VPX problem with Rotation/horizon levelling

RogerGunkel wrote on 12/4/2018, 4:00 AM

I am still running VPX 16.0.1.255 as it has been totally reliable and I have a lot of urgent projects that I have been working on for months and didn't want to run into some other update problem.

My work is mainly weddings using up to four cameras and inevitably there is sometimes horizon levelling required. This has always been quick and efficient in VPX, but over the last few weddings, both my wife and I have noticed a blurring or softening of the image on even slight amounts of levelling. At first we thought that this was a pre-rendering effect on the monitor resolution, but after rendering there is a clear blurring of the final video clip, as though it is slightly out of focus.

This is very worrying as we are shooting in 4k and the final output at HD quality should not be showing a softening, so is clearly a software problem that we haven't seen before.

The loss of pixels on levelling due to the cropping should not be noticeable, particularly as we frequently do some quite brutal pans, zooms and cropping from the 4k footage, without the blurring seen in rotation. Has anybody else seen this or is able to offer any explanation why it has started happening?

Roger

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RogerGunkel wrote on 12/28/2018, 4:22 AM

Hi John,

I was concerned about waiting as my year free updates finished last October, but the email on 24th December seemed to suggest that I had until 26th December to renew it before the reduced update would expire. As I have had no reply to my ticket apart from the renewal email and assumed there would be no contact over the holiday, I didn't want to take the chance on being expected to pay the full programme price if I waited.

I already had Mercalli V4 and use my own copyright free music. I don't use the New blue filters that I already have apart from Spotlight, and the ReSpeeder is yet another add on that I am unlikely to need. I just wish that they would get on with making the basic programme run properly in their upgrades, instead of adding on new bits that may have occasional uses.

Some of the add ons which are licensed from third party suppliers also seem to be time limited or just don't work. For example, Mercalli V4 is a great stabiliser, but it needs re-licencing every couple of months. When it is due to renew, every instance I have used it in a project suddenly comes up with the Mercalli logo splashed across the screen. Every single time that it was used in the project has to be redone, which on a 2 hour wedding can be a lot. I have a number of projects on drives waiting for finishing, and anything with a Mercalli stabilisation in will have been automatically unstabilised when the renewal is needed and will have to be checked from beginning to end, or it will be rendered with the logo splashed across the finished video. This of course means that any project file more than a couple of months old that needs an alteration, will have to be completely checked for any automatically unstabilised instances of Mercalli. That is unacceptable in my view and it should only be new instances of Mercalli that need rendering, not older previously rendered ones.

Editing with Magix software is no longer the happy experience it used to be.

Roger

Scenestealer wrote on 12/28/2018, 4:47 AM

Hi Roger

Some of the add ons which are licensed from third party suppliers also seem to be time limited or just don't work. For example, Mercalli V4 is a great stabiliser, but it needs re-licencing every couple of months.

I don't understand that, V4 is time limited but for 2 years not 2 months.

every instance I have used it in a project suddenly comes up with the Mercalli logo splashed across the screen. Every single time that it was used in the project has to be redone, which on a 2 hour wedding can be a lot. I have a number of projects on drives waiting for finishing, and anything with a Mercalli stabilisation in will have been automatically unstabilised when the renewal is needed and will have to be checked from beginning to end, or it will be rendered with the logo splashed across the finished video.

I think this is something different. The only time I have seen this is when I have moved the source files to a different folder and re pointed VPX to that folder when it says it can not find the files when opening the project. It sounds like you are moving files around......?

Peter

RogerGunkel wrote on 12/28/2018, 5:42 AM

Hi Peter,

I realise that the overall time limit is for 24 months, but the problem arises quite frequently, for instance, I was working on a project a few weeks ago and two of the earlier scenes had been stabilised. The next day, I tried to add stabilisation to a new scene and a pop up appeared telling me that I needed to reactivate Mercalli using the original license number before I could use it. I checked back and found that the scenes that I had previously stabilised now required re-stabilisation. Once I had reactivated, I could stabilise them again and carry on. This happens every few months and needs reactivation each time. Am I the only one to find this?

Next time it happens, I'll take a screen shot and start a new thread, although perhaps with the new upgrade it will no longer occur.

Roger

johnebaker wrote on 12/28/2018, 7:02 AM

@RogerGunkel

Hi Roger

. . . . I realise that the overall time limit is for 24 months, but the problem arises quite frequently . . . .

This would suggest that Windows is rolling back / doing a restore and removing the licence from Mercalli.

Assuming you have Windows Fast Start turned on, the immediate suspect would be the the faststart file is corrupt.

Try turning fast start off, reboot the computer then turn it back on again, or leave it off if you can tolerate the longer start up and see if the issue arises again.

HTH

John EB

RogerGunkel wrote on 12/28/2018, 10:03 AM

I'll try that John, thanks for the suggestion.

Roger

browj2 wrote on 7/3/2019, 6:11 PM

Thanks for the video John, however you aren't showing me anything that I haven't tried many times before and finally given up on. I've made my own short video to show you the problem which only affects colour change (sorry I forgot to move the capture screen). If you can direct me to a solution I would be delighted 😃

Thanks,

Roger

@RogerGunkel

Hi Roger,

Has this been resolved for you in VPX11, latest version?

John CB

RogerGunkel wrote on 7/4/2019, 7:27 AM

Hi John,

I haven't upgraded to VPX11 yet as I have a number of projects underway and don't want to upset the apple cart.

Roger