Requesting Support

Tutorial
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When requesting support it’s best to provide as much detail as necessary. This forum is comprised of volunteers (actual people who use Shotcut) with a few developers, who are also very dedicated volunteers on this project. While we don’t need your house number, but we do need basic information such as:

  • Shotcut Version number (in Shotcut - Help/About Shotcut)

  • Shotcut Settings

    • GPU Effects (Experimental) enabled. Yes/No. May cause cause instability.
    • Video Mode
    • Display Method

  • Operating System

    • Windows 10, 8, 7
    • Linux
    • OSX

  • Computer Specifications (In Windows, hit the Windows Key, type “system”, hit enter)

    • Processor. Example: i7-7700k, 4.20GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Logical
    • Installed Physical Memory (RAM). Example: 32.0 GB
    • Available Physical Memory (RAM). Example: 21.7 GB

  • Screenshot of Shotcut

    • If you’re new to the forum, you’re limited to just one screen shot or image file to be posted, and posting screen shots is encouraged, preferably of the entire Shotcut window showing us by having the appropriate tabs opened where exactly you’re having an issue. Just drag & drop the image into the window you’re creating the topic in. If you need to show more images, use a service like Dropbox, then post the link in here.

  • Source File(s) Specifications

    • Codec/Extension types ( MP4, MOV, AVI, PNG, JPG, etc.)
    • Resolution (examples: 1280x720, 1920x1080, 3840x2160, etc.)
    • Frame rate (examples: 60fps, 59.94fps 30fps, 25fps, etc.)
    • Bit rate (examples: 3224kbps or 3k, 12052 or 12k, etc)

  • Export File Specifictions

    • Export preset selected
    • Resolution
    • Frames/Sec
    • Codec (libx264), Rate Control, Quality

  • MLT file Save your project to the mlt file, and drag the file into here.

Did you watch all of the Tutorials? Yes/No? Many common questions are answered immediately from the tutorials.
https://shotcut.org/tutorials/

Did you read the FAQ? (Frequently Answered Questions) Yes/No?
https://shotcut.org/FAQ/

Did you search the forum for your issue? Yes/No? Many times there has been several posts, literally within the same week of the same issue you’re having, searching may answer all of your questions immediately. If it did, tick the heart of the post that helped you. If you searched and found a post that matches what you’re experiencing reply to that topic and provide specifications to further aid in help.

Post Type. Try to determine if your topic is really a Bug or a Help Request. Shotcut is programmed a certain way. Various aesthetics are not the same with other programs. Just because it doesn’t perform the way you expect it to doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bug. If you’re a first time Shotcut user, the Help/How To option might be your best option to pick from. All posts have the same priority.

Provide steps that anyone could follow to recreate the problem. This is so very vital to getting the help you need. Here is an example. I’ll use a current known bug with 18.06.02. Visual waveform is not correctly displayed after one split, but does not affect exported file. (Pressing F5 fixes the issue. Issue is fixed for next release.)

  1. Open New Project with Shotcut 18.06.02
  2. Open MP4 file
  3. Drag from preview window to Timeline
  4. Show Audio Waveforms ON
  5. Split anywhere on the timeline

Follow up. If you solved your issue either on your own, or by someone’s response, please provide feedback by replying explained what worked for you, and mark the appropriate response as “Solved” so others can follow and learn.

Proper punctuation and grammar. Please try to use proper punctuation and grammar in this forum. Many times is very difficult to decipher what someone is trying to explain without it. This is an international forum as people are using Google Translate or some other type of translation software to learn how to work with Shotcut. I doubt misspelled words do not translate very well to other languages.

5 Likes
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For file type, sometimes, total media info are required with codec, framerate, bitrates, size…

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I knew I was forgetting something, and I did, what you listed and the export settings. Thanks @Keno40 :slight_smile:

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I dont know what Video Mode and Display Method means. If this explanation could be edited into your post that will be helpful for new users.

By video mode, do you mean
https://forum.shotcut.org/uploads/default/original/2X/1/1a7ba36247c753236841640004d8a776f0ed6b9c.PNG

If the user uploads to third party image hosting website (for ex, imgur), does this restriction still exist?

I dont think that this needs to be mentioned.

  • If the user knows how to write with proper grammar/punctuation, they will (without being asked)
  • If they don’t, they won’t.

I don’t see the point in asking them improve their english writing skills.

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Settings>Video Mode
Settings> Display Method

Doesn’t need explanation, just needs mentioning what the current setting is,

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Not quite sure how to be more clear on how to find this.
video%20display%20method

Edit: once again @Steve_Ledger beat me to it, lol.

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I didn’t ask anyone to improve their writing skill. I asked them to try. I’ve thought about this part of the tutorial for several weeks. I do feel it’s very important, especially for others to use translation services to help them with the software.

I’m just a Shotcut user & volunteer, with no direction from any developer in creating this. I’m not in charge of anything. I have no idea of what traffic this forum gets, but I’m guessing only 10% or less of the traffic actually makes an account and posts. From the posts I do see, I do see a good number of posts where people are posting using Google Translate, which means there must be a greater number of people using translation services to learn how to solve their problems with this forum. I see this forum as a community and very vital for this software to advance.

The only goal of this tutorial to help people better communicate their problem and get a more effective solution.

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I think it was a carefully thought out and extremely well intended post myself. My only (tiny) niggle is that I would amend the last point to emphasise spelling in your native or chosen language, as much if not more than punctuation and grammar, and not mention English at all. As you say @Hudson555x , this forum attracts international users and it matters not what language you translate into if the source material isn’t clear. Whichever language a user posts in, the clearer and more precise they are, the better the recipient reading the translation will be able to understand and thereby assist wherever they may be.

I have spent a lifetime getting used to :us:American English which to my :uk:British eyes and ears is rife with misspelling and mispronunciation :wink: but at least whichever version of the tongue you use, auto-translate can handle it pretty well if you spell correctly according to the nation of your birth (or use a spell-checker!)

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Followed your advice @QDSOV, thank you. Edited to reflect the change. What you said is so true. I know there has been a few posts in French I believe that I couldn’t read.

I mod for a YouTube channel, a British lady. The phrases she says gets everyone laughing if they are not from the U.K. Yes, major language differences even among English speaking folk from different regions of the world.

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Hudson, your Requesting Support Tutorial post is outstanding! Bravo!

-=Ken=-

1 Like