Creator 2011 Pro Videowave Does Not Recognize Anamorphic 720X480 File

[johnkorb]

I'm trying to edit an anamorphic 720x480 video file (you can download a sample file by going to the page at http://96.0.11.237/videowave/index.html then right-clicking and selecting save target as).

 

Even if I start with a 16x9 project, when I add the file to the project it is treated as a standard 4x3 file, not an anamorphic 4x3 file. Players like VLC see the file as anamorphic and play the file correctly, so it appears that Videowave is ignoring something in the file.

 

Background:

The source material is from component video output (the only source available) and is ALWAYS in anamorphic 720x480 format. I now have hundreds of hours of material and continue to create additional material.

 

Questions:

Is there some way for me to tell Videowave that the file is an anamorphic 720x480 file providing a 16x9 image rather than a standard 720x480 file providing a 4x3 image? (if so, please provide step-by-step instructions)

 

Is there some way to get Videowave to horizontally stretch the 720x480 image into 16x9 so that the original 16x9 aspect ratio is not lost when combining it in a video production containing other 16x9 material? (if so, please provide step-by-step instructions)

 

If Videowave cannot perform the above functions, is there another product which can?

 

Thanks!

 

John

[johnkorb]

And now it is working!

 

The Color Panel and insert Video as Overlay works! Thanks!

 

It looks like editing is a little more "interesting" with the color panel/overlay technique, but it is workable.

 

Many thanks to sknis, Jim Hardin, cdanteek! Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

 

I've attached a screen shot of the result.

 

John

[Jim_Hardin]

Glad to hear that and I learned a little more about VideoWave along the way as well

[johnkorb]

Hi Jim,

 

I just wanted to say thanks for all your help! Changing to the .ts files has reduced the number of VideoWave crashes dramatically!

 

I've finished my project (successfully) due to your help! Thanks so much for taking the time to help me with VideoWave!

 

Best Regards,

 

John

[Jim_Hardin]

Not as 'easy' as one would hope for

 

If you keep a pad and pencil nearby, you can make notes by dropping the Scene onto a blank production:

 

 

 

Otherwise you can right click the Scene and select Properties then check the length:

 

 

 

You can see there appears to be a discrepancy from 2 sec 22 frames to 2 sec 73 frames in the way the length is shown...

 

NOT!

 

The Properties list the time as hh:mm:ss:decimal seconds...

 

Plug in '2.73' for the Trim Length of the color panel:

 

 

...and you get 2.22 for the length

 

I did not know that and you forced me to explore a little deeper That is what makes the Forums so much fun, forced to learn!

[johnkorb]

Hi Jim,

 

I think I've fixed the crashing problem - Don't open the MP4 files! (LOL)

 

Seriously, VideoWave seems to have a real problem with those files. I've spent many hours this week converting files with different converts and trying different file formats. It doesn't seem to matter which converter I use as long as I run them through a converter.

 

I still have about 720 GB of files to convert, but I've changed the Hauppauge so that it now creates ".ts" files. So far it appears that VideoWave "likes" the ".ts" files, so hopefully I'll have success with them.

 

I guess my current question is - other than subtracting the start time from the end time of the clip in the timeline, how does one find the actual duration of the clip so one can set the panel duration to the length of the clip?

 

How am I currently setting the panel duration to the video clip length?

-- I find the "in" point I want and set it, then I find the "out" point I want and set it.

-- I make a wild guess at the length of the clip and set the panel duration to that value.

-- I then go to the overlay track and click-and-drag the video so it is up against the start of the panel.

-- I click on the object end icon and write down the clip end time.

-- I click on the object start icon then write down the clip start time.

-- I manually subtract the start time from the end time to get the clip length.

-- I then set the panel duration to the calculated clip length value.

 

Is there a faster, better way to set the panel duration to the clip length?

 

Thanks!

 

John

[Jim_Hardin]

Multiple Answers

 

In your screen caps, you have the color panel set to 5 minutes (time above the Done Button). What I have suggested is that you set it to the length of the clip/pic you want to add. However, if you are adding a movie clip it does get more interesting...

