Thanks Shadowman. I will get round to doing what you say in the next day or so.

Further to Shadowman's suggestion, I attach (hopefully) my PC details. Yes I know it's old, but I would rather not have to upgrade just to use the new PD13 software! As a bit of background, I have used PD9 for about three years to good effect, and the only reason I upgraded was that I bought a new HD camcorder which PD9 does not support. This is a Panasonic HC-V130 if that helps also. More ignorance here, but I do not understand the '4k playback' mentioned. How do I know if it is 4k or 2k? Reading through some of the topics on this forum, I am glad in one way that others are having so many problems (in that I am not unique!) but dismayed that with such a long history, Cyberlink seem not to have come up with easy to use reliable software. Oh, while I am rambling on, the download of 13 came in three parts, but because my computer has an abismal download rate, I have only managed parts 1 and 3. The second one - 'essentials', is so large that even when downloading overnight, it gets timed out and therefore it is not loaded up yet. How 'essential' is this part? If you haven't fallen asleep yet, I hope somebody can give me some pointers. Thanks.

Nick,
Your computer stats are:

Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) 9500 Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.2GHz
Memory: 3070MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8400

Before you get all upset that 4K is not working, did you even bother to check CL requirements for that?
You cannot do miracles with ancient boxes! That system is not adequate even for 1080 editing!
Your AMD 9500 quad core from 2008 has performance equal to Intel dual core from Core2Duo E8700 generation (that was before 4 generations of i3, i5, i5)!
See here:
"http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=301&cmp[]=1679"
Also there will be no 4K playback possible with that video card... because hardware limitations of a card released in 2009:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=GeForce+8400&id=1262

@SoNic67

Nic985 has never actually said that 4k was the problem, he just didn't make it clear at the beginning when he entered this thread about 4k playback.

Now that he has told the forum that the camera is a panny HC-v130 it is clear that 4K is not the problem, but one of hardware requirements. It's a sad fact of life that to edit video efficiently you need a high powered machine.

What I don't understand is why PD9 would not handle files from his camera Panny TM10, GH2, GH4,

Well SoNic67, thanks for taking the trouble to reply, even if it was only to rubbish my system! You and many others obviously know what you are talking about, but you don't seem to have any sympathy for those of us with less experience. CL do give requirements for the software, but I am not knowledgable enough to know whether one processor is better than another. Perhaps there should be a system whereby one can type in PC details and have them cross-checked to see compatibilty. That may sound complex, but with all these experts on the job it should be a piece of cake!

Thanks Shadowman. Maybe I read it incorrectly, but I thought PD9 would not handle HD material. Because of that, I haven't even tried to use it with the new camcorder. Perhaps I should, and if I get the same good results that I used to with my old SD camera, try and get my money back on PD13! No I doubt it too, but buying a new PC is a bit OTT just for movie-making!

Nick

I used to use PD8 for editing my full HD files from my Panny HDC-TM10, so I a pretty sure that 9 will do it too Panny TM10, GH2, GH4,