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Not generically, but mp3's have various flavors, some encoding settings have made some more challenging for use in PD and display symptoms as you observed, wrong duration. WAV usually very safe.
Try the suggestion as see if your "elephant" bug persists.
Jeff
wav seems to work. I did it twice, and it worked both times. This might be better than the convoluted workarounds I've been using so far.
My flow (more details in a later post) involves mp3's with a specific naming convention. But using wav as the "exception" case is simpler than my current workarounds (which, maddeningly, don't always seem to work).
I mentioned in an earlier posting about what I call the elephant bug (because, like an elephant, PD never forgets). I made a video of the bug in action. I wasn't aware that the screen capture tool doesn't capture mouse-overs, but you can still figure out what's going on - just look at the lengths of the clips on the timeline.
I ran this on the latest update of PD 14. It would be interesting to know if this is reproducible on newer versions of the tool. It isn't difficult - just do ctl-drag on an audio clip once, and you'll never, ever, be able to able to edit a clip by that name (and sometimes by any other name) in that directory (and sometimes in other directories) again.
Good news! Support got back to me with a link for updating the software. When I updated on the laptop, the "silent change" problems seems to have gone away.
It's still a bug that the tool fails to warn you when you load a different AR project, but I can live with that.
Note that I have "Automatically check for updates" turned on, and it never made a peep about there being an update available.
Ha ha. How do you fix THAT bug? With an update that no one will ever see? :
Hmm, you should have been prompted to delete or keep your "personalized settings" when you uninstalled PD. Myabe you clicked Yes on screen and didn't think about it, or maybe for some reason it wasn't displayed; either way it appears that Windows didn't delete those items.
If you want to ensure that everything is gone, you can use RevoUninstaller and do a thorough scan. Even the free version does that.
That's what I saw when I opened your projects, but it didn't happen every time. Here's a screen recording of me opening your 2 projects and a recent one from my PC:
Although it might appear that the problems are in your project files, I did some more checking after I made the recording and I found that several of my own projects silently overrode the existing AR as well. As far as I can tell, the AR conflict message isn't 100% reliable, and it may even be sensitive to the existing setting and or what the new setting is.
I think you should report this to Cyberlink via the support request page, and be sure to link the URL of this thread in your description. Be sure to follow the requested steps, then post the tickect number (CS...) back here to close the loop.
Please be aptient, as they are required to ask you to do several steps that you might think are irrelevent, but hopefully they will be able to confirm this issue.
Here are the results of the experiment you suggested. Both projects were created with AR set to 16:9 in brand-new, clean directories with both the default input and output dirs (edit > preferences > files) pointing to this clean directory.
Project When loaded on desktop When loaded on laptop
-------- ---------------------------- --------------------------
created_on_desktop 16:9 4:3
created_on_laptop 16:9 16:9
The directories were created on a drive on the desktop that is shared on the network. So, they're both loading from exactly the same place (not a copy).
Weird, huh?
QuoteI did the uninstall/reinstall. No effect. I noticed that my preferences survived the process - so uninstall (W10 central remove programs) doesn't COMPLETELY uninstall everything about PD.
I noticed that the problem exists with every project I've tried it on. Since the original project had a complicated history (because it was once 4:3), and because it uses 4 large source videos, I upload a different, smaller, simpler project here:
There are two zip files - one from Pack Project on the desktop, and one from Pack Project on the laptop. The pds files differ (according to cygwin cmp), but, as they're binary files, I can't tell how.
By the way, PD doesn't "give the AR conflict message". It just silently switches to 4:3, "adjusting" as though I had manually told it to switch from 16:9 to 4:3. I have the switch for "Always prompt me when aspect ratios conflict" turned on, but it doesn't issue any warning.
I'll try your experiment with creating 2 different projects from scratch and let you know what happens.
I did the uninstall/reinstall. No effect. I noticed that my preferences survived the process - so uninstall (W10 central remove programs) doesn't COMPLETELY uninstall everything about PD.
I noticed that the problem exists with every project I've tried it on. Since the original project had a complicated history (because it was once 4:3), and because it uses 4 large source videos, I upload a different, smaller, simpler project here:
There are two zip files - one from Pack Project on the desktop, and one from Pack Project on the laptop. The pds files differ (according to cygwin cmp), but, as they're binary files, I can't tell how.
By the way, PD doesn't "give the AR conflict message". It just silently switches to 4:3, "adjusting" as though I had manually told it to switch from 16:9 to 4:3. I have the switch for "Always prompt me when aspect ratios conflict" turned on, but it doesn't issue any warning.