 

You cannot set a clip running time as easily as you would like... Clips run from the beginning to the end of clip or end of panel, whichever is reached first!

 

Sooo, we need another approach to this!

 

In the Media Selector panel to the right side in VideoWave (assuming you docked it) you can select 'Scenes' and this looks like a perfect use for them. This posting on Chapters Scenes and Things, Here may give you some ideas for that approach... I am thinking if you set Scene markers at the beginning and 5 seconds later or your preferred ending, it will help that, then just trim back or extend the color panel to fit the Scene...

 

Play with that idea

 

Before you do, fix the crashing... Something about the Hauppauge files is causing the problem... Try running them through a 3^rd party converter FIRST! You don't have to change them to another format, just let them be pre-processed by a more forgiving program

 

One many of us use for stubborn files is

Any Video Converter HERE.

 

Just do a few at first to make sure it will give us the cure we need

[johnkorb]

Hi Jim,

 

Thanks for the info! It is very helpful! I'll start with the crashing. I immediately installed SP1. I don't run a Registry Cleaner and don't believe in them (bad past experiences). While all the files I'm trying to process are from the Hauppauge DVR, many of them have a circle-with-slash icon rather than the first frame of video.

 

 

Almost all the circle-with-slash files have sizes greater than 2 GB, but not all. Some files as small as 5.1 MB have the circle-with-slash, but only one file greater than 2 GB doesn't have the circle-with-slash, and it is 7.19 GB. Is there a file size limit for VideoWave?

 

Oh, and right-clicking on a circle-with-slash file causes the "ding" sound that indicates a problem, then a white semi-transparent overlay completely covers the VideoWave window, and VideoWave stops responding.

 

Also, if I take a large, circle-with-slash file and run it through Roxio Video Copy & Convert (which takes quite a while as one might expect), about 50% of the time the resulting file opens just fine in VideoWave, so I'm guessing that VideoWave doesn't like something about the file format written by the Hauppauge, though that doesn't necessarily explain why the files from Roxio Video Copy & Convert often fail to open. Oh! When the files created by Roxio Video Copy & Convert fail, they generate a "Microsoft Visuall C++ Runtime Library error in VideoWave 13, as shown below.

 

 

When I close the modal, VideoWave closes.

 

Assuming that because VideoWave displays the first frame of video as the file icon the file can be added is NOT valid. In the screen capture above where all the file icons are circle-with-slash except for the icon at the lower right, if I try to add the file at the lower right (WinTV_28.MP4) I get:

 

 

And when I close that modal, VideoWave closes.

 

I just tried the drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer and at first it appeared to work, but when I clicked "Done" VideoWave went to white and became unresponsive (big sigh). I waited several minutes, hoping that it was just busy processing the file, but after 20 minutes it still had not completed or responded in any way.

 

As for the duration question, what I was trying to ask was how to determine the length of the video clip added to the internal track. The way I'm doing it now is to go to the beginning of the object and look at the time (03:22.09 in this case), then go to the end of the object and look at the time (03:52.08 in this case), calculate the difference (30 seconds in this case), then set the panel duration to the calculated time difference (30 seconds). This seems to work okay, but I am hoping that there is a better way of getting the clip duration than manually subtract the start time from the end time. Any ideas?

 

Thanks again for all your help!

 

John

[Jim_Hardin]

Concerned that you still have a lot of crashing...

 

You did apply the SP1 since the Repair?

 

You don't have any Reg Cleaner running on a regular basis? (never is best!!!) Sometimes these are an aggressive part of your AV software and need to be turned off.

 

When VW crashes upon trying to add a pic or clip, I have found that you can often use Explorer and drag them over and it works

 

Kind of a back door approach

[Jim_Hardin]

Yes you are correct that the 'advantage' of using internal tracks is keeping all the effects you add together during editing. In some cases I have even done an Export As of just that portion to give me a clean clip that I could add even more to latter, yet keep it all intact

 

Yes Clip Time is good to know and it was right before your eyes the whole time... First keep in mind that an Overlay cannot be longer than the Panel or clip it is being laid on...

