Where am I going wrong?

SuzyQ

Newbie Joined: Feb 14, 2011 19:23 Messages: 4 Offline

Solved by

Feb 15, 2011 13:03

Hello

I just bought a copy of PD9 a week ago - after using Windows Movie Maker for a while. So please bear with me as I am a newby. I've been teaching myself how to use the program so I think I'm geting to grips with it and it's great.

My big disappointment however, is that when I put images or movie clips from my library into the timeline, the quality is immediately vastly degraded. In a slideshow I've used original .jpg images with a resolution of around 4000x3000, and also tried smaller resized ones. Same thing happens with the Powerdirector sample images. They look great until they go onto the timeline.

Today I tried stringing together 5 short movie clips (.MTS files) each one is originally 50-100MB in size. The finished video is around 5 minutes long. In preview the quality was terrible, blurry and pixilated, so I produced it to see what happened. The saved PDS project file was 192kb and the whole 5 minute movie when produced was only 4.9MB. It is unusable!

As a test, I did the same thing in Windows Movie Maker, which produced a movie that is 200MB and looks great.

It seems to me that Powerdirector is somehow compressing or optimizing the files when they are placed into the timeline. I've been through every setting I can find but can't see what I'm doing wrong.

Does anyone have an answer to my problem? I'd really appreciate some help. Toshiba Satellite A100-062
15.4 " Toshiba TruBrite® WXGA TFT display
Genuine Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Edition (32 bit)
Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology featuring Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5200, Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
network connection and Intel® 945GM Express chipset | clock speed : 1.6 GHz | front side bus : 533 MHz | 2nd level cache : 2 MB
4 GB : DDR2 RAM (533 MHz)
160 GB Hard Drive (50 GB free)
Intel® 945GM Express chipset (with latest update)

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline

Feb 15, 2011 13:19

Timeline preview quality is adjusted by the icon next to the camera under the preview screen. Which options you get may depend on your system specs.

You can choose from a number of pre-set formats, many with pre-set profiles in the produce section. Alternatively several formats allow for customising profiles to suit your own choice.

I'd suggest checking out the tutorials here :

http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/tutorial/pdr

to find out more.

Cheers
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.

Carl312

Senior Contributor Location: Texas, USA Joined: Mar 16, 2010 20:11 Messages: 9090 Offline

Feb 15, 2011 13:28

Hello SuzyQ, Welcome to the forum.

You are probably seeing a reduced resolution preview. Just under the preview screen there are several objects.

If you pause your mouse pointer you will see a tooltip describing what each does.

Click on the one that says "Take Snapshot/Select Preview Quality" (It is a partly filled rectangle). Choose a higher quality preview and the preview will improve.

Remember what you see in the preview is not the end result, You do not see the end result until you Produce (Create a Video) or Create a DVD or BluRay.

Even then you don't see the full quality in PowerDirector, you can only see the final result in whatever player you choose.

Adrian beat me to the answer.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 15. 2011 13:29

Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

SuzyQ

Newbie Joined: Feb 14, 2011 19:23 Messages: 4 Offline

Feb 15, 2011 13:34

Many thanks for your quick reply vn800rider.

I already tried preview viewing in High resolution (jerky video though) but the picture quality is not much different. I produced my video as a WMV file because I wanted to test it against the same created in WMM, so yes, it was saved in quite low resolution. I'll try it in a different format and look at the options to see if it makes a difference.

I've also been through all the Cyberlink tutorials. Very useful.

