Hi,
Have you adjusted the preview window to 'Full HD definition' preview? as it is not done by default.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Hi Jim

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes the preview is already at "HD". The preview looks poor and the final 1920x1080 50i m2ts file just confirms that the image quality is rubbish.

I have two snapshots created from PD8 and PD10 but can't see any way of appending them.

Thanks

Barry

Hi,
If you could post the clip in question here maybe I (or other members) could bring it into PD and see if the same on there system.
Jim Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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BLP1954
I have two snapshots created from PD8 and PD10 but can't see any way of appending them.

Thanks for the help..

Attached project file and snapshots.

I have also uploaded a video to YouTube. The first 40 seconds created using PD10, the last 40 seconds using PD8



Thanks

Barry

Hi Barry,
Uploading to you tube won't help members from deciphering the problem as you tube upload renders the file, you can attach the original clip form Camera the same as you did with the Image file, that way members can see import to PD on there machine and give advice.
Jim
Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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And the original image if you wish to try for yourself.

Hi Jim

I had intended to upload the raw image but discovered the 3 file limit.

The Title text on YouTube does show that the clip is indeed rendered HD, whilst the image is not.

I had a similar problem once. When you import an image into PD, it resizes the image to fit within the boundries of the video screen (1920x1080, for instance). If you attempt to zoom in, you are zooming in on the already resized image, causing it to look bitty.

I finally found a free utility called WPanorama that takes a panoramic image and converts it to an AVI video which pans the image. I was able to bring that into PD and work with it from there. You might want to give that a look. PowerDirector 10 Ultra
Dell XPS Studio - i7 3.4 GHz / 8 GB RAM / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Hi Barry, Jim, Skully et al -

This is an issue that was reported to CyberLink in July 2011. It's been raised a number of times in the forum, but without any real "resolution" (sorry about the pun)

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/15025.page (later in the thread)
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/15614.page
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/18042.page
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/15041.page

Agree with SkullyHD - WPanorama does a good job.

Jim - I also did some tests using Magic Motion with higher res images (not panoramas) & found that, somehow, PD was apparently degrading the image.

Discussion: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/22276.page
Test Video: http://youtu.be/oL1KvWz9gWE

I know that it would be no comfort to you to know that the issue has been around for a while & still remains unresolved... just thought I'd fill you in.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi,
Here is my rendered file using SwishMax4 and saved as avi then produced in PD10
Intel i7-2600@3.4Gz Geforce 560ti-1GB Graphic accelerator, windows 7 Premium 12GB memory

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Hi

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions. I make extensive use of panoramas in my videos and it isn't sensible to use third party software to pre-render them.

A short while ago I purchased Adobe Premiere Elements 10 as an upgrade to PD8, but it is dreadfully slow and had rendering issues with HD menus. Sadly it took over 30 days for Adobe to admit the problem, hence too late for a refund.

Given that I still have PD8 and it manages to render the panoramas perfectly (and in around a third the time!) I will stick with PD8 and remove PD10 and return it for refund.

Thanks again to everyone for your professional and speedy response.

Barry

p.s.

Sad to see that text only menus are STILL not available.

Hi Barry -

I'm quite surprised at your findings with PD8 (compared with 9 & 10), though I wouldn't be game to test it on my poor little underpowered laptop (where PD8 lives). Maybe I will just out of curiosity.

Absolutely understand what you're saying about extra rendering that should be unnecessary.

Superfluous though this is, I took your stitched image - C12_4232_stitch.jpg - ran it through WPanorama (which generated a series of 1920X1080 AVI files) then produced part of it in PD. Here it is on YouTube - http://youtu.be/Bw86BR0lKRs

Now, I agree with you about all the extra processing (& YouTube probably doesn't do it any favours). I guess it's just a case of using the right tool for the task.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi Tony

Thanks for your comments.

My first video editing package was Pinnacle Studio 9 (then 11). I used to cut each panorama into 1920 x 1080 stills and then do a slide left transition to slowly slide out the first still and slide in the next.

When I moved to PD8 I was delighted by the improvement (both in quality of resulting video and features), and the Magic Motion effects saved so much time, especially when panning across and zooming into panoramas.

Sadly, it appears like most "modern" software the rush for more features has had an impact on performance and, in this case, quality. The comparison can be seen on Youtube: http://youtu.be/ZIc9tATK2Es.
The first 40 seconds was produced in PD10, the second 40s is actually PD10's re-rendered PD8 effort (hence twice rendered and slightly lower quality than PD8 manages on its own).

