MSP6.5 finding

[AndrewDV]

Hello,

This is an FYI for MSP6.5 users. When I first upgraded from MSP6, the app was crashing a lot under Win2k. All of the new features were inaccessible.

As you might guess, I went through an experimentation phase. Yes, it was not fun. I'd rather be working on a project. Anyway, I found the culprit. The decoder for Cinemaster DVD Player for Win2K was the cause of the crashes. Simply removing it allowed me to access all of the new MSP6.5 features.

One more thing...

Upgrading memory with this app helps out performance. Previously, my machine was configured with 128MB. Performance was acceptable. However, adding another 128MB really made a difference.

One more thing...

Upgrade to WMP7.1 <b>only</b> if you want to access to the latest version of Microsoft MPEG4 codecs. Besides that, it looks pretty and takes up extra space.

Well, that's it. I'm a much happier MSP6.5 user.

Thank you

[Sciascia]

Can you do the upgrade as a fresh install or do you have to have MSP 6 installed first? Is the upgrade just like a patch, or is it a full blown version of the suite. I don't like to upgrade over top of SW if at all possible, it just makes for less problems if it is a fresh install in my expereince.

I was also looking at the different versions they sell and the stripped down version, I think its called Directors Cut or something; looks pretty good for those of us who don't use the video paint and stuff. I would imagine that even though the video editor is quite improved that the other stuff is basically the same.

[AndrewDV]

Hi,

The upgrade was done with MSP6 installed. The install program does check for a previous version. I am not certain whether or not the software needs to be loaded or it can just check for the MSP6 CD.

[Dr Mordrid]

That's odd.

The Matrox DVD Player bundled with the RT-2000, which is a customized Cinemaster, doesn't cause any problems with MSPro 6.5 in Win2K.

What version # of Cinemaster is it?

Dr. Mordrid

[wkulecz]

When I upgraded, it over wrote my MSP6 without asking, and installed WME7 with no option not to. I chose not to install WMP7.1 or Quicktime5.

Editing existing projects seems fine, but "instant play" isn't, a 10-20 second delay when I press play with the status bar reading: "Initializing Instant Play..." Delay seems to depend on the project length, but this greatly reduces the appeal of "Instant Play". Instant Play framerate on a PIII-850 with 512MB RAM is not impressive, but its better than the "you touched the timeline I need to re-render the audio" behaviour of MSP6.

Seems to have lost the ability to produce *.asf files, and the *.wmv it produced instead is not playable in Media Player 6!!!
I find this very rude.

The default NTSC DVD MPEG encoding at 5500 Kbps looks very nice played full screen in WinDVD, but encoding is very slow ~ 10X real time. I see inconsistancies in the "advanced: button availability so its possible the upgrade is "broke" wrt inheriting previous settings in a coherent way -- some folks may have much worse problems, others might have none depending on what they've changed in MSP6. I see a possible tech support nightmare in the making.

MPEG2 "smart trim" is not. It wanted to re-render the entire MPEG when I imported it into MPEG NTSC DVD project and tried to trim off a 30 second fade to black I had forgotten about before encoding. Could be mismatch in MPEG paramaters between "Create Video -> MPEG -> NTSC DVD" parameters and "New Project -> MPEG -> NTSC DVD" but this would either be a bun in the upgrade or poor quality control in the programming.

At this point I'd say skip MSP 6.5 upgrade un-less you like paying for bug fixes or have a DVD-R burner and plan to upgrade to P4.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

WMP 7.1 works just fine as long as you disable a lot of the crud and use the "classic" interface, so *.wmv playback can be done. It's still bloatware, but it does work a lot better than WMP 7.

As for the MPEG encoding times, that depends on the source. I'm running a lot faster than 10x. More like 3.5x - 5.5x.

There are also some MPEG quality adjustments I can't post right now that help in that regard. Waiting for Ulead to OK them going public.

As for the rest of 6.5;

there are changes in there that affect REAL WORLD editing that most users will find extremely useful, especially if they use DV (and a LOT do). Storyboard and cut on cue for all formats and scene detection and other enhancements for DV.

Dr. Mordrid

[wkulecz]

In the REAL WORLD its extreamly presumptuous to assume that everyone I've been sending *.asf files should download a probably unwanted, irreversable update, just because WMP 7.1 works fine yada yada yada and I did a POINT upgrade to my editing software.

A useful feature in MSP 6 (producing *.asf files) has apparently been removed from MSP6.5 without notice. This is not progress. Why not drop Quicktime, Indeo, MPEG1, Cinepak, etc. too?

Cinemaster bundled with G450 appears to be system breaking crap. I installed it by mistake and it broke both Ravisent and WinDVD. Uninstalling it and re-installing Ravisent and WinDVD got me back to where I started from.

At least the Ligos MSP plugin for MPEG2 doesn't appear to break WinDVD (haven't tested Ravisent yet) and seems to work fine with Media Player 6, although the display quality doesn't seem to be very good.

My DVD burner should be here Monday, unless the DVD plugin really rocks compared to the bundled software I'll likely drop MSP and move all new work to Premiere.

--wally.

[wkulecz]

DOH!

I thought I was encoding a ~1 Hr project, now that it's done in ~11 Hrs, I find I was confused and had started the ~2Hr project so I'm getting ~5-6x not ~10x as I had reported earlier. So my encoder settings may not be too far off.

Now that my Pioneer A-03 DVD-R burner is in the FedEx tracking system, I ordered from www.newegg.com for $586 with free shipping.

Any Ideas as to why Instant Play isn't? I get a 10-30 second delay with the status bar displaying "Initializing Instant Play..." everytime I click the play control with IP enabled. The delay seems proportional to project length, but I've been encoding much more that editing these past two days to be ready for the burner, so I'm not 100% sure. After the delay IP seems fine, although the frame rate is not full speed.

--wally.