Cannot load files

[J_Waller]

Help!
I am trying out Version 1.8.6 of Smart Cutter. I have a Windows 8 machine, 64-bit, 16 gb ram. I am unable to open a file.
I click on the open button,
the dialog opens,
I go to a directory,
I select an mp4 file,
the dialog closes,
nothing shows up in the program.

I have tried to drag a file,
the cursor changes to show the file is acceptable,
I drop it,
again, nothing happens....

Help!!!

any idea what is, or is not, going on here????


Thanks,
John Waller

[admin]

Dear J_Waller:
Thanks for your message.

'unable to open a file'
Please help us to show and identify the problem.

Could you please upload a video sample (showing the problem) to our ftp server for a test?

It would be better if the sample file size is less than 50 MB.

-------------------------------------
before uploading sample, please create sub-directory with your name under the root, then upload sample to this sub-directory.

FULL priviliged --- mkdir, read, write, remove
Will be helpful to limit the sample file size under 50MB.
Thank you.

FTP Username: samples@fame-ring.com
Password: samples
FTP Server: ftp.fame-ring.com
FTP Server Port: 21
-------------------------------------
Here is also a step by step tutorial for uploading sample(s):
http://www.fame-ring.com/uphelp.html

Looking forward to your further message.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[J_Waller]

I have created a folder "John_Waller", I uploaded a file, "Romping Dogs.mp4"

I examined SmartCutter with 'Process Explorer' from SysInternals. I double click on Smart.exe, and clicked on the 'Performance Graph' tab. The CPU would show a value of .02% while doing nothing. When I clicked the 'Open' button, there would be brief activity by the CPU, then nothing. When I dragged and dropped a file, there was no activity. I have tried '.mov' files and it did nothing either.

I have even rebooted my system, just in case, but no change........

Thanks,
John Waller

[admin]

Dear J_Waller:
Thanks for your message.

But the sample file you uploaded was only 256KB which is too small to deal with. And it looks like a corrupt video file wrongfully truncated.

Why?

Please feel free to send us your further advice and suggestion.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[J_Waller]

I apologize, apparently I cut off the upload before it had finished uploading. I have re-uploaded the file, it is about 20 mg in size.


Sorry,
John Waller

[admin]

Dear J_Waller:
Thanks for your message and the sample file.

We tried the sample file on our end, but we did not see any problem, Smart Cutter opened it and had it cut correctly.

Please follow below steps, see whether this helps.
1.download the most updated portable version of Smart Cutter.
http://www.fame-ring.com/smart.cutter.rar
2.decompress it to a directory, say C:\FameRing, but not C:\Program Files this time.
in the directory, run the smart.exe;

Please feel free to send us your further advice and suggestion.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team

[J_Waller]

This is getting very interesting. I installed it on my G: drive which has more room, and it still did not load the file. BUT!!! I made 'SmartCutter' the default program for '.mp4' files. Now, when I click on an 'mp4' it opens in SmartCutter. I still cannot open it by dragging files, or by by using the Open button. Once I had opened the file this way, I then saved a project, I closed the program, reopened it, and I was able to reopen the project.This is an awkward way to do it as it means I can no longer click on a file and play it But, at least I can now open the file to edit it. The next step of course is to do some editing and see how it works out It would be nice to be able to solve this problem, but I can live with this solution.

There must be something weird in my setup, but no other program behaves this ...........

Thanks,
JohnWaller

[J_Waller]

An Update:

I mentioned that I had found a way to load an mp4 into Smart Cutter. Turns out that that is partly true. Not all mp4s are created equally. Some can be loaded, some cannot. I have 4 basic sources of mp4s, so far three of the sources can be loaded and the 4th source cannot. Mp4s I download, so far, I can load them. I have a program that rips dvds, and blu-rays, to mkv files, and another program that converts MKV to mp4. So far, I can load these mp4s. I can create mp4s with Adobe Premiere Elements, and these can be loaded. But, I have a program that rips the DVD to mp4, and they cannot be loaded.

To give you an idea of what happens when I try to open an mp4 normally, i.e. drag-and-drop, or the 'Open' button, tried opening a text file and an mp3 file. I know, you cannot open these files, but that is the point. When I tried to open them, I got the same response that I got when I tried to open mp4s, nothing. What surprised me is that it did not complain that the files were incompatible, the program simply did nothing, just like with the mp4s.

I am now struggling with batch file process, it seems that there may be some steps missing from the Help file, I will see.....


JohnWaller

[J_Waller]

I think I have narrowed down the sources for mp4s that are not recognized by Smart Cutter. I have uploaded a new file: 'Test_Out_Title49.mp4'. This will NOT open in Smart Cutter, no matter what I do. To edit it I 'convert' it in Freemaker, the new version will be opened in Smart Cutter. For the moment it seems that to edit mp4s from this source I will have to run them through Freemaker. That is a pain as it is an additional step, but at least I can batch process the conversions. But, it would be nice if the compatibility problem with Smart Cutter could be fixed.....

As far as batch files are concerned, I have found that once I add a project to the batch list, I HAVE to hit the Clear button before creating another project. This is, of course, when I need to cut an mp4 into multiple clips. If I do not hit the Clear button, then no matter what the batch list says, each project will copy the first clip created. So, instead of having, say 6 different clips, I will have 6 identical clips. IF I hit the Clear button this does not happen, and, fortunately, it does not change the position of the slider. But it is inefficient, as I create the Start Point, the End Point, add to the batch, then I have to move down to click Clear. So, unless I am missing something, this step is not included in the instructions for creating batch files.


Thanks,
John Waller

[admin]

Dear J_Waller:
When we check your sample file with media info, it shows that the video in the MP4 is MPEG4 Visual, not H.264.

Smart Cutter supports H.264 video in MP4, but it does not support MPEG4 Visual video in MP4.

We think this is the reason.

Please feel free to send us your further advice and suggestion.
Thank you very much.

Best Regards,
FameRing Support Team