Video Scribe has to be the most frustrating software I ever used. Today is one of those days. Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash, crash.

Other days it works ok (not perfect because VS never runs perfect).

I know the sparkol folks tell us that VS has not interaction with their site, but to be honest, I have a hard time believing it. Sure I can disconnect from the net to test it, but that's not my point. My point is when I am connected to the net, there is this interaction.

Why do I believe this? Because on a day like today when VS crashes every 5 seconds no matter what you do and yesterday it worked ok, you start to wonder what is different today from yesterday to make it crash every 5 seconds.

I know Sparkol's standard answer is "send us the scribe and we will look at it" but unless the good folks at Sparkol is going to be available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, this is not an acceptable solution.

Does anyone else have days where VS works ok and other days it just doesn't work at all?

 

Hi,
This may be frustrating to hear or maybe it will help. (EDITED to add a few more details)

I believe the only symptoms that internet connection will cause in videoscribe is the inability to login, the inability to save online, and possibly forced logout.

I believe that anyone can learn to eliminate crashes and freezes (without sacrificing video quality) by learning to optimize images, make SVGS properly for videoscribe, and manage camera settings properly. Here is a  Thread about learning to prevent freezing and crashing. It contains some suggestions and guidelines that I follow for image preparation.  They may work well for other users too.

It would be great if videoscribe could flash a warning when certain size or setting limits are being exceeded... but that is not currently an available feature. (((EDIT: I believe videoscribe version 2 now flashes a warning icon near the lower left corner of the canvas when excessive zooming is detected.)))

Videoscribe doesn't crash or freeze for me. I've made well over 100 scribes ranging from about 30 seconds up to about 15 minutes in length. I usually use my own SVGs, a voiceover and sometimes client-supplied images (which I resize and optimize)  I used an old windows XP computer until it finally stopped working and then I bought a (slightly less than) $300 computer with window 8 and I added a video card that is about 8 years out of date but better than an integrated graphics chip. My internet connection is a basic cable connection (which may or may not be preferable to wireless if you think internet connectivity issues could be causing a problem.

(Although I believe that most problems result from faulty settings and images, I can't completely discount the possibility that one of the following items might contribute to crashes:
1) internet connection issues.
2) incompatibilities with certain operating systems or other installed software.
3) computer overheating due to intense processing and/or compromised cooling fans or other factors)


-Mike (videoscribe user)

 Hey Mike

Your idea is spot on. Actually I think on the old forum someone suggested that Sparkol folks create a utility outside of VS where you can batch check your images to be sure if they are optimized for VS and if not, the utility will do it for you.

I think one of the problems is that we use a variety of different software (inkscape, illustrator, etc) to optimize our images.

Anyways, I do optimize my images or at least I think I'm doing it without sacrificing quality. For that matter, sometimes when I create a scribe (created over 300 now for clients), I think I spend more time outside of Video Scribe doing preliminary work than I do working on the actual scribe.

But even with all the preliminary work and especially when the scribe crashes only after 2 images, you start to scratch your head. That was how it went yesterday. Hopefully today is better.

Thanks

p.s. I would love to see a  video tutor on how you optimize your images for VS. I don't always comment but every time I see your post I always read. You have some great insight and I appreciate you sharing with us.

 

p.s. I would love to see a video tutor on how you optimize your images for VS. I don't always comment but every time I see your post I always read. You have some great insight and I appreciate you sharing with us.

I cannot agree more.

Yesterday was the worse day ever.. got u[p nice and early to do a video, prepared everything and started to do my scribe. Then it started, crashing, freezing, you name it - it happened. This video waswanted by 9am this morning. Atr 10.30 last night I was able to save the scribe in a small file and then I had to reopen it in myvideroeditor toput the music backing on.

My client was well pleased with the video, but regard;less of that it is still freezing today, right at the last page as well !!!

I am totally cheesed off with it, putting it politely. I have used jpeg instead of svg and have changed the size of the image as well as optimized them and nothing helps.

My scribe has a mixture of images other than vieo scribes  and it still happens.

I am going to look around to see what else is available as never had this problem even with my old videomaker fx !!

As Joe indicated, (since there could be a variety of other issues contributing to your problem,) the best way to address problems with a specific scribe, is probably to raise a ticket and/or save the scribe online and let support look at it.

A general example about optimizing images, if your video size is going to be 1280x720,,, and you have a 3MB JPG that is 2000 wide by 2000 high and it only NEEDS to be about 600 high for the finished video... then scale it down to 600x600 and use "save for web" (in photoshop, or the equivalent feature in GIMP) to save the image with good visual quality and a lower file size and a new name.  (never overwrite the original copy, save the smaller version with a new file name)


-Mike (videoscribe user)