Before I decided to post here I did some research and searched the forums to see if I can find some answers for my specific issue, and in doing so realized that there are some bright and helpful people here who might actually be able to assist me with my issue!
As a Disclaimer I would like to note that first of all the following is going to be a rather long post, with multiple questions that I am looking for some answers or to be shed some light on. The second thing I would like to mention is that I have already sent this post as a "Ticket" to PowerDirector Technical Support and am waiting for a reply back, therefore I am just going to Copy/Paste my "Ticket" over here because it explains everything in as much detail as I can possibly explain to be assisted. Even though I am waiting to hear back from Tech Support, I still also do find people on Forums to be helpful and occasionally even provide better information, so I am hoping that with everyone's help I will be able to resolve the issue that I am facing.
Anyways, here it is:
"
Dear Cyberlink,
I recently purchased PowerDirector 17 to use for editing videos that were taken by my iPhone XS in 4K @60fps. My goal is to put together these 4K videos using PowerDirector editing software, and then upload the final product to YouTube for my channel.
My first project is of a show I recorded live. I have completed editing my entire project, saved, and continued to "Produce" (Export?) the project as a video file to my computer which I then planned to upload to YouTube when it is finished.
Under the "Produce" tab/page on PowerDirector, I was not 100% sure what the correct format/etc. would be so I clicked on the "Analyzer" button which claimed to have "Analyzed" my video and found a "Custom" format to "Produce/Export" the film based on my "Source File Quality". I don't remember precisely, but I believe it had picked the HVEC.265 option and MT2S or something like that under "Custom". I did not change any of the settings from the recommended "Custom" settings that the "Analyzer" found for me.
I saw the option for "GPU Hardware Acceleration" as a check box, however, I did not check this box so I am currently not using any "Hardware Acceleration" as far as I know. The reason I did not check this box, is because I did some research online before making the decision and I read other users mentioning that they noticed a "Loss in Quality" from the original files when using "Hardware Acceleration Enabled" and I did not want to risk losing any Quality of my important video.
- Because this is new to me, if you have any insight for me on whether or not "Hardware Acceleration" truly does effect the video quality of the final product (besides just speeding up the producing process) then I would really like to know this information. If using "hardware acceleration" will significantly speed up the process without any risk of loss of quality then I would prefer using it probably.
I also saw the option for "Surround Sound" which I did not choose to do either because I liked the quality of the sound of my original recordings and did not want to change it at all. I was also not sure if enabling "Surround Sound" would increase "Produce/Rendering" time and wanted to keep it as minimal as possible.
- If you have any insight about whether or not "Surround Sound" increases the total "Producing/Rendering" time process then please let me know so that I can plan accordingly in the future.
Finally, I saw the option for "Preview while Producing/Rendering" which I also did not enable because I assumed that a preview would definitely increase rendering time.
- There for, in conclusion, I used the "Recommended Analyzed Custom Format", did NOT enable "Hardware Acceleration", did NOT enable "Surround Sound", and did NOT enable "Preview".
I saw the small screen that included some numbers, not all of which I was able to understand clearly and I did have some questions about.
It showed:
"Time Available: 14:57:23" I had originally thought that this was the "Total Time" it would require to Produce/Render/Export my File. The Timeline of my entire project is exactly 2 Hours long, of 4K @60FPS footage, so I knew that it would take a while. I thought that 14-15 hours is possibly about right and actually expected it to take that long. However, once I started the Producing/Rendering process I quickly realized that the "Time Available" is not what I thought it was going to be..
- I currently, actually, have no idea what "Time Available" stands for, as it also does not change while my video is "Producing" itself. Can you please explain to me what exactly the "Time Available" represents? Thank you.
The Next slightly confusing portion was the "Pie Chart" explaining how much "Free, Used, Remaining, Produced" Space I have. I understand now that the process is going that the "Free" stands for my complete free remaining space on the Hard-drive, and Used is how much I have used up in total.
- Can you please clarify for me how exactly the "Remaining" and "Produced" section works? Does "Remaining" stand for how much Data is left remaining to be "Produced" by Powerdirector for my video? Is the "Produced" section only showing how much Data has already been finished for my video? I think I might understand that correctly if that is the case.
However, if that is true, then that leads me to why I need your assistance now please! Thank you so much for reading all of the information so far, I just wanted to make sure you had everything available to assist me properly. I am also going to attached my system info/dxdiag log information to this, as well as pictures of the problem I am experiencing so that you can see why I am concerned.
If I am correct at understanding that "Piechart" of info, my Total File Size when complete should only be roughly around 87gb of Data, in 4K @60FPS. However, the Total Time Remaining for my Project to finish "Producing" started at around 100 Hours (multiple days) of Producing. This can't be right? Is it normal for a project that is 87gb, 2 hours long, 4K, to take 100 hours to Produce/Render? That seems insanely long to me, and I am using a rather powerful machine. I have a feeling that perhaps I did something wrong, maybe I should not have used the "Custom" format created by the "Analyzer" after all? Maybe I do need to enable the "Hardware Accelerator"? I just don't understand how it could possibly take that many hours to Produce/Render a 2 hour video. If you check the attached files you can see photos of what I am referring to and where I am at now currently with the project "Producing". I still have over 95 hours remaining, with 6 hours already elapsed. This does not seem right to me.
