Not sure if this should be a bug or a suggestion but: I noticed that even after I hide+mute an entire track, the clips on that track still force my HDD to wake up and/or make a network connection to my NAS when the playhead is reaching their start point (or actually about 1 second before it reaches the starting point).
This (sometimes) creates micro-stutters in an otherwise smooth playback of the timeline.
Not directly related but on the same note: when opening Shotcut there seems to be some kind of recent file query because after going through a lot of videos on my NAS there’s a 5-10s not responding time during which I can hear the NAS drives being very intensively accesed and after Shotcut window ends the not responsive phase the NAS quiets down.
I assume it’s not a big deal for many and also don’t think it’s a bug, but just thought it would be a nice sugestion/improvement.
This is rather fundamental to how the framework works: getting a frame object is separate from getting its image or audio. When a frame is requested it does not yet know if audio or image will be requested. When a frame is requested the file will be opened and initialized if it is not currently (might be auto-closed to free resources). Who wants to make major changes in the mature, stabilized code that has a good chance to create new problems to address your feedback about this edge case?
This was it, the last opened folder was on the NAS.
Weirdly, I changed this to my C: … user\videos folder and the app simply crashes continously trying to display that folder only showing one thing. Is there any way to manually set this files path to something else? Even the 25.01.25 version crahes now as it saved the layout with the files panel opened.
Update: Ok, I moved everything in that folder to a subfolder and it didn’t crash anymore. I eventually narrowed down the crash to a shortcut (= .lnk) file to another folder on a different drive. It just crashes whenever I start shotcut and the Files panel is already opened to a folder with that file inside.
More news: it doesn’t crash on any linked folder, it must have videos inside.
Config data location is in the FAQ and Configuration Keys pages on the web site. Usually on Windows that is the registry (key is documented there) but can been changed to an ini file using Settings > App Data Directory > Set.
About “preloading mute tracks”, I understand it can be a difficult problem, but I still think it’s a problem.
I use big 8k time-lapse videos. Quite heavy for my laptop. Sometimes i use 2 tracks with the ± same video, but one track is muted, to compare, to do editing tests,… Whatever the reason.
Shotcut reads the 2 tracks… Instead of one… Making computer not able to play in real time.
So yes, i think it’s a bug. Or at least, a good improvement suggestion.
But i can wait, i understand it’s not easy to code!
I do not think this change would help this case much. The only “read” in this case is to re-open a file when there is a cache miss. There is a cache to prevent holding open every file in the project. Currently, the first time (frame) accessing an un-cached file on a hidden & muted track simply re-opens the file. Based on what you describe, more than likely the file is in the cache, and if not then for only one frame. Today, there is no seeking or decoding when the track is hidden and muted. I think what you experience is expected: 8K is slow, multiple video tracks at 8K is even slower, a laptop is even slower!
In any case, I figured out a simple way to do what was suggested, but I am still testing it.
