Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013 is out

Current customers can get a deep discount upgrade price (check your email) – in fact, I am installing the new version as I write this.

Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013 adds many new features – but also is said to speed up 3D preview rendering and adds performance improvements to all types of video editing.

Am looking forward to trying out the new edition!

Update: I seem to have run into a serious problem that renders Magix Movie Edit 2013 unsuable. I am editing 3d video and it goes into a continuous “Building frame-table for quick MPEG access…,” status message and seems to never end. I had to force/terminate the Magix Movie Editor. This happened several times.

Second update: I have sent a defect report to Magix and will update this when I learn more. Update: Have heard back from Magix support and have sent some files and file data to them for investigation.

Third update: <deleted> – proposed solution did not work.

Fourth Update: I started the project over, with a clean timeline, new files, etc, in MEP 2013. I add in and pair my video clips, set them as stereoscopic 3D pairs. This part works okay. However, when I select the Aligning “Automatic” spatially align function, it sometimes makes adjustments, and sometimes not. In all cases, whether it made an adjustment or not, the adjustment parameters remain on screen as “0.0” which is not correct. I can work around this defect and will see what I can do with reconstructing the project now.

Update: I have confirmed that the automatic spatial alignment feature in MEP 2013 for 3D clips is largely ineffective or does not work at all. I have created new projects in MEP 2013 and the prior version, MEP MX Plus. I imported the same clips to both products, marked them as 3D, chose the automatic alignment features. In MX Plus (the prior version) alignment is perfect while in MEP 2013, essentially nothing happens.

Magix Movie Edit Pro 2013 IS NOT RECOMMENDED IF YOU ARE EDITING 3D VIDEO.

Fifth Update: When I have the “calculate video effects on GPU” option set to on, Export to MPEG4 files doesn’t work either. This is on a brand new project with video shot today and combined into 3D.  Gives a message “MPEG4 export module1: Export was canceled due to an unknown errors”.

It does work if I disable use of the GPU. (Actually, it mostly works in this case – I still had the error occur once, but starting the MP4 export process again had it working the 2nd time.)

MEP 2013 seems to have a lot of problems – more of a Beta test release. It is a lot faster than the previous version – and if you can figure out a path in between the defects the speed up is quite nice. But it leaves me feeling a bit uncomfortable as to whether I can trust the software for a big project – that’s not good. Magix can do better than this.

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Taking 3D Shooting To The Limit — with 3 Cameras!

Or n cameras for that matter: Taking 3D Shooting To The Limit — with 3 Cameras! – Creative COW.

I have been thinking about this same idea. At times, we don’t know what the inter axial lens spacing should be for 3D – so why just shoot with n cameras instead of 2?

Having 2 cameras gives us stereoscopic views. But sometimes we need different spacing – adding a 3rd or 4th or more cameras to the camera array enables us to record multiple stereoscopic views simultaneously.

Before long, as n goes to infinity, I guess we end up with holograms!

Consumer 3D TV market remains small

This refers to broadcast cable/satellite/over-the-air 3D TV viewing:

Only 2 percent of TVs in the U.S. are able to show 3D programming, according to the most recent data from research firm IHS Screen Digest. Thats about 6.9 million sets out of 331 million. After this years Christmas buying rush, IHS expects the number of 3D-capable televisions installed in homes to jump to 19.3 million, mostly because 3D viewing technology is being built into most new large-screen TVs. But even with the jump, 3D TVs will amount to less than 6 percent of all sets.

via Whos Watching? 3D TV Is No Hit With U.S. Viewers | News | Product Design & Development.

Which is also why I think 3D is taking off “online” first. “. Broadcast needs huge markets while online delivery can work for small market segments, just like the hundreds of small market Youtube channels are working today to deliver content to consumers and profits to small producers.

The future of 3D “TV” could bypass the traditional multi-channel delivery model.

A few more macro #3D images

Ran out in the yard late in the day to grab a few closeup photos. Being at a northerly latitude, its already fall and most things are drying up and dying off.

All photos taken using one Canon SX1 IS in macro or super macro mode and moving the camera between the left and right images.

Red/cyan glasses needed for viewing.

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