- Please, if you can assist me with figuring out the best way to lower the "Producing/Rendering" time, I would really very much appreciate it. I would like to know if this is normal and expected, or if I did something wrong and need to change any of the settings. What can I do to not have to spend 4-5 Days Rendering a video file? There must be something I did not do correctly in my opinion.
- Another important Question that I have for you if you don't mind taking the time to answer, is it safe for my Computer to spend this much time "Producing/Rendering"? Lets say that I do leave the computer running and continuously "Producing" my video for the Full 100 Hours as it requires to finish, will that have caused any internal damage to my machine that I should be worried about? I have never left it on for that many days in a row before, and I usually do not put it under this much stress even though it is a rather powerful machine.. is there any reason for me to worry or is this a safe procedure? Thank you for this information, because as of now it does worry me, my Computer cost me a lot of money and I would not be able to replace it if something happens to it.
- If the answer is that I did make a mistake, and you are going to give me some helpful directions on what I should do to try "Producing/Rendering" my video again and cut the time down, then I will gladly follow your directions step by step and do whatever it is that you recommend for me! However, since I will be leaving my computer on and rendering this project in the meantime while I wait for your email response back to me, depending on how fast you respond back to me I may already be at 50% finished (for example) by the time I read your reply. Keeping that in mind, do you know how much time your suggestions will cut down from the full "Produce" time required? I mean for me, the Full Time Remaining started at 100 Hours. If you believe that your suggestions to help me will be able to cut it down to 25 Hours or less for example, then it would be Smart for me to completely "Cancel" the "Producing/Rendering" Process, and Start Fresh all over doing it your way. However, if it will only cut down the Time by 50 Hours (for example) but I am already 50 hours into the Producing of this current project, then it might be smarter for me to just let the "Producing/Rendering" continue until it is finished rather than starting over completely.. would you agree with this thought process? Thank you for considering this further given my current situation.
- My final Question (and I do sincerely apologize for the length of this ticket) is that I did notice before I began to "Produce" my video file, at the top where it showed "Standard 2D, 3D,etc." as options, one was to "Upload?" I believe.. and you might remember from the beginning of this ticket I wrote that ultimately my plan is to Upload this finished video that I edited to YouTube (in 4K @60FPS), however, I did not choose to click on the Upload Tag because I thought it might be better to have my own video file saved to my desktop that I can later upload myself. My Question for you is asking about the "Upload" tab option, and whether you believe that if my end-goal is to Upload the complete video file to YouTube then would it be smarter and/or faster to just use the Upload tab directly and "Produce" the video straight to YouTube rather than to my desktop/hard-drive? What is the actual difference?
I plan to make more and more of these videos using PowerDirector, and even promote PowerDirector on my YouTube channel if it ends up being as great of a product as I am expecting it to be. Therefore, I would really like to find the absolute best ways to reduce the "Produce/Render/Export" times to a more reasonable total Time requirement. I won't be able to continue making these videos if it takes this long for me to "Produce/Render" them each and every time. This is very important for me, and my channel, and so I just want to thank you so much again for taking the time to read this and answer all of my questions because it really does mean a lot to me and I know that it is an extensive amount of work that I am asking of you.
Please help if you can, I will be looking forward to reading your response!"
Some additional information I thought that might help you guys assist me would include the following:
In my Project during editing, I did not use any special effects of any kind, all that I did was take my original "Source Material" iPhone XS recorded 4K 60fps videos and imported the media then placed them on the timeline to create one larger fluid video. The only things I did additionally was trim/edit/cut some of the clips and parts out that I didn't like, and I added a simple "Crossfade" transition between each and every clip to make them look more fluid during playback. I don't even know how to use any effects or other transitions yet, the only reason I chose "Crossfade" was because it worked, and it was very simple to do by just dragging one clip over the other within the timeline. So beside the "Crossfades" and minor clip trimming all of the files should be as close to the original Source Material as possible.
Maybe I am worrying too much about the "Quality" of the final product, and perhaps that is why my project is taking so long to "Produce"? Although I'm not sure exactly what I should have done differently, or be doing differently, and in the end the "Quality" is very important to me as I am trying to share recordings of very impressive Audio/Visual recordings of live music festival events where the Quality truly does make a difference in my opinion.
I'd like if it were possible for the YouTube version of my Upload to be as close to the original Source Material of my recordings as possible. But I never would have imagined that it would take me 5 Days or more of "Rendering" to produce that quality material and I am truly hoping that is not going to be the case in the end once I get some help from you guys.
I am using PowerDirector Version: 17.02514.2 Type: Ultra
I wll attach my dxdiag info but here are some of the more important parts of it for a quick view:
"CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
8 logical processors
4 physical processors
Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
Primary Display Resolution: 3840 x 2160
Primary VRAM: 8191 MB
Memory:
RAM: 16319 Mb"
If you need more info you can find it in the attachment, if I can I will also try to attach the pictures I took of my "Pie Chart" and "Time Remaining" section of my "Produce" video. But just so you can quickly see, I am now currently over 6 Hours of Time Elapsed with another 95 Hours of Time Remaining left... with only about 5.5GB of Data Produced, and still another 80GB of Data Remaining.
As far as Time Remaining goes, this is a Nightmare, and I am praying that someone will show me a trick that will cut down the entire project to only like 10-15 hours at the most as I originally expected it would be, then I can cancel this horrific render and start over and complete my project in 1 Day instead as I had hoped to do.
Thank you all so much for reading and having patience with me, I know this is a lot of info but I wanted to make sure you guys had everything available to assist me as well! Cheers.
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This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 07. 2019 03:19