Thanks for your suggestions. Toshiba Satellite A100-062
15.4 " Toshiba TruBrite® WXGA TFT display
Genuine Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Edition (32 bit)
Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology featuring Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5200, Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
network connection and Intel® 945GM Express chipset | clock speed : 1.6 GHz | front side bus : 533 MHz | 2nd level cache : 2 MB
4 GB : DDR2 RAM (533 MHz)
160 GB Hard Drive (50 GB free)
Intel® 945GM Express chipset (with latest update)

Dickflyfisherman

Senior Member Joined: May 29, 2008 09:34 Messages: 197 Offline

Feb 15, 2011 15:16

Would it work that if you change, alter etc any feature in the program that a popup would appear stating what may or maynot happen when you do make that change or alteration, rather than force the customer to go through all the procedures (time wasted, adding to his/her frustrations

I seriously doubt that the head folks at Cyberlink have even used the software or tested it by challanging it with different procedures THEY COULDN'T HAVE

I remember when PD8 first came out it too was a consumer nightmare, first on the marklet with 64 bit what a usless bunch of tripe propaganda,

sales were horribly slow,

some genius came up with this selling idea to jump start sales activity

they produced it in who knows, couple of hours tops, just redid the 32 bit maybe an hour or two with a reasonably good programmer, then that evening dumped in on the hapless concusmer, bugs by the ton and all

SuzyQ

Newbie Joined: Feb 14, 2011 19:23 Messages: 4 Offline

Feb 15, 2011 19:30

vn800rider & Carl312

Many thanks for both your contributions to my question. I've now produced my movie in HD quality and the video is fine. You were right!

However, the final produced video now has no music track. In the first version the music was there, but now it's silent (I muted the video's own audio). It played perfectly when in the timeline. Should I have selected the audio as well as the video when in Produce?

Forgive my ignorance - comes from many years of taking still pictures! Toshiba Satellite A100-062
15.4 " Toshiba TruBrite® WXGA TFT display
Genuine Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Edition (32 bit)
Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology featuring Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5200, Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
network connection and Intel® 945GM Express chipset | clock speed : 1.6 GHz | front side bus : 533 MHz | 2nd level cache : 2 MB
4 GB : DDR2 RAM (533 MHz)
160 GB Hard Drive (50 GB free)
Intel® 945GM Express chipset (with latest update)

Bubba in TX

Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline

Feb 15, 2011 23:04

Holy Cow he is at it again....

SuzyQ do not judge the knowledgeable members in here by the posts by.....Dickflyfisherman

Dickflyfisherman

I got an idea...... how about you going out and find that "perfect" video editing software out there that you seem to think is out there. And when you find it, PLEAS PLEASE let us know what it is and where we can get it so we can then download it and tear it to pieces too.

You are old news already and everyone is getting tired of your non helpful tripe propaganda, and somehow correct me if we are all wrong, but you seem to be not happy with Power Director 9..... WE GET IT....we are sorry... now how about being constructive and make a list of things that you have proved not to work and submit that for consideration on PD10.

Since you are that unhappy with PD.... why do you still hang around? The newbies and oldies are still going to trudge along and produce the best video can regardless you or I with the help of actual knowledgeable forum members. There are a lot of them in here.

__________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link

Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Feb 16, 2011 06:02

Hi SuzyQ,
Please can you attach a screenshot of the tracks (Edit Workspace) - just in case it's a selection issue/file type which is causing the audio not to be recorded.
Thanks
Dafydd

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 16. 2011 06:02

Dickflyfisherman

Senior Member Joined: May 29, 2008 09:34 Messages: 197 Offline

Feb 16, 2011 07:45

Quote: Holy Cow he is at it again....

SuzyQ do not judge the knowledgeable members in here by the posts by.....Dickflyfisherman

Dickflyfisherman

I got an idea...... how about you going out and find that "perfect" video editing software out there that you seem to think is out there. And when you find it, PLEAS PLEASE let us know what it is and where we can get it so we can then download it and tear it to pieces too.

You are old news already and everyone is getting tired of your non helpful tripe propaganda, and somehow correct me if we are all wrong, but you seem to be not happy with Power Director 9..... WE GET IT....we are sorry... now how about being constructive and make a list of things that you have proved not to work and submit that for consideration on PD10.

