Messages posted by Bif

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PowerDirector (previous versions) » Adding clips while keeping audio. Am I doing this right? » Go to message

You should be able to stretch it out far enough to cover the full format of the main video track. I just took the acquarium.mpg clip which is 4:3 and then added a widescreen clip as an overlay on the first PIP track. It showed in the edit window as a small rectangle overlaid on the image of the first track with 6 "handles".

Click and drag on the lower left "handle" and drag to the corner, then the same with the upper right and I have 16:9 but a band of the original 4:3 image still showing on top and bottom. You can't drag the corners anymore but you still have two "handles", one at the top of your overlay clip and one at the bottom.

Click and drag the top one up to the top of the frame and the bottom one down to the bottom of the frame and you will have covered the whole 4:3 with an overlay image that is still holding it's image elements in proper proportion. Basically you are "zooming into" your overlay image enough to crop it to 4:3.

I would feel you can do the same with a main track in 16:9 and stretching a "pillar boxed" 4:3 image enough to make it cover as an overlay.

Hope this info helps also.

I just got Power Director running properly on my quad core primary editing computer. I had to replace an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB graphics card with a PNY Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB card to get it to handle AVCHD 1920x1080 video. So I'm just now getting started on a project that's been on hold for awhile. I have to try some of these things you've been asking about because what I've been using may work a bit different.

PowerDirector (previous versions) » Adding clips while keeping audio. Am I doing this right? » Go to message

There might be an easier way.

Take your overlay media (should work with still image but I've done this with video clips) and put it on one of the PIP tracks. Trim it to the time length you want and slide it into position under your timeline main track (in your example, acquarium.mpg). Size or resize it if necessary so that it completely overrides the video on the main track, if there is any audio on the media you put on the PIP track, simply lower it's volume to zero.

You never touch either the audio or video on your main track but the PIP expanded to fill the frame becomes a video overlay that takes over for it's duration.

I use this for easy "cutaways". The audio keeps flowing but the video temporarily shows something else. I tried this out while evaluating Power Director in the trial version and it basically seemed to work the same as the package I had been using.

PowerDirector (previous versions) » Help on activation key » Go to message

Go to the members section and login, if you haven't opened an account do so with the same email address you provided when making the download edition purchase.

Chances are your copy was registered to that email address as a username when you made your purchase and if you can login there, go to "My Products" then "View Registrations" and your activation key should be right there.

If that doesn't work go to the Customer Support section and leave an inquiry stating you problem the way you did above. But be sure you provide the same exact email address you provided with your purchase.

Good luck

PowerDirector (previous versions) » Likely Graphics Card Issue?? » Go to message

Quote: First of all, you will need to upgrade to a 64bit OS to be able to use all of your 4GB of RAM. You are probably getting access to somewhere around 3-3.5GB at the moment.

Also depending on some options in the BIOS (and DELL's tend to be on the low performance/stability first side), you might actually only be getting access to 2GB of RAM.

Run Task Manager to find the total RAM available.

That reports physical memory as 3069 and the resource manager reports about 50% memory usage so you're correct about access to RAM.

Quote:

I would try updating the Graphics drivers. Use ATI drivers rather than DELL ones. Also I would imagine the integrated graphics on the HP are limited to a maximum of 256MB of RAM and probably only 128MB. So that would suggest the amount of graphics memory isn't the problem.

Drivers are all ATI and using the update button results in a message that I already have the latest best drivers for that card.

Quote:

Tommorow I will dig out an old 64MB graphics card and see if I can edit FullHD, and then report back.

I sure didn't mean to put anyone to work here! But I sure do appreciate the interest and information. I didn't suspect amount of memory to be the problem but these cards seem to be made for the gamers and I've seen references in other forums about video folks having some issues with that card.

Thanks a lot!

Bif

PowerDirector (previous versions) » Likely Graphics Card Issue?? » Go to message

First I tried PD7 Ultra on my main editing computer, a Dell XPS 420 with Intel Q6600 quad core 2.4Ghz processor, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB graphics card and Vista Home Premium 32 bit.

I can review and play AVCHD files from a Canon HF100 just fine from the Media section but when I put them on the timeline they may play once and then from then on the video won't display in the edit window but I can hear the audio.

With Pinnacle Studio 11 this same computer gives me warnings about not having enough graphics memory to edit 1920x1080 video. before purchasing PD7 Ultra I used to set the camera for 1440x1080 to get away from this.

Next I installed PD7 Ultra on an older HP with AMD Athlon 64x2 5000+ (dual core) processor, 3GB RAM, and integrated Nvidia GeForce 6150 LE graphics (also Vista 32 bit) and it seems to work OK, I've editing a short sequence using full res 1920x1080 17Mbps AVCHD clips and so far things look fine.

I would really like to use my (supposedly) better Q6600 quad core machine for editing and faster rendering. I suspect the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT card to be the issue here.

Anyone have any light to shed on this? I am considering replacing that card with an Nvidia 8800 with 512MB.

Bif

PowerDirector (previous versions) » Scene Detection? What is it for? » Go to message

Quote:

What would you use scene detection for? An example where it would be useful might help me understand it.

Thanks.

If it works like it has for me in other software, scene detection works in two ways. In "captured" video where you likely have one large AVI or MPEG file it detects the change that occurs when you stopped and started the camcorder while videotaping, definite sharp differences in scene material cause the software to "divide" it into different "scenes".

It can also work based on time code where it senses the place where one "scene" was "stopped" and the next "started".

Panning may or may not trigger scene detection.

As someone has already pointed out, it helps in the editing process by breaking your material up so you can "drag n drop" onto the timeline what you need and where you need it a lot easier.

With AVCHD, each time you start and stop the camcorder a separate file is created so scene detection would not be necessary for most of us.

Hope this helps.

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