can't open VTP file (SE2)

[mskuma]

I am using SE2 for a first substantial project - I've spent all morning working on it, and now I find the SE2 cannot open the project's VTP file.

What happens is during the opening of the file, I get a "Speededit.exe has stopped working error". I am using SE2 build 100113 on Windows7 32bit with 4Gb RAM on a 2.2GHz Core2Duo. I've never experience this problem before.

Here's a clue - shortly before I discovered this problem, the program reported an error "Can't save undo/redo file" with just an OK button. After dimissing the dialog, I could continue working but soon after I got a freeze (which I've intermittently had during the use of the program in general). Trying to reopen the program was ok but I could not open the VTP file & get a crashed program as specified above. I should add there's no apparent disk space issue on the main drive.

I guess people need to get into a habit of backing up their VTP file..

To say I'm annoyed with SE2 is an understatement & I'm really inclined to put the software in the bin if I have to recreate the project.

If anyone has any suggestion to remedy this situation, I'm glad to hear it. Thanks.

[donx]

Have you tried opening the [Undo,Redo] folder. It is the one called the same as the project and is where the vtp file is located. Inside this folder are back-up vtp files that were created each time you save.
One of these may open for you.

[mskuma]

Thanks for your suggestion donx. I have a heap of them & tried a few (latest & earliest ones) and none of them help. Thanks anyway. I'm redoing the project in another tool..

[Mutley Eugenius]

Minor Breakthrough on Open Project Crashes.

I had a project that has a bad element in it somewhere (suspected VST Plugin) which routinely crashed SE every time I opened it. The latest save, all the previous saves in the folder would crash on opening. This didn't make any sense as the program had the project open all the time throughout the saving of those backup versions, so why wouldn't it be able to open it now?

After hours of mindnumbing open-crash-open-crash cyclic redundancy, I had an idea. I noticed that SE will fire up with the timeline zoomed at the last scale that it had, and will also open projects at the size of the last zoom setting.

So I re-scaled the timeline before I tried to open the project (zooming out a long way). Then the project magically opened. This is probably because every time SE tried to access the bad element, it had to draw an icon of it, and this drawing process caused the crash. By zooming out, I reduced the clip to smaller than icon size, bypassing SE's requirement to display the icon for that bad element. This enabled me to go to the beginning of the project & then zoom in really close, then pan forward through the project, and when it gets to the bad part it will crash. Then I could open it again the same way & delete the chunk of bad data, and re-do it, thus saving me from having to re-do the whole project.

You can also delete chunks of the timeline one by one & find the area that was causing the crash till you can narrow it down to a bad plug-in.

If you're having diffficulties, most likely the problem is not the application, not the ptoject file, or any of its sub saves, but a corrupted media file or a 3rd Party plug-in.

Another trick that has proven workable for opening a project with bad elements is to rename the folder that the project's elements are contained in. The project will load, slowly, but will not be able to find any of the source files, so they will all be highlighted in red. (Hopefully none of them are targa files, because loss of a targa file has also been known to cause SE to crash.)

Once it opens, sections of it can be copied out and saved into new projects. Then the source file directories can be renamed correctly and opening the project should restore connection to the source elements so that it will load. Then the sections can be re-rendered & reassembled in another project.

It can prove to be a very useful workaround, and I hope these tips help others solve difficulties.

[Scott Bates]

Thanks Mutley. Another example of why this community is a must-have. Often wonder how I survived when first getting into video in the early 80's when we had to wait until next month for the next issues of the magazines to come in the mail.

[mskuma]

Sorry for delayed feedback - I found out my problem, but I still ended up reediting using another product (very annoying). Mutley's comment gave me an idea - I renamed various media files to identify which was 'corrupted' - it took me ages, but I could get the project to open by disabling (renaming) some media files. These turned red on the timeline, but at least I felt a satisfaction of finding out a way to open the file. I am very puzzled by this situation since the other editor I used had no problem whatsoever with the same files that SE feels are bad enough to stop the program from loading. It's really weird because initially for a time these same 'bad' files were ok enough to start editing - saw me through for several edits & saves, and then suddenly the project file can't be opened & program crashes. Load all these same media files into another editor, and away I go (redoing the entire project). I'm very disappointed in SE2 & SE in general. I'm hoping for a bug fix version in the near future (but for a long time NT seem too focussed on Tricaster - yeah I've noticed there many marketing mails about Tricaster - it makes me a little disappointed - everytime I see it I wonder what effort if any is being done to brush up SE2) until then I'm looking for another program.

I say a huge thanks to Mutley for pointing me onto the right track.

[Mutley Eugenius]

You're welcome. We're all on the same team.