Edius 5.1 PIP or Quicktime Problem

[Mike Truly]

OK, I sucessfully installed the 5.1 update and then applied the PIP hotfix.

Loaded up a current Edius 5.01 project and at first glance all looks good except the PIP on the project is wacked.

This is a Quicktime clip of a clock that is up in the upper right-hand corner. It looks to be in the right place and is transparent, etc. but just shows a green, transparent box where the clock should show.

If I try to view the Quicktime clip in the Quicktime player window it shows fine (clip encoded with Cinepak).

If I try to view the Quicktime clip in the Edius player window it shows fine (but this is somewhat iffy. Couple times it has shown as trashed, but most times good).

But when I scroll the actual timeline, the clock PIP alternates between good and green (see the attached images).

This system already had Quicktime7 Pro on it. There is nothing wrong with the QT clip. This has something to do with the new install and PIP I think.

When I did the 5.1 update, I did not uncheck the Quicktime7 box... not sure if this would affect this.

Thanks for any ideas!

[antonsvideo]

what is your quicktime player version?

[Mike Truly]

Anton,

The QT Player shows version 7.5.5 (249.13).

It appears to be related not to the PIP at all but to Edius 5.11's ability to handle this QT file (It was working flawlessly in 5.01). When I take the QT clip with no PIP and drag it to the timeline, it is showing the same good/green/tears/good/good/green, etc.

Wonder if Edius 5.1 updated the QT slightly and I need to re-install a slightly older QT?

[antonsvideo]

I remember one QT version being problematic

the one that came with Edius should work, also the latest 7.6 works here

[Mike Truly]

Anton,

I uninstalled QT and re-installed to QT 7.2 but got the same result. For some reason, Edius 5.01 showed this clip just fine but 5.11 does not. Compressed with Cinepak. I have made a short version of the same clock clip and it also displays as flashing green when on the timeline:

http://www.trulymedia.com/issues/short_timecode_overlay.zip

If you don't mind testing, could you add it to a 1280x720 project timeline and see if it causes intermittant flashing to green when scrubbing. When playing, it shows as solid green but upon pausing will show the clock sometimes.

Thanks!

[Mike Truly]

Anton,

OK, I think I have narrowed it down.

This clip is not a standard frame format clip. It is created in a compositing app and in that process, I crop it to be in tight on the clock (I don't care what frame format it is since it will be cropped in a 3D PIP and I want the filesize to be as small as possible so I crop to a weird size).

Edius 5.01 didn't care and played the clip just fine. Edius 5.11 has changed and now seems to require that it be a standard frame format and will play the old clip with green errors.

When I re-render out the clip from the compositing app at 720x486 (no cropping in the compositing app)... the 720x486 clip plays on the timeline without green errors.

So why did Edius change this? Hmmm.

Thanks again.

[antonsvideo]

hmmm, I never tried non standard QT files

also, I would use layout rather than 3D PIP for this purpose

[antonsvideo]

I tried your file and it is green as you say

[Mike Truly]

Anton,

Thanks for checking. I think I know more now.

When I crop the clip in the compositing app... I am actually not limited to cropping down within the frame, I can also crop to larger than the frame size. (Not sure why I would want to do this... just checked the comp and that's what was done). Even though the frame format of the comp was 720x486, I was cropping 'up' so that the end clip was 929x250 with some invisible alpha stuff on the sides I guess?. (I think this transparent alpha stuff is what is freaking out Edius).

Anyway, Edius 5.01 didn't complain but Edius 5.11 does. That's OK, since I now understand what's going on, I can redo the clip with actual black in those side areas and it will play without freakout.

At least now it seems that I know my Edius 5.11 install is good and I don't have to re-install.

Thanks again.

[pjsssss]

I think you are running into 2 problems Mike. One is that Edius is very erratic with QT files if they are non standard. I have seen this time and time again in different locations.

The second is a strange alpha problem where Edius does not see some of the transparency as you are discovering. This behavior has been noted, has been reported, and is being investigated.

[Mike Truly]

Thanks for that info. Would explain about what I am seeing.

In any event, I regenerated the QT clock clip keeping the size but making sure to fill those side areas with the background color (instead of transparent)... still no joy. It appears to be related to the size. Edius 5.01 played it fine... Edius 5.11 does not.

The only solution at this point is to re-generate the clip at some standard size (live with the extra filesize) and then try to change the PIP settings on all the clips where they appear on the timeline.

Thanks again.

[pjsssss]

You may be too far in the process for this to help but can you put the chromakey on it and then enable the rectangle to fit the area you want and see if that helps.

[Mike Truly]

Thanks for the ideas.

When clip is freaking out, it is alternately showing solid green on one frame and then the clock on another and then green again, etc. So Colorkey won't fix it.

But I've got it sorted. I re-generated the clip again but this time made the width standard (720x250) and the clip plays without error. I then edited the settings of the PIPs and now all is well. The project is already delivered but I was more concerned about understanding how to work around this problem.

Thanks again.