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My opinion here: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/0/20062.page#116295
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I am running PD 8 more than two years, and (after few patches and some tricks) I am satisfied with it. There were 2 (for me, important) issues, which had not been solved in PD 8:
1. Poor quality of produced DVD movies (no matter SD, HQ or Custom).
2. Useless Menu Designer.
Few days ago I decided to try TRIAL version of PD 10. Here I will not talk about problems with "unsupporting H.264 hardware encoding/decoding" (you can see thread http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/21753.page), about old (already solved in PD 8 ) bugs, about new bugs, etc... I think it will be solved in near future. Here I will talk about "my" two qustion.
Unfortunately, answer is:
1. Poor quality of DVD (bad downscaling of high quality video and photo - you can find this thread in PD 8 forum) still REMAINS.
2. Menu designer is still useless, but I am shocked that this (BTW, the weakest part of PowerDirector) is absolutely equaly as in PD 8!?!?! Problems with "zombie" and choppy sound, with menu items, with scenes, etc...
From the other hand, I didn't find any improvement in PD 10, except 3D, which I even didn't try (I am not using it). Maybe, it's a little bit nicer, a little bit more comfortable... Here I've found similar opinions http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/20400.page .
So, MY verdict is: I will stay with stable, good, and workable PD 8 (so far), and check regularly for new versions.
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Quote:
Branislav 2 - That is saying that your graphics card must support h.264 for PowerDirector to import or export in that format. However, if your graphics card does not support h.264, but you have Windows 7 installed, you can export videos to h.264 in standard definition, but not high definition. Does that clear it up?
Thanks, Jaime! Yes, it's clear, you practically confirm my words.
About MY problem (why PD 8 works with hardware encoding, but PD 10 not?), Cap'n Kevin gave me a hint - to take a newer (but not 12.1 - see http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/21636.page) ATI driver. I'll try and report here.
------------- (Few hours later)
Nothing helps! Tried Catalyst 11.9 (+AVIVO 11.9), then tried even Catalyst 12.1 (+AVIVO 12.1). Without success. PowerDirector 10 TRIAL version doesn't see hardware acceleration for H.264. (Note: At the same time, hardware acceleration for MPEG-2 is OK.)
System: Vista 64 bits, ATI HD 5850 (with PowerDirector 8 everything work).
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Restrictions of H.264 video in PowerDirector Trial version:
H.264 video import or output in the trial version is limited to PCs with hardware acceleration.
•To import H.264 (MTS, M2TS, MOV, MP4) video, a graphics card that supports H.264 decoding is required.
•To output H.264 (AVC H.264, MPEG-4) video, a graphics card that supports H.264 encoding is required.
•You can output non-HD progressive H.264 (AVC H.264, MPEG-4) video using the Windows 7 built-in H.264 encoder if the graphics card does not support H.264 encoding.
If you are not able to output H.264 video, please contact your graphics card vendor and check if the card supports H.264 hardware encoding.
Note: the full versions of CyberLink PowerDirector Ultra and Deluxe include software decoders/encoders for H.264 video files.
http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/support/cs/product-faq-content.do?id=12825
I am just trying TRIAL version and I am a little bit confused. This is how I understand this limitations:
1. If you your video card SUPPORT hardware encoding/decoding H.264, TRIAL version WILL import/export H.264 video. If your video card DOESN'T support hardware encoding/decoding H.264, you have to buy FULL version (with software support of H.264).
2. If you use Windows 7, you can (only) export H.264 even if your video card DOESN'T support hardware encoding/decoding H.264.
Can anybody confirm this (English is not my native language)?
If all above correct, how to explain why TRIAL version refuse to import H.264 in my project although my card (ATI HD 5850) support hardware encoding H.264? (My PowerDirector 8 works fine with hardware video encoding.)
Am I missing something?
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jgaertner1
It is incredibly stupid design.
Exactly! Don't even try to understand logic, because even in that case, you will find a LOT of bugs there! As I said many times here on forum, Menu Designer is the weakest chain in (very good) Power Director software.
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I have the same problem (crash at 21% with menu, and 0% without menu), but ONLY when ENCODING is NOT necessary! So, I've found SOLUTION:
Put a very small portion of VOID video at the first 10 seconds of movie (it can be empty text, particle, PiP or whatever), just to trigger encoding machine at the START of the rendering.
I suspect that there is a bug in PD, when NO encoding is neglected - maybe hitting some zero pointer or something like that.
I will be grateful to the others members if they check conditions about encoding in their video. The simplest way to do that is to check SVRT information (Menu, View, SVRT Information).
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Just change the style of "Navigation buttons", and choose more noticeable buttons.
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Moviez and Aknot,
It's been already discussed about poor quality of "Menu Designer" module.
But answers to your questions are:
1. Loop duration you can set clicking on "arrows" at the "Playback mode" line (at the right-down corner of "Menu Designer" window. In new window, you can see (down, left) field for Duration input in seconds. Put any number between 15 and 99. Limitations (because of many-many mentioned above bugs): real loop duration will be LESS then time which you entered, for about 20-50%; loop for "Chapters Menu" will be about half time of the "Root Menu"; you can not set different loop for "Chapters" and "Root Menu". Solution, which I use: put 99 seconds always, use my own "song" which contain desired loops (made by myself).
