Is it possible or not to get a precise waveform display in Power Director 14?

Carlos_A

Newbie Location: Barcelona Joined: Aug 30, 2016 06:33 Messages: 4 Offline

Solved by

Aug 30, 2016 10:37

Hi:

I'm relatively new to PowerDirector - just bought PD 14 about one week ago, after testing the trial for some days. I'm using the latest version 14.0.2820.0 on Windows 10 64 bit.

I think it's an amazing prosumer video editor... I won't go into how many things it does better than the competition. But now that I started using it "for real", I've realised I have a serious problem: any audio track's waveform is displayed in a blocky way, with almost no detail and -worse still- with silence being barely discernable from audible parts, which makes "visual" edition very difficult or impossible for me, since I rely heavily on the physical shape of waveforms to make cuts, remove some parts, identify words, silence, breathing or mouse sounds, etc. (I make tutorials, reviews etc. with a strong voice-over component).

At first I thought I was dealing with a bad audio file, but after some testing, I've realised it happens with absolutely any audio file. And to my surprise, I ended up finding this thread:

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/47801.page;jsessionid=6B68F3B74BAED045ADD387096A35156F

According to that thread, blocky and almost unreadable waveforms are standard for PowerDirector... but I just can't believe that. In any other video editor I've used, waveforms were easily recognisable - there were differences, but I never found this kind of "pixel-art" version of a waveform.

I can't remember if this was already happening when I tested the trial (for a few days). If it did, it's really odd that I didn't notice straight away - but then again, maybe I was more focused on things like transitions, real time preview speed, producing quality and efficiency, etc.

I'm attaching my dxdiag results (just in case), and here I've uploaded some screen captures showing the same waveform in different video editors:

Camtasia - Filmora - Vegas - Hitfilm - PowerDirector14

As I said, some are better than others, but all of them (but PD) make silence/audio easily recognizable. In fact, please note that the PowerDirector capture I'm attaching here is not so bad, because in these screenshots I've used a test audio file that has already been normalized (so there is more visual difference between sound and silence), but yesterday I tried to do some "real" voice over straight from PowerDirector, and after recording, it was almost impossible to identify the parts where I was speaking or silent.

So, in short... Is it really like that? Have I just bought some useless software (for my specific needs, given I need reasonably accurate waveforms in audio tracks)? Is really PowerDirector's graphic waveform display so poor?

Any help will be really appreciated, even if it's just to confirm that I threw away my money. Don't get me wrong: again, I *love* PD for so many reasons, and I was so happy to finally find the perfect prosumer editor after trying so many these years... but I can't work around this specific flaw.

Sorry for the long explanation. I will start investigating about CyberLink's refund policy, just in case I have some remote chance to get my money back if my suspicions are confirmed...

Thanks.

[I've removed the DxDiag.txt subsequently]

This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at Aug 31. 2016 07:35

Richmond Dan

Senior Contributor Location: Richmond, VA Joined: Aug 07, 2014 17:17 Messages: 673 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 11:47

I think it's 30 days, no questions asked. Regards,
Dan
Power Director 21-Ultimate
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(10 core, 20M Cache),
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stevek

Senior Contributor Location: Houston, Texas USA Joined: Jan 25, 2011 12:18 Messages: 4663 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 12:41

Please update your audio device drivers (if there are any)

Also post a scren shot of the waveform that you are seeing. I haven;t had any issues with identifying silence, , sudden changes, other.

Have you looked at Audio Director or Sound Editor -- or just simply increased the level of the audio volume while stretching out the timeline?

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Aug 30. 2016 12:46

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BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 12:59

...................

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 09. 2016 10:20

Carlos_A

Newbie Location: Barcelona Joined: Aug 30, 2016 06:33 Messages: 4 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 13:36

Richmon Dan: Thanks. That would be a last resort, though, since I really like this software, and I've invested some time in learning the basics.

Stevek: Here's a better one, comparing an audio I just recorded (recorded as voice over in PD14). I was saying the spanish words for "one two three, this is a test, this is a test", you can almost spot every single word on audacity (or Wave Editor, or Audio Director, etc.) but from PowerDirector, the audio/silence is hard to distinguish visually.

http://www.photoshopeando.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/audio-comparison.png

My drivers are up to date, and while my knowledge of PowerDirector is limited, I've tried stretching the height of the track and raising the volume (from the audio mixing room, is that the right way to raise it?), but even then, there's very little change on the timeline. If there's anything else to try that could improve the distinction between sound/silence, or the overall shape of the waveform, please let me know... I might be missing something obvious.

Longedge: Can't disagree with that, and that's why I use a separate program (normally it's Audacity) when I need to perform any special audio operation (normalize, reduce noise, change pitch, etc.). That being said, and looking at this capture I posted above, isn't the difference too extreme? Do you also see this kind of difference when working with audio tracks in PD14... or is it just me having this weird "blocky" look on the audio track? Here's another capture, this one is way stretched/magnified so little "detail" is to be expected, but still... it looks wrong to me: Another screen capture.

