Did you save anything prior to trying to burn your disk? You should save pds files in a sequence as you edit. For example wedding1, wedding2, etc. Once all your editing is complete you can click on the produce tab and render your project in the format you want (for example DVDHQ). Once competed I would close PD and reopen the program and then find your rendered file and drag it into the timeline and then try to burn the disk. Following these steps you will not waste an entire 6 hours.

As for the audio that, may depend on how the sound was captured. Are you relying on your camera mic or did you use wireless mics (or any other microphone for that matter) to record the sound? From my experience, my camera's normal mic does a poor job of capturing sound unless your near the subject. If you were filming the wedding from a distance from the couple using the camera's built in mic, you will not get good audio no matter what you try to do with PD.

I should say that you are right about crashing. I typically have troubles when I have have AVCHD mts files in the timeline as well in PIP tracks. I'll do something and the program will just quit for no apparent reason. I may need to defragment my HD again. Others have suggested that that can help a lot.

Good luck. I'll be doing the same thing for my wedding this summer. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Audio editing can be improved if you use a specialist audio editing software. I use a free one sometimes if i want to merge or mix audio.

On PD the audio levels are easily adjusted by using the slider controls.

Title: Audio Mixing Room - CyberLink PowerDirector 7
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCegOSIBiaU
HQ available

Further video are available:
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/3523.page

Dafydd
[Moderator]

James: I enjoyed reading your write up/response

No i didn't save any of the film. I edited my film and then went straight to burn onto DVD. So everything i created last night was lost.

As for the audio, i always thought this was OK on my camcorder. I have a TRV 255E which records in 16 bit Stereo. I was standing just in front of the Bride And Groom when they got married, with the camera mounted on a tripod. A couple of occasions the Bride talks very quietly during her vows, otherwise the sound is A OK.

From what i can gather from google searches etc, is this program is very prone to crashing. So what i am going to do is save constantly and then see what happens.

Another thing that would be greatly appreciated here is how do you change the DVD menu duration? I have ripped the audio sound from when the bride and groom done their 1st dance. I want this audio to play in the DVD menu.

I can only get the DVD menu to play for about 15 seconds and then it goes back to the begining. I have changed the number in the settings page (where you enter a figure of 15-99) but this makes no difference whatsoever.


Off i go......round 2....

Oh my original post has been heavily edited.

Ok....i give up!!!

I am still a bit concerned how heavily edited my original post was. What is the point of a "Forum" if comments cannot be expressed? Are we only allowed to post good things about the program and not the bugs and errors?

Anyway, I've been on all afternoon making my wedding DVD again. I saved the file into MPEG2 DVD HQ format and burnt the movie onto DVD.

The quality is appalling. The footage looks foggy (like watching a VHS) and blurry.

I took 2 identical clips and edited one in PowerDirector 7 and the other one using Windows Movie Maker. I saved them both onto different RW DVD's.

The Movie Maker version is DVD quality. The PowerDirector 7 version is foggy and blurry and the quality substandard.

I really wanted PowerDirector to edit some wobbly footage and improve the lighting in some scenes, but it looks like i may have to revert back to Windows Movie Maker.

.....Or am i doing something wrong?

PS - The original DVD footage is saved on my computer in original DV format and is 10.5Gig in size.

Hi Alan,

It has been pointed out in other posts that the rendering quality in PD is lacking. I like PD for the editing ability, but I looking at alternative methods of producing the final DVD compliant MPEG2 file. I like to render my AVCHD mts files to MPEG2 HD or the Blue Ray format. That does a good job of preserving the quality. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Alan,
This is a forum for CyberLink members to discuss and share their users' experience. CyberLink customer support will not reply in the forum regarding the technical issues. Topics or replies with attacking or illegal messages will be deleted by the forum management directly.

