Loss of effects and titling. “A Bug or a Registration Problem”

EricK wrote on 11/8/2001, 6:05 AM
I have lost the ability to use title and effects; this is the second time this has happened. When I click on the event FX button nothing happens. In other words, I don’t get the titling, cropping or any associated plug-ins. The same thing happens if I go through the menu. This is a real disaster as most the my clients want titles and words on their video clips.

The last time this happened I ended up uninstalling VF2.00a and reinstalling it and everything worked OK. I am now thinking this may have something to do with Sonic Foundry’s strange registration system. Do I have to keep re-registering to keep it going???

The other way I can get around this is to do my titles in VF1.00 which seems to be more stable.

There was a report about someone losing the Cookie Cutter, was this also related to registration????

Your thought will be appreciated. In the meantime I will try re-installing VF2.00a.

Comments

wvg wrote on 11/8/2001, 7:43 AM
I was the one who complained and I'm STILL complaining about Sonic Foundry's moronic registration scheme. It simply don't work... for everyone, and if it works for most that apparently is good enough for Sonic Foundry.

For those that think I'm overreacting, check out the following auto responder message to my latest request for tech "support" sent on 11/2. That's almost a week ago and STILL no help and no reply.

Return-Path: Delivered-To: wvg@enteract.com Received: (qmail 1570 invoked from network); 2 Nov 2001 21:31:19 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO rosco.sonicfoundry.com) (12.30.156.83) by pop3-1.enteract.com with SMTP; 2 Nov 2001 21:31:19 -0000 Received: from AspEmail (SHAGGY [10.10.0.4]) by rosco.sonicfoundry.com with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2653.13) id VC1N3P3R; Fri, 2 Nov 2001 15:30:42 -0600 From: "Customer Relations - Technical Support" To: wvg@enteract.com Subject: Sonic Foundry Technical Support Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 15:30:42 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Thank you for writing to Sonic Foundry Technical Support. We will reply to your email as soon as possible.
dmcmeans wrote on 11/8/2001, 11:16 AM
I experience a similar issue in which the Event Properties dialog seemed to disappear. I had resized the dialog, and the next time I went to bring it up (by clicking the FX button), it wasn't there. I think the dialog's dimensions just got goobed up. Re-installing didn't help. I believe I fixed it by creating a new project, adding a text event and clicking the FX button. That seemed to help.
wvg wrote on 11/8/2001, 3:28 PM
If you are using version 1 of VF, you can easily overlap the dockable window panes making it seem one or more have disapeared. Probably one of the reasons the panes are now locked in version 2. To correct either click on VIEW on the menu bar at top of application and recheck what's missing or CAREFULLY drag the vertical borders to "unhide" your missing window panes.
EricK wrote on 11/8/2001, 9:59 PM
Thanks for the suggestions. The version that it keeps happening in is VF2.00a. I have tried starting a new project and adding a text event to the time-line, however, it still does not bring up the FX window when the FX button is clicked.

I will try the other suggestions about the FX window being hidden. It dose seem that something happen when I click on the FX button.
EricK wrote on 11/9/2001, 12:40 AM
It’s amazing how the simple ideas always work. I have found my lost FX Window lurking at the bottom of the screen, under the Window menu bar.

It seems so obvious. Thanks for the help.
DirkyBoy wrote on 11/9/2001, 9:57 AM
I just downloaded and registered a copy of VideoFactory several days ago. I am currently working on a project that I HOPE to have done for Christmas. Everything was going very well - then all of a sudden - my option for scrolling text has dissappeared. I'm now wondering if I am missing anything else since it's new - I'm not very familiar with all that was there... anyway - just as many of you have - I sent an E-mail to their technical support team. It's been several days now and no response. I am very disappointed. I fear that the only way I'll be able to correct this is to call on their PAY 900 line (if that even does it). Aside from the dialog boxes becoming "hidden" does anyone know how to restore things that are totally GONE?

Sonic: Here's a suggestion ... you have a good product - but it would be even better if you offered support for it! Businesses get bad reps for not talking to their customers!

