Vidcap question(s)

filmy wrote on 3/2/2004, 8:14 AM

I did a search and didn't find too much on this - maybe it has been covered before and I am not searching for the right terms. Anyway - lately I have been getting some problems with vidcap and had some questions -

1> Is there anyway to *not* auto load the last project? I have looked and looked and clicked various options, gone into the "secret" menu and looked there - nothing matters. Everytime I open vidcap it will autoload the last project, which in my case is a feature film so what has been happening is I sit there and wait...and wait...and wait as this project loads up. And this is sort of connected to the next question -

2> As the project has grown and I have captured more material as the project is loading I suddenly get the "Windows is out of memory" pop ups. This is getting a bit annoying. It is as if opening the Vegas vidcap module is overloading the entire system and to me all it should be doing is loading up a text file, more or less. Loading up the actual project in the main editing mod doesn't take as long and that, obviously, is loading up the actual media. (And before someone says it - I have opened up the vidcap module both from the main interface, with the project loaded and without th eproject loaded, and solo with the same results)

In conjunction with the above I sometimes get the "project not shut down correctly" error when the project is auto opening.

I want to be able to choose what project I want to load, and unless there has been a crash I always save the project, plus vidcap autosaves the project when it shuts down...so this "Was not shut down correct" message is a puzzle. My biggest problem with this all is the auto open issue. If I want to open the vidcap mod and simply capture one clip, or if I want to start a new project, I have to wait forever as the feature project loads up if that was what I last worked on, and then I get the windows memory error. But they do go hand in hand and even if someone out there knows how to 'load nothing' at start up I would still have the problems with large projects being loaded.

Anyone?

Comments

Former user wrote on 3/2/2004, 8:16 AM

I think one of the first options on setup concerns loading a previous project, it might be under Project Settings though.

Dave T2

filmy wrote on 3/2/2004, 9:20 AM

>>>I think one of the first options on setup concerns loading a previous project, it might be under Project Settings though.<<<

Right, but that does not affect the vidcap mod. For the most part the settings in "project settings" and the main "preferances" have no effect on vidcap.exe. You can capture video on it's own with no relevance to a project or the timeline.

Chienworks wrote on 3/2/2004, 10:12 AM

Have you tried looking in Options in VidCap itself? It's a completely separate program with it's own Options menu.

filmy wrote on 3/2/2004, 11:46 AM

>>>Have you tried looking in Options in VidCap itself? It's a completely separate program with it's own Options menu.<<<

Yes I did.

Ok, just in case I wasn't clear in my post let me try again:

Using vidcap to capture - checking all the settings contained there. Looking at the 'hidden' settings. I can not find any sort of setting that prevents the last capture project from auto opening. Am I missing something? If so what is it called? I would think, like the main Vegas program, there would be a setting for auto loading the last worked on project. There is none that I can find. Or, as I say, am I missing something? Is it called something else? is it some super hidden setting?

HPV wrote on 3/2/2004, 5:37 PM

I asked about this a few months ago. The only thing I've got to work is starting a new project before you close VidCap.
BTW, there is a line on the internal prefs that says "last open project". But it doesn't do anything.

Craig H.

Sr_C wrote on 3/2/2004, 9:16 PM

Instead of just opening Vidcap, and letting it load the last project. You could creat a blank project with nothing in it. Then save the ".sfvidcap" file to your desktop. Then, you can just open that file, capture your clips and then save as a new file for that project. When you go to vidcap again you can then either open the "blank project" you created, or open the sfvidcap file that is specific to that project.

It's a workaround for sure, but it might lose some of the frustration.

Hope that made sense. -Shon

AlistairLock wrote on 3/3/2004, 2:08 PM

You could try deleting the "default.sfvidcap" file before opening Capture, thus forcing it to create a new, empty default file which doesn't contain any of your clips.

filmy wrote on 3/3/2004, 2:23 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the blank project idea...that is a decent workaround.

Alistair - are you saying that the "default.sfvidcap" is always whatever you worked on last? In other words my saved project is *not* called 'default.sfvidcap'. But if I am reading what you are saying the vidcap.exe always saves a duplicate of whatever you are working on *as* default.sfvidcap? I know that for lack of a project it will "load" a blank project, however in my case it isn't loading a blank project, it is loading whatever was last worked on.

Oh well...with Version 5 around the corner on could hope this little thing is a non-issue now.

AlistairLock wrote on 3/4/2004, 8:23 AM

It seems to be. I've never bothered to save a project from within Vidcap, I just capture as I go, or as I need to. And I always tend to capture outside of Vegas. Sometimes, but not always when I exit the program, it asks whether I want to save the default settings. And once, when for some reason I couln't change the video properties (they were greyed out), I deleted the default.sfvidcap and that sorted the problem.

You will get an error when you next start the program, ie, it will complain that the default.sfvidcap is an invalid format file, (ie it's not there!) but just press OK, and your mountain of clips will have disappeared.

By the way, in my case the file is held in "My documents"