Hi Everyone,
 
I'm new at using this program. I have having some really weird issues. Where do I start.
First here are my specs for my PC:
 
Intel Pentium 4 3.00Ghz
2.00 GB of Ram
WinXP
 
My camera and lens are the Nikon 5100 with the FC-E9 lens. When I take my pictures only need to take 2 shots.
 
The Stitcher software I have is the unlimited version 5.6.2 build number 21203 with double shot activated.
 
Now on to my problems.
 
When I go to render my pictures the program will error out and close. I have several of the errors saved on a txt file. I have no idea what it all means in it. Maybe someone can look at them and see what is going on.
 
At first I was rendering to a cubic QTVR with all the settings normal. I was getting this black line where it was stiched together and that looked really bad. I was then told to use the smart rendering and that would take care of that line. This is where all the problems started.
 
I would select these settings:
Blending method: Smart
Sharpen: Normal
Interpolation: Lanczos 5  (does anyone know what all of these settings do?) Should I leave this as Bilinear?
 
I was then told to chnage the QT Output Setup to this:
Codec: TIFF
 
I was also told to put a check mark in the Use ImageStrip To Order Shots During Rendering but the box is greyed out. Is that because I only have 2 pictures?
 
Then I would go back to File and change the file name to something like LivingRoom. If I changed the Best Size Ratio % to anything higher that 55, the program freezes up and crashes. What should this setting be? Also when rendering it now to a TIFF, the file is HUGE. I would like to keep it as a JPEG because it is smaller and I can upload it.
 
One other big problem I have with this software is it is a HUGE resource hog. It does not free up the memory after it renders. I normally have around 1.6 Gigs of free ram when starting to render. When it finishes, it is down to around 500mb free. If I want to render something else, it crashes. I do have the latest patch installed. When will another come out? It seems like there are still a lot of bugs with this software.
 
I have uploaded one of my renders that did make it before the program crashed. How do I make the doorway not look so tiny? I looks like you have to be like less that a foot wide to fit through it. LOL. Or should I not take my shots in a doorway anymore because of the way it renders it back together?
 
Here is a link to it:
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/FamilyRoom.mov
 
Here are the error text files. I zipped them up.
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/ [...] rFiles.zip
 
Thank you in advance.
 
Jason

Hi Jason,
 
What graphics card do you have? This may have a bearing on the program crashing.
 
Regarding your other points:
 
1. Interpolation: The further down the list the "better" the blending quality but that's subjective. Stick to Billinear for now until you're fully familiar with using the program then run some tests trying the different settings and see if you can spot the difference.
 
2. I think image strip is greyed because you only have two images.
 
3. There isn't a "correct" setting for Best Size Ratio. It depends what size in pixels you want the output to be. Changing it's value shouldn't cause the program to crash.
 
4. You need to understand the reasons why someone suggested TIFF over JPEG to you. If you're not aware of the difference between these two graphic formats, stick to JPEG for now.
 
5. The latest patch version is 5.6.2 what version are you running?
 
6. Looking at your example it looks like either the circle parameters for the images were set wrong or you have a hardware issue. Can you put online the 2 x source files? What Rotator are you using? I notice you are using an FC-E9 with the Nikon P5100. My understanding is that while you can connect this to the camera, there are some problems. You don't have the same problems using the smaller FC-E8.

Hi Andrew,
 
The graphics card I have is a NVIDIA GeForce MX440. I was trouble shooting all day yesterday and I think I might have an answer to why this is crashing. It has something to do with the Best Size Ratio. I would have it on Smart, Normal and Bilinear. I thought that having it at 100% Best Size Ratio was what we were supposed to set it at. I could never get it to render with it that high. The Program would always error and crash. This is what I did to trouble shoot to see what was going on.  
 
I did 3 renders and only changed the Best Size Ratio to see where it would crash.
 
These pics located here are what I did my trouble shooting with:
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/janewayPics.zip
 
The first QTVR I was able to get it to render at 60%. Here is that one:
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/janeway1-60.mov
 
The second one I did at 65%
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/janeway2-65.mov
 
The 3rd I did at 70%:
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/janeway3-70.mov
 
What I noticed by changing this was the pictures were getting bigger and bigger. Once I got higher than 70% it would crash and I think the program just couldn't handle it. I'm not sure why though.  
 
Here is a link to a video I recorded to show the program erroring out:
http://video.google.com/videoplay? [...] 9704&hl=en
 
One major thing that I still can't figure out is after it does render, the memory is not released. My available memory stays around 300mb. If I try to render another project, it errors out really quick. So I have to close the program down each and every time to start my next project just to free up the memory.
 
The setup I have is a Nikon 5100, FC-E9 lens, lens adapter (AFCE9NP5000), Rotator ("RotatorM" ) www.agnos.com, Manfrotto leveling head (A0831252), and a Manfrotto tripod (055XDB)
 
Here is a link to the pictures that I used in the first part of my post that you requested:
http://members.cox.net/likedoinit/LivingRoomPics.zip
 
I am using Stitcher Unlimited 5.6.2 with DS Activated. I have uninstalled this and reinstalled it several times. Ive come to the conclusion that I just don't need to set the best size ratio that big I guess. Now I need to figure out the memory issue. Can you let me know if you have the same problems using the pictures I have uploaded?
 
Thanks for your help.  
 
Jason