Edius Pro 3 Gotchas

Edius Pro 3.x Gotchas!

Every program has them, especially those under heavy and rapid development. Edius is no exception.

Note: When referring to menu operations "Logo" refers to the white and green logo located in the top left hand corner of the "preview window" (Play/Record monitor window)

Closing the program
You are probably going to do this a couple of times before you catch on. I have been working with the program for over a year and I still do this! The X in the far right hand top corner of the bin window, which is usually placed in the upper right hand corner of your layout, closes the bin window only, not the program. To close the program use the X in the top right hand corner of the "preview window", or timeline window.

To get your bin window back go to Logo/Main menu/Layout and select "Normal". Or click on the Show Bin Icon in the timeline Icon strip.

Auto Save - (Note - The 3.61 release makes a new aproach to the issues of project backup.* Be sure to download the free upgrade!)
For the most part, Edius is fairly stable. However, depending on what you have going on in the background of your computer in the way of, virus protection, firewalls, screensavers, networking, spyware, etc. you may experience the occasional crash. (Best to get rid of as much of this stuff as you can on your editing machine.) Sometimes playing around with third party plug-ins can also cause your program to freeze or "poof". Fortunately Edius has provided an auto-save. By default it is set to save your program every 3 min. (Make sure that you have saved your program once under a valid name after you start working for this to work properly.) If you don't like the 3 min time setting, you can change the duration of the auto save under Green and white Edius logo/Settings/Application.

If you should crash, the next time that you start Edius you will get a dialogue box asking if you want to use the auto-saved program. If you are a PPro user, you may not be comfortable accepting this the first time that you see it. Adobe has a thing where during the middle of a crash you are sometimes informed that PPro has "attempted" to save as much of your project as it can. Then when you start your program again you are asked do you want to use the attempted save… Well, if you are like me, I usually just opt to use the latest back-up version instead of a possible partially saved project. THIS IS NOT WHAT EDIUS IS ASKING YOU. ACCEPT THE OFFER TO USE THE AUTO SAVED PROJECT! Trust me on this one.

Here's why. Sometimes the crash causes your main file to become corrupt. And Edius only gives you one shot at using their backup….. and then it's gone. Then, to add insult to injury, Edius only saves one instance of the backup, constantly overwriting itself each time. You can do a search for those five incremental backups that you are used to in PPro, but you are going to be sadly disappointed. (If this has been your "Gotcha", as a last resort you might try checking the recycle bin. Some have reported finding something of value there.)

A workaround, until Canopus addresses this weakness, is to do your own manual backups. I don't mean just hitting control S a lot, although that doesn't hurt. I mean taking the time to find the secret icon that gives you access to the "save as" function and save your project as a new file name. (Hint: Look for an icon of a floppy disc and then use the arrow to the right of it to get a drop down menu.) Most users just add a 1 through 5 to the end of the file name, and then start over again. (i.e. Jordan.epj, Jordan1.epj, Jordan2.epj, etc.)

Editors Beware! One other point about the autosave function that you should know. If you, or some anoying co-worker should close Edius without saving the session, your one and only "auto saved" file will revert back to the state it was before you started your session, or the the last time you hit "Ctrl+S". You are out of luck!

*The 3.61 release provides a new approach to project backups. While it resolves many of the problems of the past, it is important to understand how it works, or you could still end up losing your work! Unlike other programs where the auto save function makes incremental backups of your project in the background as you work, Edius makes a backup of your project ONLY when you manually do a save function (Ctrl+S). When you do a Ctrl+S, Edius not only saves your project with your current name, but ALSO creates a copy of the project with a time/date stamp in the project name. Edius will make 10 of these incremental backups before it starts to overwrite the oldest backup. There is an auto save function that still exists, and works much like it has in older versions, but this is only in place to save your butt in the case of a crash or power failure and you had done a lot of work since your last manual save (and thus a manual backup). Each time a new backup is manually done, one of these "autosave" files is also preserved in a separate folder so you end up with not only a manual backup for the exact second you hit Ctrl+S, but also the corresponding last "autosave" that would be associated with that backup. Kind of an overkill without still hitting the mark, but still workable as long as you understand what is going on.