2. Template 1 is not editable. In Template 2 or 7, for example, you can modify any of the elements.
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Quote:
I created a background 1280x720pix. what resolution gives the best quality without being pixelated...72dpi or 96dpi or greater?
JimM
Sorry, James, maybe I didn't understand your question, but... "Dpi" has nothing to do with ABSOLUTE size of picture. You have 1280x720pix, and that is it! If you want to calculate PHYSICAL size of picture (in cm or inches), for printing, for example, you have to worry about "dpi". Smaller "dpi" = bigger picture = lower quality. And vice-versa.
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Here we were discussed about same question:
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/11338.page
Maximum number thumbnails per page is 4.
Maximum number thumbnails per project is NOT limited by 16 (I made 18, for example), but I don't know the limit.
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After more investigation, I have results for both Blu-ray and DVD.
First of all I want to apologize for omitting very important detail: when I say "JPG", I mean "JPG with minimum compression, i.e. maximum quality". Fred, of course JPG is lossy format, but high quality JPG is very difficult to distinguish from some non-compressed format.
So, this is the experiment: I made a five Blu-ray movies (default quality) with imported five different format of photo: original photo (5616x3159pix), BMP, JPG, PNG and TIF (all of them 1934x1088pix). For each movie, one of these photo has been placed on the same place in track. After that, I made the five more movies, but with parameters providing maximum quality for Blu-ray movie.
Then, repeat the same procedure, but with BMP, JPG, PNG and TIF photos in 1024x576 pix., and made five movies for DVD default quality, and five more for DVD maximum quality.
Next, I captured the SAME FRAME from each of 20 movies, using PowerDVD (of course "capturing original video source size").
Results for Blu-ray, in order of frame quality:
1. BD max Quality from JPG - losing about 5%
2. BD max Quality from TIF - losing about 5%
3. BD max Quality from PNG - losing about 5%
4. BD max Quality from BMP - losing about 8%
5. BD max Quality from Original photo - losing about 13%
1. BD Default from JPG - losing about 8%
2. BD Default from TIF - losing about 10%
3. BD Default from PNG - losing about 10%
4. BD Default from BMP - losing about 13%
5. BD Default from Original photo - losing about 20%
Results for DVD, in order of frame quality:
1. DVD max Quality from JPG - losing about 35%
2. DVD max Quality from TIF - losing about 35%
3. DVD max Quality from PNG - losing about 35%
4. DVD max Quality from BMP - losing about 36%
5. DVD max Quality from Original photo - losing about 40%
1. DVD Default from JPG - losing about 35%
2. DVD Default from TIF - losing about 35%
3. DVD Default from PNG - losing about 35%
4. DVD Default from BMP - losing about 36%
5. DVD Default from Original photo - losing about 40%
Of course, percentage is subjective. Captured photos are big (about 6MB for BD, and 2MB ofr DVD), so I can not place them here. If anyone has some suggestion how to publish photos, I will do that.
Note: Size for prepared photos for DVD (1024x576) is disputable! Size has to be 720x576 with rectangle pixels, but I have had no time for that.
Conclusion:
For BD movie, the situation is not so bad, but DVD quality is REALLY awful!
The purpose of this investigation is not to make algorithm for "good quality static picture" (we all used that very rare in PD), but to find (more or less) exactly level of quality, which we can count on.
Anita, I absolutely support you opinion, and agree with every word you say! I buy car for driving, not to pick in its engine.
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adlawford@bigpond.com,
First of all, I assume that you understand difference between preview look and final video.
About degraded quality: you said that your photo is about 4MB JPG, so I guess it's about 12-16 Mpx, and that means your photo has resolution about 4000x3000. DVD resolution is 720x576 (the best case). As you can see, it's about 6 time worse than your original photo. Many details are lost already at first stage of coding, as soon as you import photo in project!
Finally, program applies MPEG-2 algorithm, which additionally degrade quality (how much - it depends of applied dynamics to photo; if you have static photo, without zooming or panning, and if you set high quality parameters - you can keep quality from previous stage).
I have experimented a bit with formats of INPUT photos, because I also concern about "keeping source quality". Conclusion: PD8 has a very bad "downscaling" engine. If you want to keep quality of photo as much as possible, you should:
1. All static photo downscale in specialized photo software to the desire resolution. For example, for Blu-ray quality you have to downscale your photo to 1934x1088 pixels (I don't know why PD makes 1934x1088 instead 1920x1080, but it is a fact).
2. Save your photo in JPG (?!?!?!) format, not BMP. Again, it is strange and I don't know why is it so, but PD likes JPG more than BMP.
3. Set all quality parameters to get max quality (i.e. CBR instead CVBR, 30Mbps instead 20Mbps, Speed/Quality indicator 7 etc.)
NOTE: I experimented with BD format, and I can not say that these rules are valid for DVD format, because of "quadratic pixels" in BD, and "rectangle pixels" in DVD. But very soon I will analyze DVD format and give a report here.
