@CubeAce

Thanks for the detailed and well thought out reply. I agree Vegas will be a learning curve. How big of a learning curve is there between the VPX and MEP?
Also, I agree regarding file management. I have my important stuff backed up. This is why I didn’t bitch because I knew it would come back as something I had done. It just so happens I have to update two weekly videos and I’d always go to file/recent projects. Select the project and update a few images. Then I’d do the same for the other video. Render and be done. Yesterday I went to file and there was no recent projects. So I looked everywhere on my computer and they are just gone.

So yes, this is my fault. Thanks for the work around on audio cleaning. The same might be happening a few other places if I recall. Resizing a video perhaps.
 

Lastly, is VPX a better performer? When I say VPX I don’t mean Vegas. I believe they have three video editor programs MEP, and then a middle one (VPX) and then Vegas. I’m wondering if the middle one would be a significant improvement to MEP and will my computer be better fit for it?

thanks again
 

Greetings @jerancampy22

With reference to the loss of video images after audio cleaning, just double click the video preview window to make it full screen then double click it again to reduce to "normal".

AndyW

@jerancampy22

Hi

. . . .  It just so happens I have to update two weekly videos and I’d always go to file/recent projects. Select the project and update a few images. Then I’d do the same for the other video. Render and be done. . . .

The one action you did not mention is after the editing and before or after rendering did you save the project?

The file/recent is a list, stored in the programs initialisation file, of the recently edited projects. When you updated the program this was replaced with a newer initialisation file which has extra settings required by the newer version and the list of previous files is empty. The real project files themselves are not deleted when the program is upgraded - they should still be where they were saved - which may be not where you think they were.

Did you try searching the hard drive for them using Windows File Explorer searching for *.MVP ?

Apart from user deletion of files, the only other way I know of that can result in sudden loss, is storing the file on the desktop or in a folder on the desktop, this can occur if Windows resets the desktop due to an issues with it or a Windows Update has the potential to reset the desktop - the Documents folder is a protected folder and should not be affected by Windows updates/upgrades.

Added: from your previous posts and the above it would appear your needs from the video editor are relatively simple and you do not need all the bells and whistles, that other programs offer - in other words I would advise you to stick to what you know, ie MEP or VPX.

John EB

@me_again

First.

Hi Andy.

That works great and does not trip the Infusion engine. Thanks for the much quicker workaround.

@jerancampy22

Both MEP and VPX seem to be suffering the same bugs at present so from that standpoint you will have the same problems with both. The Vegas team are a separate development team to those working on the main Magix programs as far as I'm aware but is not short on suffering their own set of bugs and problems. The same goes for all the major video editing programs at all the major video editing offerings. Theirs may be different problems but they have them nonetheless. It is always worth looking around the various user forums to find out what the current state of play is with each although some forums seldom get answers from users questions.

I think the problems stem from the PC platform itself. While personal computers are open to customising and allow for all budgets (up to a point) that gives any software developer, whether of an operating system or program, a huge compatibility problem trying to get something to work with lower capacity components and different generational components. Add to that the expectation of customers to see something new each year and the need to keep up with the latest and greatest component developments and I for one at least appreciate the pressure these people are under as the resources of the company may be limited in personnel or effective team size or indeed finance. Add that to the time pressures of delivery dates and its no wonder there are problems on release and sometimes no patches for some problems before the next release. Sometimes no relevant patches between releases due to people like us finding workarounds or alternative methods perhaps.

VPX is the more refined version of MEP. The basic tools are more refined. It deals with more codecs and can run faster on some some more advanced machines. It runs slightly smoother although in my own personal experience that gap is closing. It's base content is copyright free for use so better for those uploading to platforms like YouTube. The learning curve from MEP to VPX is basically the same but taking in some of its advantages may take time.