My "upgrade" to PD10 was mainly on the "Blazingly fast".... "Fastest in the market" adverts but sadly this appears to be sales hype rather than reality. Windows live movie maker now seems faster, and Adobe Premiere Elements 10 on a par for speed.

So for the present I'll stick with PD8.

Ta!

Hi,
I should have posted an answer to item 217,
CyberLink "When placing a panoramic still image into timeline (6000x1200), PDR regards whole image as a video clip then to do the zoom in action. The full HD video maximum resolution will be up to 1920 x 1080. Therefore, it cannot be zoom in to an image and still keep a good quality. The higher the original image resolution, the less quality. For example, the 6000 x 1200 image turn into 1920 x 1080, the resolution will be downgraded so the quality might not so good. This concept of zoom in video and image is quite different."

I should think WPanorama is the solution but I have yet to try it out.

Dafydd

Edited slightly - spelling changes.

Quote: When placing a panoramic still image into timeline (6000x1200), PDR regards whole image as a video clip then to do the zoom in action. The full HD video maximum resolution will be up to 1920 x 1080. Therefore, it cannot be zoom in to an image and still keep a good quality. The higher the original image resolution, the less quality. For example, the 6000 x 1200 image turn into 1920 x 1080, the resolution will be downgraded so the quality might not so good. This concept of zoom in video and image is quite different."

That explanation is obviously indisputable, as it's correct in every detail.

BLP's concern & observation is equally valid. Somehow, PD8 manages to process panoramic images much better using Magic Motion that either PD9 or PD10. PD8 could do it. PD10 cannot.

Using Barry's stitched image I followed the same steps in PD8, then PD10. The resultant video from PD8 was/is far superior (produced to the same format & profile).

Here is a comparison video http://youtu.be/d6yQz-ktzRY - screenshots taken from the same frame in both videos are attached.

This may be old news but it remains unaddressed. I wonder if PD11 might bring some joy.

Cheers - Tony


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This thread seems a couple of months old. It appeared in my search when looking for this exact problem.

I inserted a stitched panoramic image (27648x1886) and used Magic Motion to pan though the image. It appeared that before I used Magic Motion, that the image may have had good image qualily. However, I could not zoom in for verification of quality when the image is selected in the Library. Once inserted on the timeline, selected and then zoomed at max of 400%, it was very apparent that image quailty was already gone. After Magic Motion was applied the quality had dropped so much it was became nothing but a big blur. I thought maybe the same method was being done with the image as is done with video (where quality is dropped for editing but original source quality is retained during production). I wrote out the video for a test. I was wrong and the image was completely unusable.

Thats when I came here.

Now I see that the Cyberlink is spending so much time on creating content and new versions, they are leaving the older versions broken. The updates I have applied have not fixed any of the issues I have seen or read about. I my opinion, this is bad business. It chases away the users to other software, not to have them return. The only sales they can count on in the future are of those people who have never tried their software. This is what ACDSee has done. And I can tell you that ACDSee has one less return customer for the last two versions. Cyberlink is now on the verge of losing one.

Cyberlink, are you listening? Fix your software. Never degrade an image someone inserts! For any reason!

Has anyone found it PD11 has this issue? In the process of installing on Win 8.1 ....
PowerDirector Deluxe 11.0.0.2812 (32bit installed, 64 bit not compatible with XP x64)
OS: Windows XP Pro x64 SP2
CD/DVD: D: TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-S223L
HDD: C: 298.1GB | E: 1863.0GB | F: 1863.0GB
Free: C: 283.8GB | E: 868.5GB | F: 868.2GB
RAM: 8

Hi D.Vertz -

I posted a summary of some fairly extensive testing here http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/25470.page#138609

It applies to PD8, 9, 10 & 11

Cheers - Tony
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Tony,

What a nice comparison. At least in your samples you can tell you were looking at building or mountains. My project doesn't do anything close to that. I must be doing something terribly wrong. I had even tried it multiple times with using both the PIP and the Motion Magic. With PIP I couldn't find a way to start at one side of the image and move to the other side. It always wanted to start (or end) in the middle.

Is there any chance I could get you to spend the time and give me step by step on how to get the results you got.

Just so you can see whats happening to mine, I have attached a screen shot with an image viewer over PD10 so you can see what the image is compared to the image in PD. In the process of installing on Win 8.1 ....
PowerDirector Deluxe 11.0.0.2812 (32bit installed, 64 bit not compatible with XP x64)
OS: Windows XP Pro x64 SP2
CD/DVD: D: TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-S223L
HDD: C: 298.1GB | E: 1863.0GB | F: 1863.0GB
Free: C: 283.8GB | E: 868.5GB | F: 868.2GB
RAM: 8