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Thanks Guys,
The gadget you refer to is something I will attach on my next shoot (on other sites I see it referred to as a ferrite core).
I have those gadgets on a number of my USB cables so it must be useful for something.
Luckily I have managed to edit out the 'NOISY' sections by using footage from the other shoot.
Next year we plan to ensure that the audience check their hardware into the Sheriffs office before the start of the performance, conversely we could hold up the production to name and shame the culprit.
Grandad Ron
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Shooting a school play on the Panasonic 900 and using a Rode Shotgun Mic, positioned on a separate tripod with a short screened extension lead into the mic socket of the camera.
Generally the pick-up from the stage was excellent and the background, whisper quiet, but on two or three occasions the audio picked up short bursts of interference which have been confirmed as coming from a mobile phone, most likely a SmartPhone owned by one of the audience sitting near the camera. I could hear it in the earphones as I was recording, it sounded rather like an angry mosquito and could be clearly heard during the dialogue.
The audience had been asked to switch mobile phones off, so I have to assume that someone. did not switch off, and merely switched to mute ?
I can't find any reference to this situation in the Forum 'search'. Is there anyway to defeat or at least curb the interference without killing the dialogue.
Looking forward to the next shoot, is there a way of making the 'screened' extension lead more secure ?
Grandad Ron
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Dafydd,
Thanks - now I feel confident !
Grandad Ron
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Dafydd,
I have one final entry on the subject of Shadow Files, I hope.
I had a further 80 minutes of SD card HD video to IMPORT into PD11 yesterday morning, with ENABLE SHADOW FILES checked.
After just over 6 hours, three of the 20 minute segments showed the GREEN ICON, one still showed YELLOW, but I'm reasonably sure that will be OK this morning.
For my computer, 2.60 Processor, 8gb RAM and GeForce 220, I am fairly confident that the low res Shadow Files will give me an image on the Preview Screen that I can work with, without the stuttering that make it almost impossible.
Without any user guidelines I am not all that confident what will happen after I finish the EDIT - for example will it process and render the Shadow File ?
I guess I'll have to do what I have been doing by creating a small edited segment, go through the whole process, and see what comes out.
I've been using re-writable Blu Ray and DVD discs which allows me to run these tests without wasting a blank.
I do find it odd that the User Guide has 4 or 5 pages relating to an add-on like PARTICLES but nothing of any consequence about a basic edit function like SHADOW FILES. It has certainly caused me hours of frustration since I have been trying to EDIT images that are still in the process of creating the Shadow Files - Please don't get me wrong, when I need to add the Fog in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' those pages will be invaluable.
Your notes on the way to produce a perfect/better DVD are appreciated, I will certainly follow that advice.
Grandad Ron
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Thanks again Dafydd,
I would be interested to hear how other contributors have overcome the shadow file anomalies and the best way of preserving the original video and blu ray quality onto the final DVD Burn.
Grandad Ron
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Dafydd,
Since my last contact, yesterday, I have looked very seriously at the subject of Shadow Files and realise that I have never understood what it does and how it works - that's after 4 years of using Cyberlink editing over 150 hours of original material - from 16mm film, 8mm film, VHS and Super VHS Videotape, Hi8 Videotape, DV Tapes and SD Cards.
Your comment about the yellow icon on the video thumbnail, from my screenshot set me on a path to see what should happen. In the past I have always dragged the thumbnail down to the timeline immediately, not realising that I had to wait from a 'green' icon to show that the Shadow File(s) had been created. How was I supposed to know, there are three lines in the current 273 page User Guide (page 211) and there's nothing about icons ?
Even those three lines don't make sense because I had assumed that the Shadow Files were created at low res so that the low powered computer systems could use the processor etc to power the edit rather than the preview screen. BUT Page 211 states - 'Enabling this consumes more CPU resources'.
I imported a 32 sec segment of my 1080/50p video into the Media Centre and it took nearly two minutes to give me the green icon.
I also imported a 21 minute section and when I left last night, after an hour, it still showed the yellow icon. This morning that was green.
When I bring the 21 minute segment down into the Timeline (with the Shadow File shown as created - Green Icon) it runs without any stuttering.