Both are considered consumer grade by Magix and cover basic and advanced editing but not special effects such as rota-scoping which is where the Vegas product line come in. Originally a Sony product before it was bought by Magix, it has mainly been developed still by the Vegas development team and is a separate editor in its own right with a completely different way of working and aimed squarely at the professional hence the dropping of Movie Studio which was their 'consumer grade' application. They no longer have need of it to entice new users. I don't think the old users ever upgraded to the Pro packages.They just wanted a basic but good editor. They are possibly the most unhappy of the users we see as the workflow is so unfamiliar and at first seems to them to be inferior when in fact it isn't as I have used both. It is just another quite steep learning curve as they come from two independent development teams. Movie Studio 18 is now basically MEP 2022 with a little bit of additional code related to opening old Movie Studio projects and at present is also flawed and will not load a project in its entirety. By that I mean clips are imported but not the associated effects. This has quite naturally upset the Vegas users.

Eventually Movie Studio and Movie Edit Pro will be merged into one product ending the Vegas connection beyond being able to import old Movie Studio projects.

Ray.

@jerancampy22

Hi,

Losing the project files is worrisome. When you installed the new version of MEP, did you check to see if the main folder had been replaced with an empty one except for the subfolders?

On my laptop, this is the location of all files, as per the default when installing and as per the Folders in the Program Settings of MEP.

C:\Users\Admin\Documents\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro Plus

If the path doesn't exist, then the installer will create it and the subfolders as per the default or as per the changes made during installation. What now worries me is that this folder with subfolders containing all of my projects could be wiped out and replaced.

Check some of the subfolders, like Audio Temp, My Record to see if anything is there from before. Is there?

Under ...Projects, which is where you presumably saved your project files, was it also wiped out?

As for the screen going black after using the Audio Cleaning tools, I suggest that you raise a ticket. No complaints, no fix. I think that starting playback also brings back the image, does it not?

As an aside, my way of working is to have audio and video on separate tracks by default. To open the audio cleaning tools, I just double-click on the audio part and the interface opens. I like to see the audio part, the wave form, and any changes that I have made to it, like volume adjustments using the volume curve.

As for upgrading, one should never upgrade when a new version comes out, unless you like the challenge of spotting bugs and raising tickets. Always wait for at least one patch, and even then, check comments on the forum to see if there are major problems. This round started with the disastrous VPX13 and before sorting out most of the bugs, Magix released MEP and PhotoStory with the same bugs. Not good. However, I expect that most problems will be resolved with the next patch or two. Any bugs that you find, check this forum to see if others have raised the issue. If not, do so, and if a bug, everyone involved has to raise a ticket to get the problem fixed. Magix' priorities go by the number of complaints.

I expect that in a couple of months from now, most everything will work smoothly.

I follow the Vegas forum closely, having both Vegas Pro 15 and Movie Studio2016, and the number of problems, many of them major like not being able to get the program to work, are many. I would not move from MEP/VPX. Vegas does not have multiple timelines and, for me, this outweighs anything that Vegas has that VPX does not, which is not much. In my opinion, MEP/VPX actually offer much much more.

I use many of the features of VPX that MEP does not have - Project Folder, colour curves, measuring instruments, second monitor, nested objects (using one movie as an object in another within the same project), multi-language capability for DVD's/BR's, and more. I would not move back to MEP from VPX.

EDIT: One last thing, I noticed in your video that certain objects could not be found and you skipped over them. The one that I saw was supposed to be in the Downloads folder. Never use objects from the Downloads folder in a project. Move them elsewhere first.

John CB

@browj2 @jerancampy22 @johnebaker @me_again

As for the screen going black after using the Audio Cleaning tools, I suggest that you raise a ticket. No complaints, no fix. I think that starting playback also brings back the image, does it not?

Hi John.

This is a curious fault. Actually pressing play does not bring the image back unless you do one of the two things suggested already but I have now checked for a third way that works. That is to then place the monitor 'block' onto another monitor not powered by the original GPU that it was on when the audio cleaning was applied. It doesn't matter which combination of where the monitor or main program was placed, the monitor block has to be moved to the other monitor where the other GPU is in use. Then it reappears just by pressing play.

