I'm afraid that reinstalling thousands of templates is the least of your concerns

First, though, the "good" news: If any of the templates were included in past content packs, they're all available from the App Manager (assuming you have the subscription version), and they can be installed in one fell swoop. If you don't have the subscription version, the content pack installers should be stored wherever your downloaded programs are kept. You will need to contact Cyberlink's customer service if you need to get new copies.

Now, I can't imagine that you'd actually use more than a tiny fraction of those 3000 previously downloaded templates, but if they're not in a content pack, you'd need to download/install them one at a time. You can save literally thousands of steps by choosing Run rather than Save or Save As from your browser, and this post may help make browsing the DirectorZone website less of a headache.

The real problem though, is that PD assigns each downloaded item a numbered folder, based on the order each title, frame, PIP, particle, etc. was installed.

When you save a project using any downloaded item, PD simply records the numbered folder where the effect is stored, like C:\Documents\CyberLink\PowerDirector\17.0\MyPinPs\PiP_086.

When you reopen the project on the original machine (and haven't made making any significant changes to the system), everything works as expected. Same if PD is uninstalled and then reinstalled, and also no worries if you're only going to be using the downloaded content in new projects from now on. If the majority of these downloaded effects came from content packs, then reinstalling them should restore the same content/folder arrangement as before, and again you're in the clear.

However, if you've had to reinstall Windows from scratch, then unless you can install every downloaded item in the exact same order as before, your existing projects will almost certainly have the wrong downloaded content applied when you reopen them.

That's because the content of the original "Title_267" folder might now refer to a title that used to be in the "Title_003" folder, for example. The timeline will be always be filled with the current content of each referenced folder, and unfortunately, I don't know of any way to determine what the original contents of those folders were other than by looking at the original videos that were produced.

If you need to edit an existing project, you'd then have to preview all of the relevent choices and then update each project with the correct content before making your new edits. It's a royal PITA

The best possible outcome is if you happened to have made a backup system image of your entire C: drive before you reinstalled Windows, because you'll be able to copy all of the relevent folders to the new installation, and PD will show the correct content whenever you reopen your old projects.

I hope you did that; OR that the vast majority of your downloaded content came from content packs; OR at least that you aren't going to have to go back and update too many old projects...

YouTube/optodata

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The real problem though, is that PD assigns each downloaded item a numbered folder, based on the order each title, frame, PIP, particle, etc. was installed.

When you save a project using any downloaded item, PD simply records the numbered folder where the effect is stored, like C:\Documents\CyberLink\PowerDirector\17.0\MyPinPs\PiP_086.

When you reopen the project on the original machine (and haven't made making any significant changes to the system), everything works as expected. Same if PD is uninstalled and then reinstalled, and also no worries if you're only going to be using the downloaded content in new projects from now on. If the majority of these downloaded effects came from content packs, then reinstalling them should restore the same content/folder arrangement as before, and again you're in the clear.

However, if you've had to reinstall Windows from scratch, then unless you can install every downloaded item in the exact same order as before, your existing projects will almost certainly have the wrong downloaded content applied when you reopen them.

That's because the content of the original "Title_267" folder might now refer to a title that used to be in the "Title_003" folder, for example. The timeline will be always be filled with the current content of each referenced folder, and unfortunately, I don't know of any way to determine what the original contents of those folders were other than by looking at the original videos that were produced.

If you need to edit an existing project, you'd then have to preview all of the relevent choices and then update each project with the correct content before making your new edits. It's a royal PITA

Have you validated this is in fact the operation. I don't use anything from directorzone so never looked into myself. However, the menu system is somewhat the same in its construct, Menu_XXX for instance. But that XXX number is of little consequence as a html index is used with a menu alias name. So Menu_123 on one system can be Menu_987 on another system yet they will function the same because of xml index and alias name.

Jeff

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Have you validated this is in fact the operation. I don't use anything from directorzone so never looked into myself. However, the menu system is somewhat the same in its construct, Menu_XXX for instance. But that XXX number is of little consequence as a html index is used with a menu alias name. So Menu_123 on one system can be Menu_987 on another system yet they will function the same because of xml index and alias name.

