Hi Harry and welcome to PD.

First off not many of us here use the trim function we find it easier to "split" the video and delete the parts we don't want.

Just to be clear you do only have the 30 seconds you want on the time line?

The produce window only produces/renders/encodes what is on the time line. It will not encode the whole 40 minute video after you have deleted the parts you don't want.

One last thing I would not produce to .avi it is an old format and will create HUGE and I mean HUGE files. I would stick with Mpeg2 or H.264.

Cheers

Robert2 S My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

I second the split.

With the full clip on the time line, set the scrubber to the point where you want to start removing a section. Click on the 'split' button. Then go to the end of the part you wish to remove. Click the 'split' button. Then click on the section that you wish to remove and click the little trash can icon. When you have it the way you want it, then go to the produce tab and continue. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Well I do use the trim function, however, I have just started to try using Power Director 9, for my projects. Since I edit concert video, I tend to want to move my video a few fractions of a second one way or the other (to sync audio) and splitting doesn't accomplish that. Having said that I have realized that in order to actually trim a video, you have to go into the trim screen, put in the 'mark in' or 'mark out' number you want and then click on the scrubber icon at the beginning or end (depending upon where you want to trim) otherwise it doesn't seem to trim.

It is true, however, if you are just playing the video to a certain point and wanting to keep a portion, the split function is the quickest and easiest to use..it would just be when you need fractions of a second more or less on your video (or audio) that you need to use the trim screen.

I agree with Robert2 S the avi format creates HUGE files. You are better to stay with an mpeg2.

Just a tip for people using split you can just drag the end of the split video to drag it out or in a little or a lot even after you have split the video.

The only thing is if it is butted up against another video you can't move it. If there is room around the split clip though you can drag it in and out as much as you like. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Quote: Just a tip for people using split you can just drag the end of the split video to drag it out or in a little or a lot even after you have split the video.

The only this is if it is butted up against another video you can't move it. If there is room around the split clip though you can drag it in and out as much as you like.

Very true you can drag it, but if you want .05 more or even .03 more, it is very difficult to drag that small of an increment properly, this is where the trim function comes in. You might just need to tweak your video a small fraction of a second in order to get the audio and video to sync up. If you are working with large increments, then dragging it longer or shorter works (if there is room around the clip). Sometimes the syncing is just too finicky to use that option.

I hear what you are saying, I just never got my head around the trim window.

Another tip, if you want to move the scrubber one frame at a time to fine tune your clip you can use the "." & "," keys to move forward and back one frame at a time. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

Hi all,

Just a probably unnecessary 2 cents worth here.

But… while it is true that in previous versions of PD, one could only Split every third frame. In PD9, the Split function now works on the single frame level. You can in effect, Split out a single frame and delete the rest.

You just have to expand your timeline nearly as far as it will go, and then when you slide your scrubber, it will move in increments of one frame at a time. Once the desired frame is reached, just click on Split, and you’ll get the same accuracy as you would in the Trim room. And since there are 30 frames in each second of footage (25 in PAL), being able to Split every one thirtieth of a second, is a pretty accurate Split.

Which method is faster? Trim or Split? I guess that would be up to each individual to decide.


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Quote: Hi all,

Just a probably unnecessary 2 cents worth here.

But… while it is true that in previous versions of PD, one could only Split every third frame. In PD9, the Split function now works on the single frame level. You can in effect, Split out a single frame and delete the rest.

You just have to expand your timeline nearly as far as it will go, and then when you slide your scrubber, it will move in increments of one frame at a time. Once the desired frame is reached, just click on Split, and you’ll get the same accuracy as you would in the Trim room. And since there are 30 frames in each second of footage (25 in PAL), being able to Split every one thirtieth of a second, is a pretty accurate Split.

Which method is faster? Trim or Split? I guess that would be up to each individual to decide.

Thank you for that, I didn't realize it, since as I said I've really started to use PD9 (tonight in fact) to do more than just split and tag videos. If you have to expand your timeline out as far as it will go in order to split it accurately though, it would seem, for me, if I have 10 videos on the timeline at the same time, to be a little more time consuming to drag it out and then have to drag it back to see the other videos i'm editing. This is certainly something to keep in mind.