Bringing a 21 minute segment down with the Yellow Icon in place does stutter, which is essentially what I have been doing since the Shadow File element was introduced.
Also, if I play any of the segments from the Media Centre directly on the Preview Screen they play perfectly.
I have read a number of Forum notes about Shadow Files and green icons so I suspect that I'm not the only one who has failed to wait for the file to complete.
I now have 6 segments of video from the SD Card waiting in the Media Centre for the Shadow Files to complete before I proceed on the Timeline.
This has probably solved my stuttering problem but is there a answer to the number crunching aspect you refer to when burning a DVD - is that a function of a bigger/better processor (for example the Quad Core i7), the memory (for example 16gb). Or the HDD/SDD ?
But, presumably not the Graphics Card ?
Dafydd, thanks again for spotting the little yellow peril on my Screenshot.
Grandad Ron
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Dafydd,
Thank you for the information regarding Shadow Files.
I have been looking at Gamer and NLE Workstation details and I'm delighted that they match your thoughts on the subject.
There is no doubt that attempting to edit the 1920 x 1080/50p images from the Panasonic 900 is a different ballgame and I would be grateful for any suggestions regarding the ideal (not the minimum) system requirements from any Forum Member.
Thank you, yet again !
Grandad Ron
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Hi Dafydd,
Have been missing from my base, hence the delay in replying.
That delay has changed the nature of things because I downloaded the latest patches (3026) on Friday. At that point I felt it appropriate to provide information about my computer as it was when I was getting both the stuttering on EDIT and after PRODUCE and the very-poor quality of the DVD Burn. However, this morning I ran the same section of video footage through PRODUCE and CREATE to DVD with the updates; the stuttering was the same but the quality of the DVD Burn was completely different and showed only minor inconsistencies around the edges of some of the images.
Using the Intelligent SVRT application it still applied the same mode at the PRODUCE stage - AVS 1920 x 1080/50p - 28Mbps. BUT at the CREATE stage I was presented with a different VIDEO ENCODING QUALITY previously H264 now MPEG 2 (without any alternatives available) and allowed HQ Best Quality which had not appeared before.
I would obviously like to pursue the stuttering issue and if possible have enough power in my CPU and GPU to improve the quality of the final burn to DVD
Thank you for getting on-board - I will try and follow your topics, although I'm out of my comfort zone once I'm asked anything about the basics.
1. Will attach DxDiag of the computer with the updates
2. It would be quite easy to change the graphics card, but which one would be best for this HD footage ?
3. Changing CPU of course is more complicated and with the Dell 546 three years old it would probably mean another computer, but what size processor would keep me out of trouble and is the 8gb RAM big enough ?
4. I take it that you mean PRODUCE and CREATE at the original video format ?
5. Enable HD Video processing (shadow file) is checked in General Preferences
6. Analysis of Video attached
7. I’ll start by listing the ‘IMPORTANT’ ones, if I’ve misjudged what is important please let me know. – GENERAL – TV Format – 50fps - CONFIRMATION – Everything is checked
7. HARDWARE ACCELERATION – Both unchecked – PROJECT – Reduce video blocky and Allow SVRT are unchecked
8. As mentioned above I have now updated to the most recent patch(es)
9. Can I assume you mean checking ‘Create to folder’ as well as ‘Burn to Disc’ ?
As you rightly say this is an unhappy experience when the original footage and the Blu Ray copy are almost perfect. Since I can get such a good copy on a Blu-Ray does this mean that the CPU and GPU have to work so much harder to squeeze the high definition material onto a DVD, and in my case there is not enough power to handle it ?