Jeff

I wrote this from the experience of having gone through this more than once, and that's exactly what I've seen when I've had to reinstall Windows and PD from the ground up. The existing projects almost always have the wrong transitions, titles, etc.

I believe the impact can be duplicated by opening up a project that includes DZ content on another machine without packing the project first. I expect that the problem will show up even if the same content is downloaded to the 2nd machine, because it likely won't be in the same order as the first PC.

Maybe I'm wrong about that, and the xml/html indices do point to the correct items. I'll do some testing and report back.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

So I did a quick test, and the behavior is mostly as I described, but you actually can't even get the project loaded on the 2nd PC if any of the downloaded objects have uniquely named images. PD will immediately bring up the Browse/Ignore dialog box because the images aren't in the same numbered folder as they were on the original computer.

To create this video, I downloaded the first 3 PIP objects I found on DirectorZone, and even installed them on the 2nd computer, but in a different order. As you can see, PD can't find the expected content because the installation order (and therefore, folder numbers) are different.



There might be a bright side, however, because you can at least copy the image name that PD is looking for and use a fast search utility like Everything to find the exact folder it's located in, and then PD will update the project with the correct location and will automatically load the other images stored there. The downside is that you still have to manually track down the folder for every single downloaded item.

In my video, there were only a few PiP objects, and I could just play "Memory" and track the right folders down. With hundreds or thousands of folders, there's no way other than to search.

One other issue is that many items have generic names, like "Thumb.jpg," and if those are the only files names associated with an item in your original project and there happens to be an image with the identical name in the same numbered folder on the new machine, then PD will load the current (but incorrect) content of that folder and there won't be any message box that anything is different or missing.

In one case, it was only when a client pointed out that we'd used a different kind of confetti particle in the previous version (before the Win10 rebuild) that I realized what had happened. This situation is a real nightmare and one of the main reasons I always make regular system image backups these days.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

I had at times worked with packed projects from the forums which appear to work properly here.

Do think that Jeff’s point is valid so used 4 PiP objects from the DZ and a menu in the Downloaded section which was originally a custom menu from the destination pc. Packed the avchd project from the source pc. Opened it in the destination pc and found that 3 out of the 4 motion object displayed correctly. The one motion object that did not display correctly is not available in the destination pc as it displayed one of the other a second time. The source pc has a total of 4 motion objects downloaded from the DZ while the destination pc has over a hundred motion object downloaded over the years.

The menu displayed is the wrong one. It is a custom menu created in the destination pc. Used the PDTemplate Packer to place it in the Downloaded section of the source pc. The menus have the same name.

It does seem that not everything is in black and white. Maybe more testing and/or knowledgeable support person can provide the right answer for this finding.

That's helpful, but packed projects are meant to be universal and should work anywhere. Unfortunately, unless OP had already packed all existing projects before reinstalling Windows, I think it's more likely that they'll encounter the same situation as in my video.

Have you tried just copying the original (unpacked) project over and opening it? I think that'll be closer to OP's situation.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

thank you optodata, unfortunately not packed or saved a system image so individual installation it is. i appreciate your response and follow up!

There is a perfect explanation for the incorrect menu being displayed in the destination pc. In the source pc -c:\users\public\cyberlink\downloaded menu\menu001 is used and made into a packed project. The source pc is only a few months young.

In the destination pc, the wrong menu is displayed but it is the one at c:\users\public\cyberlink\downloaded menu\menu001 which is a different menu downloaded from the DZ many years ago.

It doesn't matter that this custom menu was created months ago on this destination pc and copied to the source pc with the PDTemplate Packer which places it in the Downloaded menu section. It is perfectly logical.

It does seem that optodata's point is correct when it comes to menu templates and Jeff's point is correct with motion objects that are downloaded say from the DZ. This may or may not work with custom templates. More tests may be needed for that. Suffice to say that I want to stick to one pc for video editing.