New Project
You might be tempted to start your new project using one of the few familiar looking icons in the UI, the icon that looks like a "new document" symbol.
Beware that something got lost in the translation here. This is more of a "start a new project based on the last one where all of the clips from the last project are saved in their appropriate bins ready to go for your next version of your project". If you really want to start a new clean project, close your program and start a new project from a fresh startup.

Some editors have suggested actual advantages to this unique start of a new program and use it all of the time. Each time that you work on a project, you may be adding to your music or graphics libraries. By using this way to start a new project, you bring these expanded libraries forward into your next project. Once open you can easily and quickly delete items from the previous project that you will not need.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Windows
Often the first strike of this dilemma hits the new user after an attempt was made to close the program by clicking on the top right hand x of the bin window. When that doesn't actually close the program, the x's in other windows may be tried until the right one (the x of the monitor window) is found. The problem is that, by default, Edius remembers the layout of your palette at the time of closure and presents that to you the next time you start, even if it is a new project. If you closed three windows before you hit the right one, those three windows will not be there the next time you start up. Go to Logo/Main menu/Layout and select "Normal". If for some reason your monitor window is missing, you can access this menu with the keyboard shortcut, "Shift and F1"
Some users sometimes complain that even this does not solve the problem, that some windows are still not restored even after normal layout is chosen. What may be going on in this case is that the missing windows are being drawn outside the current resolution setting of your monitor(s). Change the setting of your monitors to the highest resolution to see if you can find the missing windows and bring them back into your current palette. If that doesn't work, try setting your graphics card to display only one monitor, start a new project and then try setting a "normal layout". You should get the default layout for Edius for one monitor.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Clips
Most new users to Edius will experience the phenomenon of going back to rework a section of their timeline to discover that a whole section of the timeline has mysteriously disappeared! ------------ Gotcha! : )

What has happened is that at some point you inadvertently set an in and an out point in your time line and then without realizing it, hit the Edius default keyboard shortcut for, "delete all clips from your in point to your out point" - D

Whoever programmed the default keyboard shortcut like this must have a sadistic sense of humor!

To avoid this from happening to you I recommend going to the keyboard settings in Logo/settings/Application Settings/Customize/Keyboard shortcuts, sort on Operation, look for "delete In/Out" and change that from the default setting of "D" to something that is harder to hit by accident. Or just give it no assignment at all.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Project
New users sometimes complain that they started a new project and put a couple of hours of work in to it only to loose everything after a crash or power loss. When they started Edius again the project was no where to be found, not even from the auto save function of the program. What has happened here is that the program was never saved manually. For some reason Edius likes the user to save once manually with the name you have chosen for the project. Just make it a part of your workflow when starting a new project to always save manually right away and then the auto save kicks in.

Unlinking Audio from Video
Often times you may want to "unlink" the audio track from the video track so that you can move the audio independent of the video. Edius does have an "unlink" function as well but the catch is that it is only functional when working with the VA tracks (AB style of editing). For some reason, Edius assumes that if you are using separate audio and video tracks that you want to really separate your audio from your video and actually "unlinks" the video from the audio automatically with out the courtesy of asking. Amazing but true! Try dragging one of your clips from the timeline into the bin and you will see two separate files represented for one clip, audio and video. Right click on a clip and you will notice that the link and unlink options are grayed out -that's not even an option. However, you will notice that the clip still has the look and feel as though it is "linked" Grab a clip by the video portion and move it down the timeline and the audio portion moves along with it. Trim the audio and the video trims along with it. What has happened here is that Edius, while automatically unlinking your video from your audio, has then turned around and "grouped" your audio and video back together so that it has, for the most part, the very same functionality on the timeline as a "linked" clip. If you need to move or trim your audio separately from your video, right click on the clip and use "Remove Group".