Since you are that unhappy with PD.... why do you still hang around? The newbies and oldies are still going to trudge along and produce the best video can regardless you or I with the help of actual knowledgeable forum members. There are a lot of them in here.

Well actually, when I was a kid the Tawiaan guys worked for us, nothing wrong with that but I really do not want to work for them . I don't even know why I bought 9, fell for the sales pitch in a weaker moment , I guess t my thought was that PD8 was operational (after how many years) and I do like new and improved stuff I need to learn my new camera, heading for Belize, for a break, then my wonderful FLY FISHING for a month. Then some time on another week abroad, at least I will learn how to use a top end consumer camera, maybe this summer I will have time to look at 9 again, hopefully by this summer CB sees their lost revenue and finally admits that they DO NEED CUSTOMERS.

Bubba sucking up may save your job and it may not
I just come here to enjoy the show mostly to encourage new users that is not them IT IS THE PRODUCT

I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO FOOL WITH DEVELOPING PD9

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Feb 16. 2011 07:57

Trevor George

Member Location: Bristol, UK. Joined: May 29, 2010 17:44 Messages: 80 Offline

Feb 16, 2011 12:01

Not topic related, but could I ask Bubba (and someone else) only to use standard-size text when posting, as myself and many others view these pages from various mobile devices, and the large text makes it difficult to peruse the postings easily. Thanks. Trevor . . My YouTube site . . (Bristol, UK) . . My JVC GZ-HM1 Camcorder

Bubba in TX

Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline

Feb 16, 2011 12:19

dickyflyfisinerman said..........

Bubba sucking up may save your job and it may not
I just come here to enjoy the show mostly to encourage new users that is not them IT IS THE PRODUCT

I DO NOT HAVE TIME TO FOOL WITH DEVELOPING PD9
_______________________________________

Let's see....

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

I do not have a job to save... I am retired twice, so I do not need a job, got all the money I need..... but thanks for for sharing that asinine remark anyway...

I must give you credit for one thing amazingly enough. Yes the software is not "perfect".

You said...
I just come here to enjoy the show mostly to encourage new users that is not them IT IS THE PRODUCT...............

Yep, you are quite the show.... but you do not offer anything that may help the new user (or any other user) that may help them getting their product to run, or how to do anything with it other than tell them they wasted their money.

How come there are thousands of PD users out there that seem to be able to make their movies despite of this "lousy" software? Apparently I must have a "magical" HP computer. I do not have any problem producing whatever I make for myself or others, all around 1 1/2 hours long.


Filename	dickyflyfisherman.jpg	Download
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This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 16. 2011 12:19

__________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link

SuzyQ

Newbie Joined: Feb 14, 2011 19:23 Messages: 4 Offline

Feb 17, 2011 07:19

Well, back to topic...

I just want to thank you forum members for your help. I've now successfully created my first couple of videos - complete with sound, Woohoo!. The original problem with distorted and fuzzy images in preview, even at high quality, has mysteriously cleared up and now they're fine.

Currently delving into the mysteries of ShadowEditFiles before my hard drive is completely full....

No doubt I'll be back for your wonderful expertise.

Thanks again Toshiba Satellite A100-062
15.4 " Toshiba TruBrite® WXGA TFT display
Genuine Windows® Vista™ Home Premium Edition (32 bit)
Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology featuring Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5200, Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
network connection and Intel® 945GM Express chipset | clock speed : 1.6 GHz | front side bus : 533 MHz | 2nd level cache : 2 MB
4 GB : DDR2 RAM (533 MHz)
160 GB Hard Drive (50 GB free)
Intel® 945GM Express chipset (with latest update)

James Dotson

Senior Contributor Location: Tennessee Joined: Aug 24, 2009 20:40 Messages: 3066 Offline

Feb 18, 2011 01:46

Sometimes, when I have trouble with image quality, I use a custom profile with a constant bitrate. It seems to encode them at a much higher quality. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM