Preview Playback Issues

TravisE wrote on 6/13/2016, 8:55 PM

Hello community, this is my first attempt at buying software for more professional looking (I'm no pro) video, and I really wish it was going smoother. I'd much rather be asking about how to do cool stuff, but I have one hurdle to get past before I can get into making videos.

This is in reference to Movie Edit Pro 2016 Premuim

Initially I installed the trial and used it for the period alloted. Worked excellently, I didn't get into anything too technical, but over the course of making a 3 minute sample reel, I incorperated as many features and more than my free programs, so I was sufficently happy with the program to purchase it. It ran fine on my PC as well, another huge reason for running the trial.

Upon purchasing the program, I used the trial I already installed and activated it. Afterwards I installed the paid content as instructed in the propmts, piece of cake.

Now whenever I open the program, the prieview pane will not play anything, and I mean anything, at more than a very low fps. Like 1 FPS, I don't know how to view the actual rate. It's more like a slideshow than video. And I mean anything in that pane, a preview for an effect, or a very very low res file, even the visualizer for audio, but audio plays fine. I played with settings a while, and did a reset to defaults after that didn't help.

While I don't have the highest end computer, it ran the trial without any hesitation. I know it's not my PC being incapable, it is snappy about running the program in every other regard. I included the pertinent specs at the end of the post. If I had not seen it play back HD content before from within the program, I'd be more willing to believe it's a hardware issue.

I have a support ticket out, we shall see what they say but I'm getting a bit impatient to start playing around, and I feel this is probably something stupidly simple if I just had a hint.

I may reinstall the whole thing soon, but I just hate to download everything again, as I'd hate to use old files if they are my issue. But hopefully someone has a solution.

I appriciate any assistance.

Travis

[CPU]
cpu="Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2320 CPU @ 3.00GHz"

[OS]
os="Microsoft Windows NT 6.2.9200.0 64-bit"

[Memory]
memory="Available: 8,368,388 bytes, Free: 5,484,936 bytes"

[Graphics]
g1="AMD Radeon HD 7300 Series 1920x1080"

[Sound]
s1="USB Audio Device (ok)"
s2="AMD High Definition Audio Device (ok)"
s3="Realtek High Definition Audio (ok)"

[Browsers]
b0="Mozilla Firefox (Version: 47.0)"
b1="Google Chrome (Version: 51.0.2704.84)"
b2="Internet Explorer (Version: 11.00.10586.0 (th2_release.151029-1700))"
b3="SafeZone Stable (Version: 1.48.2066.98)"

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 6/14/2016, 4:30 AM

TravisE, welcome to the wonderful world of MAGIX video editing programs and to this user-to-user forum.

Your computer spec ought to be up to the task of playing video but, to be sure, can you find, download and install the free MediaInfo utility, point it to one of the videos you are trying to play and then post the results here? It is possible that your chosen files are in a format that MEP struggles with.

Also, I notice you have 8Gb of RAM; for HD video, especially, the "recommendation" is often that 16Gb should be considered the minimum. HD video is very demanding of a computer's resources, though it is clear from what you have written that you were able to successfully play/edit HD in the trial version

In the meantime, have you tried the option to "create Proxy Files", these are lower-resolution copies of your original, used on the timeline to enable smooth viewing and editing? When you come to export your finished footage MEP will use the full resolution originals as the source, thus ensuring you lose as little of the quality of those originals as possible. But I did read your comment on the difficulty of playing even a "very very low res file".

One other, slightly random, thought: the main difference between the trial version as intially installed, and the paid-for full version is that you downloaded and installed the additional content. Is it possible that some part of this did not, in fact, install properly and that that is causing the problems you now see? I assume the computer has been rebooted at least once since then?

Jeff

TravisE wrote on 6/15/2016, 7:29 PM

Hi Jeff,

I can look into the MediaInfo utility and see, but I'm not sure how it would help as it happens on anything in that preview pane, including the effect previews, which I presume are files packaged with the program itself. I'm going to try a few other things first.

This is not confined to video files already loaded to the workspace, so this is occuring even before I make a proxy file. It happens if I click the little "PLAY" icon in the file browser, or if I load up a file to the workspace, even if it's proxy it still behaves the same.

I have these same issues with a saved project from before I purchased the program, and I had no issues creating it.

I got a response from MAGIX support, they want me to use syscheck, but my Antivirus had a flat out fit and believes it's Trojan Malware. That antivirus company has kept my computer protected for many many years and I've just now started dealing with MAGIX, so I'm inclined to side with my anti-virus on this one, at least until I understand why it's considered a virus.

I'm attempting to reinstall now just to get that attempt out of the way. I shall return if that does not help. Thanks for your help.

As a last resort, I do have a Laptop I can install on. I wanted it on my desktop as it's a more stable area to work and I can leave storage drive attached permanantly, however if I must move to my Laptop, it has higher hardware specs than this destop.

Scenestealer wrote on 6/15/2016, 7:57 PM

There seem to be a rash of recent problems possibly associated with Windows Updates and Graphics drivers incorrectly installing.

Please see my response here: http://www.magix.info/uk/magix-movie-edit-pro-2015-plus-issue.knowledge.1170713.html

The syscheck would be seen as a Trojan because it drills into the system and send info back to Magix but as long as you are sure the .exe file came from Magix it should be OK to run it.

Best

TravisE wrote on 6/15/2016, 8:19 PM

Hi

There seem to be a rash of recent problems possibly associated with Windows Updates and Graphics drivers incorrectly installing.

Please see my response here: http://www.magix.info/uk/magix-movie-edit-pro-2015-plus-issue.knowledge.1170713.html

The syscheck would be seen as a Trojan because it drills into the system and send info back to Magix but as long as you are sure the .exe file came from Magix it should be OK to run it.

Best

Ss

Yes, that sounds like my issue! And I did notice a graphics update recently. I'll attack it from that end a while and see what happens.

johnebaker wrote on 6/16/2016, 2:28 PM

. . . . I can leave storage drive attached permanantly . . . .

Are the source files you are using in the project on this external storage device or internal hard drive?

If on the storage device then this could be contributing to the problem especially if it is USB or LAN attached, if attached via eSATA then it should not be causing an issue..

. . . . so this is occuring even before I make a proxy file. . . . .

It will - especially if you are working with HD video which requires a lot of processor power, the proxy files are of lower resolution and not so compressed so they can play back more smoothly on a lower spec system.

I also suspect you may have an issue with Hardware Acceleration - do you have this turned on in the programs settings - see images below?

Note: if you are using the GPU acceleration option in the programs settings, do not turn on the GPU acceleration option in the export dialog when exporting - this can cause issues.

John EB

TravisE wrote on 6/16/2016, 8:53 PM

Hi

. . . . I can leave storage drive attached permanantly . . . .

Are the source files you are using in the project on this external storage device or internal hard drive?

If on the storage device then this could be contributing to the problem especially if it is USB or LAN attached, if attached via eSATA then it should not be causing an issue..

. . . . so this is occuring even before I make a proxy file. . . . .

It will - especially if you are working with HD video which requires a lot of processor power, the proxy files are of lower resolution and not so compressed so they can play back more smoothly on a lower spec system.

I also suspect you may have an issue with Hardware Acceleration - do you have this turned on in the programs settings - see images below?

Note: if you are using the GPU acceleration option in the programs settings, do not turn on the GPU acceleration option in the export dialog when exporting - this can cause issues.

John EB

Thanks. Yes on external USB hard drive. I moved some files to local drive but it didn't change anything. I have an extra bay and I've been shopping for a storage drive for it, sounds like if I do I need to make sure it has good data transfer speeds.

The box in the first image (Video/Audo Tab was checked, I tried it without, no change. The others were not checked.

I also have the issue mentioned by Scenestealer with the timeline not moving, when I play nothing moves along with the position.

As far as framerate goes, I can click the orange triangle and move it with my mouse, it's smooth as butter scrolling throught the video at any speed, if I get it right moving the mouse, it even looks like it's playing properly.

browj2 wrote on 6/16/2016, 11:24 PM

Hi,

Just a thought, did you update to the latest patch?

TravisE wrote on 6/17/2016, 9:04 PM

Good news folks. My computer did a windows update yesterday. Don't ask me what happened, but it appears the issue has resolved itself at this point. I just tried it, and the video played normally. It's working like it did when I was using it for the trial best I can tell.

Basically the preview window plays at a normal framerate and the timeline marker is once again moving.

Best I figure, it's all windoze fault....

Thanks everyone for the assistance. I hope if I come back its for tips on how to do cool stuff with this program.

Hi,

Just a thought, did you update to the latest patch?

Thanks, I think I did yes but it's a good thought to see if I had.

Scenestealer wrote on 6/20/2016, 5:36 PM

Good news folks. My computer did a windows update yesterday. Don't ask me what happened..

It would be good to know to confirm what is causing this quite widespread problem. Perhaps you could have a look in "Windows Update" in "Update History" and see what was updated?

Thanks.