Nor does it matter whether the audio is on a separate track or not or which audio track is selected.

Curious to say the least.

Ray.

Curious indeed, I'm glad I only have one monitor.

This quirk was pointed out on the original post by MAGIX_Redaktion here ...

https://www.magix.info/us/forum/release-movie-edit-pro-2022-your-experiences-your-movies--1281607/?page=1

... and has been reported. I usually use an external editor for audio and so for the sake of a couple of sets of double clicks I can put up with it for a while.

In fact quite a few workarounds were reported on that post that now seem to have been reduced to the annals of history.

AndyW

@jerancampy22, @CubeAce, @browj2, @me_again

Hi

John - did you get the 'blacking out' on your old computer which had the AMD GPU in it?

If not and it has happened on your new computer there is a common element - Nvidia GPU's.

I have been working on a project with Blender and have been having render issues - random artefacts in the export whether video or PNG image sequences - checking Blender bug reports it appears that there is a shader bug in the Nvidia drivers with video resolutions of Full HD (1920 x 1080) or higher , this apparently has been known for several months and AFAICS has not been fixed yet.

A bit of a long shot however this may relate to the issue with the blackouts that users are experiencing in MEP 2022 and VPX 13. Andy's suggestion of making the Preview monitor full screen then back, and Rays work around of moving the Preview monitor to the other GPU and back, may be forcing the Nvidia GPU to do a full refresh/reload of the video.

John EB

@johnebaker @browj2 @jerancampy22 @me_again

Hi John.

I just tried all the experiments again but this time with only selecting the Intel HD630 GPU in MEPs Device settings and the results and cures were exactly the same.

So then I tried using CPU, CPU, CPU and guess what? Nothing brought the video view back but even a more curious thing happened when I clicked the monitor box to make it full size within the MEP editing page.

Look at this carefully at the bottom.

Press play and it still plays the audio only. There is no way to bring the video back except to alter the program settings to use a GPU.

Ray.

 

@browj2

Hi,

Losing the project files is worrisome. When you installed the new version of MEP, did you check to see if the main folder had been replaced with an empty one except for the subfolders?

On my laptop, this is the location of all files, as per the default when installing and as per the Folders in the Program Settings of MEP.

C:\Users\Admin\Documents\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro Plus

Well, I didn't think anyone would believe me so I wasn't going to harp on it. Mostly because I am smarter than having one storage location for important files. But with my less than essential projects, yes, of course they resided in the default location of

c:\users\me\documents\MAGIX Projects\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro Premium

that is where all my .mv and other project files were. This folder also has the 'takes' folder and the 'my record'

Well, even though some here will say I am lying or incorrect, I run a fairly tight ship as this is my job, but what happened is when I upgraded, and went through the install process and it completed with no issues, I then a couple days later went to the file menu (and needing a file I update weekly always listed under recent projects) I noticed there was nothing listed. I figured it was because its new. So, I then clicked open and went to the Magix stuff under docs and it is all gone. It is just like a new install. I then did a search for .mvp and it found a random dozen files in strange places, but it can't find the literally hundreds of project files, audio recordings, re-do's and backups. So, I made new folders and then used settings to point there so it doesn't happen in the future. It isn't the end of the world for me. Maybe three hour long projects I will need to rebuild from scratch and the rest were projects eventually completed and I can't see ever having to have needed them anyway.

So, moral of the story is... you can not believe me... that's no problem. Or you can do what I did and change those default folders so you don't lose all project files.

If the path doesn't exist, then the installer will create it and the subfolders as per the default or as per the changes made during installation. What now worries me is that this folder with subfolders containing all of my projects could be wiped out and replaced.

Check some of the subfolders, like Audio Temp, My Record to see if anything is there from before. Is there?

No, they are all gone.

Under ...Projects, which is where you presumably saved your project files, was it also wiped out?

