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Quote:
In my experience, playback problems like you describe are just that, playback problems. Find someone with a more expensive DVD player, or even a Blu-Ray player, and see if it looks better. I have had MPEG 4 videos that looked terrible in a DVD player, but work beautifully in my PS3.
Hello Jamie,
With all due respect, this is one of those instances where it is NOT a
playback issue. The MPEG-2 DVD vids made with the software provided
with my Canon HG10 look OK on the three DVD players in our home and
the one used by our son's basketball coach, who uses the DVD recordings
of the games to improve their playing techniques.
I purchased the PD8-Ultra at this point in time because the burning of the
DVD's was painfully slow with the Corel software provided with the
camcorder. PD8 is MUCH faster, but the quality is greatly reduced.
Thank-you for your feedback though, Jamie. Your help is always
appreciated.
-Allen
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James,
It's a Canon HG10. (Hi-Def w/40GB Hard Drive) Purchased in December
2007. I have a program that came with the camera called Ulead DVD
Movie Factory version 5.6 SE. It burns MPEG-2 DVD's that are
acceptable, but takes 3hours20 minutes to burn a 1hour30minute
scene. PD8 is MUCH faster, but maybe a big loss in quality is the price
for the speed?
Anyway James, here's the clip info you asked for:
One clip that I'm working with is Bitrate 15,861kbps. (HXP Quality)
The other is Bitrate 7,399kbps. (SP Quality)
They both display very blockey chunks within the video when burned to
DVD as MPEG-2 HQ.
Thinking it's time get a new codec somehow. I really would like to keep
Power Director Eight Ultra. Looks like it has tons of potential once I feel
confident in it enough to commit to learning the program.
-Allen
-Allen
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Hello Again James,
As long as they don't cost several hundred dollars, I'd be delighted to get
a better MPEG-2 Decoder.
I haven't produced a file and played it back through Windows Media Player
yet. Thanks for the suggestion!
But, here's one thing I just found that might shed some light. There's a little
sample MPEG-1 file that comes with PD8. It shows a flower blowing in the
wind and a squirrel with nuts...for 17 seconds.
I burned that little clip to MPEG-2 DVD and the DVD player output is almost
as clear as it looks in Windows Movie Player! Signs are pointing to a
weakness somewhere in the actual process of converting from AVCHD
to MPEG-2. Does this occur within the PD8 software, or is it a Windows
function?
Do you think I should continue looking for the switch to disable ATI Stream
technology? They (AMD-ATI) seem to be pretty proud of this feature in their
cards.
-Allen
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James and Tony,
Thanks for the quick response and for saving me $175 on a new video
card! Its reassuring to know that mine isn't as bad as many of the
online comparison sites (and Windows Experience Index) labels it as.
I'll find out how to disable the ATI Stream Acceleration. I think I remember
seeing it either in the ATI Catalyst control center, or within the PD8
preferences tab.
Since my only projects for the next 2 months will be transferring AVCHD
basketball game clips to plain old DVD for the team to study, (no editing at
all), and I'm brand new to the entire video processing experience, this is
a bit frustrating. I didn't expect the DVD burn result to be crystal clear
like the source vid, but the output I'm getting is so cruddy, I'm scrambling
like mad to find an alternative solution using PD8 before the BBall coach
asks for the DVD tomorrow. If I can't get a PD8 solution in the next few
hours, I'll search the net for other options. I volunteered to do this to
help take some of the load off of another guy who video tapes the
games. He simply hooks up his HD Sony Camcorder to a box via USB
and burns the MPEG-2 DVD. It looks great in the DVD player. What is
it about those devices that make them burn DVD's so perfectly? I'd like
to find out what that "something" (a CODEC perhaps?) is and add it to
this P.C. to help out PD8.
James, since I'm new and don't have a need to do editing, the only
player I use is one of the stand-alone DVD players around the house,
since this is what the basketball team uses to critique their plays. But,
it was good to see that Windows Media Player does a good job of playing
AVCHD video inside of Windows7. IMO, that's the best improvement
windows7 has over Vista. Thanks again James. I'll follow your advice
now. Wish me luck!  -Allen in Chicago
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I'm starting to get the feeling that my video card may be the cause of
HQ DVD's coming out so poorly. Here's why:
1. I drag a short Canon ACVHD clip from my hard drive to the PD8
timeline.
2. Click on Create Disk.
3. Choose DVD HQ
It burns quickly, but when I pop it in the DVD player, or play it back on
the computer, there is lots of video blocks/smudges. They are particularly
pronounced when the camera is moving..which is almost 100% of the time
with family vacation vids. I've tried all the tips that have been
suggested here in the forum with no improvement.
This is a new computer, but the "Windows Experience Index" gives my
AMD-ATI 4350HD graphics card a miserable score/rating of 4.3. The other
computer innards are rated in the 6.5 to 7.5 range.
If I had a better card, would the conversion from ACVHD to MPEG-2
look better? Is the Graphics Card an important link in the overall
process? Thanks in advance.
-Allen in Chicago
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Quote:
I make 30 vids a month and get paid to do so.
I see this same complaint is loads of places on the net, why are Cyberlink not acting to solve this?
I even read a top level review of this produbt that said "if your thinking of using this with HD, Don't"
Any answers or shall I go straight to the competition?
