I am trying to move the In Point of a video in Sonar X3, which can apparently only be done when using Direct Show engine.
 
"Adjusting a video clip's start time is currently only supported when using the DirectShow video engine, not when using the Media Foundation video engine."
 
I have switched Sonar X3 video engine from the Default Media Foundation engine to the Direct Show engine as instructed by Cakewalk Documentation. 
 
However, when checking 'Info' tab in the 'Video Properties' it keeps saying it's using Media Foundation Engine. (I checked a previous project that uses Direct Show and Info tab shows it is Direct Show so I know the config file is properly set up - and I can tweak the in point)
 
Does Sonar X3 sometimes over-ride the Direct Show Engine when it thinks a file should be Media Foundation? Is there a way top stop it? 
 
Video Properties, MPEG-4, AVC baseline @L4.0, 1920x1080, 25fps, 4,281kbps - standard mp4 export from Final Cut
 
I really need to just shift the in point so I can edit music to a video and there is no other way I can think to get it to start where I need it to be so I can edit to the start of a bar with click/BPM.
 
I was able to do this before the Xd update and now I'm really stuck looking for a solution with a tight deadline looming - Please Help!!

I work with video in Sonar on a daily basis and basically.... try not to bother with video issues inside Sonar.  The quickest, easiest thing is to do any editing in a video app like Sony Vegas, Windows Movie Maker or Quicktime Pro.
 
Every picture file I receive from a client  I put a :10 count down before the 1st frame of picture or where I want the music to start. Then I create an AVI file to import into Sonar.  Nothing but smooth sailing from there on out!!
 
If you do any kind of work with video you will be best served to just grab one of the video apps and become competent in it.    
You can move/slice up your pic file any way you want,  work with it in Sonar, export a new wav file and drop it back into your original video.
 
Good luck.
 

Hi Jimbo,
 
Thanks for the reply. I'm writing some music for a client's showreel, I actually did send my draft music file with a Bar of high pitch clicks to help with sync, but for some reason the editor in his wisdom has removed them so when I got sent the video file back the clicks had gone and the file doesn't line up. 
 
In the past this hasn't been a problem as I could just shift the video in-points to line it back up with music after importing it - but with the post X3d changes this is no longer possible and there's some weird bug stopping the Direct Show engine from running...
 
I know how to video edit, so I've had to do what you suggest and dropped the file into Final Cut Pro on my Mac and re-aligned it with the clicks on the original audio draft. I've exported the .mov file and then re-imported it back into Sonar with no problem - but I have wasted half the day messing around with this issue and video editing when it should have been a 5 minute job and I could have been creating music!
 
I have been incredibly disappointed with Cakewalk's approach to video & music in Sonar, you are so right that it is just not worth bothering with, such a shame that such a powerful DAW is completely let down by poor video features!
 
Having said that I should have guessed the editor was a bit useless when he told me he thought the clicks were part of the music track... Doh!  
 
I would really still like to know why the Direct Show engine hasn't been worked, and if Cakewalk will enable in-point editing for Media Foundation video engine any day soon  - Xf perhaps?

Direct Show s being phased out by MS so Cakewalk has little choice but to move on.

trying to tinker with video in an audio app, or get the audio app to do more than just play the video and allow you to sync audio events to it, i think is a bit off base. 
 
many folks have been able to work with video in sonar, not elegant, maybe, but doable... there have been many posts...
 
i'm a vegas editor as well. i do much of my audio in vegas, as it really began as a multitrack audio editor. if i need to compose something of a set length, i'll do that in sonar and import to vegas, or use something like the old cinescore. if a piece of audio needs work, i use a combo of sound forge and sonar.
 
the right tool for the job. sonar is so complex, i'd rather they concentrate on the audio rather than trying add more video functionality.

I've always wondered why one can't simply slide a single clip of video on a single video track in an app that is capable of importing video (but then I don't know jack regarding what that might entail).
Like you and Jimbo I too have to do a lot of manipulation in Vegas ...but man...wouldn't it be great to slide (even just a single clip) video around...not "tinker" with it...just move it?
It seems to me if someone were to come up with a combination of Sonar and Vegas it could sell for more than the price of Sonar X3 and Vegas Pro 13 combined....I know I would buy it.
End of rant...carry on please

As of X3E the video engine setting is treated as the "default mode". i.e. its the default engine is used to attempt to load the video and if it fails to load there then it will try the alternate engine. If you did switch to directshow and restart sonar and the video still loads in MF mode then it typically means that Directshow cannot load that video format. Its not a bug. MP4's are not supported by DShow by default since a decoder doesn't ship with windows so you will need a 3'rd party codec for that.
 
The inability to trim or move videos in MF mode is a Microsoft limitation that we are waiting for them to resolve. Its far from a simple issue though it might appear that way. A huge amount of work was put in to video in X3 and it is a lot more powerful than before. We will add improvements in the future when Microsoft adds further support.

We will add improvements in the future when Microsoft adds further support.
 
YAY...thanks Noel!

I think if making the super all in one video/audio editor that is state of art at both was simple it would have been done by now.  Vegas comes closest but  the audio core has hardly been touched in over ten years.  Most audio improvements have come in the form of third party plugins developed for Sound Forge or audio for video specific functions like surround sound enhancements. Core plugins are ancient.  That is a testament to both the quality of the plugins but also a statement about the focus of Sony.

In Pro Tools I can trim video, slip edit, adjust start and end times etc, all while using Microsoft Windows.  Just for anyone who cares.
 
Sonar has given me so many headaches working with video, I ended up going Jimbo's route with Vegas.  Unlike him, I have never gotten AVI to work with Sonar, so I always use WMV files with Sonar.