GUIDE INFORMATION SHEET
1. Operating System is Windows 7 - 64Bit
2. Version PD – Ultimate – 11.0.0.3026
3. SR number PUS120822-01
4. Codec - AVCHD Video (.MTS) 1920 x 1080 50p
5. Detailing Problem(s)
a. Image stutters during EDIT, at the start, even before any Transitions, Titles etc are added
b. Lowering the resolution on the Preview Screen helps but at the lowest resolution the image is too small to see the action
I used the INTELLIGENT SVRT button to apply the recommended PRODUCE mode - AVC 1920 x 1080/50p 28Mbps. Stuttering is still present after PRODUCE, as seen on PREVIEW at the CREATE stage. Checking the DVD Box on CREATE set the ENCODING as MPEG2 - HQ Best Quality
Burning a Blu Ray solves the stuttering and produces a very good quality image
Burning a DVD also solves the stuttering and with the new updates I have just burned an acceptable image on DVD, although not of the quality of the original HD or the Blu Ray burn.
6. Virus – AVG
7. Codec Packs – Sorry I don’t understand that phrase. Have searched for ‘Codec Pack’ but nothing comes up on the computer
8. Other Video Editing Programmes. Cyberlink 10, Nero, AVS and the pre-installed Windows Programme
9. I think those above have Burn Processes, plus 1 Step Copy and IMGBURN, just added after reading Forum notes.
10 Blanks - Verbatim DVD-R, and DVD+R also TDK–all burned at the lowest rate + TDK Blu Ray
11 New Untitled Project (a Cyberlink I have open) is shown in BG Applications ‘RUNNING, difficult to replicate what was running at the time these issues came up.
12 I will add the dxdiag plus the same for 64bit.
13 I have produced a Screenshot of the original video during the edit stage - attached
I guess I am looking for a recommendation that a certain size CPU and/or GPU will solve the problems I'm having with stuttering (particularly with 1920 x 1080/50p images from the Panasonic 900) and will help with the less than perfect images on the DVD burn.
The fact that a Blu Ray burn is perfect seems to suggest that all the front end is fine, ironically that was already the case before I installed the latest updates.
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Hi,
I think I probably got the word 'wobbly' from your entry on the Forum, during my trawl through the Forum last night.
In your note above about Content Aware editing I suspect you are referring to hand held camera shake and PD 11's ability to stabilise that. Mine certainly isn't that because the camera was very securely positioned on a tripod.
Having watched some of Star Wars last night my problem with the images on DVD is rather like the way they start to make characters disintegrate after being zapped.
Grandad Ron
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I am about to start editing two school plays on Power Director 11 both shot on the Panasonic 900 at 1920 x 1080 50p.
My previous experience editing school plays is with PD 8, 9 & 10.
I have the Dell Inspiron Desktop 546 with AMD Phenom X4 810 2.60gb Processor
The maximum 8gb of RAM & 1tb Storage
The Dell is equipped with a Plextor BDRE Burner and the original DVD Burner
The Graphics Card is the GeForce GT 220
Plus Windows 7 - 64Bit
On my previous attempts at editing HD Video I have had problems with the PD Preview screen stuttering, particularly after adding transitions and titles.
I now have that problem in PD 11, even before adding any edits and lowering the resolution does help but makes the screen ridiculously small (I don’t recall screen size changing on previous PD software). Regrettably the stuttering is still there even after the PRODUCE phase and it was suggested in the office that the GeForce GT220 was not fast enough. I did check that there were no more updates.
Apart from the stuttering the quality of the PRODUCE file looks fine (created using the H264, 1920 x 1080 50p mode suggested in the SVRT Profile application.
Burning to DVD, in PD 11, solves the stuttering but the image break-up is awful, not on all images but particularly when a character moves – it doesn’t look like pixilation but the images break up into jagged lines. I have had this before but only the edges of the characters had this jagged break-up – I have also seen it described as ‘choppy’, and even ‘wobbly’
I have worked with PD 11 and 1920 x 1080 50p once before but this was just for the family and the results went straight to Blu-Ray.
IMPORTANTLY – I think - if I take the same PRODUCE file I used for the errant DVD and CREATE a BD it is absolutely fine.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday going through the PD 11 Forum and have tried saving the edit to a folder in the CREATE mode and then burning the DVD outside PD11. Downloaded IMGBURN and tried that, and tried a couple of other DVD Burning software packages already on my desktop. All produced roughly the same sort of distorted images.
I’ve also tried MP4 instead of H264 and a number of other lower resolutions and frame sizes, again nothing seems to make much difference.