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After some experimenting wit Menu Designer, here are results:
1. Definitely, preview mode is useless! In preview mode sound is OK, but video is going slower for about 15% then normal?!? As a result, if you set video and audio to conform in PREVIEW mode, you will get output with normal video, and trimmed audio (trimmed for about 15%).
2. My conclusion about duration of "scenes menu" as 1/2 duration of "main menu" - is not correct! Duration of "scene menu" is exactly equivalent to duration of "background video or image", which you set up for "scenes menu".
Practically, because of mentioned problems, you can NOT make working menu.
Solution:
1. Don't use PHOTO for background. Use VIDEO instead. It's important, because Menu Designer takes duration of video as a duration of menus! Just make (in PD) video from photo, that works.
2. Don't use "fade-in" and "fade-out" for sounds in Menu Designer. Use only "auto repeat". Make your own audio track (in Audacity, for example) and if you want, make fade-in and fade-out in this specialized sound software.
3. Make video (or videos) for "background video", with duration both for "main manu" and "scenes menu" - 99 seconds (it's maximum duration for menu in Menu Designer).
4. Make duration of audio as you wish, but less than 99 seconds.
5. Set duration of "playback mode" 99 second (maximum).
This is not ideal, but for these 99 seconds you have full control over audio and video. After 99 seconds you will have "jump", both with video and audio, but it's unlikely that somebody will hold on menu so long time, with 100% attention. 
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Yes, you can add as many as you wish "Items" (= thumbnails) on page, but..!
But when you start to render, you will see error message about overlapping "items". So, if you've lose hour or two to create nice menu, it's your problem. Next, you have to guess where are the boundaries of "items", if you want to avoid overlapping. One more hour, and - voila! You have a new nice menu, and no overlapping "items".
Again start rendering, wait 3-5 minutes, and... new error message: "maximum number of items is 4"!?!
So, after a few hours of practicing, you KNOW that maximum number of thumbnails on page is FOUR.
Is it so hard to add ONE sentence in user documentation about "items" limitations???
"Menu Designer" is the weakest component in PD8! 
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"...Last time I checked it was runnig at 52%..."
- And then? Have you seen any message?
"...have to directories: BDMV and CERTIFICATE..."
- Right, it's OK.
"...How can I test..."
- First way: go to STREAM directory and double click "00000.m2ts" file. For this you need any new software video player (for example Power DVD 8 and higher, or free of charge AVS media player). This is the "main" movie. You can also check the other "m2ts" files, which are greater than 1 MB.
- Second way: you can burn REWRITABLE blu-ray disc, and try it in your home Blu-ray player.
"...Is this program any good. I am having so many issues????..."
- Me too. This question also torments me.
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I had in mind default NAME for directory - "My Video", no matter where it resides. 
Anyway, you have to burn all files and directories from "C:\HD DVD Write\My Video" to blu-ray disc. That's all.
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Marco,
"...when I am looking for the file in edit mode it only looks for *psd files..." - I hope you first make NEW Project. Do you use "Import media files"?
"...can I use PowerDirector to burn it from the burned fiel onto the Blue Ray Disc..." - No, with Power Director you can't do that. But you can use ANY burning software, including "Blu-ray Disc Suite". Just "copy" all subdirectories from directory where you put your movie (By default, it is a "My Video" directory) to the Blu-ray disc (in your case you have to burn "BDMV" and "CERTIFICATE" directories to Blu-ray disc).
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Of course it helps! Thank you very much!
I'll keep on experimenting.
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Thank you, Andrew!
Yes, exactly, I've mentioned above about SVRT information.
So, you think that Preset "BD 1920x1080" in Produce mode is the same as "HD 1920x1080" in Create Disc mode? Do you know which rate is used? Constant or variable?
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Jaime,
I see you suggest to use "2 stage" producing - i.e. first use "Produce", and then "Create Disc". It's a very wise way, if we consider PD bugs, but my question is about RE-rendering:
If I produce MPEG-2 at 1920x1080, for example, with CBR 32000 Kbps, Speed/Quality Indicator = 7 and Stereo Dolby Digital Sound with 384 Kbps, what will happen when I try to "Create Disc" (from that MPEG-2 file, of course) with 1920x1080 options?
I am asking because there is NO WAY to know which parameters PD uses within 1920x1080 options (Blu-ray disc)! CBR or CVBR? 20000 Kbps or 32000 Kbps? Speed/Quality Indicator = 6 or 7 or 3? Which bit rate for audio? 384 or 192, for example?
So, how I can be sure that PD will NOT re-render already produced movie? (SVRT-information indicator shows that video will not re-render, but sound will re-render, for above example. Time used for creation disc indicates the same).
OK, of course I've experimented a lot, and I've read the info from finished movies - seems that, for creating Blu-ray disc, PD uses CVBR with maximum 25000 Kbps, Speed/Quality Indicator = 6, and 256 Kbps for audio. Is there ANY way to change these parameters?
Is there any way to be 100% sure to conform "Produce" and "Create Disc" parameters?
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