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chapter thumbnails
Bill [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 24, 2007 22:15 Messages: 7 Offline
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I edited my project in Power Director version 6, set my chapter thumbnails, and saved the project. I then deleted some clips from the very end of the master video track, saved the project to a new name, and exited Power Director. Now when I open that second project I no longer see my chapter thumbnails where I had placed them, but rather they now look like what is at the beginning of each chapter break.

How can I restore the thumbnail timeline positions? If I open up my first project I can see them just fine. I'm almost certain there is no way to import them from my first project, but is it possible to edit the second project's PDS file? Where does Power Director keep track of thumbnails? I'd rather not have to try to find all the timeline positions to set the thumbnails in the second project.
Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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Bill,

Can you attach two screenshots of the chapters please - before and after. It would help.

Make sure your screenshots are no bigger than 100kb.

Dafydd
Bill [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 24, 2007 22:15 Messages: 7 Offline
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Hello Dafydd --

Actually I worked on that for a night and decided it was easier to just find the places in the video track where I set the thumbnail pictures originally and reset them. I had a 17 chapter video track and while it was some work to reset them, I decided to continue on with the project.

Thanks for responding!

Bill
Bill [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 24, 2007 22:15 Messages: 7 Offline
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Dafydd,

I did some additional testing to find out what the source of the problem is. It turns out that if you set chapter breaks and thumbnails, and then later on add a transition, all the subsequent chapter breaks will be shifted over the duration in seconds of the transition -- even though the length of the movie is unaffected. When that happens and you pull the chapter breaks back to their correct positions, the thumbnails associated with those chapter breaks will be set back to the start of the chapter positions.

Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong or might this be known bug?

Bill
Dafydd B [Avatar]
Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline
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Hi Bill,

I have:
1. Place 7 clips into PD's timeline
2. added 7 chapters at each juncture
3. added the Fade transition and altered it's length to 5, 10 and default 2 seconds
4. re-opened chapters - and only the default chapter one remains - somthing I'd expect since adding a transition changes the parameters of the video etc.

On the test computer/laptop I used 1731b build.

What build are you using of PD?

Look in open PD > Help > About

I'm interested in trying to replicate your results.... I cant at the moment.

If you can list your actions as i have done...perhaps we can "spot a bug"... or should that be "swot a bug"!

Dafydd
Bill [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Sep 24, 2007 22:15 Messages: 7 Offline
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Hi Dafydd,

I'm using build 6.00.2319

I need to zero in on why thumbnails change, but this might help. Try this:

1. Place 7 clips into PD's timeline
2. add 7 chapters - one at each juncture
3. note the total length of the movie
4. add one default fade transition between the 1st and 2nd clips, but don't alter the length
5. note that the total length of the movie has changed (I don't know why this would be)
6. check out the chapter markers now to see that they are shifted after the start of each chapter. (I don't know why this would be)
Kintara [Avatar]
Newbie Location: Bristol, England, UK Joined: Aug 29, 2007 15:43 Messages: 38 Offline
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Quote: 5. note that the total length of the movie has changed (I don't know why this would be)


Hi Y'all, Merry Xmas and New Year!

Bill (and everyone else). Is it not the case that when you add a transition (say- a simple fade of 2 seconds) then the two clips would need to overlap (by the length of the transition) and so would shorten the total timeline by that amount.
Think of it like this - in order to overlap, the clip (and everything else to the right) needs to be "pulled" to the left and laid on top of the clip to the left. That would shorten the total timeline by however long the overlap (transition) is.
So - if the chapter points are set by time from the start of the time line then it's not the chapter points that move, but the timeline! The chapter point thumbnails may be/are derived from the image on the time line at a designated timecode. If the time line is altered at point "A" then all the thumbnails after point "A" will also be altered to reflect the "New" image at that given timecode (because the clips have been moved to the left due to the transitions overlapping the clips).

Clear as mud?
Hope you can get some sense from all that (of course I may be completly wrong on all issues!)

Kintara
Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
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