 

If it is longer, it will be truncated to fit in the time alloted. It is still there as long as you are in the Editor, and will appear if you increase the time of the Panel or clip.

 

Two ways to do that, and we often jump between the two so that we can take advantage of the one that works best for us

 

From the Timeline view,I have several clips and a total project time of 2:08 and 05 frames (green arrow). I have added a black panel with a still picture on its' Internal Track (red arrows):

 

 

 

On the internal track you can see the Time over the "Done" button. Of course I could just grab the panel and drag it to increase time:

 

 

But instead I will switch to the Storyline view, right click the panel and select TRIM:

 

 

Now I can set the time to exactly what I want it to be! My personal preference is for a view time of 4 seconds for most things plus the Transition time, if used... (recall that 1/2 of the transition time is taken from the panel and if you have one in front and one at the end, then you need to allow for One transition )

 

Here I made it double, from 5 to 10 seconds:

 

[johnkorb]

Hi Jim,

 

Thanks for the advice! I did a little reading on internal tracks, did some experimenting, and I think I've got it. When I added a second panel and edited the in and out points of the video in the second panel, I couldn't find a way of measuring the duration of the edited clip in the second panel other than write down the in and out points and manually calculate the duration. Is there a better way of setting the duration of a panel to the duration of the edited clip than what I've described?

 

From what I've read, the advantage of using the internal track is that if you have to re-arrange panels, insert panels or delete panels, the parts of the panel move together so you can drag-and-drop a panel from one place in the story line to another place. I haven't tried this out as VideoWave crashed opening a clip (threw a modal saying it couldn't open the video file, and when the modal closed, VideoWave became non-responsive. It appears that once VideoWave has crashed, it won't run properly until after a reboot, and as I need to be at work in six hours, I won't be able to experiment again until Friday night.

 

Thanks again for all your help!

 

John

[johnkorb]

Good to know. I'll try working with the Internal Track this evening.

 

Thanks!

[Jim_Hardin]

Good but you are not working on the Internal Track as i suggested... It is OK for testing but in a Production, if you don't use the Internal Track, it will bit you hard if you do editing.

 

I should have mentioned, after a Repair/Un-Install-Install you also need to have it check for updates.

[johnkorb]

Guys, thanks for the help - I'm still working on it. Below is a status update.

 

Well, the "Repair" is not going well. With no applications running, firewall & antivirus off, I'd start the "Repair". Each time I try it complains about the "source" for "Roxio Cineplayer" not matching, then it quits. I'm going to do an uninstall, reboot, and reinstall, but as I'm on call tonight, that will have to wait a few hours (can't risk getting called during a reboot).

 

I'll try the color panel and overlay after the fresh install and let you know what happens.

[Jim_Hardin]

You need to run a repair...

 

Turn off your AV & any firewall.

 

Start an install of Creator 2011, only choose REPAIR when it is offered.

 

That should clear up the crashing!

[johnkorb]

Hi Jim,

 

I seem to be crashing VideoWave when I add the video to the overlay. Here is what I've tried, step-by-step.

 

Launch Videowave.

The "Welcome to VideoWave" window appears.

- Select the radio button "Create a new production".

- Select "Widescreen (16:9) from the "Format" dropdown.

- Click "OK" button.

 

On top menu bar, click "Production". Dropdown menu appears.

- On dropdown menu, click on "Add Color Panel..." - the "More Colors" window appears.

- Take the default color (black") and click the "OK" button.

 

On top menu bar, click "Production". Dropdown menu appears.

- On dropdown menu, click on "Add Photo/Video" - the "Insert photo/video" window appears.

- Select the radio button by "Insert as overlay".

- Click on the "OK" button.

 

Roxio VideoWave window goes white.