LOL! Hey, don't you guys know a "troll" from the competition when they
post here? This Ken Burton is paid to make 1 vid per day, did his research
and chose an editing program (Power Director) that is supposedly
getting trashed by reviewers all over the net?
I did over 2 weeks of research and trying of different products before
deciding on PD8 for my Hi-Def work. The program isn't perfect, but it's
the best of the lot, by far.
In a twisted way, it's an honor to have these trolls from jealous
competitors post to the forum, but visitors who view their rants often
times believe what they're reading. The best thing for the forum
moderators to do is to remove the post (and associated thread) all
together, IMO.
-Allen in Chicago
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My entire desktop freezes if I drag PD8 to a size smaller than the full window
of my monitor. After about 2 minutes, Windows 7 changes the Aero scheme
to Windows 7 "Basic" and then PowerDirector comes back to life.
-Allen
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THANKS TO EACH OF YOU FOR YOUR REPLIES! This forum is one of
the reasons why I chose PD8 over the competitors.
TO JAIME, AUSSIEROO, deBABBA and TONY,
I have used the Canon supplied Corel/Ulead Movie Factory ver. 5.6SE
exclusively to save the HG10 vids to a hard-drive since purchasing the
camera in December 2007. Yes, the camera is recognized by Windows7
as "Canon Video Camera Storage Device". If I navigate to the "Stream"
folder, I can see the clips, but there's no date/time/etc..information. I
believe that info is stored in one of the other folders somehow.
Was hoping that I could uninstall the Corel Guide-Menu/Movie Factory
combo and just use Cyberlink's PD8 for capturing the clips to the hard
drive in the same format used by the Corel application...BUT..
One thing I figured out after starting this S.O.S. thread is that the PD8
Capture window "works" from right to left. On the right side, you set
the Capture target location first and foremost. I was in the "left to
right" mindset. After I choose "Drive G" (which is what Win7 assigned
to the HG10), it loads the AVCHD files from the Camera??? Anyway,
it took about 40 seconds and after the loading was finished, the first
clip was ready to play in the PD8 viewer window. I'm not sure where
these clips are being loaded to, but I'll do some more tutorials and
reading of the PD8 manual to see if I can direct the capture to a specific
location, and to choose which files to capture and which to ignore. But,
at least I know that PD8 is capturing something from the HG10! 
TO DAFYDD BEVAN-SOFTDEKO:
I'll learn how to list my camera and then Private Message you after it's
completed. First, I'm going to work on learning how to utilize the PD8
software properly. It's a challenging, yet enjoyable exercise. Tonight
I'll focus on learning how to manipulate the "Capture" process.
Thanks again to each of you!
-Allen in Chicago
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Dear Forum members and experts,
I read the forum thoroughly and used the trial version of PD8 for 5 days
before buying PD8-Ultra and installing the patch last night.
It was my belief that AVCHD video clips on a Canon HG10 hard drive
camcorder would be recognized and importable by PD-8 Ultra. I plugged
in the camcorder, opened PD8, clicked on the CAPTURE tab and chose the
only input source that was highlighted.. which is AVCHD. I click on the
highlighted AVCHD tab and nothing happens.
Shouldn't the software recognize the camcorder and allow me to capture
the desired clips to whatever folder I choose? That's the way the stripped
down Corel software (that came with the cam) operated. I expected at
least as much from PowerDirector8-Ultra. Is there something I need to
do to PD8 to make it work with this Canon HG10? A search of the forum
didn't turn up anything. Thanks in advance.
-Allen in Chicago
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Jamie and Tony,
Thank you both for responding to my question(s). I will proceed with
uninstalling the trial, pressing the "buy now" button and see what
comes my way. I'll make sure to do this while the 15% discount is
in effect because there's no telling what the price will be after it
expires on Sunday night. Wish me luck and thanks again!
-Allen in Chicago
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Hello Everyone,
I've been filming family vacations and events on my Canon HG10 for the
past 2 years and have come to realize that it's time to copy these films to
a more stable long-term medium than the storage drive next to my PC.
So..I've decided to learn how to transfer the videos to DVD in a good
quality format that can be played on any standard DVD player. Over the
past week, I've been trying various video editing programs from vendors
who have enough confidence to offer free trials. Thankfully, Cyberlink
was one of those. Of the four that I've tried, the Power Director 8 is the
only software that wasn't quirky. It's well laid out and has fastest
rendering (I think that's the word) time. There are many other pluses
which I'm sure the members are already aware of..including this
wonderful help forum.
Anyway, here my question. I downloaded the PD8 trial a few days ago.
The size of the download is approx. 235mb. On top of the "Buy Now"
button at http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector/overview_en_US.html
it says that the download is 690.74mb. Since the "full" (non-trial) version
is 3 times larger than the trial I downloaded, should I uninstall the trial,
purchase the PD8-Ultra and then download the full version from whatever
link Cyberlink provides in the confirmation e-mail?
Also, I noticed during research that the PD8 was discounted 25% in
December. During this month of January, it's discounted 15%. Does
the discount alternate each month between 15% and 25%? If so, I'll
wait until Monday 2/1/10 to purchase the Ultra @ the 25% savings.
Thanks in advance for any guidance. I'll look forward to reading this
forum and learning how to make good DVD videos from this hi-def
camcorder. Cheers! -Allen
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