What I do is move the clip that I want to delete to an unused track. Then, disable the track so it is not incorporated into the finished video. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

But I want to keep the audio and have it stay in sync with the video, and NOT move relative to each other as I edit my project elsewhere. Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

Quote: But I want to keep the audio and have it stay in sync with the video, and NOT move relative to each other as I edit my project elsewhere.

So lock the audio track(s).

Click the Lock symbol on the left of the tracks.
You can lock individual tracks. 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.

Thanks, Carl, but I'm well aware of locking tracks. But how do I edit in #1 video and #1 audio tracks if I've locked them? If unlocked to add or remove, say, a still photo or adjust some upstream audio, I later find that, due to that editing upstream, the downstream one or many video clips have moved relative to their audios.

And locking just the audio track will ensure the video will move relative to its audio, just the think I DON'T want to happen.

That's why I need a permanent lock (until I remove it) of video and audio clip pairs together so PD won't let the audio move relative to its video during my editing.

Do you not understand that, or have I totally misunderstood how everyone else edits tracks?

Bill Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

Watercolorwilly,
First there is a Preference setting that allows independent editing of the tracks without everything else moving.
In the Preferences window, select the Editing tab. Uncheck Link all tracks when inserting/removing content in timeline.

You can group media clips together for ease of movement on the timeline.

If I understand what you are doing, You and doing all of your editing in Track 1. If the Video and Audio is linked (default) the any split of the track will spilt both the video and audio together.

If you lock Track 1, nothing in track 1 will move and you can not edit that track. If you have the link all tracks unchecked in preferences, then nothing else moves except where you have removed are inserted something.

You have up to 99 more tracks available for use for adding content.

You do other editing in the other tracks, Higher number track overlays (on top of) lower number tracks.

If you have separate audio tracks that is in sync with the video in track 1, you can lock that audio track and Track 1.

Maybe unchecking link all tracks in preferences is what you are looking for.



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.

Hmmmm.....I think I checked "link all tracks" ever since I started with PD 8. Let me try that. Perhaps this will explain a lot of my complaints.

But I want to preserve all the work downstream if I adjust something in a track upstream, so the checking of "link all tracks" makes sense, right?

Life would be better if I could click on one button to lock all tracks and then just unlock a track I want to edit. Same for unlocking all tracks. And why can't I lock subtitles? They slip off to other photos when I edit and its a pain to re-position them correctly.

Bill Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

OK, Carl. I tried to uncheck "link all tracks" in preferences. I continued my editing and eventually found the audios of video clips moved up stream as I entered some freeze frames in the videos here and there. If I could only tell PD to NOT move audio that is linked to its video, I would be happy. I don't have to worry about this in other software that I've used. Of course PD gives more options in this area of creation which brings these problems with them, but I am continuously wondering what has happened out of sight down stream as I edit. Usually when I discover the problems, it is far too late to do successive undo's to reverse the damage.

I still need to tell PD that in addition to the current "soft" links, I want to tell it which specific video and audio clips are "hard" linked together - no slipping relative to each other. Along with that, I'd want the default to be hard linked until I tell it otherwise.

Bill Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM

Bill

I am a newbie with PowerDrector but not to video editing. Some things I like in PD, some things are frustrating such as this shifting of audio files you describe which happens even when they are linked to the corresponding video clip. I too would like to know how to prevent this happening and not just how to rectify it.

In my case I originally thought this happened when pasting an audio clip into the audio track. For example I have a video clip of a fast flowing river. I then insert a still image of a person crossing the river. The still has no sound associated with it so I unlink the video and audio in the river clip, copy the audio and paste it in the audio track below the still image. This automatically inserts the audio and shunts all audio clips on that track forwards even though they may be linked to their corresponding video. At least I thought that was how it happened but when I tried to reproduce this just now it worked fine moving all clips together. Of course if I lock the video track the audio clips only are displaced but I don't think this is what happened as I would have noticed the locked track next time I added or inserted a video clip.

As you say you usually find out what has happened too late to use the undo. The first time it happened I went laboriously along the audio track unlinking video and audio, moving the audio clip and relinking video and audio. My movie is approximately 2 hours long so I was understandably frustratated. There appeared to be no easy way of unlinking the whole audio track and then using "ripple control" as in other editing software to shift all the downstream clips back into place.

However when it happened again I found your post and tried a different method which is a lot faster. I locked the video track which appears to have the effect of unlocking the audio clips from their corresponding video clips. With the shift key depressed I selected the first and last audio thereby selecting all the displaced audio clips and dragged them into their correct position. When I unlocked the video track the audio and video clips were linked again in their correct position. (Incidentally my preferences are set to have all tracks linked.}

So I too would be interested on any suggestions as to what caused the displacement and how to avoid it happening again.

David



PD 10 Ultra on Windows7 64bit

Prevention better than the cure.

The slippage bug is one many of us are aware of and so are CyberLink.

Prevention = be careful when editing, align your separated audio and video so the ends of both are in line and no "shoulders" are present.

Slippage is caused when an item is removed and all subsequent clips on the right move to fill the space on the left. If you've a "shoulder" the subsequent clips fill in the stepped space. A linked vid/audio remains linked but the shift affects these to.

To correct the linked vid/audio will require unlinking and realigning. the "back button" may help corrected the problem. Save regularly using Ctrl+Shift+S and to a new pds each time. safety in numbers

CyberLink RD are aware of the issue and such.

Dafydd

It also helps if you have separate audio and video tracks, and you Lock the audio track.

As Dafydd, says as you add videos or images to the timeline things are going to shift.

I have found that if you link the video and the audio track that belongs together, the shifting is less.
At least the two linked tracks shift together.

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.

I've long used the approach of locking the video track and selecting all the audios to realign them. I've always worried that this is causing other problems, but so far I've not been able to blame problems resulting from that corrective approach.

The problem with a locked video track when realigning the audios is that the helpful vertical bar does not appear for locked tracks. That would help in realigning the slipped audio to the appropriate video clip.

What I did not know is that the precise re-alignment is helped by the "shoulder" disappearing. The realignment process has infuriated me as people's voices hardly ever were in sync with the mouth movements in the video after this adjustment. I'll try watching for the "shoulder" you mentioned to solve this vexing problem. But will the locked video track impede this procedure?

Meanwhile, I appreciate being told that Cyberlink is aware and working on this. A permanent lock option along with the soft link available today would be much appreciated. I'd have no problem in gaps appearing due to the hard link. At least I can fix and deal with those problems. Realigning offset audios is a terrible job, especially if one has a project of greater than a half hour of many video clips with meticulously created mixture of stills, videos, and other intricate applications and tracks.

Why not have a feature to realign the audio of all selected video clips to the original audioi alignment, much like one can adjust the audio level to the original level with one click.

Otherwise, I keep sitting there with a smile as I continue to learn the features of PowerDirector make it truly head and shoulders above the many other competing software packages I have tried as I created well over 300 shows of 1/2 hour to 1 hour length over the years.

Bill Bill Seifert
HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-2022
8 core
AMD Radeon
Windows 11, 16 GB RAM