I'll try your experiment with creating 2 different projects from scratch and let you know what happens.
Two things. Can you pack one of the problematic projects to a cloud folder and post the link to it here? Obviously, only do that if you're comfortable sharing the library contents on the forum. If you can do that, it will let us test it and see if there's anything unusual about it. You could then delete the project as soon as we have the answer(s).
For the syncing, there are files scattered over several directories, and there are also dozens of registry settings that would need to be tracked and checked before blindly applying them to another Windows version. You also run the risk of a probelm with one project on one machine disabling related features on the other - which is definitely not what you want.
I also can't imagine that any of those files/registry keys are the cause of (or the solution to) this issue, and I really think that a full uninstall/reinstall on the problem machine is the simplest way to fix the problem, or at least rule out a bad install as the culprit. Examing a project is the other highest probability step.
I guess a 3rd item to try is to create 2 new projects, one on each machine, and set them both to a project AR that the laptop doesn't "like" and see if there's any difference when loading them. In other words, does one give you the AR conflict message but not the other...
Autostart previous project is already off. I set AR to 16:9, and I can open and close PD all I want and it stays 16:9... until I load the project file.
I'll try reinstalling. If that doesn't work, the next step might be to have Syncplicity synchronize every file PD knows about, using the desktop as the source of the files.
Where does PD dump its junk (in Windows 7/10)? I've read it keeps stuff in Users/<username>/Cyberlink. Anywhere else?
Oh, I guess that's another difference. The desktop is W7, the laptop is W10.
Sounds like you might have a corrupted installation on your laptop, then.
Try this: make sure that PD is set to not open the previous project when it starts, then set the AR to 360 or 9:16 then close and reopen PD. If it comes up as 4:3, uninstall PD and then reinstall it and try this simple test again.
I tried packing the project to another directory and loading it from there. That didn't help, either.
On the trouble machine (the laptop), PD always starts in 4:3. The desktop starts (now) in 16:9, although it must not have done that when I first started working on the project.
Is there some system-wide preferences that controls this?
Thanks for responding. This checkbox was already checked. It still changes the AR, but it doesn't prompt. Weird.
QuoteThe aspect ratio is stored in every project. If that conflicts with PD's current setting you will see the AR conflict message, unless that setting has been disabled.
Chances are, if you go to Preferences (the gear icon) and look at the first setting in Confirmation on your laptop, that box will be unchecked. Enable it, and your problem should vanish because you'll always have a say in which AR to keep:
I usually start projects from a template. This time, I forgot. I started a new project and forgot to set the AR. It defaulted to 4:3. Partway through, I realized my mistake. I changed the AR to 16:9, which messed up the keyframe stuff on the stills. I manually fixed all of that and saved as a new project name. Exit, re-start, all OK. AR still 16:9.
I normally run PD on my desktop, but I need to go out of town, so I installed PD (version 14 - same in both cases) on the laptop. I use syncplicity (like dropbox) to keep the directories sync'ed between the machines.
The project loads fine on the desktop, but no matter what I do, it reverts to 4:3 every time I load it on the laptop. It's maddening. I can start PD, set the aspect ratio to 16:9, load the project (that loads at 16:9 on the desktop), and, boom, it's 4:3 and all the stills are messed up. I set it to 16:9 - stills are still messed up.
What the heck is going on here? Is the AR stored in the project file or not? How can a tool set to 16:9, loading a project set to 16:9, end up at 4:3??
I got the keyframe thing to work! Thanks, optodata! And thanks to Hankster65 for trying it out. His screenshot was very helpful in getting me pointed in the right direction.
Something odd happened when I was working with the transitions. I somehow ended up with two clips on top of each other, in the same "row" (timeline, or whatever the name is). If you click on one, you can see it extends beyond the other, and vice-versa.
QuoteAlso, Barry's suggestions does work, but you neeed to choose the separate Slide Left or Slide Right transitions to get the right effect. Slide can be set to slide left or right, bu it uses a different effect.
The downside is that there is an acceleration/deceleration and it may not be as smooth as panning along a wall, so keyframes still look like the best way to get that effect.
Where would I find Slide Left and Slide Right. I don't see these among my choices on PD 14.
The whole PiP/keypoints thing is new to me, so it's taking some time to figure it all out (anybody got a recommendation on which tutorial to watch?).
The slide and shove transitions have also produced some "odd" behavior that I intend to ask about once I've nailed it down.
Just wanted to let you all know I appreciate your help, and I didn't flake on you. I just need a little time to figure out what you're all talking about!
