Okay... So I've just learned that PD 8 does not support mp4... I'm a little new at this, but I know there are ways to convert files to different formats. Are there any that don't cost anything? I can't seem to find a way to convert all my movie clips that isn't going to cost me more $$$.
Thank you in advance!!

Doesn't this say right here that mp4 is a supported video import format???

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/languages-formats_en_US.html

I really need somebody to tell me I'm not losing my mind right now.

Hi Jeff,

PD8 does support .mp4. However, like .avi and some other file formats, .mp4 is a "container" within which different video and audio streams can be carried.

This means that different manufacturers can implement it slightly differently and this sometimes causes problems.

If you haven't already you might try installing ffdshow which often cures this sort of an issue.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow/

As NA said use mediainfo to identify your file structure if you have problems - it helps others to help you.

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
AMD Phenom IIX6 1055T, win10, 5 internal drives, 7 usb drives, struggling power supply.

Downloaded mediainfo, and I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for. I opened up one of my video clips in it, and this is what comes up:

MPEG-4 (Sony PSP)
1 Video Stream: MPEG-4 Visual
1 Audio Stream: AAC

First Video Stream:
8 701 Kbps (9 000 Kbps), 1280*720 (16:9), at 29.970 fps, MPEG-4 Visual (AdvancedCodingEfficiency@L4) (BVOP)

That seems to be the most relevant information, but what do I do with that?

Thank you!!

It looks like ffdshow worked for me. I can import all my clips now.
Thank you both very much for the help!! You have no idea how frustrating my day was because of all this. I'm glad it's fixed, thanks again!

Me too unable to import avi files. Using PD8 Ultra, windows xp sp2.

Having a frustrating day. Please help.

I am also having trouble importing a mp4 file recorded from my Sony Cybershot H20. Cyberlink PowerDirector 8 says "This media type is not supported".

I have downloaded ffdshow, but I have no idea how to use it. Can anyone help me?

I fixed my problem by downloading the latest patch here:

http://www.cyberlink.com/downloads/support/powerdirector/patches_en_US.html

I can now import my mp4 videos into PD8.

I just downloaded PowerDirector 8 directly from the CyberLink website - over 600MB download. The downloaded version will not load a Sony .MP4 video file. Like other people I was mislead by the advertised formats supported that clearly says .MP4.
And NOW I have to download a 100MB "Patch????"

Of course Sony is also to blame as they did not make their .MP4 file format industry standard (how inconsiderate is That?).
But it is entirely negligent on Cyberlink's part not to have the latest updated version on their download site. Shame on you Cyberlink!
Get your act together, please.

I downloaded the 100MB update to the latest build and guess what? The program still will not load my sony mp4 files!

It would be really cool if Cyberlink had a techie monitoring the forum to help with this issue.

I guess it's my stupid fault for believing their online sales hype and not downloading the TRIAL version first, but surely getting their program to read an .MP4 file can't be all that complicated.

Blundering right ahead I decided to try Adrian's ffdshow solution - only the link he gives above if for an outdated project - replaced by the codec available at this link
http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/download.php - a 4MB download.
THAT WORKED and now CD8 reads the sony files just fine.


for those unfortunate souls who try to solve this issue with zero support from Cyberlink - and who are intelligent enough to search for this topic - just download the ffdshow-tryout from the above link, be sure cyberlink director is closed, and run the install. You will be offered a bewildering variety of options and choices that make absolutely no sense at all to anyone except possibly the geeks that created the program. Just ignore all that and take the defaults. When the install started the first option is what to install - I just checked install everything although what AviSynth and VirtualDub might do is anyone's guess. Then the choices got more complex so I shrugged and just clicked next next next until it was finished. Then I opened Cyberlink Director and windows explorer, dragged in a sony MP4 file and - ta daaah - it worked perfectly.