Allen;
During the upgrade you will be prompted to remove PD8...both will not exist on the same system. oh yes...don't forget to make a "restore point" just in case!!

I suggest removing PD8, Smartsound and PhotoNow ahead of time and rebooting before you install.

PD9 is a great new product, optimized for 64 bit and many PD8 powerusers "hammered" it during Beta testing to address as many issues as possible. All your PD8 projects will load and run just fine in PD9.

Not sure about the validation for upgrade. I think you are asked during the purchase process to verify ownership, but someone else will have to chime in on that.

I just had to add this:

From what I'm reading on the Cyberlink website and in this wonderful forum, Power Director 9 will not only let me see the preview in High Quality

With Power Director 9 you have two more preview quality selections not availalbe in Power Director 8:

HD Preview Resolution and FULL HD Preview Resolution.

The higher the quality setting the more PC resources it is gobbling up....but the Preview quality is exceptional!

Regards,

Kevin
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Kevin....Allen said he has 8GIG on a 64BIT so resources should be OK, no? He didn't say what CPU speed.
He does have an ATI HD-4350 (maybe 512MEG?) and although that may be small..I think he will love it..how about you??

oops..double post

FredB, thanks a million for the tips and advice. I shall remove PD8, PhotoNow and SmartSound re-boot and run CCleaner to ensure that all traces are gone. Hopefully Cyberlink will add instructions on the Upgrade page to help and to ease concerns of fellow upgraders. A "Here's How You Upgrade" instruction-set would would-be upgraders enter the process more confidently and ease the burden on technical support, on the back end. Thanks again Fred!

Kevin, one of the things that frustrated me when I first bought PD8 in Jan 2010 was that the Preview of clips in the TimeLine was horrible. Forum members explained how to view them in HQ, but they were still poor. Now, from what you and Cyberlink are saying, I can choose to view them at even higher quality...with is great. I don't have a cutting edge system, but before Jan2010, I'd never used any sort of software to make a Video DVD. So any help I get with understanding the nuances of this art is appreciated greatly. Thank-you.
-Allen

I hate to jinx anything

But I think he will be fine...I think he will Love it!

And don't forget one of my favorite things to try when creating your masterpiece that is NEW......

With PD9 you can place TITLES on ANY track....don't limit yourself to placing them on the Title Track on the Timeline. You can NOW use transitions placed inbetween the multiple titles you may be laying down on the timeline. This can create some really cool effects as one title transitions into your next title....You have lots of choices to pick from in the Transition Room.

Kevin
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I have NEVER run CCcleaner or any other registry cleaner during upgrades. Many times I let the NEW installer prompt me to remove the old product (just to make sure it works). I have done MANY installs and removals. Always goes well for me. Never had a problem. Besides...the jury is out on whether or not Windows 7 even NEEDS a registry cleaning...ever !! Crossing fingers here to prevent Jinx!!

Cap'n Kevin is right, there are many new things to try. Enjoy!!

I read all the time in this forum about Titles, Tracks, PIP's, etc.., but I've never tried to learn how to use any of them. In fact, I probably waste 99% of the Power Director's potential. While I have hundreds of hours of HD Family videos stored on Terabytes of Hard Drives, I only use Power Director to transfer Basketball Game Footage of my 11 and 14 year old's games to DVD for the coachs to use in training the players. I attempt to adjust hue, brightness, contrast, but that's about all. My goal with upgrading from PD8 to PD9 is to make this simple process FASTER.

When I'm burning the HQ-DVD's, the 4 CPU Cores run at 65 to 70 percent, but the RAM useage never goes over 22%. At computer idle, it rests at 16% on average. From what I'm reading in the forum, PD9 will utilize more RAM and CPU to get the job done FASTER, which is exactly what the doctor ordered.

I'll look forward to reporting the results in a few days...after the next basketball game.

Fred, based on your advice, I will NOT use any registry cleaner during the upgrade process. But CCleaner does a good job of removing obsolete entries, temp files, etc.. in Windows 7. Never had a problem.

-Allen

Quote:

Kevin, one of the things that frustrated me when I first bought PD8 in Jan 2010 was that the Preview of clips in the TimeLine was horrible. Forum members explained how to view them in HQ, but they were still poor. Now, from what you and Cyberlink are saying, I can choose to view them at even higher quality...with is great. I don't have a cutting edge system, but before Jan2010, I'd never used any sort of software to make a Video DVD. So any help I get with understanding the nuances of this art is appreciated greatly. Thank-you.
-Allen

Using both PD7 & 8 in Vista 32 bit worked find and it was not until I upgraded to Win7 64bit that I had the problem of videos on the timeline being pixellated. Interestingly though after my video is produced and I go back to the timeline the video no longer pixellates. Also playing the video from the media room was also fine even from the start.

I now use PD9 and videos on the timeline are no longer pixellated, so I would say you should be fine when you upgrade.

Thanks for relating your experience and for the reassurance Robert. I'm confident that PD9 will work well, if the upgrade goes properly. I just want to make sure that all proper precautions are taken and procedures followed accurately during the upgrade process. You and the other contributors to this thread are appreciated. Cheers!
-Allen