Export is blurry except for parts from reversed clips

Hello everyone,

Shotcut v20.10.31
Windows 10.0.19041 with 8GB RAM and i7 8th gen

I’ve got many clips on a 25min timeline, some reversed. I’m using proxies with preview scaling. When I export the quality is degraded and blurred, except for the clips I reversed. Reversing was done using Shotcut v20.07.11 . Same result when I exported again with default settings. I didn’t try the export in v20.07.11 as some of the filters like SPR and Blur: Pad are not supported in that version. Shotcut crashed occasionally during this process. The log I saved is attached. The files it mentions are present in the Shotcut directory.

export_log.txt (1.8 KB)

Thanks for any help in advance

The log does not help much for the problem you described. You need to look at the job XML to see about that. It sounds like you got your project into a state where it is only using the proxies and unable to switch back to the original media. Turn off proxy and preview scaling, open the project, and see how it looks and what it is using with Properties.
But there are some problems in your logs:

mlt_repository_init: failed to dlopen C:\Program Files\Shotcut\lib\mlt/libmltwebvfx.dll
  ("C:\Program Files\Shotcut\lib\mlt\libmltwebvfx.dll": The specified procedure could not be found.)

This is a DLL from a previous version that no longer works (one of the dropped HTML5 components). I think that happens when you upgrade without deleting the old files, but you used “Program Files,” which suggests the installer was used. However, by default, the installer tries to remove all the old program files before installing the new ones. This suggests the upgrade process was not clean, and a instance of Shotcut was running - possibly a zombie in the background - which had some files locked during the upgrade process. You should reboot, uninstall, and reinstall.

[mlt_pool] out of memory

After you reboot and reinstall, try opening the project and going straight to export before opening other applications to give Shotcut the most amount of memory possible.

Thank you. It was exporting the proxy. Will work on the rest of your observations.

reversed_clip

There was no change in the quality of the exported video. I also repeated the reboot-uninstall-reintstall with the ‘erase old registry data’ option checked to no avail.

However, when I deleted a specific file from the proxies folder and then opened my project the missing file dialog came up and I pointed it at the project folder which it accepted. Now that particular clip is restored to its former splendour. Only thing is the missing file was shown as a hash.mp4. After loading the restored file Shotcut created a project-Repaired.mlt. In the properties for the restored clip the actual file name is shown.

I now plan to

  1. backup and delete the Proxies folder
  2. open the project mlt and when the missing files dialog come up, point it to the project subfolders (there are four)

Question is

  • Is there a safer way to restore those clips? there are 415 items in the Proxies folder
  • Could I create Proxies again once everything is working in the repaired mlt file

I hope this makes sense

With proxy turned on simply open the old or repaired project. For every clip where you expect a proxy see if “(PROXY)” is displayed in Timeline and/or Properties. If not use Properties > Proxy > Copy Hash Code to get the hash code. Look for it in the old proxies folder and copy it into the new one. Repeat for all clips and re-open the project.

Could I create Proxies again once everything is working in the repaired mlt file

Yes, or that. The easiest way is to turn off proxy, open project, turn on proxy and answer “yes” to create missing proxies. Then, when all proxy jobs are done, reopen the project.

So there are apparently two proxy directories. The original as a subdirectory in the project folder, and another in %appdata%. What I can make of it is that the original proxy folder has now become the project folder itself, so whether proxies are turned on or not the clip resolution in properties is that of the proxy and the export remains low res.

How do I restore the mlt file to export from the original projects folder that is still intact?

Here’s the xml file.
xml.txt (989.4 KB)

You already listed the steps above, and I agree with them. Yes, there are 2 possible proxy folders. Read the docs. Your file is over 17000 lines; I am not going to edit that for you. Besides I do not know where your original files are located; that information is no longer available in the project file. Your best bet is to move the proxy folder, and use Missing Files dialog including its search feature if needed.

Thank you again, the project is now fully restored. Never presumed you were going to edit the xml file! You are doing tremendous work at a very high level and still take time to help us out. Much appreciated.

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