MS Pro update wishlist (it's that time again)

[Hulk]

It's been a while since we've had a major revision of MS Pro so I thought this might be a good time to hear what other user would like in an update. Here's my list:

Video Editor
1. Please, please, please make the scroll bars increase/decrease in size when sizing the preview window. It's so hard to move though a large file with that tiny scroll bar.

2. Preview for effects windows are ridiculously small! They window boxes should scale when the corners are dragged, or be able to be set to a few different dimensions.

3. Copy and paste buttons for copying and pasting keyframe data in the effect dialog so you can easily replicate key data.

4. Ability to preview direct X audio effects in real-time, see the full name of the effect in the dialog box, and the configuration parameters of the effects. I have Vegas Video on my system and although I only use it to edit video, it would be nice to be able to real-time preview those effects in MS Pro. Ulead doesn't need to add more plug-ins, just make other direct x plug-ins more usable.

5. Background rendering. Whenever the cpu is idle why can't the time-line be rendered in the background? Any time spent on doing non cpu intensive tasks could be put to good use, especially if you get up to get something to eat, take a break, bathroom...etc In many cases the system could probably keep up with the editor and you could learn to work in a way that is basically real-time. ie create 3 effects or transitions then go back an preview the first one since it would most likely be finished background rendering.

6. A way to use other MPEG encoders!!!

As you can see, I'm not an advanced user, the things I ask for are simple but would really speed up my day-to-day editing. I think MS Pro is advanced enough. I hope that "fluff" features aren't added to the next revision that are only useful on the side of the box. Let's make the product more usable.


Video Capture
1. A time-line slider so that you can move to any point in a captured video to select screen shots.

[Brian Ellis]

I'm sure we can all add a few things. I think your background rendering is an excellent idea. I'd also like to see, if it's possible, smart rendering covering all formats (i.e., working in AVI and converting to MPG). One thing that is currently very negative for me is the file size going haywire during rendering: if that could be corrected and, at the same time, a predicted file size calculated, that would be great (so that we can adjust the bitrate to produce a file to fill the DVD. Another thing that bugs me is the time it takes to display a longish timeline with audio in waveform mode. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be interruptable, so that we just have to wait and then change it to the filename mode (which, of course, I should have done, anyway, if I had remembered

I may think up some more.

[Hulk]

I like your smart render idea. In fact, I think it would be great if when you clicked on the "properties" of a video clip if it would just show you the attributes you have to have in order for smart render to be active upon rendering. Instead of hunting for what attributes the program is looking for it can just tell us! One other thing would be for a "smart render on" icon to light up on the progress window when a project is rendering and smart render is active. I know you can usually tell because there is no video in the output but the icon would be nice.

[Hulk]

I like your smart render idea. In fact, I think it would be great if when you clicked on the "properties" of a video clip if it would just show you the attributes you have to have in order for smart render to be active upon rendering. Instead of hunting for what attributes the program is looking for it can just tell us! One other thing would be for a "smart render on" icon to light up on the progress window when a project is rendering and smart render is active. I know you can usually tell because there is no video in the output but the icon would be nice.