Hi McLean,

You can also, as Robert mentioned above... use the "." & "," keys. to advance a frame at a time. But I was just giving the old school method to start, so when one was trying it for the first time, they could see what was happening.
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Quote: Hi McLean,

You can also, as Robert mentioned above... use the "." & "," keys. to advance a frame at a time. But I was just giving the old school method to start, so when one was trying it for the first time, they could see what was happening.
Good to see around the forums again!

I appreciate the input Cranston. Thanks for the welcome back.

Awesome forum. Thank you so much guys. Well Murphy's law, or I guess the opposite, reared its cliched head shortly after I posted and I found a solution using the trim function that worked. The mistake I was making was doing my trimming in the preview window and then dragging that down to the timeline. The 40 minute video was still in the library and it occured to me that maybe that was the section that Produce was working from. And I guess it was.

So I erased the initial trim, dragged the entire vid down to the timeline from the library and redid the set points for my trim in the Trim section. Then when I went to Produce the first thing noticed was that the amount of video about to be encoded was quite small. Ah ha thinks I, a good sign. Then when I hit preview while encoding it brought up the beginning of the trimmed section. After that everything went quite smoothly.

I did a few more sections in different formats. Boy you're right.....avi files are ridiculously huge. MPEG-2 is great. Also, it encodes so much faster if you turn off the preview box.

I'll definitely try the split methods and other great tips mentioned. And I'm pretty sure I'll be back with more noobish questions in the future although I'll try my best to not to bother you guys too much.
Again many thanks for the quick help.
Harry (actually Tom)

Quote: Awesome forum. Thank you so much guys. Well Murphy's law, or I guess the opposite, reared its cliched head shortly after I posted and I found a solution using the trim function that worked. The mistake I was making was doing my trimming in the preview window and then dragging that down to the timeline. The 40 minute video was still in the library and it occured to me that maybe that was the section that Produce was working from. And I guess it was.

<snip>

I'll definitely try the split methods and other great tips mentioned. And I'm pretty sure I'll be back with more noobish questions in the future although I'll try my best to not to bother you guys too much.
Again many thanks for the quick help.
Harry (actually Tom)

Never even thought of that one. Glad you figured it out.

lol I am full of tips today. You could also use the PDSpeed utility that was supplied by a forum poster by doing this.
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/14452.page

1. Start at the beginning of the clip use the "." key to move forward one frame then hit the "d" key which then "automatically" splits the video and deletes the beginning part of the clip which in this case is one frame. Rinse and repeat till you get to the frame you want. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

EDIT: Forget what I said. Waaaay too slow today!

Hi McLean, Cranston, Robert & Harry -

Personally, I'm a splitter not a trimmer... but the outcome is still the same. Harry - PD should not be producing a 40 minute video if you only have 30 seconds on the timeline.

If you begin with (say) a 5 minute clip & split off and remove the first 4 minutes, you'll get a 1 minute produced file. If you opt to trim instead, and place a mark-out point at 1 minute, you'll still get a 1 minute clip.

Harry - you know how Robert asked whether there was only 30 seconds of the original video left in the timeline... Is there???

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: Hi McLean, Cranston, Robert & Harry -

Personally, I'm a splitter not a trimmer... but the outcome is still the same. Harry - PD should not be producing a 40 minute video if you only have 30 seconds on the timeline.

If you begin with (say) a 5 minute clip & split off and remove the first 4 minutes, you'll get a 1 minute produced file. If you opt to trim instead, and place a mark-out point at 1 minute, you'll still get a 1 minute clip.

Harry - you know how Robert asked whether there was only 30 seconds of the original video left in the timeline... Is there???

Cheers - Tony

Tony, Harry must have been posting while you were composing this post, because he solved his problem, take a look up.

Re: Tony, Robert......Yes my recollection was that after I did the trim and dragged it down to the timeline (my original fumbling around attempt) it was just the 30 second clip that showed up there. But when I went to Produce as I say, it began to encode the large original file that was in the Library. Struck me as odd too.
Harry

Hi Harry/Tom -

Perhaps this tutorial will help you out, though you sound like you have a better grip on it now.

Dafydd made this in PD8, but the same essential ideas apply... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osj2FVDcm5Y

Cheers - Tony
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