Depending on how much power your PC and video card have, PD may not be able to "preview" your video smoothly resulting in a jerky effect. The best way to overcome this is to lower the preview resolution until the timeline playback is acceptable. This is found under the preview window. Win 10, i7

I have the same annoying problem as Bluebeary. Mine specifically related to NewBlue Titler Pro and complex transitions. Have tried everything. Lowering preview resolution has no effect, although a bit of improvement achieved after lowering PC screen resolution to unacceptable 1024x768. Running i7-4700Q CPU, 16 GB RAM, GeForce 840M (347.52 driver), 1920x1080 resolution, Win 8.1 (w/ ClassicShell). Greatly appreciate any help.

I know exactly what you are referinv to and I don't believe it is a result of computer performance. I have not found a cause or solution. So far it seems to happen most often when I have the timeline expanded. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Thanks guys. I've tried lowering the screen resolution and the preview resolution with no luck.
I've rebooted the computer then turned off everything running in the background (Skype, e-mail, anti-virus, etc) which helps for a little while but then it's back to the same old, same old. It almost seems like running the preview starts to clog things up. Could it be using memory and not releasing it after its done? I love the program and the things I can do but its almost useless if I can't quickly check the results after each editing step!

Did you try using SVRT to render the shortened clips first and then having a quick view of the results? Win 10, i7

Lowering resolution didn't help me either. Rendering seems to work okay; but the issue is with the preview, making it impossible to edit. There is a companion thread started by Netspeed that concerns the same problem.

I've just found out how to turn on and display the SVRT track during the editing process. It seems to help a lot. I've also discovered that not insertng transitions until I finish editing speeds up the preview playback. Thank you for all the tips. You guys are awesome!

Using SVRT track for editing of no help to me. Removed all complex transitions and simple NewBlue Titler Pro in this very short project, but it still hangs up on the Perspective Scroll title that I need and another spot consistently. Could it be the ClassicShell over Win 8.1? Or the video driver (latest installed)? Would reinstall all, except PD13 (upgrade) won't accept the product key for PD13 or several earlier versions. Alternative is switch to PD12, but does it run on Win 8.1?

I'm having the same problem, it just started yesterday. I'm a new user, and only have 3 projects, but it is affecting all of them, making the editing impossible. The program was working great for me until this issue. It SEEMS like it started after I got the notification about an update being available and installed it. Did others have this problem prior to the latest update?

I should mention - I'm not using any transitions or titles.

Quote: I'm editing a 20 minute video down to a 2 minute version. When I cut sections out and try playing them back to see the results, the clip first freezes then the time line marker jumps ahead about 20 or 30 seconds where it sits until the video, which I can't see, catches up..

It looks like decoder performance issue to me...
What is your video codec, bitrate and resolution? and the system spec?
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PowerDirector 365

Would you mind (please!) explaining that? Exactly how do you use SVRT to render the shortened clips first? The manual doesn't explain this, nor could I figure it out by using the software. When I click on the Intelligent SVRT button in the Produce menu, it analyses but doesn't give me any option other than to render the entire output. And if I click on Details(Edit) I'm returned to the Edit menu and I don't see how to render.

Quote: Did you try using SVRT to render the shortened clips first and then having a quick view of the results?

Was there ever a resolution to this? I'm having the same issue editing 4k, 24fps, h.264. Plays a few seconds then skips ahead and pauses. Running Windows 10, PowerDirector 13 (latest patch).

Your problem is different from the OP. You can try non real time preview for your 4k video on the timeline.

My symptoms are identical to the OP. Not sure why you might think it is different. I've tried the "non real time" preview setting and it does not stop the erratic behavior during playback. FWIW, I've also set my playback quality to lower settins without any improvement.

I'm editing a 9 minute, 4K video and during playback I get a few seconds of video and then the time line indicator jumps ahead 20 - 30 seconds and the video seems to freeze.

Basically, I'm unable to edit 4k video. Lower resolution videos (1080p) work without issue.

I'm have the following:

Win10 64-bit, i7 CPU, 6GB RAM

PowerDirector 13.0.3516.0

Quote: I'm editing a 9 minute, 4K video and during playback I get a few seconds of video and then the time line indicator jumps ahead 20 - 30 seconds and the video seems to freeze.

Basically, I'm unable to edit 4k video. Lower resolution videos (1080p) work without issue.

I'm have the following:

Win10 64-bit, i7 CPU, 6GB RAM

PowerDirector 13.0.3516.0

Editing 4k video would require shadow files to be enabled on your pc. Be sure to let the shadow files finish before adding them to the timeline.

Quote:

Editing 4k video would require shadow files to be enabled on your pc. Be sure to let the shadow files finish before adding them to the timeline.

Tomasc,

Thanks for your response. I've done some poking around on Google in regard to "shadow files" and the closest I can come up with is a Windows 10 service called "Volume Shadow Copy". Is this what you are referring to? If so, can you help me understand how this may help? And if not, can you point me to a resource or search string that might help lead to me some specific information about how to go about enabling shadow files.

Thanks again.

If I can jump in here, BobbyR open the User Preferences (the cog symbol) in PowerDirector. Under 'General' there is a checkbox for enabling Shadow Files. Once enabled when you import files into the Media Room Power Director will start to make low-resolution copies that are used for editing. This is a one-off process that reduces the computational load on the PC, making editing a lot smoother.

As the files are created the thumbnails change to green. You must wait until this process has completed before starting to edit. All your editing decisions are stored in the project file in the usual way and when you go to Produce or Create Disc these decisions are applied to the original high-def files to generate the final output. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64

Quote: If I can jump in here, BobbyR open the User Preferences (the cog symbol) in PowerDirector. Under 'General' there is a checkbox for enabling Shadow Files. Once enabled when you import files into the Media Room Power Director will start to make low-resolution copies that are used for editing. This is a one-off process that reduces the computational load on the PC, making editing a lot smoother.

As the files are created the thumbnails change to green. You must wait until this process has completed before starting to edit. All your editing decisions are stored in the project file in the usual way and when you go to Produce or Create Disc these decisions are applied to the original high-def files to generate the final output.

YES! That led me to the answer! Thank you so much!

For those stumbling on this thread with the same issues, here's what caused my issues and how I fixed them.

When I checked to see if I had Shadow Files enabled, as Fenman suggested, I realized that I already had them enabled. However, the small shadow file icon on my video (in edit mode) was colored yellow and stayed yellow, even if left alone for hours. It turns out, PowerDirector had an error while attempting to make a shadow file. So I had to manually delete my temporary files (which includes shadow files) by clicking on the gear, General tab, then click the "Manually Delete" button. That brings up a dialog box that allowed me to select my failed file and delete it.

After that PowerDirector began attempting to create a new shadow file. My 9 minute, 4k Video took a fairly long time to generate a shadow file (10 mins?) - I just left my computer alone until it completed. Icon turned green and I can edit my file without the indicator jumping around!

Hope that helps someone else down the road.

I'm delighted to see you managed to fix it. Regards,
Mike

Home-build system:
Intel Core i5 Quad Core 3.3GHz, 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333MHz,
Asus Nvidia GT440 1GB, 2 x Western Digital WD10EARS 1TB, 1 x Seagate ST1000DM010 1TB,
Windows 7 Prof 64-bit, PD 9 Ultra 64, PD 13 Ultimate 64