-DirkyBoy
DirkyBoy wrote on 11/11/2001, 1:26 PM
*BUMP*
DirkyBoy wrote on 11/13/2001, 8:16 AM
Is anybody from Sonic ever going to address this issue or is it mere evidence that you are hiding from an ugly programming issue that you cannot correct as pointed out by others...???

It's been two weeks and several E-mails and STILL no response. Maybe I should set my mail program to E-mail once per hour...? Guys, this is VERY discouraging! So far, what I have learned on this board is: Most everything anyone wants to do seems to follow with the reply: "Vegas Video..." or there's no response at all...

Now I have purchased many NLE in the past (Adobe 6, etc.) but I liked VideoFactory for it's direct-to-CD approach and it's great for medium sized projects - not to mention it plays well with MPEG. So why all the posts mentioning Vegas? Do you not even want to boost your own product? I installed the demo for Vegas - I have SEVERAL times since it came out. I don't feel I need to spend some substaintial $$$ on yet another NLE when Adobe does what I need in those arenas. Vegas has some VERY nice features - blue screen, nice effects & layers etc. - but I cannot justify spending the bucks on just a few features missing from my arsenal.

I really like this VF. It's neat, clean, easy and offers alot of flexibility - okay the plugins are a little on the slim side (as in NONE!) and I really hope that changes with the release of the SDK - but your support for the product is seriously lacking. All I need is an answer to my question: "How do I go about diagnosing my missing scrolling text effects?". It's an easy one. If I have to pay for a support contract to fix something that should be working in the first place - I can guarantee you will be getting a letter from my attorney for reimbursement costs. And it's because others have made you aware of this same problem - yet - nothing in the knowledge base and no replies to E-mails. Truly sad for such a nice product.

-Dirk
DirkyBoy wrote on 11/13/2001, 1:34 PM
UPDATE:

Sonic has finally gotten to me. It appears that it takes 4 days for a return E-mail. I was under the impression it was returned within 48 hours or so. Anyway - we have a fix for the titles and effects that have disappeared. As a 'Thank You' to Joshua Dodge, I am taking the liberty to transpose his fix to the user forum so everyone can benefit.

Here is what Joshua wrote me:

I believe these functions are controlled by the dynamic link library sftrans.dll found in c\program
files\sonicfoundry\Shared Plugins\Video folder. Uninstalling/reinstalling the application may solve this problem for you. If it doesn't, try to manually register these plugins. To do so you would open a Windows Explorer (hotkeys are Windows key + e) then drag and drop the sftrans.dll directly onto the timeline of VideoFactory 2.0. This will pop up a window like the one I have attached (http://genesis.infonline.net/sftrans.bmp). Click 'Yes' to register this plugin. See if that gets you your text scrolling back after restarting VideoFactory 2.0.

--------- End of Quote -----

Now, this approach did not work for me exactly as anticipated ... here's how it finally got resolved:

UPDATE: Fixed - I tried your procedure several times and it did not work. The last attempt I chose 'No' to UNREGISTER it and then once again followed the procedure - this time re-registering it. Closed VF
and re-opened and they were there!

-------------

The guys from SonicFoundry renewed my hope in their technical support, thus I rescind my earlier grumbles...

-DirkyBoy
Chienworks wrote on 11/13/2001, 2:52 PM
Thanks!

Worked wonderfully well; i know have all my effects again. I did have to
do the unregister first for it to work though.
DirkyBoy wrote on 11/14/2001, 9:14 AM
Great to hear that worked for you!

After reading some of the earlier posts on this again...I just thought I'd point out one more important note to some users who are clicking on the FX "buttons" (The small black & white button on the timeline when you insert an effect) - make certain you do not have your switches set to "LOCK" otherwise you will be unable to alter any of the timeline effects.

-DirkyBoy
EricK wrote on 11/14/2001, 7:04 PM

Thanks again,

Switches set to "LOCK" otherwise you will be unable to alter any of the timeline effects. I did not know about this switch.