Several seconds later a small window titled "VideoWave" appears with that wonderful message "VideoWave has stopped working" followed by the "Check online for solution and close the program" and "Close the program" options.

 

I've rebooted, tried again, rebooted, tried again, and in four attempts I get the same result each time.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

VideoWave build information is at the bottom of the abend capture.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks!

 

John

[cdanteek]

As you can see, it decided the aspect ratio was 16:9. When I play video captures that are 4:3 the value selected in the dropdown changes to 4:3. Thus, something is telling it the aspect ratio is 16:9.

 

My version of VLC 2.0.3 you can change the aspect ratio and the video changes. Close VLC and the aspect ratio goes back to default and your video looks like this.

 

 

Change it and it looks like this..

 

[johnkorb]

And the straight screen capture causes an error, so here it is separately.

[johnkorb]

Hi Jim, Hi sknis,

 

Thanks for the instructions! I'll give them a try at my next break.

 

I've attached a photo of the screen so you can see the full extent of the dropdown (when I try a direct capture to clipboard the level of the dropdown with the different aspect ratios disappears as soon as I touch the "Alt" key).

 

As you can see, it decided the aspect ratio was 16:9. When I play video captures that are 4:3 the value selected in the dropdown changes to 4:3. Thus, something is telling it the aspect ratio is 16:9.

 

The captures are made by a Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 from its component video inputs. Its source is the component output of a Magnavox MDR515H/F7 HDD/DVD Player/Recorder with Digital Tuner.

 

The output of the Magnavox is always 720x480, despite my having tried many, many different display options. The odd thing is that while VLC "sees" the aspect ration of the program content and automatically changes the display aspect ratio accordingly, Windows Media Player and QuickTime always see the files as 4:3.

 

In addition to Roxio 2011 Pro I have Corel Video Studio Pro X4 as well as the software that came with the Hauppauge HD PVR 1212 and the Blu-ray burner (HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH12LS39). My hardware configuration is as follows:

 

ASUS P8H67-V motherboard

Intel i7 2600 CPU

16 GB RAM

ASUS ATI 6870 Video Card

Two Samsung SyncMaster S27A350H monitors (27")

SiI 3132 SoftRaid 5 Controller

7 TB disc on four spindles

Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard

Logitech C310 HD Webcam

in a gaming case with 750 watt PS

Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit)

APS 1500 UPS

Yes, it is a homebrew system

[sknis]

John, In your first post, you said that VLC sees the video correctly. What I see is 4 by 3 and can't change it. Could you please post a screen shot of what you see and what the important settings are?

 

Your post had me scrambling to Google to look up wide screen anamorph video. I think I understand it now. Please explain why you are using this technology? You said that you care capturing from a component source. What is it and why doesn't it have other options?

 

Just for me to understand. The overlay method explained by Jim is probaly your best bet.

[Jim_Hardin]

If you have a 16:9 Project but some of your sources are not saved in widescreen format you can tinker with them as an Overlay so they will come out right...

 

Probably best to do this on the Movie Internal Track...

 

You need to add a Color Panel to act as a 'pallet' for the overlay, then add your non-16:9 souce on the Overlay Track. Push it to the upper left corner:

 

 

Then use the sizing handle at the corner and strech it to fill the frame:

 

(note I did not use internal tracks in these pics)

 

You can tinker with color panel to set the proper length to fit your overlay. By placing it on the Internal Overlay Track, it will stay in place when you do any trimming or split & add in the regular editor after you leave the Internal Tracks

[johnkorb]

Hmmm. I don't see the attachment. Let me try again...

[johnkorb]

Attached is the screen capture from GSpot. The version of VLC I'm using is 2.0.1 running on Windows 7 Ultimate.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

John

[sknis]

I just downloaded that file and VLC, CinePlayer, another video player, Video Wave (Edit Video Advanced) and another video editor all saw it as a standard 4 by 3. So did gspot.

 

Can you download gspot codec appliance and post what you see to show that that file is not a standard 4 by 3 mp4 file.