Hi rbowser,

Do NOT delete the original copies, if you do then PowerDirector will be unable to find them. PowerDirector saves the file location, the .pds file is a set of instructions only, that tell PowerDirector where the file is located and what changes have been made

Robert Intel i7 930, 16GB ram, Radeon HD 5770 1Gb,Ver. 14.12 Win7 64 bit
Intel i7 7700 HQ, 16 GB ram Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 4GB dual drives 1 TB SSD + 1 TB HDD Win 10

PDtoots

Thank you for the reply, Robert.

What I'm not understanding is why there are two copies of the large video file the project's based on. One is in the default Power Director folder in Documents, and an exact duplicate is in the project's folder. To have all video projects double up like that is a fast way to waste hard drive space-- Why was the copy made in the project folder if PD9 only needs to reference the original copy in the Documents folder?

rbowser

--?!-- I just got through doing a 2 hour media grab from disc 2 of the source DVD I'm using,--and when the process was over, there was no file - not in the Documents folder or the project folder--Where could it have gone--?

EDIT: I have no idea what I did wrong. Couldn't find the extraction, so pushed Record again to re-do, and it took mere second for the rip to happen and for the media to show up in the media bin - as if it was finding and inserting what I couldn't find on my own earlier.--? Well, at least I can now get on with the project.---

rbowser

Hi rbowser -

I've never known PD to duplicate copies of media, except, of course, when you use Export > Pack Project Materials.

You have your original video file stored in your Video Projects folder - yes?

Then you import into PD, edit & save the project. By default, the .pds file is stored in C:\Users\xxxx\Documents\CyberLink\PowerDirector\9.0

The default import & export locations can be set in Preferences > File, if you want to keep control of where media is stored. Have you changed these or are you using PD's default location (above)?

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Hi, Tony - Thanks for the reply.

I think I'm just being rather clumsy with PD9 as I continue to try out the trial version. In the project I'm working on now, 2nd disc of this video, only one copy of the video footage has shown up. Not sure what I did when I worked on the first project - I must have imported the video into the media bin since it somehow wasn't there, and that resulted in a second copy.

Being too timid to change them, I'm using the defaults for import and media folders - in Documents. But what's been confusing things for me is that I really don't want my projects to be in my Documents folder. For all my programs, I always set up a plainly marked master folder for each program's projects. So I have a Video Projects folder where I'm directing the master PD file. I guess this is something I can set up in Preferences too - I need more time with the program.

Bothering the most is that PD9 isn't using my high powered computer's resources. As I edit, CPU usage stays around 4%, RAM usage no more than 28%. If it would access more power, it would be faster. While burning to disc, then CPU usage goes up to 95%--!

In another thread I followed the advice to upgrade my Nvidia driver, and that sped things up--but it turned out to be a disaster for the computer. I had to go back to a restore point before the driver was installed, things were such a mess. Now I'm afraid to do the driver update again, since it didn't play nice with my computer the first time.

I'm sure I'll get on my feet with all this. It's just not going very smoothly yet.

rbowser

Hi rbowser -

I always set up a plainly marked master folder for each program's projects.

That's a good approach:
1. Set up your project folder
2. Copy all media for the project into that folder.
3. Import from that folder
4. Save your project (.pds) to that folder
5. Export produced files to that folder.

Using PD's Export > Pack Project Materials effectively does just that. It places all media from your timeline & a copy of the .pds file into a single folder.







Don't be afraid to change your preferences - that's what they're for!

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!

Excellent, thank you, Tony.

rbowser