The Case of the Jumping Time Line Cursor
Editors new to Edius sometimes complain that the timeline seems to jump around, randomly ending up in places unexpected. What is actually happening here is that the timeline cursor is actually staying put at its point on the time line, when you would expect it to move, only giving the appearance of jumping. For example, try inserting a clip, then do an "undo" (ctrl Z). While the deletion of the clip is causing a major adjustment to your timeline, the timeline cursor stays right at the same time code placement where it was. Depending on the length of your clip or selection, as well as how expanded you have your time line set to, this can easily give the appearance of "jumping all over the timeline". In reality there is no jump at all and that is the problem. The time line cursor is not going where you would expect it to or where it normally would in other programs that you have worked in. In other programs, after an undo or ripple delete your curser will go to the beginning of the deletion point, so that you can continue to work in the same area. Edius does not. Because the Edius timeline stays with the time code, and because your delete action is making a change in where your media is placed relative to the time code, you are suddenly staring at a piece of video that was further on down the time line. This can be frustrating and is admittedly, a weakness of the program. A simple fix for this unusual behavior is to place the timeline cursor where you want it to end up, before you perform the undo or ripple delete.

Another case of the jumping timeline syndrome, results from using the keyboard shortcut to place a default transition to a track that is not currently the selected track (as noticed by the high-lighted area of the left hand column of the timeline window. Edius refers to this as the "track focus"). If for example, you have been working on your audio and your track focus is on 5A, then you go to place a dissolve between two video clips on 1V by placing your timeline cursor between the two clips and doing your keyboard shortcut for "create default transition", Edius will place an audio dissolve on the closest audio dissolve on the closest audio cut on 5A, and also take you there visually. If your timeline is expanded quite large or your closest audio cut on 5A is some distance away, you can suddenly be quite removed from where you meant to be working. You need to do an undo (Ctrl Z) to get rid of the unwanted audio dissolve and then try and find your way back to the video clips you meant to be working with. (A little trick here is to press the space bar. Even though you have been taken visually to the audio dissolve, your timeline cursor has stayed where it was. Pressing the spacebar takes you back instantly.)

To prevent this jumping around the timeline from happening to you, instead of just dragging your timeline cursor to the place where you want to add a transition, also click down with your mouse pointer in the track you want to add the transition. This action makes the track focus move from wherever it was to the track you want to now work with. Doing this will keep you from pulling out the few hairs you may have left!

The Jumping Track Focus
Focus, in "Edius speak", refers to the currently selected clip and/or currently selected track, as noted by the side bar of the track or clip being highlighted. Try deleting a clip on one track and notice how the track focus jumps inexplicably to another track. How bizarre! Almost every editor who deletes a clip from a track is going to want to continue working in that same area! When you are working on a small project with only a few tracks, this may not present much of a problem for you. But if you are on a complex project with many tracks, and you have the track height set to "high", so that some of your tracks are "off screen", then perhaps you can understand the annoyance of suddenly being forced to an area that you are not working on. Many editors have complained about this and it should be addressed in the next release of the software. If this "feature" is a particular annoyance to you, a partial workaround is to use a "lasso motion" to select your clip(s) for deletion rather then just pointing to them. Using this approach, the track focus usually stays put. I say usually, because for some reason it does not always work.

We can only appeal to the Edius programmer working in some dark room in Japan, to please have mercy on us in version 4. Please save us from the track focus jumping problem!

Changing Your Scratch Disks
You are half way through your project, you've got a lot more clips to digitize and you're starting to run out of disk space on the hard drive you started with. You want to tell Edius to switch to another hard drive that has more space. You've looked under every rock, behind every icon, consulted reference manuals and help files, and you can't find the secret menu that allows you to change your scratch disks. Well, look no further. It does not exist!

The only work around that I have been able to come up with is to do a project "save as" to the hard drive you want to start working with. Now the hard drive that holds your project file becomes the drive that clips are digitized to.

The Crash
On a compatible system that meets the specs of Canopus, Edius is quite stable. If you find yourself crashing a lot, try and determine if there is any consistency to the crashes. What were you doing just before you "poofed" back to the desktop? One thing that Edius does not like is audio that is something other then 48000Hz. So, while Edius can work with mp3 music files for example, if they have been sampled at 44000Hz, they will often cause Edius to crash. If you happen to have any of these offending files on your time line and you scrub past one of them, chances are you will find your self staring blankly at your desktop!

Keep the tips rolling!