READ: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/2405.page
Subject: PowerDirector - information we request and tasks to carry out.
PART D

If you could provide sample files of the issue and specifically state your capture file format/selection and the render format, I can then give you an ftp location to upload to. CyberLink would require all the files - about a minutes worth of video is about right.
1. capture video - what was selected and sample
2. capture video in other prog
3. render video in pd
4. render video of comparison.

I will also require you to fill out a report form and provide a diagnostic file please.

I'll pass the data onto CyberLink Customer Support for them to look at. They'll need your full name and email address etc (covered in the report form).

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Hi, Dafydd

I thought i was explaining my user experience in my 1st post. I don't think i wrote anything illegal. If i did could you please PM me and explain what was illegal.

Anyway as a little update i finished my wedding DVD. The only way i could get any DVD quality was not to use the "Magic" button. If i used this button eg, to adjust to light or colour, then the quality of the final DVD rapidly decreased.

I used fades and managed to adjust the volume to the desired level and all in all I'm quite happy with the end result.

As a note on the Magic feature - when i clicked on "Lighting Adjustment" it turned everyone orange. To compensate this i clicked "Colour Adjustment"
and had to move the Saturation slider down.....

As before, fellow users, any advice would be most grateful.......

Please contact CyberLink Customer Support if you have an issue with the removal/deletion of your post.
http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/support/cs/service/technical-support.do

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Alan,

Did you check the white balance on your camera? Just a thought. Q9300 2.5 GHz
4 GB Ram
Nvidia 9800 GT

Dafydd i actually think you are quite offensive. How can a forum about a video editor be so heavily moderated? Very strange.

I paid £57 to legally download this product, yet in the forums you heavily edited my original post and i find your attitude of "if you have a problem then follow this link......" etc stinks.


I thought this was a forum, but i was wrong.

Maybe this is why these forums are so quiet because people cannot post what they want to say.

Needless to say, i won't be back. Don't worry CyberLink, you got my money and that's what really counts in the end.

alan,

I read your first post to this forum, before it was edited. And for a first time post to this forum, “your” attitude certainly didn’t inspire me to want to try to help you. But James did try to help (I didn’t see any thanks for his effort). And Dafydd, as is his responsibility, tried to set you straight in addition to helping.
Now I would wager that your issues could have been resolved, and there are plenty of people here who would be willing to help you.
Perhaps you should re-evaluate the way you burst into a forum with what appears to be a chip on shoulder, and instead, comport yourself like the gentleman that I’m sure you otherwise are.
Hopefully this misunderstanding can be repaired, because you do indeed deserve to have satisfactorily working product for your hard earned money. So now make the first step alan, and show this forum that you deserve it’s help.

This is a site for users who volunteer and want to help each other. If you just want a place to go to complain, then go directly to Cyberlink, just as Dafydd suggested. I however would prefer to see that your issues could be resolved here, with the member's assistance, rather than having you just bail. Your call.

Good Luck.
Click here PDtoots for a collection of PowerDirector Tutorials and Tips

Alan,

Like Cranston I read your first post (unedited) and felt inclined to stand back. I have learnt from experience not to weigh in when someone has a rant, it seems only to lead to an argument about nothing.

I joined this forum as someone who knew very little and, because of the input from others, freely given, I now find I know quite a lot. If I can pass that knowledge around great, but I'm not very interested in hearing other people's unrestrained general comments, I'm 57 and have brought up 5 children to adulthood and have had quite enough of 'unrestrained general comments' during their growing period.

Folk here are generally very helpful and air their opinions firmly but informatively. I do not share your definition of a forum as a place to allow people to post just what they want to say but more, as it says above, as a place "to discuss and share their users' experience" . The forum seems to be well managed towards retaining a focus on exploring and solving problems and passing on knowledge and workarounds rather than being a place to let off steam.

PD is a pretty good (but not perfect) piece of consumer NLE software. It suits me so I stick with it to make it work the best for me. Again, as Cranston says - Your call.

Adrian


Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Thank you Carsten and Adrian for your support, I really appreciate it.

I think it's time to shut this post down.

Dafydd