Under MAGIX Products? Yes, inside that folder are two folders 1)Movie Edit Pro Premium and 2)Video Pro X from a trial I was taking a look. Inside the MEPP folder are the takes, my record, audio temp etc. folders. Those folders are empty so all contents were deleted? To be honest I can't explain it... they weren't even in the recycle bin. They disappeared in the ether. If it wasn't from the install then I would have had to go in these folders and delete hundreds of files. Simply didn't happen. So, good luck in your future updates.

As for the screen going black after using the Audio Cleaning tools, I suggest that you raise a ticket. No complaints, no fix. I think that starting playback also brings back the image, does it not?

No, playback just shows the black screen and the audio is fine. Double clicking preview to go full screen and then returning does bring it back. But that's ridiculous. Especially since I have seen others mention this bug. I will report it.

Also, I tried what you mentioned about separate tracks for video and audio and that does not work on my version. It still causes the display to go black. Work around that seems fastest is the double click to full-screen method. Thanks whoever gave that method.

As for upgrading, one should never upgrade when a new version comes out, unless you like the challenge of spotting bugs and raising tickets. Always wait for at least one patch, and even then, check comments on the forum to see if there are major problems. This round started with the disastrous VPX13 and before sorting out most of the bugs, Magix released MEP and PhotoStory with the same bugs. Not good. However, I expect that most problems will be resolved with the next patch or two. Any bugs that you find, check this forum to see if others have raised the issue. If not, do so, and if a bug, everyone involved has to raise a ticket to get the problem fixed. Magix' priorities go by the number of complaints.

This makes sense. I feel dumb. Why I am jumping on these "upgrades" when I am happy with how my current version works I'll never know.

EDIT: One last thing, I noticed in your video that certain objects could not be found and you skipped over them. The one that I saw was supposed to be in the Downloads folder. Never use objects from the Downloads folder in a project. Move them elsewhere first.

I just skipped over because it was an old file and it wasn't going to find anything really, that was one of the random .mvp I found. Thanks for all your help!

@johnebaker

Are you looking through my window? Haha. Yes, I have two PC's in my office. Both of them have Magix installed. Both do the exact same thing with the black screen so I didn't mention it happens on both but yes, they both are NVidia GPU although my new PC of course has a top of the line GPU and my old PC has an outdated one and infact, that one never worked well with rendering and would always say no hardware accel. The new upgraded PC does hardware accel and seems to render in close to real time. But it could be Nvidia. Nice thought.

Lastly, one of the reasons I continue to use Magix is because when it works it is a great little editor. I don't do terribly complex things. I mean, not more than 4 or 5 tracks so it usually does well. Every time it gives me a headache I get upset and come here and all of you are helpful. I won't say Magix is very helpful but you guys who spend a lot of time here have always helped with a work around or some explanation that at least helps me understand and move past it. So, thank you. If anyone knows how to brainwash me so I know davinci in no time, please tell me! I asked the US Government but it seems they are busy in the middle of another brainwashing excersize.

@johnebaker @jerancampy22 @me_again @browj2

Hi John.

I'm not convinced it has anything to do with nvidia or any other GPU driver.

I never used the audio cleaning function in the past, so didn't notice this problem but trying audio cleaning in VPX11 I notice the the monitor image never disappears when audio cleaning is opened. the image in the monitor remains static while the monitor in the audio cleaning section is in play.

Compare that to the behaviour of MEP 2022 and possibly VPX 13 (That I don't have to check but suspect is the same).

.

I think that firmly points to a problem with the new versions of the programs.

Ray.

@johnebaker

John - did you get the 'blacking out' on your old computer which had the AMD GPU in it?

If not and it has happened on your new computer there is a common element - Nvidia GPU's.

Hi John EB,

I have had blacking out but I didn't note which computer and version of which program. Sorry.

I just got the computer back with the HDD now plugged in and will start installing programs tonight.

John CB