Again following suggestions from the Forum I’ve checked and unchecked the hardware boxes, nothing changed radically, as far as I could see.
As the Forum suggests I have attempted to go through the steps I have taken, that has taken six hours today.
I did produce acceptable DVD’s for the Parents who don’t have Blu Ray players from last year’s school plays but I can’t seem to replicate that.
After trying to work on the edit and finding those problems I did a pre-check by downloading a 20 minute segment from one of the SD Cards (32gb SanDisk Extreme – Class 10 – 45MB/s) onto the computer to view the quality (perfect) and burned it to DVD using one of on-board pieces of software (again perfect). Coming to the conclusion that the Graphics Card is up to the job ?
I will go through it all again tomorrow on PD 10 to see if I can replicate a DVD to an acceptable standard.
You will appreciate that I have reached the end of my knowledge and I would be grateful for any avenue of escape.
Grandad Ron
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Hi,
I've recently downloaded a full version of PD10 and experienced the problem of not being able to use Fix/Enhance after using Wave Editor.
Dafyyd - I'm not sure what is meant by 'use 'SPLIT' to segment the newly joined section'
I can see that if I 'Unlink Video and Audio' I can get at the toolbar which includes Fix/Enhance but I fear that if I do anything to the video, like remove a few frames from the video - I have lost my sync ??
I'm clearly missing something !
H E L P
Ron W
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With the top quality setting on the Panasonic SD900 (1920 x 1080P) I find that whilst editing on PD9 the synchronisation is on occasions OK but mostly out, in fact well out.
I downloaded the high quality Sandisk PRO SD Cards to my hard drive and imported the images to PD9.
As an experiment, without editing anything, I proceeded to PRODUCE and reviewing the results in the CREATE mode the synchronisation is perfect.
Therefore I do have a failsafe but it's gonna be quite difficult to EDIT with that problem.
I have the 8gb RAM Dell so it's not likely to be that, I also tried the preview screen at a much lower rating.
I did have the problem when I first tried the camera and because of that actually shot the first event at the lower rating of (HA) 1920 x 1080 which was fine on EDIT.
Is this something that is accepted as a normal PD quirk - is it get-around-able, and is it something now solved on PD10.
I did look in PREFERENCES but nothing stood out - AND I'm scared to change anything.
I'd be fairly happy to upgrade to PD10 but I haven't got over the annoyance of now having to fade my audio track in and out when adding a FADE on PD9. The simple FADE on PD8 did it for me.
I would also be interested to hear what other pros and cons you guys have discovered about PD10 vs PD9.
Thanks - again - in anticipation
GR
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Hi Barry,
I did download Windows Movie Maker - it came down as 'Live Windows Movie Maker'
It tells me that it can't capture from the 'DEVICE'.
As I said to you I don't have a dv camera, only the Panasonic NV-DV2000 dv tape player.
Movie Maker, Cyberlink, AVS4YOU and Nero all recognise it as a dv Device but won't accept the IMPORT.
I also get the message about the 'DEVICE' being busy, so switch it off and on and switch Windows off and on but no luck.
Have you tried this actual tape player or was your success with Movie Maker with a camera.
Regards,
Ron
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Barry, Thanks - I will try it on Monday.
Regards,
GR
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Hi Barry,
Assuming I can get it into Windows Movie Maker, is there any way of moving it from there to PD9.
I certainly don't want to start editing in another Programme - it's taken over two years to get this far with Cyberlink.
Kindest regards,
GR
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I have been trying to CAPTURE (or IMPORT) my old DV tapes from a borrowed Panasonic NV DV2000 Player. The camcorder itself has gone.
Using a Firewire cable and putting PD9 into the CAPTURE mode it recognises that a DV unit is attached but won't record the images. I can see that hitting the START button in PD9 sets the tape going but after the message saying it is scanning the tape, it asks me to rewind the tape to the start - I do that but the same thing keeps happening.
On Page 25 of the PD9 Guide it suggests that I could think of the dv player (they talk of it as a camcorder) as another hard-drive -although they do refer to the connection as USB and I only have FireWire
I did originally use the Panasonic dv camcorder directly into the dv in on my original laptop on PD8, and even took images from a very old Hi8 camera - directly thro' the dv camcorder to PD8.
