Updated: Image file import properties strange or broken Shortcut 17.01.02 x64 Win 10 Pro

Bug
1

Updated with screenshot & with Windows version in title.

Shotcut project video format on Automatic and project initially loaded with an .mp4 1280x720.
Using externally created image files for title cards and overlays, etc. then D&D in to Shotcut playlist. Playlist displays item data fields In, Duration, Start. Image files generated at 1280x720. For title cards initially used .png.

.png Duration set by Shotcut at 19884:06:28:07!!! Preview player timeline shows this as well. OK, double-click .png item in Play list and select Properties tab, confirmed title of Properties panel as the .png file. OK, Duration seems editable, so set to 5:0 then [RETURN} and Shotcut updates Duration to 00:00:05:00. Good. Select Playlist tab. Playlist Duration still shows 19884:06:28:07 as well as Preview timeline. So, item properties changes in Properties tab do not stick. Attempt to use Preview timeline to make a 5-sec cut with no joy. Dragging in to a Track means Shotcut then tries to make a Track of 19,884 hours in length. Have to use Windows Task Manager to kill Shotcut.

For grins try .tif. Now, Playlist Duration shows 19884:06:28:07 and Start as -19884:-2:-8:-15. Yes, with the minus signs. Also, Preview image is vertically squashed by ~30%.

So, try .jpg. Now, Playlist Duration shows 00:00:00:01 - a single frame which is annoying for initial track work not unreasonable. Good! Oh, beans, the Preview image is a white card with no text.

So, try .gif. Get same Playlist Duration as .png of 19884:06:28:07.

Verified all image files using GIMP.

Some other video editors provide for a user setting of default Duration for image files, with shipping default of 10 secs.

Still-image import and properties are broken.

2

This was fixed already for the next release.

3

Got back to this project and updated to SC version 17.02 for a trial before dropping back to 16.x per recommendation. Many prior issues now sane, in particular treatment of PNG & JPEG drag&drop now work as expected with sane 4-sec default duration, PNG/JPG property editing works, and no funky display in playlist. I believe SC has the behavior of selecting video format from the first video file dropped in to the playlist. Not clear what happens if first drops in to playlist do not include video or never include video. Initial settings included USE GPU. Eventually, crash. OK, back off from USE GPU, Went longer but eventually crash. OK, then did something I had not previously done: DISABLE display GPU device (in this case a older NVIDIA 630M but drivers are kept current) at the system level. Was able to complete the project and export finished video with no issues.

This suggests that when SC is having stability issues a first move is to disable any NVIDIA display GPU device that may be present. It is not enough to tell SC do not use GPU or attempt to prevent SC from somehow interacting with GPU display drivers outside the program because all such tactics still leave NVIDIA’s display sub-system drivers active. Disabling the NVIDIA device via Windows Device Manager (requires Administrator privilege) is the only way to assure NVIDIA display sub-system drivers do not activate in Windows.

What NVIDIA giveth in GPU capability it taketh away in NVIDIA display driver stability interference with non-3D, non-gaming graphics intensive programs. This suggests SC release notes should include notes on GPU products and driver levels tested, if any, for stability, much less actual effects use. Any laptop or desktop/deskside with enough CPU to use for video editing is unlikely to not have a GPU product in it by default. Its that cheap these days.

Good job on the regression recovery!