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What to Include in Problem Reports

For the best help, if you have a reproducible problem and can provide the following list of materials for analysis, it is usually possible to figure out what the problem is and how to fix it. It may be a simple usage or setup mistake or a real bug which a programmer would like to fix rather quickly. Although it is not always necessary to provide this much information, it eliminates the try this or did you do this? and a lot of guessing rather than heading straight for a solution. Even if you can not provide all of this information, please report the problem in case other users are having the same issue.

Basically we need to see what you see with the input, output, and session file. Here is a list of the items that will most likely help to resolve the problem, but all of them will not necessarily be needed.

- Provide a detailed description of the problem and the last operation performed if you remember it.
- Supply a small representative sample of the original input that exhibits the issue.
- If possible, also provide the rendered output, again using that representative sample.
- Save a session file used with that same sample which will contain a lot of setup parameters; the best method to do this is to use the File → Export Project... with the Copy option. That way all of the files will be in 1 location and easily loaded onto any other computer.
- To make sure that the same rendering setup is used, it may be necessary to send an additional session file at the definition point just before rendering starts.
- Include the Operating System name and version number and version of CINELERRA-GG that you are running. You can find the date and time built in the Settings → Preferences, About tab, bottom left corner.

It is better to upload any files to a drop site as some of them can be quite large.

How to create a session file: from the menubar pulldown File → Save_as... and choose a filename, for example /tmp/beforerender.xml Do this after you have the situation setup so can see values in use. As just stated, Export Project option provides the most inclusive session information, but size could make it very large and cumbersome to upload or download.

How to create a representative small sample:

1. open the input media, set up the scenario as you normally would to start the project render;
2. select 5-15 seconds of media using the edit mode left mouse button drag highlighting on the timeline;
3. start the render dialog (Shift-R), set the filename path, and set Render range to Selection;
4. recommended Insertion strategy is Replace current project; then press the checkmark OK. The result will load replace the current project for you to review to ensure the error still occurs. If this small sample does not create the error, try a different section or upload the entire input media.