL frames - ie no data ie there are timecode entries in the video file which are not associated with a frame.

If this is the case, then the NULL frames would confuse both Shot Match into using a 'false' reference frame, and the decoder/encoder ignoring the NULL frames thus changing the calculated framerate.

Your comments would appear to support this.

• 'comes out too bright or too dark
   
• 'when trying to complete the export I will get a message saying the frame rate of 23.98 doesn't match the movie project rate of 23.98'

. . . . This to me says there might be a bad memory reference somewhere. . . .

By definition a 'bad memory reference' means 'a pointer passed as an argument was not valid', this usually refers to a programming issue. However in this case the definition would also apply to the video file as there is a pointer, ie timecode, which points to a non existent frame.

John EB

The shot match used to work OK and I have been using Lagarith for years. I just tried it with an MP4 and it did nothing. Both the Lagarith and the uncompressed clips have problems with shot match. You can play around with the test files in the link I provided.

The error message about the frame rates not matching is because 23976/1000 is NOT the same as 24000/1001. The latter frame rate is the actual NTSC rate, but both round off to 23.976. The difference is that the first rate comes out to 23.9760000... and the second is actually 23.97602397602398... However this doesn't explain why there are extra frames in the Lagarith output from a long video so when I put them on different tracks the Lagarith output is longer by a number of frames. The difference in rates is only .0000239 which should not make a difference as it only produces 0.08 extra frames and the Lagarith output would be missing 0.08 frames. There is something wrong in their arithmetic and they are doing something wrong in calculating the frames. This would not show up in PAL with its even rate, but with NTSC it obviously is a problem. My workaround is to always export uncompressed and then for big files to create a Lagarith equivalent using VirtualDub2. The resulting files line up perfectly on the timeline. It uses gobs of hard drive, but eventually the intermediate files will be deleted.

So they have not fixed the frame rate problem, and something is messed up in their code which causes problem with the Lagarith or uncompressed input video clips. I wonder if it is related to the frame rate problem.

My signature had a typo which I fixed. There is only one computer being used with MEP.

@clement5

Hi

Thank you for correcting the spec.

John EB

I tried the shot match with an imported VOB that had a very dark frame and it did lighten it, but the result was pretty bad. The blacks were too dark and the light areas too light. I can do a better job manually with a histogram correction where I can set at least 4 correction points. It may work better with color pictures, but it used to give reasonable results with B&W, but sometimes flattened the palette a bit. It is too bad MEP doesn't seem to have a histogram curve correction like that in VirtualDub or my photo editors. The usual lightness, contrast, gamma adjustments are harder to do a match without being able to see the histogram, and they are not a flexible as having a curve with any number of adjustment points.

@clement5

That is one of the many differences between Movie Edit Pro (Movie Studio) and VPX where basic controls have more flexibility.

This is another reason the Humble bundle offering was so tempting for so many.

Ray.