Shotcut Suddenly starts to freeze

Hello. I tried searches already but nothing really fits my problem.

All this started yesterday. Before this I had no problem loading videos, then trimming them down to parts I want & edit them. Files I work with are 1080p, MP4 and size of about 17-20gb.

No I had no problem with these before. Never froze, not even slowed down. (didn’t have proxy enabled either and had no problem…)

I’m running Windows 10 Pro, with Ryzen 3700, 32GB RAM, with 1060 6GB.

Preview was set at 720p, which I now lowered to 360.

I have enabled Proxy as well (which I didn’t before)…and still no help.

Updated my GPU and made sure all my Windows updates was up to date, no virus or anything either.

I tried older versions (had latest version before) to see if that helped but nothing.

I even tried smaller files (videos about 15-20min length most, again 1080p) and even these wouldn’t load. They would play fine, but as soon as they are added to Timeline, freeze happens.

I am stumped.

Task manager says CPU isn’t even fully utilized, running around 25% ish at most times. I am wondering if Windows did some update or something that is stopping Shotcut from being utilised properly? or maybe I have inadvertently turned something on/off?

What does MediaInfo say about one of your files?

Example of output (Text)

My MediaInfo setup:
MediaInfo_2021-06-28_16-24-33

This is one of ‘smaller’ file I was working on before whole crashing issue happened.

General
Complete name : E:\Capture\2021-06-27 12-57-46.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 1.74 GiB
Duration : 16 min 26 s
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 15.2 Mb/s
Writing application : Lavf58.29.100

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 16 min 26 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 15.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.241
Stream size : 1.72 GiB (99%)
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.601
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 16 min 26 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 160 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 18.9 MiB (1%)
Title : adv_aac0
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1

=======================================================================

and this is file I used to be able to work on but not anymore due to freeze (this is bigger in size)

General
Complete name : E:\Capture\21.06.21.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 16.1 GiB
Duration : 6 h 14 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 155 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf55.43.100

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 2 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 2 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=60
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 6 h 14 min
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 6 000 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.759 FPS
Minimum frame rate : 10.000 FPS
Maximum frame rate : 30.303 FPS
Original frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.097
Stream size : 15.7 GiB (97%)
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics : BT.601
Matrix coefficients : BT.601
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 6 h 14 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 161 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 165 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 430 MiB (3%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1

The variable frame rate might be the issue with this file. In Shotcut, there is “Convert to Edit-friendly” which may help, and depending up on the level of conversion it may take some time, and considerable disk space.

shotcut_2021-06-28_16-58-54
shotcut_2021-06-28_16-59-05

Depending upon the Video Mode that is set, there might be a problem with multiple files with different FPS.

You did not state your version, but the current recommended stable version is 21.03.21

That’s precisely it, I never had problem before. So that one was one large file and I could just trim & edit without any freezing issues even without proxy. Now I use proxy and it still doesn’t work.

and I am not working on multiple files either. I use one large video, trim, then edit bits from it.

PS My version WAS 21.05.18, then I went down to stable version 21.03.21, and then went further back to 21.02.27 just to be sure (since I started using shotcut around Jan/Feb)

They all have same issue…so I have a feeling it might be just Windows did some updates and messed something up. I mean with my CPU and RAM, editing a single large file shouldn’t be an issue anyway right?

I agree with the variable frame rate comment. How does it behave if you convert the file?

What is your video mode set to?

Make sure you do not have more than one shotcut.exe or reboot if you have not.

You could always look at the Windows Update history to see if Windows was indeed updated between yesterday and today. If not, then that rules that out. If so you could try to revert the changes and see if that fixes the problem.

EDIT - You could also look at the Event Viewer, to see if there are any errors being reported by Windows.

1 Like

Ok so there was no update but event log found some files :slight_smile:

Faulting application name: shotcut.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5fc2c716
Faulting module name: swscale-5.dll, version: 5.5.100.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000000005a3d9
Faulting process id: 0x58cc
Faulting application start time: 0x01d76a7879cebb35
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Shotcut\shotcut.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Shotcut\swscale-5.dll
Report Id: 762b6e13-78e8-492d-a193-e734689fb3fd
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

but since then I have tried re-install (clean out registry as well) and reboots of course. I’m not zooming into timeline either.

I have tried windows photo to edit (…) clips to smaller size (1.2gb) and without any variable frame rate:

General
Complete name : E:\highscore Nymph.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42 (mp41/isom)
File size : 1.20 GiB
Duration : 18 min 21 s
Overall bit rate : 9 324 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2021-06-28 16:49:28
Tagged date : UTC 2021-06-28 21:47:04

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 1 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 1 frame
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 18 min 21 s
Bit rate : 9 125 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 30.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.147
Stream size : 1.17 GiB (98%)
Encoded date : UTC 2021-06-28 21:44:10
Tagged date : UTC 2021-06-28 21:44:10
Codec configuration box : avcC

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC LC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID : mp4a-40-2
Duration : 18 min 21 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel layout : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 25.8 MiB (2%)
Encoded date : UTC 2021-06-28 21:44:10
Tagged date : UTC 2021-06-28 21:44:10
mdhd_Duration : 1101203

It worked slightly better before crashing. TBF this is after I zoomed in a bit (…but again this was never an issue with any of files I worked with)

EDIT: Would installing a Linux partition and running Shotcut in Linux be a good idea? It will probably won’t take that long to get Linux set up anyway. just not sure If I get the performance I would expect to get (i.e. work on full 6 hour clip as I did before on Windows)

I’m just going to try re-install and reboot again

If you want a quick Linux test…

I regularly use a Linux Mint XFCE Live USB drive with the Shotcut AppImage copied onto it. Linux doesn’t need a full installation to get Shotcut started. Performance is excellent. Files can be shared with Windows through NTFS data partitions.

1 Like

thanks!!! This was a great idea. I ran it on USB and it was running better than on Windows so now I installed whole thing after partitioning my HDD. Not SSD but…it will do for now.

So just FYI, I have ran the same files on my PC on Linux and on Windows 10. 17GB file runs fine, no proxy, no de-scaling to 360p, and able to zoom in wherever I want on Linux. On the other hand, Windows still has same problem.

So while technically I still haven’t figured the mystery of Windows being…Windows, but at least I can go back to work!!

Thank you all for your advices and help! Much much appreciated! Now I need to learn how to use Linux for 3rd time in my life XD

2 Likes

There is a problem with Windows …
I have the same problem.
I presented my case in a previous forum … Until the January update, everything was fine, smooth editing, no worries.
Since then, shotcut crashes when editing exceeds a few minutes. I have the latest version of shotcut, windows 10 up to date and 8 GB of ram … I have HD videos but 1420 * 1080 maximum … It is not 4K! I reduced the preview to 360, without success.
However, before, I worked, without any difficulty, on assemblies of half an hour with the same definition … It is impossible today.

I have to make short edits, 2 to 3 minutes maximum that I put together on the final video with the function “open xml files … as clips”.
But the editing is jerky …

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