Thanks for responding! I tried that, and edited the direction to "Left". It basically wipes with black from right to left, then the new image appears "whole" when the first one is all black. Not what I'm looking for. I want it to slide from one image to the next - no black in between.
This should hopefully be an easy question. I'm creating a video out of still images (with voice-over), and I want the images to just "pan" along as I talk. Like a camera panning over a wall of stills. So, I want a transition LIKE "film clip", but without all the "film" framing.
Surely, this must be quite common. Is there a transition for this, or is there some other way to do it without transitions?
QuoteI have complained many times that switching between projects results in exports going to the last place you exported, so Nana's birthday party video exports to my fishing projects folder. You just have to remember to alter the export location, period.
Thanks for the response. Coming from a "Senior Contributor", I guess that's the last word. It's just so odd that this functionality, so simple to implement (save the import/export directories in the project file), would remain broken for so long. I mean, the tool is so good in so many other ways. Don't the developers have this problem? They must have large numbers of "projects" as well. Don't they get tired of having to do Edit > Preferences > File blah, blah, blah every time they switch projects?
Maybe I should start another thread, but it's still related to "directories and data handling":
Where the HECK does PD store "custom colors"? It isn't with the project, and it isn't centralized. I set up a custom color, it hangs around for a while, then suddenly disappears. Weird. Saved "text" objects are centralized, but custom colors seem to reside in some fading memory...
Another file system oddity... PD is like an elephant about library contents - it NEVER forgets. I have a project that I load as a template. Somehow, it acquired a video in its library. No matter how many times I delete it and re-save the project, it always comes back! It does the same thing with a file that you moved. If you EVER put a file back in the original location with that name, it will snap back to that file. There doesn't seem to be any way to tell the tool, "hey, buddy, I MOVED that file - use the new location". God help you if you ever use a library element called "temp"...
QuoteThe way I work
1º Create a workbook (Marriage John and Mary)
Copy to it all specific material to use in this project, videos, images, music etc ..
When many files, I create subfolders, videos, photos, etc ...
Open PD, add material
Save the project to the workbook, practically everything in one place.
Generally produce more than 3 or 4 projects for the same job.
Produce also 3 or 4 videos, everything will be inside the workbook.
In the folder settings
Import Folders: I do not do anything it will change automatically according to the working folder in use.
Export Folder: This yes I moved, for quick access, there are all temporary files.
In my case it will mix files from multiple jobs, I do not mind that.
When I need to get files to save and copy to another place, files in this folder are deleted after 30 days, standard time.
Thanks for answering!
What's a "workbook"? Is this a PD thing, or are you just referring to a directory/folder?
PD will also output "snapshots" from freeze frames to the export directory. So, if you use a common location for all projects as the export directory, you end up with project-specific, NON-TEMPORARY files in this directory. So, you can't archive the project dir and be confident it contains everything related to that project. That's not a good thing. I want EVERYTHING related to that project in one directory.
I've been using PD 14 for a while now. I love the actual editing features, and I'm very impressed by the rendering speed, and how they've somehow managed to push the rendering priority level down so that the computer is still usable during rendering.
But, I'm struggling with the directory and data management.
I have 50 videos. Each has its own directory that initially contains raw video and audio for dubbing in. In each of these directories there are two output sub-directories - one for a server upload and one for youtube.
My first problem is that PD seems to have three directories it knows about:
1) Preferences > Files > Export
This seems to be where it puts its shadow files.
2) Preferences > Files > Import
This seems to be the default for where to import from.
3) <no direct="" access=""> The hidden, last used, directory to export ("Produce") to.
It seems to use 1) as the place to drop its own stuff. But, if you export to another directory, it switches this value (although it doesn't use it as the default directory when you actually do the Produce!). This creates problems because I export to, for example, the server upload subdirectory, and, if I do more editing, PD will drop "turds" in this supposed-to-be-clean directory.
Questions:
1) Why the heck doesn't it separate these functions ("my turds" and "your outputs")?
2) Why the heck doesn't it SAVE the directory defaults with the project???
Surely there are users out there who create more videos that I do. How do they deal with it? Unless you're going to keep all your files in one huge, flat directory, you're going to end up organizing your work as one directory per project. PD has been around long enough to support this workflow. Why doesn't it? What is the alternative?
Currently, whenever I want to switch project, I have to first do Edit > Preferences > Files. Very tedious. And then, having done that, when I do "Produce" I have to be very careful or PD will clobber files in whatever directory I was working in previously, despite the fact that I just told it where I wanted the output files. And I can't change this value directly before I start, so I'm always n danger of clobbering something.
I want to like PD, but the data management is driving me bonkers? How do other people deal with this?</no>
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