---

Anyway, unless someone says otherwise, I guess I will have to assume this is normal behavior... Still, I find it weird that audio is displayed like that.

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Aug 30. 2016 13:40

CS2014

Senior Contributor Location: USA-Eastern Time Zone Joined: Sep 16, 2014 16:44 Messages: 629 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 14:24

I've seen where we can stretch the audio horizontally Longedge... but we can stretch but vertically too? How? Maybe it's a really easy thing - but I haven't tried to do that before.

Carlos - your screen shots are pretty much what Ive seen int he past in PD. I've used GoldWave for my more intricate audio editing.

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 15:32

................

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Nov 09. 2016 10:20

CS2014

Senior Contributor Location: USA-Eastern Time Zone Joined: Sep 16, 2014 16:44 Messages: 629 Offline

Aug 30, 2016 15:35

Very nice Longedge - thanks for the capture. Explains so nicely.
thanks again
CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

Carlos_A

Newbie Location: Barcelona Joined: Aug 30, 2016 06:33 Messages: 4 Offline

Aug 31, 2016 07:26

CS2014: Thanks for confirmation.

Longedge: It was just an example. If you want, I can show the same comparison in other video editors, but the point would be the same.
If you consider that such a difference is normal... well, I won't go as far as to mock you using tennis quotes or suggesting that you're not serious, or that you are not aware your question doesn't make sense, or using a lot of question marks (as a way of reinforcing how nonsensical I am), or whatever. Listen, how about we accept that we have very different criteria in this matter? Shall we leave it at that, and not turn this into a tennis game, please? I would like to keep the discussion technical and respectful if possible.

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Anyway, I think I have the answer I came here looking for. Now I have to make up my mind about what to do next. Thanks to everybody who tried to help, really.

Longedge

Senior Contributor Joined: Apr 28, 2011 15:38 Messages: 1504 Offline

Aug 31, 2016 12:04

.................

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 09. 2016 10:19

tomasc

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 25, 2011 12:33 Messages: 6464 Offline

Aug 31, 2016 13:18

The Carlos_A link to the audio-comparison.png show that the microphone recorded peak audio level peak at -30 db on the Audacity. I normally record that at the 0 to -3 db level with audacity and the waveform will be at a normal volume level seen with PD14 and my other video editing software.

Clipping at excessive volume levels show yellow tips indicating clipping on the PD14 audio waveform so it is very useful for me. I normally use 5 audio channels and the audio waveform may be for mono or the left channel. A -30 db volume recording is just something I avoid when recording from a microphone. There would be excessive noise especially is the original is from an analog source.

Carlos_A

Newbie Location: Barcelona Joined: Aug 30, 2016 06:33 Messages: 4 Offline

Sep 03, 2016 10:17

Longedge: No problem. I admit I misjudged you, I wrongly took you for the typical "fanboy" who jumps at anyone who suggests that his/her favorite software might not be perfect.

You're right about audio peaks - the last example I used was recorded with a low input level, but I was trying to prove my point, to show a "worst case scenario", so to speak, in order to make sure anyone would understand what I was referring to. And more than judging whether PD is doing things in a good or bad way, I just wanted to confirm it was really like that, and not some misconfiguration on my end (as I initially thought). Thanks for your help and politeness, so hard to come by in forums nowadays, and please excuse me for misjudging you.

tomasc: Mmh... Thanks for posting, but I don't know if I understood your message... I am more knowledgeable in Audacity and audio editing in general than in PowerDirector, but yes, I did notice the yellow clipping marks in PowerDirector. Useful, indeed. Still, the audio sample I used was not clipped at all, in fact it was just the opposite (as you yourself said, peaks were about -30 dB). If anything, it might be objectionable that I used the logarythmic view in Audacity, since it doesn't make for a fair comparison - maybe that was your point? If so, you're right, but please see the next paragraph below. The part about noise makes sense too, but I assume it was just an unrelated remark made on the fly.

Anyway, as I have already said, I was not trying to say "software A is better than B", "this is how audio must be recorded" (God forbid! xD), or anything like that, I was only trying to show how things were appearing on my display in good faith, in order to make sure other people understood what I meant, so that they could tell me whether that's what they were seeing too (or not, so that I could look for a problem on my end). It seems I totally failed at that!

--- --- ---

After my last post, I performed some extra tests and I found that, as some of you already said, that's the way audio is displayed in PD. This behaviour is perfectly ok for most people, but a problem for some like me.

After some days pondering about this, I finally chose to ask for a refund. Cyberlink has been extremely efficient in this regard!
Still, I will keep an eye on PD 15 whenever it comes out. Even if audio display is handled the same way, I might end up jumping in anyway, since I really, really liked PowerDirector (I have a different issue with my current video editor, and if they don't fix it before 2017, I'll have to find a substitute). But for now, I'll fall back to it.

Sorry for bothering you with something that was not a real problem, but a design decision in PD. I should have noticed... Thanks again for your help!!

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Sep 03. 2016 10:35