I can of course record the tapes to DVD on my Sony DVD Recorder via the dv Firewire cable and then import the DVD to PD9 but I hoped that I could avoid that extra step.
Any advice would be appreciated.
GR.
Dell 546 6gb RAM. GeForce 220 1gb, Firewire / HDMI Card
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Hi Brandon,
As I said in my original piece I do have PD9.
Over the last week I have already been confused with the word(s) data file because I have always understood that everything produced by a computer was 'DATA',
Now POWER2GO comes up with the phrase MEDIA which I have, up to now, taken to mean TV, Film. Newspapers etc.
Ironically I didn't actually buy POWER2GO to burn the normal BD because PD9 does that absolutely perfectly, BUT I read that, when the time came, I could put my videos onto the 128gb BD - at least that's how I read it.
Do people actually store DATA on 128gb discs ?
I did buy POWER2GO to try and produce a DVD-Video near the quality of the original HD Video, or even the Blu Ray but I'm afraid I have failed in that endeavour as well.
What I have done is to produce, (in error) a DVD-DATA disc from an MPEG 4 video file with near perfect quality but, of course, I can only play it on the computer. If only I could make use of this mistake to get the quality I need on a DVD-Video Disc. SAME DISC, SAME ORIGINAL FILE !!!!!!!!!!!
Regards,
GR
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Reading the blurb on the POWER2GO site - including the part about 128gb onto a Blu Ray I purchased it.
I just set out to copy video files, MPEG 2, MPEG 4 and/or H264 to Blu Ray and I can't find any access point to do that.
Quite accidentally I did burn a perfect Blu Ray Data Disc with a 2 hour MPEG 4 file. Plays back with the full MPEG 4 quality on the computer but not on the blu ray player, of course.
BUT I can't find the way of burning a Blu Ray Video. Or have I missed the turning ?
I do appreciate that I have it on PD9 Ultra !
WHAT DOES BURN ANY MEDIA TO ANY DISC actually mean ?
Any advice would, as always, be appreciated.
GR
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Hi Rocket Scientist,
Having read on the Forum that BluRay produced better results from MPEG2 I did 'PRODUCE' my nearly 2hour BD from the MPEG2. It came out at over 24gb and only fitted onto the disc with a 100mb or so to spare.
To my old eyes it was as good as the original, or maybe -just as good as it gets.
I will sacrifice another BD to test out PD9's MPEG4 and H264 'PRODUCE files.
I have to remind myself that the original was not 1080p but was Panasonic's HA 1920 x 1080.
I also have to keep reminding myself that all the 'PRODUCE' files out of PD9 have been terrific, that is except 'AVI',
so it's the 'CREATE' (AUTHORING & BURNING) end of the spectrum affecting DVD's that's causing me to have sleepless nights.
AND I've tried 5 other BURN programmes and sacrificed dozens of test DVD's
But I will get there !
GR
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Hi Guys,
I'm not sure that I'm in a position to advise anyone about what's what but I have edited and burned around 100 hours of movies on PD 8 & PD 9, since 2009, and produced 60 or 70 DVD's (and one Blu Ray), mostly from Hi 8 video tape family videos and like my exploration into the photo edit programme PhotoShop and the audio edit programme from Tracer Tech I do know what I know - and of course I am always finding out what I don't know.
I haven't experienced most of the problems I read about on the Forum, with stuttering and stalling and all the other events where Cyberlink actually fails. I wonder if much of that is to do with the amount of memory in the computer - since I have moved to a desktop with 6gb of RAM, everything is different.
A recent message from Berto refers to a problem with a dark background and high contrast on a DVD burn (which I have not experienced) and I would ask if the PRODUCE file he was attempting to burn was OK.
I am still of the opinion that if the PRODUCE file is OK and the Blu Ray Burn is OK, all the problems must be in the authoring/conversion/transcoding - or the burn - to DVD. And to remind you and myself I burned a perfect image on a DVD-DATA burn - by accdent.
I do believe I will solve it and I would be delighted to describe how.
Regards,
GR
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